Page 33 of Hayes
I turn my head and sink my teeth into his flesh. I’m not sure what body part I bit, but I don’t let go until I taste the metallic of his blood.
“You fucking bitch!”
My body lands with a thump on the floor before a sharp kick lands against my ribs.
I gasp at the shock of agony shooting through my body.
My hair is yanked back. “They all think you’re a plant one of our enemies put in our ranks, and someday they’ll come to your rescue. But I think they’re wrong. No one is coming to your rescue. You’re a nobody. And you’ll soon learn how vicious we can truly be. You should have continued living in that podunk two-bedroom trailer. You could have spent your life sucking cock for money to survive. Instead, you thought you could play the hero. We aren’t the reason you’re poor—your father is. And you’re the reason your sisters will remain poor.”
“Leave them alone!” I shout.
I can feel his smile against my cheek. “I will. They aren’t the one I want.” His tongue licks up my cheek, and I shiver away. “You are.”
“Enjoy your time with your new master. Soon enough, I’ll get my chance with you. Be prepared—you’re going to need every ounce of strength to survive me.”
And then I’m alone to wait for my new owner. A man who bought me, who plans to break me.
If not Leo, then who?
Leo’s words haunt me as I wait. And wait and wait.
I can’t see through the blindfold. My wrists and ankles are bound, and I don’t try to fight it. Whoever bought me just sealed their fate. Buying me will be the last thing they ever do. As soon as I’m sure my family has the money, I’ll kill them. And then I’ll take down as many Retribution Kings as I can before I go.
“I didn’t think they’d actually manage to deliver you.” My heart stops at the sound of his voice. He chuckles. “At least not without you taking off a few of their fingers first.”
My heart does a little somersault, but I refuse to smile at Hayes’s voice. I should feel relieved—I don’t.
“Tell me you at least drew some blood, murderous one?” I feel his breath on my neck, so he must have lowered down to the floor where I lay. And yet, he hasn’t touched me. He hasn’t removed any of the handcuffs or blindfold.
“I bit Leo,” I say.
He chuckles fiercely. “Good, the bastard deserves so much more.”
His thumb brushes up my jawline and then slides the blindfold off the top of my head. His face is an inch above mine, and when our eyes meet, I gasp.
My steel-caged heart, the heart I’ve kept locked away, the heart that turned into vengeance before I was even old enough to ever let a man into my life—that heart—throbs.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
It beats as if calling for him, knowing something I don’t. This man is the man it’s been searching for without my knowing that it was searching at all. This man is the one who could make me smile when all I want to do is frown. This man is the one who I could share my destiny with, my pain with, my everything with.
This man.
What is it about this man that my heart instantly trusts him?
Is it because he saved you, twice now?
Leo could have bought me. A worse man could have. They could have tortured me until they learned the truth of what happened. That I killed those men without thinking of the consequences. That I risked everything for retribution.
This man didn’t allow me to suffer that fate.
This man loves me.
This man is my sunshine, my hope, my only chance at loving again.
