The Outlaw Cyborg (Cyborgs on Mars #5) - Honey Phillips Page 0,2
a horrible person, why do you stay with her? Why not divorce her and marry me?”
“Marry you?” He laughed. “My wife may be a frigid, vindictive bitch, but she’s the sole heir to the Bradbury fortune. Even if she wasn’t, I would never marry a poor, nameless wench from an orphanage.” Frowning at the tears beginning to stream down her face, he poured yet another drink. “Now I suggest you put your dress back on. We’re about to have a visitor.”
The doorbell chimed just as he finished speaking and she grabbed for her dress. She was still pulling it down over her head when Justin opened the door and a big man stepped inside. His eyes traveled over her appreciatively, and she would have been embarrassed if she wasn’t so terrified.
“Take her away, Rogers,” he ordered. “I think one of the outer ring developments in the New England metro area would be best.”
“No, Justin, please! You can’t do that!” At least here in the Dallas metro area she would have had some hope of contacting someone she knew, but in a different city, surrounded by strangers…
“I most certainly can. I’m not about to take the risk of having Louisa find out about you or the child.” For a moment, his face seemed to soften slightly. “I will provide enough credits to last until the child is born. But that’s all you will ever receive from me, do you understand? And if you attempt to make any trouble for me, you will regret it.” Any trace of softness had disappeared by the time he finished speaking.
“Please don’t send me away!” She threw herself to her knees in front of him, clinging desperately to his legs.
He sighed. “Take care of it, Rogers.”
The prick of a needle against her neck was immediately followed by an overwhelming dizziness. Her stomach rolled as impersonal hands picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. She lost consciousness before they left the apartment.
When she slowly swam back to wakefulness, she was lying on the rear floor of a personal flyer. Voices came from the front seats, and she tried to focus on the two men sitting there.
“Seems a waste. She’s a pretty little thing,” a man grumbled.
“You heard the mistress’s orders. She wants her out of the way.” The calm voice came from the driver’s seat. His face swam in and out of focus, but she thought it was the same man who had come to the apartment.
“Maybe we could have some fun with her first,” the first man suggested, and she would have shuddered if her body had been capable of responding.
“We don’t have time for that. We take care of her and get back.”
“What if Mr. Justin asks?”
“He won’t. He knows which side his bread is buttered on. But just in case he’s ever foolish enough to go looking, it needs to look like an accident.”
“So maybe she ran into a gang of thugs.”
“Fuck, Hudson. Stop thinking with your dick. I said an accident.”
Hudson grumbled as Angelica fought not to whimper in terror. She tried lifting her head to see where they were but her muscles still refused to obey. No wonder they hadn’t even bothered to tie her up. She was still trying to move when the flyer landed.
The rear door opened and a man appeared, the same one who had come to the apartment. He shook his head when he saw her eyes were open.
“Pity that shot didn’t last longer.” He pulled her out, his hands brisk but not cruel.
Night had fallen, but enough lights shone from the surrounding tangle of derelict buildings for her to see they were at the top of a hill. Below them, she could see a cluster of equally decrepit-looking warehouses and the oily black swell of water. The smell of putrefaction tainted the damp air. She’d never been near the water before, and it only drove home how far away she was from everything she had known.
“P-Please…” she managed to whisper, but Rogers only shook his head.
“You chose the wrong man, sweetheart. Hold her up, Hudson.”
The other man stepped up behind her, grabbing her breasts as he hauled her upright. “Nice little titties. Are you sure we don’t have time to play?”
“No,” Rogers said firmly, then he drew back his arm and punched her directly in the stomach.
The pain overwhelmed her, too shocking to even let her cry out. She gasped in a breath, and then a second blow descended. She swam in and out of