Page 67 of Ravaged and Ruined
They swarm me. I drop the first with a blow to the throat, feeling cartilage collapse beneath my knuckles. The second grabs for me, but I slam his skull into the side of the pump with a crack that echoes. Blood spatters. He drops.
Then they’re on me faster then I can fight them off.
Boots thud against my ribs, sharp and relentless. A fist splits my brow. Another slams into my jaw. White-hot pain explodes behind my eyes. I swing wild, catching someone’s nose and feel it shatter under my knuckles. Someone screams.
But there’s too many. Hands claw at me, drag me down. My back hits asphalt. I kick. Thrash. Teeth bared. A boot connects with my side and something gives, my ribs, maybe. Doesn’t matter. I fight like a feral animal, teeth bared, fists breaking bone, still trying to get to her. Still losing.
Lacey screams again, sharp and panicked. My head snaps toward the sound. She’s kicking like hell, but the bastard’s got her pinned. Her arms wrenched behind her back, feet barely scraping the pavement as he hauls her off the ground. I lunge toward her again but something slams into the side of my head. The blow rings through my skull like a gunshot. My knees buckle. The ground rises up to meet me. The world tilts, sideways. I taste blood. Hear the fear in her screams, raw and jagged like it’s being torn out of her.
Then nothing but boots and shadows.
Darkness holds me down like a weight. Heavy. Suffocating. I have no sense of time, just the distant echo of Lacey’s screams still ringing in my ears. A low, dull hum starts to crawl backinto my skull. Pain blooming, sharp and mean, like barbed wire dragging through the inside of my head. I try to move. My arms, legs, anything, but everything’s numb like my body hasn’t caught up to the fact that I’m still breathing.
The world comes back in pieces. Wooden floor, thick air stinking of oil and rot, the sharp sting blooming behind my left eye. Somewhere nearby, water drips in slow intervals, each splash like a hammer on my skull. Footsteps echo. The low hum of male laughter.
I force my eyes to open, catching a pair of stilettos through the blur. The blood on my face crusts as I blink through one swollen eye. My hands are tied, my wrists raw and aching, my body slumped against something hard. I slowly raise my head until I’m staring down the barrel of a gun. The sight at the other end wrecks my world.
My heart hammers in my chest. My throat constricts as I try to swallow.
It’s the one person who knows too much about me. The one that can ruin everything Lacey and I have before it even has a chance without batting an eye.
“Hello, Aero,” Sophia Ricci purrs, stepping from the shadows like she’s on a runway instead of a rickety floor smeared in blood. Her dress is blood red and tight, slit up one thigh, lips matching the fabric, hair slicked into a bun so sharp it could kill a man. “Long time no see.”
I can’t move. Not with my arms still tied behind my back, half-conscious and bleeding out onto the floor. My shoulder’s wrenched, my lip’s split, and there’s a gash above my eye that won’t stop pounding.
Behind her, Garett Ricci leans against a wooden support beam. His suit’s dark and tailored, his hair slicked back like he just stepped out of a boardroom. He’s stroking Lacey’s hair like he has the right to touch her. She flinches from his touch, but shedoesn’t cry. She doesn’t beg. Her wrists are bound in front of her, but her jaw’s set, eyes blazing with fire and fury even as a bruise blooms high on her cheekbone.
"Get your fucking hands off her," I snarl, jerking forward but held tight to my spot.
Garett smirks, continuing to brush Lacey’s hair behind her ear like he’s petting a dog.
Lacey meets my gaze across the room and her breath stutters. “Aero…”
“Shhh,” Sophia interrupts, waving the barrel of the gun lazily between us. “You’ll get your turn, sweetheart. FirstAero,” she says in a mocking tone, “and I have some unfinished business to discuss.”
Sophia comes closer again, crouching beside me. She slaps me. Fast. Sharp. Then runs a manicured nail down the side of my neck. I shudder with rage. Her touch burns like acid.
"You could’ve had everything, Stone," she whispers. "Power. Money. Me. But you left me to play with your trashy little biker club. How’s that working out for you?”
I smile, my teeth stained red. "And yet you’re the one dressed like a mob Barbie, still chasing something you can’t have.”
“I warned you, Stone,” Sophia says, tilting her head. “You don’t just walk away from a Ricci. Especially not after shedding blood in our name. That bound you to me whether you wanted it or not.”
“You’re poison."
Sophia laughs. "Maybe. But poison kills."
She rises and stalks toward a table beside Garett. Her fingers dance over a blade, a syringe, a pair of pliers. "Do you know why you’re here?"
I glare at her.
"We know someone hit our shipment," Garett cuts in, his eyes cold. "And we know you and your filthy biker brothers are behind it."
"Don’t know what you’re talking about." I growl in response.
He backhands Lacey. The sound cracks through the open space like gunfire.
I roar. The chair scrapes the floor as I surge forward, but the restraints bite deeper into my wrists. Blood trickles down my palms.
