Theirs to Keep - Maya Banks Page 0,70
supportive as she always had. But lately, Elle had felt like an intruder when she went to Merrick’s sessions with him. Even the other fighters looked at her like she didn’t belong.
Maybe she was being overly sensitive, but she hated the way she’d been made to feel today. She was embarrassed to have been kicked out of the gym like an unwanted nuisance.
She pulled into the drive of the house and sat there a moment before turning off the engine. She left the path into the garage open because the Hummer didn’t fit and it was where Cade parked his slightly smaller SUV.
She got out, fiddling with the keys to find the right one for the door and walked through the open garage toward the kitchen door.
Just as she started to insert the key into the lock, an arm slid around her neck and yanked her back against a hard chest. The grip on her neck was so firm she couldn’t breathe, and before she could scream, a hand clamped down hard over her mouth.
She began to kick wildly as she was dragged backward against the wall. Pain shocked her into silence when her attacker punched her in the side.
“Shut the fuck up and listen to me,” the man hissed in her ear. “I have a message for your boys, and I want you to deliver it word for word. You got me?”
She nodded, her head spinning from lack of oxygen and the pain in her side. His hand slid intimately up her body, lingering over her belly and then moving underneath her breast.
She began to struggle again, refusing to allow this son of a bitch to molest her in her own garage.
Her head flew back when he grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked. Tears sprang to her eyes as her neck craned at an impossible angle. With his free hand, he punched her again, and she nearly blacked out.
Dragging her limp body back up his, he forced his mouth close to her ear.
“You tell your boys that they fucked with the wrong person. If they don’t drop the charges, I’ll be back, and I’ll fuck you up so they can’t even recognize you. You understand?”
“Y-yes,” she gasped out.
He jerked her around and then backhanded her, snapping her head back. She tasted blood, and this time when she staggered, he let her go down.
She fell in a heap on the garage floor, trying desperately to squeeze air into her lungs. Her side was hurting so badly that she worried he’d broken her ribs.
The one word that echoed over and over in her mind was no. No! This couldn’t happen to her again.
Images flashed in her mind. The memory of being pushed roughly to the ground. Her face pressed into the dirt. The shock and…betrayal.
Betrayal.
She’d known her attacker.
It was someone she’d trusted.
She curled into a tight ball, hoping to protect the most vulnerable parts of her body. Pain lanced through her ribs once more as he kicked her.
Oh God, what could she do? She was helpless.
Rage exploded inside her. She was not going to be some helpless victim who couldn’t even fight back.
She rolled quickly, hoping to catch her attacker off guard. And apparently she did. Ignoring the pain in her ribcage, she righted herself and lunged for the crowbar mere feet away on the floor.
She grabbed it and came up swinging.
He howled in pain when she connected with his face. His head snapped back, and blood spattered onto the concrete below them.
Not giving him a chance to break away, she nailed him again, this time in the ribs.
He doubled over, holding his midsection as blood dripped from his mouth.
“How’s it feel, you son of a bitch?” she raged.
She hit him again, and he dropped like a stone onto the garage floor. For a long moment, she stared down at him, still holding the crowbar over her head.
Then it slid from her grasp and clattered loudly at her feet. Her knees buckled, and she went down. The material of her pants ripped where her knees scraped the concrete, and then she pitched to the side, every breath she took excruciating.
For a long moment, she simply lay there, trying to gain control over the pain that wracked her body. Then she became aware of the fact that she had a body lying in her garage. She may have killed a man.
She reached out, groping blindly for the purse that had gone flying when the man had grabbed her. Her fingers