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“Ungrateful?” My voice rises to a hysterical screech. “ Ungrateful ?”

“I gave you the gift of immortality. You are mine—my progeny.” He takes a menacing step forward. “And you will show me the honor I am due.”

“Ethan.” Sam’s tone is patient, but there’s a warning in it. “Calm down a little.”

“I owe you nothing,” I respond. “You’re not the head of my house—that honor belongs to Cassian.”

Ethan crosses the room so quickly I end up bumping into the uncomfortable couch while trying to get away from him. He grabs my arm, yanking me toward him. His fingers dig into my flesh, painful enough I’m sure they’ll leave a temporary bruise.

“You are not Cassian’s,” he snarls, his eyes wild. “You’re mine. Say it. Say you’re mine.”

I pull against him, struggling to get free, refusing to give in to him even though I’m scared now. My outburst felt good, but it wasn’t smart, not while I’m alone in this room with him and his assassin.

But I can’t bring myself to say what he wants to hear, not even to save myself.

“No,” I grit through my teeth.

“SAY IT!” he yells, shaking me so hard my neck hurts.

I turn quickly, trying to wrench myself free like Noah taught me, but Ethan is expecting it. He crushes my back against his chest with an iron-like grip, and then he digs his fangs into my neck.

The pain is blinding and unexpected.

Screaming, I fight him, the agony as sharp as the humiliation of him biting me again.

“Ethan, enough,” Sam commands from behind us. “Let her go.”

Ethan lets out a guttural, inhuman growl and throws me forward. I land against the couch. Before I can pull myself up, he has me again. He heaves me onto the cushions and holds me down, standing over me, my blood on his lips.

His eyes are wild, like that of an animal, and his pupils are huge. “Admit you’re mine, or I swear I’ll kill you now. I gave you this life—I can take it away.”

I scream in his face, thrashing against him, knowing I’ll never get away but determined to hurt him at least a little.

When he wraps his hands around my neck, stealing my air, I realize I’m in trouble.

“TELL ME YOU LOVE ME!” he roars, pressing me hard against the cushions.

I couldn’t answer him even if I wanted to. Helpless, I claw at his hands, desperate for air. Some distant inner voice reminds me Cassian said this won’t kill me, but that’s not terribly reassuring right now.

I begin to lose consciousness, my vision smudged with shadows. But suddenly, Ethan screams and rears back. His hands leave my throat, and I gasp, drawing in burning lungfuls of precious air. Each cough racks my body and feels like it’s shredding my throat.

Sam appears over me, his dark face concerned. “Piper, you with me?”

My throat hurts too badly to even scream, but I jerk up, trying to crawl away from the assassin. Underneath me, the cushions shift, thwarting my escape.

“Hey, it’s okay.” He stills me with a gentle hand on my shoulder. “You’re safe now.”

I freeze, realizing the room is quiet.

Slowly, my eyes move to the floor. Ethan lies motionless, eyes glazed over, stake firmly embedded in his back. Blood pools around him, reminding me of the thug Noah shot on my grandparents’ porch.

I gasp, managing a hoarse shriek. Then my eyes fly to Sam’s. “You killed him,” I whisper.

He looks vaguely uncomfortable. “I did.”

I begin to shake. “He’s dead.”

A rueful smile crosses Sam’s face. “You’re welcome.”

“You…you killed him.”

“I think we’ve already established that.”

“But you work for him.”

He laughs, sounding a little uncomfortable. “Not anymore.”

“What about all that vacation time you had?” I babble.

He runs his hand over his head. “It probably won’t be paid anymore.”

And just like that, I burst into tears and throw my arms around the assassin’s neck.

Not only does Sam let me cry on his shoulder, but he rubs my back and murmurs reassuring nonsense. It’s not a romantic moment. To be honest, I don’t really know what kind of moment it is.

I’m just really, really happy to be alive.

And really happy Ethan is dead. And maybe that makes me evil, but right now, I don’t care. If I could turn back time and stab him myself, I would.

After I get control of myself, I sit back, drying my eyes on my arm. “Now what?”

Sam studies Ethan. “Now I’ve got to get my family out of Glenwood. They won’t be safe once Ethan’s people figure out I killed him.”

