Page 86 of Scarlet Mark

Taviv kicked him in the side. Apart from his body jolting from the impact, he didn’t otherwise react.

Definitely unconscious.

Fuck!

Now what? I couldn’t fight them all on my own. I was strong, yes, but they had weapons. I did not.

“Finish him,” Clarissa ordered.

“No.” The chilling voice came from the top of the stairs, the raspy quality identifying Amir even in the dark. Of course, I always knew him. He had a presence about him, an air of danger, that I felt whenever he was near. And it terrified me. “You do not command my men.”

Clarissa’s lips pursed. “Fine. Then you tell him to do it.” She hadn’t stopped pointing the gun at my head. Part of me wanted to lunge for her, preferring death to watching them kill Killian.

“No. I want him alive. For now.” Amir finally came into view, his lean form covered in what was likely a ten-thousand-dollar suit. He didn’t do cheap or normal, always extravagant and in charge. It was why he and Malcom were suitable partners. “The girl, too.”

Clarissa’s painted lips flattened, then she sighed as she lowered the gun. “Of course.”

My eyebrows threatened to lift, shock coursing through my veins.

Did the infamous Madam just yield to Amir Assad?

She never gave in to anyone, always claiming to be in charge. But perhaps the dominance emanating from him forced her to submit, even as queen of this house.

“Remove your dress, Amara,” Amir said, his voice brooking no argument. “We need to know you’re unarmed.”

Yes, I was sure that was why they wanted me naked.

“Now,” he added when I didn’t immediately jump to obey him.

“No.” The world slipped from my mouth unbidden, my shoulders rigid, my hands unmoving. “No.” If he wanted me to undress, he could come down here and make me. It was what he probably desired anyway, though he would be in no way gentle about it.

Clarissa tsked, her expression radiating disgust. “Two months away from home and you forget who you are.” Her palm connected with my cheek so fast I barely caught her movement toward me on the stairs.

But it put her within range.

My fist connected with her jaw, sending her backward into the cement stairs behind her. I raised my foot to stab her with the edge of my heel, but a pair of steel arms wrapped around me and lifted me into the air.

Taviv’s musky cologne filled my nostrils, his muscles rigid against my back and around my center.Fuck this.I kicked backward at his leg, hitting my target on my first try.

And then my head met the wall. Hard.

Everything spun, my ears ringing, and suddenly Malcom was right in front of me, his expression one that haunted my nightmares. Not angry, no. He didn’t allow others to see him in a pissed-off state. Instead he channeled it into darker activities. And those punishments were swimming in his icy gaze.

“It seems you’ve forgotten all your training, baby,” he murmured, brushing the back of his hand down my cheek. “Perhaps we can fuck it back into you, yes?”

Shivers raced up and down my limbs, leaving me cold. Taviv’s nearness, the way his body seemed to harden against mine, made me wish for death over what they had in mind.

Killian…

Why would he let them hit him like that? Why not fight? I’d seen him take down armed men before without batting an eye. So why allow them to win now?

He had to have a plan.

Something up his sleeve to save us.

Or maybe he’d known there was no other option, that we’d lost, and he’d accepted his fate.

No. Killian wouldn’t just give up. That wasn’t in his nature, and it wasn’t in mine, either. Not anymore.