My eyes burned as I held myself in place, desperately trying to pat the floor for the knife without giving myself away.
“Five... four... three...” I couldn’t find it, my fingers meeting nothing but soft carpet. “Two...” I stretched my hand further, praying to some higher power to help me.
“On—”
My fingertips met the smooth hilt of knife.
“Time’s up.” He almost sounded disappointed.
“Wait,” I said, lifting my head slowly. Scott narrowed his eyes. “Not like this, please...”
His brow quirked up. If he glanced down to the left, he would see my hand, see me trying to reach for the knife.
“Sit in the chair,” I said trying my best to hide the quiver to my voice.
“Okay,” he said, “I’ll play. But you’d better fucking make it worth my while.”
Scott lifted himself into the chair, keeping his legs wide, his hand wrapped proudly around his length.
Everything about him made my skin crawl.
But there was no other way.
I scooched forward on my knees, sliding one hand up his thigh letting it drift precariously close to his erection. Scott groaned, sinking back in the chair. It was enough for me to grab the blade.
His hand went to my hair, yanking me closer. “Now, Arianne. I won’t ask—”
I slammed the knife into his thigh. Scott let out a grunt of pain. “You fucking bitch.” He shot forward to lunge for me, but I collapsed back out of his reach, grabbing the first thing I could find and swinging it at him.
The lamp crashed against Scott’s head with a sickening thud. Scott groaned, falling back into the chair, blood trickling from the cut above his eye.
Clambering to my feet, I grabbed my phone and a hotel robe, wrapping the soft fluffy material around my body, and I ran from the room.
“Arianne?” Luis looked gutted as he appeared around the corner of the hall, flushed and breathless.
“We need to go, now.”
“What did you do?” He glanced to my room.
“I... the knife...”
“Is he dead?”
I shook my head. Luis hesitated; his eyes fixed on the door. I knew what he was thinking. It was the same thing I was thinking. It would be so easy to go back in there and finish the job.
“He has a gun,” I whispered, my body racked with fear.
“Shit, okay. Come on, we should get you out of here. I’ll radio for some of our guys to deal with him.”
Luis wrapped his arm around me and led me down the hall. We didn’t take the elevator, slipping into the stairwell instead.
“What happened?” he asked as we hurried down the stairs.
“I woke up and he was there, in my room. I asked where you were and—”
“I heard something in the stairwell, so I went to check it out.” His jaw clenched. “He got the jump on me and knocked me out.”
“He had a gun and tried to...” I swallowed a fresh wave of tears. “I found the knife you gave me and stabbed him. I couldn’t let him do that to me again. I just couldn’t.”
“You did the right thing.” Luis glanced down at me. “But you know what this means?”
“I can’t go back.” I trembled.
“No, you can’t.” He pulled his cell from his pocket and typed out a text. It pinged two seconds later, and he read the message. “Okay, come on. Keep your head down and don’t stop for anyone, okay?”
Luis opened the door and checked the coast was clear before beckoning for me to join him. We weren’t in the main foyer; it was a side entrance used for guests only. Luis fished a keycard out of his pocket and pressed it against the keypad. The door clicked open and we exited onto the street. A car pulled up alongside us and someone climbed out.
“Enzo?” I blinked sure my eyes were deceiving me.
“We need to go, now.” He and Luis shared a concerned look.
“Go, Enzo will keep you safe.”
“Wait.” Panic rose in my voice. “You’re not coming with us?”
“I need to go back and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. Consider it damage control.”
“But he has a gun...”
“Vitelli can handle himself.” Enzo wrapped an arm around my shoulder and guided me toward the car. The gesture was so unlike him, I didn’t resist.
“I’ll see you soon, okay?” Luis offered me a warm smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
Everything had changed tonight.
And it was all my fault.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t do it,” I called over my shoulder.
He frowned. “It’s okay, we always knew it might come to this.”