“What?” I focus on his tattooed arms. He seems especially menacing now, probably because he just killed my stalker.

“My sister, her kids, and my grandma.”

“Oh. Right.”

We’re having a semi-normal conversation, and that feels weird.

Deciding I’m stable for the time being, Sam tugs me off the couch and walks to the hook on the wall where my purse is hanging. “We need to destroy the tracking device.”

“I don’t understand. You were blindly loyal to Ethan.” I rub my hand over my throat. It’s already beginning to heal, and it feels both creepy and somewhat painful. “Minion level loyal.”

“If I walked away, who knows what he’d do to my family.” Sam frowns at me. “I don’t know if you noticed this, but Ethan wasn’t exactly stable.”

“How’d you get mixed up with him?”

“I was a hunter for my house, but my sister’s husband skipped town, and she needed help. When I came back to Glenwood, I had to get a job.”

“How, exactly, do you apply for an assassin's position?”

Sam chuckles, locating the tracking device and crushing it under the heel of his boot. “That came later, after Sophia turned Ethan. At first, I just worked as his property manager.”

“This is too weird.”

“Ethan got mixed up with Alfred, and things got out of hand. But I couldn’t quit.”

“Because of your family?”

He nods.

“How much danger are you in now?”

“It depends on how quickly I get out of here.”

“You can’t go. You broke out of prison—you killed my ex-boyfriend.”

Sam lifts a dark brow. “That wasn’t much of a loss, was it?”

“Sam, I can’t just let you?—”

“What are you going to do, Piper?” He crowds my space, smirking down at me. “Knock me unconscious? Tie me up?”

I gulp when he pulls a length of parachute cord from his pocket, trapping me between him and the wall.

“Want to give it a try?” he teases darkly, swinging the cord in front of my face.

I shake my head quickly, my mouth going dry.

He chuckles darkly. Lifting his eyebrows, he commands in a silken voice, “Turn around.”

“What?”

“Guilt will plague you if you let a murderer escape, but you’re also a nice girl who isn’t going to turn in the man who saved you from your stalker. So, I’m taking the decision out of your hands.” He sets his hands on my shoulders. “ Turn around. ”

He’s not bluffing—he doesn’t give me a choice. Seconds later, I’m facing the wall with my hands behind my back. Quickly, Sam lashes my wrists together.

“You’re a little too good at this,” I say, a little freaked out that I’m not freaked out. “Do I want to know why that is?”

“Probably not.” He finishes the knot and then stands behind me, not touching me even though he’s close.

“What are Ethan’s men going to do to me when they find out he’s dead?” I ask. “Am I going to have to watch my back for the rest of my life?”

Sam turns me around to face him. “Don’t worry about them. They’ll be so upset I killed him; they’ll come after me instead of going after you. And I promise you, if they mess with me, they won’t live long enough to give you any trouble.”

“That was a concerning statement.”

Sam chuckles. “You want to know what my biggest regret is?”

“Killing a whole lot of people?”

“I didn’t get to properly bite you,” he answers, his tone light and flirtatious. “It was the one perk of my job.”

“I have a boyfriend,” I say, feeling the need to remind him.

“Yeah, I know,” Sam laughs. “I’ve met him, remember? Not a fan.”

“You should stay—confess your crimes and do your time in jail. Then you can truly move on with your life.”

He lifts a dark brow. “Take the path of a reformed man?”

I nod.

“I’m afraid not. My family needs me, and I tried the prison thing.” He reaches behind me and slides my phone out of my back pocket. “It wasn’t for me.”

“What are you doing?” I ask nervously, eyeing my cell.

“I’m putting a number into your phone.”

“Is it yours?”

“No.” Finished, he places it back into my pocket. “But it belongs to someone who will help you find Sophia.”

“Thank you for saving me,” I say when I realize he’s about to take off.

“You’re welcome.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

“I’m resilient.” The assassin has the audacity to wink, and then he walks out of the room. “Take care of yourself, Piper.”

It’s not until Sam’s gone that I realize I’m stuck in this abandoned break room with a dead body, and I can’t even use my phone to call for help because my hands are tied behind my back.

And I have to go to the bathroom.

“Well, heck,” I say with a sigh, and then I head into the hall to see if I can track down Erin and Adam.