Page 12 of Ruthless Scoundrel
I steady my breathing and withhold a curse as I use both hands to free the pistol.
“What are you going to do with that?” Jasper’s sleep-rough voice makes me start and I pull my hands back.
Panic swells, narrowing my thoughts. I frantically look at everything else near me.
Rock.
I dig into the sand and pull the pathetic, palm-sized coral free, then hold it up, poised to strike. “Let me go.”
“Not going to do much with that but upset me,” he says, nodding to my fist.
I brandish the rock higher. “I’ll take that over being your compliant slave.”
He huffs in amusement, making my blood boil. I should strike him just for that.
“Do you know where you are, princess?”
He’s trying to distract me, make me look at my surroundings. It’s not going to work. “Set. Me. Free. Now, or I will smash out every one of your teeth.”
His eyes widen with feral delight and a smile blooms on his dry lips. “Such violence.”
“Last warning,” I say.
The skin over my knuckles is hot and tight from how firm I’m gripping the rock. I don’t care. I can’t drop it, can’t afford to. I have to be ready to follow through on my promise.
His face loses all joviality. “You are far from rescue. We have no fresh water, and no food. If you kill me, you’ll follow me into Nol’Ther’s embrace not long after.”
“Better her embrace than yours,” I say, kicking his hand off my thigh.
But he’s not wrong. I don’t know where we are. Worse, I can’t even swim. He doesn’t know that, but even if I could, I can’t swim home.
I let my gaze snap left and right, but I can’t see any other land masses in the darkness. A cold sweat breaks out across my tender, burning skin.
“You’re grasping the gravity of our situation,” Jasper says with arrogant amusement.
No water.
No food.
No hope.
This idiot snatched me up from my home just to get me killed on an unknown island.
I slam my fist down and hit his arm. The grit of the sand burns against my fingers, but it feels like a small slice of justice.
“You. Fucking. Bastard!” I punctuate my words with strikes. “I had a rebellion to fight for! I’m the only one who can kill her! You’ve fucked up everything!”
The clank of chains is the only warning I get before I’m jerked down against him by my left arm. I’m crushed to his chest and my brain goes white-hot with fire. I kick and scream, lighting up my body with magic.
“Stop it!” he roars as he wrests the rock from my fist. “You’re hurting yourself!”
“Fuck you!”
Suddenly, we flip and my back is pinned against the sand. I thrash but get nowhere. His hips press mine down and his legs cover my own. My arms are restrained overhead by the chains, making it impossible to move.
He glowers down at me. “Stop hurting yourself.”
I spit in his face.
