the chance to grab her. Of course, as soon as he realized the situation she was in, it had become slightly more complicated. He had left last night, intending to just take her and go. But then, he had heard shouting.
Looking into the window, it had become apparent that her current situation was going to be no different than her new one. That saddened him, he thought, watching the man lift a hand to her already yellow-with-bruises face. The sharp sound of the strong hit had made Lyne angry.
He should have been the one to harm her, he thought, lip curling. As he had observed the modern times, it had become apparent to him that it was rare for a woman to suffer from abuse as this one so obviously did. The blond man’s hand came down rather hard, he thought.
The woman, Jamie, had sobbed and turned away, making him catch her shoulder. Shortly after that bout of violence the man had left. Later, he had come back inebriated and falling all over himself. The small woman’s strength as she had attempted to drag him to the couch had impressed him, as much as he wished otherwise.
Lyne had felt a token of mercy for the woman, one that he would make up for at a later time. She had gone to sleep shortly, and he had waited with his men till she woke. The men that worked for him were escaped convicts, men who took pleasure in dealing pain as much as Lyne and Auro did. It had been these men that he had sent on trips to find information, and he was quite proud of their work.
He looked down the hallway to make sure no one would see them depart with the woman. She looked so delicate, he thought, glancing at her. Overnight her fading bruises must have healed because they were no longer there. Although, if he were to pull back her shirt, he was sure to find a dark print in the size of a male’s hand.
Lyne snorted, a jealous action. It was one thing to hear the pained shouts of a man—it was another to hear the terrified cries of a woman. He smiled toothily, waiting for when he could feel her soft hair between his hands as he took over her.
She was limp in his man’s arms, head lolling to the side. As an elderly couple came around the side, his man shifted her in his arms to make like he was cradling her lovingly, giving a convincing smile as he touched her cheek.
They might have glanced at him and his other man suspiciously, but they smiled nonetheless and walked on, holding hands. Lyne’s lip curled as he looked at his man with a raised brow. He said nothing in reply, just shifted back to where she was flopped over his arm.
They were just inside the car when she started to awaken, hands fisting and eyelashes fluttering. Lyne narrowed his eyes on her, smelling the slow drip of blood as she awoke. Her small movement had caused her a wound, he realized. A smile graced his cracked lips.
Jamie’s eyes opened as clarity reigned in, a scream bubbling in her throat. A car door slammed right near her head and she jerked, arms wrapping around her waist as she struggled to sit up. Looking around herself, horrified, she realized that she was in a car, two men on either side of her, with two others in the front.
Her heart stopped in her chest, then quickly rose to her throat. Tears welled in her eyes as fear started to course through her, the feeling almost making her faint. “What…” Oh, god… “What’s happening?” Her frail voice cracked, earning the indifferent gazes of several men at once.
She shrunk back as the smallest of the lot turned to look at her. Jamie gasped, the unearthly eyes scarring her worse than a gun could have. Just staring at them, Jamie knew that her life would never be the same. Her face paled dramatically, another scream rising as terror overcame her.
“Silence her!” the thin creature commanded, glaring at her as if her terror annoyed him. “Her screams are annoying in this small confinement—I would much rather listen to them as they ricocheted off of our bloody walls.”
The cry escaped her before she could stop it. The way he spoke, the accent, the wording…she knew that this was not Chris’s doing, knew that this was real and she was in true danger.