other man, clearly in charge, stated as he strolled forward to check me over. “The one I might keep for myself.”
The men chuckled darkly.
But that was it.
I was done.
Overwhelmed with disgust and hatred, tired and hopeless, I didn’t care if they killed me where I stood.
I was tired of being objectified.
I wasn’t this man’s property or Javier’s or Ellie’s or Ignacio’s.
I was my own.
So I collected the bare amount of spit I had on my tongue and hurled it at his feet.
Beside me, Dane sighed a split second before the asshole sex trafficker shouted something in a language I didn’t recognize and raised a gun between my eyes.
“No,” Dane said, stepping forward with his weapon to press it against the man’s temple. “That’s my sister.”
The man looked at him, so shocked it would have been comical in any other situation. “Shaytan, you will not kill me.”
A gun fired, but it wasn’t Dane’s, and the man fell to the floor at my feet.
I looked up to see Nova, Zeus, Bat, and Axe-Man with weapons drawn, running across the deck, a ladder thrown over the side of the ship.
I only had one moment to lock eyes with Nova across the stern before all hell broke loose.
I ducked as bullets started flying, moving toward the girls who were screaming and crying, looking for shelter.
“Come on,” I yelled, catching sight of Honey’s strawberry blonde hair.
I ducked behind one of the massive shipping containers, dragging the girls with me by blindly reaching for their hands. Honey was there, and she launched herself at me, crying and holding me so tightly it hurt.
I looked up to see Nova, Zeus, Bat, and Axe-Man with weapons drawn, running across the deck a ladder thrown over the side of the ship.
I only had one moment to lock eyes with Nova across the stern and then all hell broke loose.
I ducked as bullets started flying, moving toward the girls who were screaming and crying, looking for shelter.
“Come on,” I yelled, catching sight of Honey’s strawberry blonde hair.
I ducked behind one of the massive shipping containers, dragging girls with me by blindly reaching for their hands. Honey was there, and she launched herself at me, crying and holding me so tightly it hurt.
“This is so fucked up,” she yelled in my ear.
I patted her back, then moved her away, back into the press of women huddling together beside me. “It’s okay, The Fallen are here.”
Honey’s dark eyes flashed and her mouth went flat. I realized I’d never seen her so sober, but I was still surprised when she spat on the ground at her feet and said, “Fucking Fallen men.”
My frown quickly transformed to a gasp when strong hands pulled me away from the girls and an arm wrapped around my throat.
A moment later, something cold pressed to my temple.
“I’m getting out of here,” someone hissed in my ear. “And you’re the ticket, aren’t you, pretty thing?”
I tried to rear back in the way Bat has taught me, thrusting my head into my attacker’s nose, but he shifted me to the side so I missed. Which was okay, because Bat had also taught me what to do in that case. Using the space his maneuver had given me I brought my forearm up and angled my elbow in a downward thrust that connected beautifully with the man’s groin.
He collapsed behind me.
I spun around too fast, panicked breath exploding through my lips, head spinning with adrenaline and exhaustion.
As I stumbled, someone caught me.
He smelled of spices and leather.
Instantly, I burst into tears as Nova wrapped me up against his body in a tight, desperate hug that hurt as much as it comforted, and then he pushed me away so quickly I couldn’t protest.
“Got you, Li girl,” Zeus soothed in a rough whisper as he caught me and held me close.
I settled almost instantly in the protection his huge arms, but mostly because my eyes were transfixed on Nova.
He’d bent to the remaining sex trafficker, lifted him with a hand fisted in his bullet proof vest and then hammered a bone crunching punch to his right cheekbone. His silver rings cut three long gashes in the cheek, blood fanning through the air against Nova’s face.
He didn’t care.
If anything, it seemed to spur him on.
I watched in a trance as Nova beat the man to a bloody pulp systematically, ruthlessly. Sitting on his hips, pinning him to the floor of the freighter as The Fallen spoke softly to the traumatized girls behind me, Nova