Page 53 of Under Her Skin

She bit his hand and he yelled, slapping her. “Go fuck yourself, George. I don’t owe you athing.”

She pushed him away and darted around him, but he lunged for her, dragging her to the carpet and pushing up her shirt. He saw the wire immediately. “What the fuck isthis?”

He yanked it off her, and Hero kicked out at him, catching him in the balls. Where the hell was her back up? Why weren’t they busting down thedoor?

George grabbed her wrists as she struggled beneath him. “Stop fighting me, Hero, and this won’t beunpleasant.”

“You fucker…it was you? The whole time? Threatening mylife?”

George snorted. “Why would I want to kill such a prime piece of ass like you, Hero? No, I just want to be buried deep in your perfect little cunt. Why should Bachi get all the ass around her? Now, I get to sample thegoods.”

His hand was burrowing down her jeans, and Hero began to panic. George grinned as he yanked her jeans down. “Relax, Hero…it’ll all be oversoon.”

Arturo calledout for his uncle as he pushed open the door to his uncle’s mansion, but he heard nothing. He stopped. Something wasn’t right here. Earlier, he’d called Gaudio and sent him over to protect his uncle if anything should go awry, and it wasn’t like the bodyguard not to be at hispost.

Arturo swallowed the feeling of panic and strode through to his uncle’s study. Nothing. “Philipo?”

He checked the bedroom, the kitchen, and the living room. His uncle was nowhere to be found. Arturo yanked out his phone to call Hero, a nasty tightness in hischest.

Her phone went to voicemail.Fuck… Arturo turned to race to his car. He never saw the heavy marble bust before it smashed into histemple.

Hero was in deep trouble,and she knew it would take something extraordinary to get her out of this. George’s entire weight was on top of her, one hand clamped over her mouth and nose, cutting off her air supply. Her head felt woozy, and she knew George would think nothing of killing her if she tried to resist. Instead, she went limp, faked passing out. She felt like screaming when she felt his cock, half-erect, nudge at her sex.Please no, please not this, not likethis…

“I know you’re faking, bitch,” George’s breath was hot against her cheek. “You better make this look good, or I will endyou.”

His hands slipped around her throat then and began to squeeze tighter and tighter. Hero choked, her eyes flying open as adrenaline coursed through her system. Georgegrinned.

“Hello, pretty whore. Now, open those legs for me, and you might get to see tomorrow. You know I watched him put that knife in Flavia—God, it was the hottest thing I ever saw. I could gut you right here,Hero…”

Suddenly Hero got really mad, insanely raging, and with one mighty roar, she kicked him off of her. “Motherfucker!You want to kill me? Do it, you scumbag, do itnow!”

She slammed into him as he tried to stand, his cock deflating, and knocked him against the plate glass window of the suite. It shuddered but stayed intact as George recovered himself. “Fucking little bitch…I’m going to rip you topieces!”

He lunged for her just as the door to the suite was kicked in, and Peter Armley burst in, a gun in his hand. As George went for Hero, Peter shot him, the bullet slamming into George’s forehead, splitting the back of his head wide open. George stopped dead, staring at Hero, then dropped to the floor, his eyes open andstaring.

Hero, trembling so much she could barely stand, stared at Peter, at the gun in his hand. For a moment, she thought he might shoot her, but he shook himself, tucked the gun back into his waistband and grabbed a throw, wrapping it aroundher.

“Sweetheart, are you okay?” He hugged her to him, his voice gentle, and she couldn’t help but be comforted by it. She shook herhead.

“No…I’m not…not at all. Please, Peter, get me out of here. I need to be withArturo.”

Peter frowned. “Arturo? Do you know where he is? I’ve just been to his uncle’s house. There’s no one there. Even Philipo isgone.”

Hero looked at Peter with horror in her eyes. “No…no…he went there…his car was maybe two minutes behind mine at the most…we have to gothere.”

She stood, wobbled and Peter caught her. “Sweetheart, we need to get you to thehospital…”

Hero’s tears poured down her cheeks. “No, please, Peter, please…” She was sobbing then, barely able to get her words out. “We have to find him…George was working with someone…he told me he watched whoever it was killing Flavia. Please, Peter, we have to find Arturobefore…”

“Okay, okay…okay…just, breathe for me, please. Take a deep breath, Hero…” He waited until she obeyed him and smiled. “Good. Now, can I help you getdressed?”

She shook her head and felt awkward as she pulled her jeans on as he watched. Her body ached from George’s attack, but she pushed the horror of it to the back of her mind. There would be plenty of time to break down later when they were allsafe.

Peter locked the hotel suite door behind them. “We’ll explain about George’s bodylater.”

As they hurried to the elevator, Hero wondered again where the hell her protection was, why the plan had gone so badlywrong.

As Peter helped her into his car, Hero searched the street for any sign of the police. Nothing. What the hell was goingon?