Page 76 of Tainted Obsession 1
I gnash my teeth like a cornered animal. Whether she fears me or not, Evelyn ismine.She won’t escape me so easily.
“I’ll call Adrián,” Stefano says, calm and lethal. “We’ll find her. She can’t get very far.”
I grunt my thanks and end the call. Pain knifes through my chest with every thundering heartbeat. I breathe through the agony of losing her. One way or another, I will get her back.
And she will learn never to run from me again.
I race out into the street, hunting my prey.
Stefano is right: she can’t have gotten far. The town is small, and surely, she’s too smart to venture into the jungle at night. Evelyn might be headstrong, but she isn’t stupid.
I take a few seconds to decide on my next course of action. I can pursue her on foot. That will be slow, but I can check my surroundings more thoroughly than if I were in a vehicle.
I trust that Stefano will follow through with his promise to call for Adrián’s help. They’ll be out looking for her, too, so being thorough is more important than covering lots of ground quickly.
I take off at a run, making my way past the boundary of the wealthy neighborhood and into the impoverished area of town. I remember that we passed a military outpost during the drive to the mansion. The officials are on Adrián’s payroll. If I ask for their assistance, they’ll help me scour the streets for Evelyn.
The concrete block building is just visible at the end of the street, which is illuminated by a single light outside. Otherwise, moonlight guides my path, throwing the hardpacked earth road into sharp relief with the pastel buildings on either side.
A gunshot rings out from the building, accompanied by a distant scream.
My heart stops, but I manage to keep my feet from faltering at the punch of terror. Years of fighting for my life sends adrenaline pumping through my body, granting me lethal focus rather than debilitating me with fear for her.
Maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe…
My name tears the quiet night. The sound of her scream is mostly contained inside the concrete building, but I’m close enough now to recognize the cadence of her voice crying out for me.
I barrel down the street in a burst of nearly inhuman speed. The world falls away around me, my full focus centering on her. She’s seconds away from me. But if someone fires that gun again, I might lose her forever.
I burst into the building, revealing a nightmare. My brain takes in the horrific scene without my body slowing.
Evelyn thrashes on the floor, a man holding her down. He’s laughing as though he’s having the time of his fucking life. An older man looms over her, fisting his flaccid cock, preparing to violate her. There’s a gun on the desk behind him, and the other man has an automatic rifle tossed carelessly beside him—both of them are too distracted by hurting her to think about their weapons.
The knife Adrián gifted to me is in my hand.
I lunge for the one who has her pinned. He’s too close to her, and once I attack, he might grab her and use her as a shield.
He will die first.
I slam into him with my full weight, shoving him off her. His shocked shout lasts only an instant before morphing into an agonized scream. My blade slashes his face, bisecting the lips that leered at her. I catch a flash of teeth and bone before the blood pours from his ruined mouth. His flailing hands scramble for his rifle, but another harsh slash of my knife nearly severs his wrist. His scream of abject horror ends when I grab his body and lift it in front of my own.
Just as I’d anticipated, bullets rip into his chest. I launch myself at the older man, who’s managed to grab his gun from the desk behind him. I keep the body between us. At this close range, my meat shield won’t hold out long before the bullets tear through and hit my own chest.
I use the body like a battering ram, slamming the dead weight into my enemy. He falls back, losing his balance. The gun clatters to the concrete floor, and the body pins him for a precious second.
I haul the dead man away, discarding the corpse like garbage. The older man is covered in blood, but none of it belongs to him.
I’ll fix that. But before I allow him to die, he will suffer.
He touched her. He intended to rape her.
“She’smine,” I snarl and plunge my blade into his gut.
He thought he could hurt what’s mine. He thought he could take her from me.
“Did you like her fear?” I wrench the knife free and drive it deep into his belly again. “Did you enjoy her screams?”
I slow my actions, pushing the blade upward. I make him watch as I slice him open from navel to sternum, revealing his shredded guts.
