Page 16 of Vicious Savage

“Don’t you dare touch her.” It sounds more like a plea than a command, and her father chuckles again. He obviously knows how much her friend means to her and that he has the upper hand.

“I don’t believe I have much choice, Luna. To touch — or not to touch. That is the question.”

“You bastard.”

She’s gutsy, I give her that.

“She’s beautiful, too,” Coyin purrs. “She’ll fetch a pretty penny after I’m done with her.”

We hear the sound of a vicious slap, then Nadia screams, and the sound of something heavy thumps to the ground. Nadia sobs in the background.

I’d like to rip the phone from Luna’s hand and rip Coyin a new one, but I can’t show my hand. Not yet.

“What do you want?” There’s a tremor in her hands as she asks.

“It’s very simple. You come home and fulfil the contract I agreed to, and I’ll think about letting little Nads here go. Not saying I will, but it’s a strong possibility."

16

LUNA

I’d been dying for Attila and TJ to take me with them. Now I’m dying just as hard for them to let me go so I can help Nadia out of the situation she’s in because of me. They don’t know what my father’s capable of. Only I know. I know because I’ve seen it with my very eyes. I don’t know if he knows that I know, but I do. I remember every single tawdry thing he ever did to my mother, and then I watched as he extinguished the light from her eyes. The bastard. He’s a wicked, despicable man, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

“You can’t go back there,” TJ warns me. “Once he has you back, you know there’ll be no getting away from him. He’s going to do to you exactly what he promised he would.”

He’s right. I know he’s right. But what I’ve told them is just the cusp of what my father is capable of. He’s going to do so much more than annihilate me. The scandal alone of a runaway daughter and a broken contract is enough to have him fuming. I think he’d like to have me back just to make an example of me. To string me up before his friends and punish me — or even let them punish me — just so he can prove his word is gospel. To show everyone that he’s still the boss and he owns me.

“I can’t live with myself knowing what he’ll do to Nadia,” I say, stuffing the clothes that TJ bought me into a bag. I have very little on me — every last cent I’d been able to scrimp and save had been left behind in my apartment when I didn’t have a chance to retrieve it after fleeing the bar. If I know anything about my father, he would’ve turned that place upside down and set it on fire so I would be left with nothing.

“He’ll probably kill you,” Attila says, flicking his nails against each other as he watches me.

I’m quiet as I look at him, hold a shirt in my hands as I pause to reflect on his words, then stuff it quickly into the bag. I don’t miss the look that TJ passes him. I wonder if he suspects? The room reeks of sex and our attitudes toward one another have calmed down somewhat. I’m sure he’s wondering what happened in his absence, although I don’t think he’s the type to just come right out and ask. He’s the silent, thoughtful type.

“He’s capable of so much more than killing me,” I whisper, though I feel like I’m reminding myself more than I am trying to put that out there.

“You can’t go back there,” Attila says, coming to stand in front of me. He takes the bag from my hand and sets it down on the bed. His eyes cut a line through me as they blaze across my face, seeking purchase. “He will kill you.”

He knows this without a doubt. As surely as I do. I know that I will probably die trying to save Nadia. I know we’ll probably both lose our lives. But Nadia will die regardless if I don’t turn up. This way, she at least has a fighting chance. I look at him with sullen eyes.

“You’re asking me to turn my back on the one person who’s been more like family to me in the past few months than my own blood have been in my entire life. You’re literally asking me to take a knife and gut myself.”

“He’ll kill you both,” TJ says.

“Then so be it. I will die if I need to, but I willnotturn my back on her.”

* * *

I consider sneakingout of the motel room to return home. If only to avoid Attila and TJ getting hurt — I don’t need more blood on my hands. These two are not made for the world I come from, and even though I still don’t know who they are and what brought them into my life, I’m not heartless enough to let them walk into an ambush.

But I find I’m a coward when it comes to walking out that door and walking away from the two men who saved my life. I’m grateful for everything they’ve done for me, and they’ve become a mainstay in my life in the little time I’ve known them.

And Attila… ahhh, Attila. When I think of the way his hands glided up and down my body, I have to take a deep breath to stem the fire that starts at my toes and makes its unbidden way up my body. I’m not going to lie and say it meant nothing. Because it meant everything, and I’m not courageous enough to walk away from what could be.

It helps that I feel safe with them. But there’s no talking them out of taking me back to where they picked me up from. They won’t let me go on my own, and they decide we’ll all travel back together and formulate a plan as we go. Truth be told, although I know what to expect, knowing what my father is like — there’s no telling what we’ll be walking in to. How many men he’ll have with him. Or how I’ll approach the situation. I have no fucking idea how I’ll be able to get Nadia away from him.

“You really want to do this?” Attila asks, throwing a concerned look my way.

I give him a short nod and fold my arms defensively across my chest. I won’t be talked out of saving my best friend. My sister. She doesn’t deserve to suffer in my place. And if it means I have to sell my soul to the devil to ensure her safety, then that’s what I will do. Even if it means I’ll end up married to a man not of my choosing.

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