Page 117 of Silent Vendetta (Vendetta Duet)

I pivoted and took off running.

As I sprinted, the floor stretched endlessly. My lungs screamed, each breath sharp and ragged, while the wooden door loomed so close yet impossibly far.

Finally, I made it to the wooden monstrosity.

Fumbling with shaking hands, I unlocked the cold deadbolt. Every rugged gasp echoed the pounding of my heart—freedom, tantalizingly close, just beyond the door.

But a sharp, stinging pain shot through my scalp, and the world tilted as he yanked my head back.

Still gripping the knife, I tried to twist and spin out of his hold on my hair, but he grabbed my wrist with his free hand to stop me from stabbing him.

“He—” I started to scream, but he let go of my hair, and his sweaty palm pressed hard against my mouth. The metallic taste of my own blood seeped onto my tongue as my lip split against the pressure.

While he used his other hand to pry at my fingers, trying to wrench the knife’s handle away from me.

The security panel with its red panic button was only a few feet from me.

Maybe I couldn’t make it outside, but with the push of one button, this place would flood with bodyguards.

I jerked my head, trying to free myself from him, but when that didn’t work, I opened my mouth.

His skin was salty and rough against my tongue as I bit down hard on his finger, his flesh giving beneath my teeth. He groaned and shoved me to the floor with a grunt.

A searing pain jolted from my hip, hot and sharp, but a flicker of hope ignited as I spotted the security panel just above me.

And my mouth was free once again.

“He—”

Alexander charged at me, the weight of his body crashing into mine. My head slammed into the wall with an echoing thud, stars exploding in my vision, and before I could recover, his hand clamped over my mouth, silencing my desperate cry.

My fingers grasped at the empty air where the knife once was. It was gone, glinting mockingly from the floor, far out of reach.

CHAPTER55

Luna

Alexander’s iron grip hoisted me from the ground, his fingers digging painfully into my arm. As he yanked me backward, my feet instinctively lashed out, striking his shin, but he hardly flinched.

I tried to bite his fingers again, but I couldn’t even open my mouth. His hand was fixed across my lips with two fingers tucked under my jaw, so I moaned as loud as I could. I thrashed around in his grasp, but he was far too strong.

He pulled me farther from the front door, from safety, deeper into the downstairs hallway, which led to a panel of doors.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Alexander sneered, his breath hot against my ear.

This time, I grabbed the hand that covered my mouth with both of mine, and I jerked at it until it dislodged enough for me to bite down again.

Alexander roared and pushed me to the wooden floor of the hallway.

I tried to scream, but he punched me into silence.

I held my cheek, which burned in pain, and looked up into his cold eyes. “You killed my father.”

He reached for me, but I kicked his hand away.

“You’re the one that sent those letters.”

“You should have listened to me.” Alexander grabbed my hair, but I managed to twist out of his grasp, gritting through the bite of losing some strands.

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