Page 75 of Ruthless Protector

The guard was a blur behind it. But it wasn’t my guard, was it? It was Kilpatrick's, and Logan’s warning filled my head.Fuck.I reached for my phone, hands trembling. Kat’s face was all I saw in the blur of my eyes as Alexi roared,“Over your fucking face, Salvatore!”

My fingers weren’t working. Thick and heavy, they traced across the screen, missing the damn code to unlock it.Get it together!Logan…call Logan.

“It’s truth serum. I rigged it,” Kilpatrick barked.

In the corner of my eye, the petite blond hit the floor with a brutalthudand didn’t move.

The room spun as fire filled my lungs. My eyes watered as the need to breathe became overwhelming. The numbers on my phone blurred more. I stabbed the screen, tried to type, and hit send. Fuck if I knew what I'd said, if anything recognizable.

Finley shouldered the door with aboomand screamed, “Open this fucking door! NOW!”

“The truth, Rossi,” Kilpatrick spat at me.

My phone slipped from my hold and hit the floor with a thud. Kilpatrick was on me in an instant, grabbing my goddamn shirt, towering over me as my body expelled the builtup breath in my lungs and I sucked deep of the tainted air.

“Open this door!” Finley roared once more.

“Tell me the truth.” Kilpatrick was in my face again.

Savage anger burned through me, moving deeper than any fucking drugged air. I shoved the bastard, sucking in the fire as I roared, “Get the fuck off me.”

My words slurred, my hands didn’t work, not like they should. Through the blinding wash of tears, I tried to clench a fist, tried to focus on the bastard in front of me…but there were three of him.

My knees buckled, but hands were grabbing me, driving me against the wall, and Alexi’s face was right there, his eyes wild. Screaming. Yeah, the bastard was screaming.“Tell me the truth, Rossi!”

“No,” I murmured, the pain of the last few months spilling from my lips as I tried to focus on the bastard’s face. “No, we didn’t order the goddamn hit.You think we’d do that?”

He stilled for a second, his movement a blur as something was shoved in my face. “Who ordered the hit then?”

“I don’t fucking know.” I tried to shove the bastard away as my stomach cramped and clenched. Jesus, I was going to be fucking sick. I was going to be…

I bit down on the insides of my cheeks.Where the fuck was Logan?Still those words…those fucking words spilled free. “You think we’d do something like that? We’re not fucking animals.”

Movement came from the corner of my eye as Finley’s woman tried to push up from the floor. “Can’t trust.” Her slurred words reached my ears. "Can’t trust the Salvatores.”

I clenched my jaw and lifted my gaze to the cold-hearted bastard standing over her. One swipe of my hand, and I brushed the tears away, finding Finley’s frozen face cold with fear. A hard bark of laughter roared through me as I sucked another breath. “Can’t fucking trust the Salvatores.”

He jerked his gaze toward mine and for the first time, I saw the real man behind the fear of his daddy…and it chilled me to the bone. He knelt and grabbed her in his arms. “Quiet now,” he murmured, turning away from the rest of us, and lowered her back down to the floor.

But the woman in his arms wasn’t listening…and she was starting to sing like a goddamn bird.

Laughter spilled from me in a torrent as she moaned,“The Ghost. They’ll all find out I’m the Ghost.”

The sonofabitch went fucking pale behind the goddamn mask. He looked likehe’dseen a ghost.

The idea of that was hysterical. Still I sucked in the air, not even caring anymore as the room started to blur and swim around me. I breathed that shit deep, clutched my stomach, and roared with laughter.

All for this?

All forthis?

The fucking initiation.

“No…” Finley barked. “Anna,no!”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Alexi muttered, sending me laughing harder. I couldn’t stop, couldn’t do a fucking thing. My stomach clenched, the muscles knotting like fists as I howled with laughter.

The fucking Ghost…the FUCKING GHOST!

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