this is all over, I'm going to make it up to you. All of it. We'll start fresh."
I lifted my legs, kicking him hard with my heels and he swore as he tried to catch my ankles. "I will never want you," I growled, practically spitting poison as he opened the car door and hurried out.
He ducked his head down to look at me, pointing a finger. "You will," he warned, then shut the door with a sharp snap. The partition was up between me and the driver so I fought hard to get free of my binds while no one was watching. But Ramon had tied the knot so tight it was cutting off my blood supply. There was no way I could undo it.
My heart thudded out a furious, desperate tune in my chest as I thrashed and struggled, but it was no good. When Ramon returned, I would still be his captive, still bound to him like I always had been ever since I'd said I do. And the only small comfort I could take from it all was that at least I'd been a girl who'd fought back, who'd tried to escape. I didn't have to fear my past self anymore, even though we'd never be quite the same person. I'd grown claws and sharp teeth and I wasn't afraid to be wild. I wanted to be.
Ramon came striding out of the bank like he’d just been promoted to king of the world and dropped back into the car with a wide smile. I glowered at him as he took the white sock from his pocket, pouring the diamonds into his palm and smirking down at them. He placed them back inside it then tucked them into his jacket pocket.
I stilled as he took out his phone, making another video call, needing this to all be over.
Nicoli was even more bloody than before as the camera wheeled onto him and I cried out his name as I saw him. He lifted his head like he heard me, a dark smile on his lips.
"I'm coming, baby doll," he swore and I smiled through tears in my eyes, not knowing if he could see me, but hoping he could.
"I've got the diamonds," Ramon announced, ignoring us as the camera twisted around to face a guy with a goatee who legitimately looked like Satan's uglier, brawnier cousin. "We're heading home, but I'll be at the dock in an hour. Meet me at La Belleza Rosa." He paused, looking to me with hunger and vengeance in his gaze. "And make sure Nicoli Romero's head is waiting there for me when I arrive."
"No!" I screamed, kicking out at him, but he was ready this time, catching my feet and ripping my heels off so I couldn't do any damage.
He cut the call as I wailed and tried to fight with everything I had left. But a shadow was swallowing me up, dragging me down into the most desperate, terrifying despair of my life. One I would never, ever come out of if my mountain man was taken from me.
Winter’s panicked screams cut off abruptly as the asshole in front of me ended the call. He placed his gun back in his belt though, smirking at me as he pulled out a knife instead.
I smiled right back, rolling my shoulders against the pull of the chains which suspended me from the wooden beam overhead. The thing had been creaking ominously since the moment they’d hung me from it by my wrists and I was just hoping that it was close enough to breaking for me to get free.
There were six men surrounding me, testosterone rolling off of them in anticipation of the kill as they all waited for the strike to fall and my blood to spill. But the problem with them trying to have a dick measuring contest with me was that we all knew I had more inches in my pants than the lot of them combined. But if they were dumb enough to try and off me up close and personal, then I was willing to prove to them exactly what I had hanging between my thighs.
They’d made the rookie mistake of leaving my toes touching the ground too, so as the goateed asshole advanced on me, I backed up, smiling all the time as I stretched out, moving as far back as I could manage while he laughed like he thought I was a coward.