Page 21 of Severed By Vengeance

“Fuck you.”

He cocked the gun and pointed it at my head. “I said, turn around.” I pressed my lips into a tight line, glared at him, and spun in a circle.

“Tight ass. Pretty face. Oh, yeah. You’d make a nice pet. We just gotta put that pretty little mouth of yours to better use.”

I wanted to crawl out of my skin then, scream and cry, as his words with power and memories with a punch assaulted my senses. One. Two. Three breaths left my body. Techniques I’d learned in therapy when the panic threatened to take over.

The man moved closer and ordered me to kneel. Left with no other option, I complied, biding my time, waiting for him to mess up and get close enough. But it needed to happen before his accomplice became an impossible second problem.

Glass shattered in the adjacent room where I’d left Rayne, and a blood-curdling scream followed, cutting straight to my soul.

CHAPTERSIX

EVANGELINA

His zipper grated in my mind like nails on a chalkboard. It took me back ten years. Cold concrete. Heavy breathing. Tight hands around my throat, cutting off my air supply.

Pain.

Two more long sweeps of oxygen into my lungs to settle the demons slowly creeping to the surface. I clenched my fists at my sides, tempering the fury of emotions at war. He wouldn’t touch me. I’d make damn sure of it.

I wrenched my eyes open at the sinister laugh in my ear and hard steel to the temple.

“Let’s see what that sweet mouth can do.”

I bit back bile and locked eyes with him, hoping he’d see my rage and disgust for what he intended.

The only way to help Rayne was to remain calm and gain the upper hand when the opportunity arose. She had stopped screaming, and the silence blanketing the home was terrifying.

“What’s your name? We really got a two-for-one deal chasing that little bitch around town. So glad we hung back and let her lead us.” He dipped down and dragged his tongue along my cheek before stroking his dick near my face. “Must be fate.”

I turned my head away. “You sick bastard.”

The words had barely left my mouth when a painful white light exploded behind my tightly clenched eyes. His backhanded slap cracked the side of my face, and the taste of copper spilled over my tongue.

“I’m going to have a lot of fun breaking you,” he said, gripping my chin and roughly sliding a calloused thumb against the split in my lip. I swallowed the pain and reared back from his hold.

“Don’t touch me.” I spat blood on his shoes, and he immediately tangled a fist into my hair. My scalp stung as he tightened his grip so much it felt like he was about to tear out a chunk.

“Bitch! You know how much these cost?”

I made my move the moment he placed his gun on the counter. When my knuckles collided with his dick, he howled and doubled over. Without giving him a second of reprieve, I jumped to my feet and broke the cartilage in his nose with a swift right cross. Blood gushed from his face as he collapsed into a pathetic heap, one hand trying to plug the steady flow of red seeping from between his fingers while the other sandwiched a bruised dick.

“Stay down!” Holding him at gunpoint, my eyes shifted to the corridor that led into the living room. I listened for signs of Rayne and silently prayed she was unharmed. “Don’t fucking move.”

He wasn’t trying to comply. I saw his intentions before he even moved and so I pistol-whipped him unconscious, and he fell face-first onto the tile.

Fuck, I needed a phone.

“Eva!” I raced through the dark at the sound of her shaky voice. When I reached her, Rayne was on her knees by a side table, a bloody shard of glass in one hand. “I-I think I killed him. I cut his throat.”

My eyes widened as I followed a thick trail of blood streaking across the floor and toward the foyer. There was so much of it, I half-expected to see a body on the floor when I peered around the corner. Rayne must have severed an artery.

Shit.

Tires suddenly screeched in my driveway before angrily peeling off.

“Come on! We need to get to a phone and ensure they’re gone.”