Page 94 of Tempt Me

The last link fell to the ground, and I screamed for my body to work.

“I have an appointment. Repeating history is such an iconic treasure, don’t you agree?”

I felt sick.

He can’t mean…

“Fallon Summers has always been mine. Mine to fuck. Mine to kill. That little baby? Well, that’s just righting a wrong. Can’t make the same mistake twice, of course.”

“Stop.” My voice was a wheeze, barely a whisper above his cackling laughter.

“Don’t worry. I will bury them in the same hole you wallow in. My treat.”

“Please…”

Ferdinand stopped at the exit, turning on his heel and walking over to my body on the ground. He took a deep inhale and looked down on me.

“Oh, how the mighty do fall.”

One final kick and my vision turned black. The last thing I saw was Xenia, tears streaming down her cheeks as she lay down beside me and closed her eyes.

Thirty Five

Pain: Acute mental or emotional distress or suffering.

So much pain. I was engulfed in a fire.

I tried to open my eyes, an annoying beeping letting a blip every few seconds. The room was quiet. I forced my eyes open. A log ceiling stared back at me.

Where was I?

A woman with tight braids in her hair came into view. She looked familiar. I could have sworn I knew her from somewhere.

“Doctor Masters?” I said, my voice sounding like a pathetic squeak.

“Taliah. You’re safe, Fallon. You need to rest.”

I protested, trying to pull myself up. There was an IV line in my arm, and two bags were off to the side—one a clear solution and the other…blood.

My eyes widened. Taliah put her arm on my shoulder, and I tried not to flinch at her touch.

“You lost a lot of blood, Fallon.” She searched for words. “We were able to transfer you to my in-home clinic here, but…”

What wasn’t she saying? I couldn’t have lost enough blood to need a transfusion from just rough sex from the asshole. I knew he knocked me around more than usual, but this…the way my stomach burned and ached with a pulsating cramping sensation…there was something wrong.

“What happened to me?”

I was scared. Taliah looked professional, but even her eyes had a sheen of glass in them that she couldn’t hide from me.

“I am very sorry, Fallon. You were attacked, and the trauma your body endured. They were unable to save the baby.”

Baby?

“Xavier’s dead?” I said in a sob.

Fallon opened her mouth and closed it again, searching for words.

“Look, please. That baby is the last thing I have of my brother, and he was brought into this world in the cruelest of ways. I need him to be okay.”