as hard as I can and claw my way across the ground to get away from him.
But it’s no use. With both hands diffusing my feeble attempt to get away, he throws me onto my back and climbs on top of me. I try to throw him off me, twisting back and forth, but he pins me down with his weight and throws his legs on both sides of my waist. I can’t move. Claustrophobia sets in, making me feel like I’ve run a freaking marathon as I try to catch my breath. My chest rises and falls way too quickly to do me any good, but I can’t stop it. I feel like I can’t breathe.
Then he cocks his arm back and hits me in the side of the face. My head snaps to my right while the familiar sensation explodes across my cheekbone.
Shiiit.
His fists are deadly. I try to protect my face with my forearms, but it’s useless. I can still feel it all.
At least it’s not a knife, I think to myself, before pushing aside the sarcastic glimpse of insanity that I’m currently swimming in.
My vision blurs with dancing black spots that I can’t blink away. He hits me again. And again. And again.
“Six!” I plead, delirious. “Six. Six. Six.” The safe word tumbles out of me over and over again in cadence with his fists. But I can’t control myself from muttering the useless gibberish that falls on deaf ears. I know it’s a waste of precious time. I know he’s probably getting off on it. But there’s comfort in the word. A weight of respect that should accompany it. A promise to end the pain. The suffering.
All of it.
If only Diece could hear it.
Then I’d be safe.
I’d be with him.
I’m seconds from slipping under. The damage from his punishing brutality is too much to handle. But at least I fought. At least I tried. That has to count for something. Maybe Diece would be proud of me even though I didn’t get away.
I can feel my face swelling as the darkness threatens to pull me under when a loud bang breaks its way through my ringing ears. Sei’s head snaps toward it before he delivers a final, brutal punch.
One that sends me into oblivion.
35
Diece
“What’s the plan?” Dex asks from the back seat as our car rolls past the stop sign. At least the intersection was empty.
I squeeze the steering wheel a little tighter and wait for Kingston’s orders, but the bastard doesn’t say a word.
“Boss?” Stefan prods next to Dex in the back.
Glancing to my right, Kingston stares back at me from the passenger seat.
“Depends on what Diece wants,” he returns.
“You’re the boss,” I counter.
“Today, it looks like we’re at your disposal. How do you want to handle this?”
This.
As in, how do I want to handle the motherfucker who has been holing up in Ace’s apartment, scrambled our cameras, kidnapped Q, and has likely been raping her ever since?
My jaw tics before I push the gas pedal down further. The streets blur as I race toward the rundown apartment like a bat out of Hell.
“D?” Kingston prods.
“If she’s still alive, then she deserves to look the bastard in the eyes when he dies. We’ll take him with us to the shed.”
There’s a heavy silence that sucks all the oxygen from the cab of the black Cadillac before Dex clears his throat. “And if she’s not?”
“Then, he’s mine.”
The tires screech against the black pavement as I turn into the parking lot. Shoving the car into park, we open our doors in unison then scan the area for witnesses. Other than the homeless guy near the back of the lot, it’s empty.
The light near the entrance flickers like a horror movie, hinting at the climax that is guaranteed to chill my bones. I shake off the thought, then pull out my pistol and let the stairs take my weight as we creep up them.
When we reach Ace’s door, I brush my index finger against my lips and strain to hear anything on the opposite side.
A loud thump reverberates through it.
My blood is pulsing in my ears as the unfamiliar rush of fear damn near chokes me. Dex lifts his chin toward the handle.
It’s locked.
“Six. Six. Six,” a soft voice whimpers through the door. And it’s more than I can take.
The door flies open with a heavy kick, and I raise my gun in the air before surveying the apartment that once belonged to Ace. The small family