Page 71 of Insatiable

I thought those parties were the den of Satan; I didn’t know there was a place deeper than the pits of hell.

There’s a foul stench when we reach the bottom. More gang members are standing around a table when we enter a room full of boxes and overhead lamps. Illegal plants. White powder. Pills. A glass screen that looks onto a lone chair in the middle of an interrogation room.

Fear claws at my bones, seeping into my blood and threatening to stop my organs.

“Nave,” one of the gang members says. He has a long white beard and gold teeth. His hands rest on the table between us, where a brown envelope with Kade’s nickname on it sits. “We didn’t expect to see you until tomorrow.”

“I’m aware, Crawley.”

I’m standing behind him again, my arms crossed as I stare at the ground.

“I’m here for the contract and fifty.”

“Only fifty? The last time you wanted three hundred.”

“Fifty,” Kade says again. “Put it into a suitcase.”

My skin crawls as two guys smelling like beer come up beside me.

“Is your whore here as entertainment?” one says as the other hums and adds, “I’d have a piece of this.”

I yelp as he slaps my ass.

“I—”

His words are cut off as Kade’s arm snaps out, his elbow slamming into the nose of the guy closest to me, breaking it in a bloody crack. His gun is pointed at the other one, and he seems unbothered by the multiple weapons now aimed at him.

“Touch her again and I’ll blow your fucking head off.”

Oh God.We’re going to die.

Kade doesn’t blink, doesn’t lower his gun.

I rest my hand on his back. “Please…”

Please stop. Why are we here? Why do you have a gun? Where is theKadeI grew up with?

“We’ve heard the stories about you. I’m not afraid of you. I’ll take your whore off your dirty hands, and you’ll never see her again.”

Kade sighs, as if this isn’t traumatic or terrifying in the slightest. “Last chance.” His voice is clipped. “Back off.”

He laughs before baring his teeth. “Or what? I’m one of five leaders here, and I—”

Kade pulls the trigger.

I jump with a strangled gasp as the blast rings in my ears. The man’s body falls to the ground, lifeless – dead – while red trickles from the hole between his eyes.

My palm crushes to my mouth to muffle my scream, bile rising in my throat.

Unfazed, Kade tucks his gun into his waistband. “None of you will lay a finger on her – are we clear?”

Dark and intimidating, his tone feels like an arrow glazed in ice shooting through my chest, poisoning me with liquid fear.

“You want my business, none of you will touch her, look at her or even acknowledge her presence.”

To my surprise, they all agree and lower their weapons with hands raised in surrender, and I stay in shock as they continue their business. The man’s blood puddles on the floor at my feet, and I try not to vomit.

If I run, I have nowhere to go.

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