Page 2 of Never Wed an Outlaw
Dom paused to smile before stepping forward, wiping his switchblade on his jeans. The stuff staining it was too thick and red to be juice from the pomegranates he always plucked at in front of me.
Blood.Lots of fresh, dark blood, leaving a rust-colored stain on his grey trousers. As if I needed another reminder this man can murder without having to be careful with the evidence.
“Fuck, peach, thought we'd never find you.”
We?The door swung open again, and three more goons entered. All of them bigger, balding, and not nearly as happy to be here as their boss.
“Took us on a damned road trip we really didn't have time for. I'll add it to your tab. You can thank me later, bitch,” he said, flashing his teeth, before his smile disappeared into a dark scowl.
Crying wasn't even a choice. When I brought one hand to my cheek, it was already wet.
Hot, glassy tears came for Dust, for my son, for the future I'd feared, staring me in the face. I mourned the lonely, safe ones I'd never have, now that the monster had tracked me down.
Dom waited about thirty seconds before snatching at my hair, jerking my face hideously close to his. “You really thought you could run? That I wouldn't fucking find you?” His nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed, fixing on me like an eagle about to have lunch. “Used to think you weresmart, back when we first cut our deal. I thought you'd work smart, work fast, and make us all some money. I'm never this stupid. You made a fucking fool of me, Hannah.”
He sighed, his fingers shaking angrily. “After I'm through with you, I'll be kicking my own ass for being blind. Believe me. Still, you're a bigger fool than me if you think you'll get away with wasting our time, unpunished. Stop shaking, bitch. Don't scream, or you'll get another one of those sweet little nurses killed on the way out.”
Anothernurse? As in, he'd already murdered one?
Jesus.
The goon on my right lifted my arm, pulling the IV out of it. Shaking my head, I stared into his deep, dark eyes, desperate to see something human.
“Please. Just let me have my baby first. I'll do anything you say after, if you'll just –“
“What'd I tell you, peach?” His blade moved against my throat, telling me I'd made a huge mistake trying to reason with him. “The time to shut the fuck up was sixty seconds ago. You've pissed away enough of my time, and I'm not letting you take no more. We're walking, while we've got this ward blocked the fuck off, before all those assholes bust in here and call the cops. Let's do this easy. Last thing I wanna do is rip that brat out of your guts and handcuff you to the nearest laptop so you can pay me my fucking coin, all right?”
My tongue pushed hard against the brutal lump forming in my throat. It wouldn't go down.
That rock was my grief, my anger, my self-loathing forfailing my poor baby son and myself.
Christ, for getting an innocent woman killed. The blood on his knife didn't lie. He'd killed her to get to me, taken her life like it was nothing, just like he'd murder anyone else in his path if I didn't shut my mouth and play along.
So, I did. I listened like a good girl through the pain, the regret, the terror. Allowed them to help me up, lifting me away, wincing when another contraction came.
I followed him in a haze with his men's rough arms holding me by the shoulders, escorting me out to the van waiting past the nearest exit. Its windows were so dark they might've been black holes.
I laid down inside on the crappy mattress, trying my damnedest not to completely lose it.
The van's loud engine growled, and the vehicle jerked forward, just as loud Italian rock started blasting from the speakers. The human bulldogs sitting next to me never looked up, messing with their phones, as casually as if they were waiting for drinks at a busy restaurant.
“Told you I'd get everything I'm owed. Every fucking cent, Hannah,” Dom rumbled back at me from the front passenger seat. “You're gonna work those precious little fingers to the bone. Don't give a shit if you have to type with that kid on a leash. We both know why you're here. And if you act dumb, give me some shit about playing innocent, you're gonna feel the back of my hand straight through that morphine. The fact that you owe me in the first place means you're guilty as sin.”
Innocent?The hot, red tears streaming out my eyeswouldn't stop coming as the harsh word rolled over in my mind.
If there's one thing I knew, I'd brought this on myself.
I took their loan. Used money I couldn't pay back fast enough to live it up, pretending I had it all, trying to force the premature success I should have earned honestly. I let Dusty take my heart, pull me in deeper, and put a baby in me who didn't deserve to sufferanyof my mistakes.
Too bad that didn't matter to the bastards around me, driving me off to nowhere.Too badsome mistakes were so big they chewed a woman up and spat her back out in pieces, little bits she'd never stitch together again because the damage was irreparable.
My belly twitched, and I put my hand over it. I owed the entire world an apology for how naive and selfish I'd been, but nobody more than this poor, sweet babe, and the man who'd helped make him.
It didn't matter now. The karma train rolled on, loud and furious, heading straight for me.
I'd let her plow through, ruin the last black scrap of a heart beating wildly in my ribs. In her collision, I'd pay for what I'd done.
But I had to keep her away from everybody else. My family didn't deserve to die for my mistakes.