It was the wrong thing to say.
Majorly so.
“I care,” he replied, lips curving in a malicious smile. “Because you belong to me.” Realizing I’d messed up, I jerked back in an attempt to free myself of his hold. The move only caused him to grip me harder, cutting off blood flow. My head started to grow fuzzy. Fast. “And I will kill anyone stupid enough to try and take you away. You understand?”
Knowing I was flying into fight mode, Faye began to shout, putting her neck on the line to save mine. “Carmen!” she yelled, panicked. “Don’t!”
Her plea fell on deaf ears.
Lost to madness, I was too far gone.
I’d endured many cruel things in my life, and had suffered more than most could imagine without shattering entirely. But hearing El Diablo threaten Guapo, the man who’d seen the beauty in me when I couldn’t even see it for myself was my breaking point.
I. Was. Officially. Done.
Completely devoid of any semblance of sanity and running on nothing less than human instinct to protect and survive, I slammed my palms against Dominic’s shirtless chest and shoved him backward with every ounce of rage-induced strength I possessed.
Mouth twisted in a drunken snarl, he stumbled back, and hit the foyer wall with a thud. The small grunt of pain he made in response was satisfying to hear, but it wasn’t enough.
Not even close.
“I don’t belong to you!” I shrieked, needing to say the words even if he didn’t take them as truth. “I belong to no one!” Pointing a shaky finger at myself, I gulped in enough air to momentarily satisfy my screaming lungs. “No one but myself!”
“Carmen!” Jade hollered. “Shut up before it’s too late!”
“No,” I snapped back, downright refusing to bend any longer.
For over sixteen years I’d been brought to heel. First my fear, then by addiction. It was ending. No longer would I comply or fall in line.
From then on, my life was mine.
Chest heaving, I glared at him, hands fisted, as angry tears poured down my face. “You will not hurt me anymore! And you will not hurt mi chicas or Faye ever again! Each of us has suffered enough! Our hell is ending. Right. The fuck. Now!”
El Diablo looked eerily calm.
Warning bells rang in my head.
Like an idiota, I ignored them.
“Is that right?”
I squared my shoulders. “Si,” I answered, feeling as though I were ten-foot tall. It was an estúpido mistake, and one I should’ve known better than to make. “It is.”
A heavy silence descended.
In the end, it did not last.
“We’ll see about that.”
Dominic gave me no time to react before charging. Closing the space between us at what seemed like the speed of light, he slammed his hands into my chest, much like I’d done to him seconds before, and shoved me backward with more force than I’d ever be able to muster.
Back smashing into the stair railing next to where Jade and Faye both stood, holding each other tight, terrified screams pouring out of their mouths, light danced before my eyes, warning of the blackout to come.
But the darkness would have to wait.
I wasn’t going down that easy.
Not this time.
Breathing through the pain, I blindly reached for a broken spindle. Nearly all of them were already busted; a loose one wouldn’t be hard to find.
And it wasn’t.
Hand grasping the splintered wood tightly, I yanked it free of the banister just as my vision cleared completely, giving me a good look at the devil standing in the middle of the room, his nostrils flaring as he exhaled, mimicking a rodeo bull preparing to charge.
Wooden weapon in hand, I stepped away from the banister and faced him head on. “That all you’ve got, puta madre?” I screamed, waving a proverbial red flag. “Because if so, it’s no wonder you can’t even keep a junkie whore like me in line!”
“Carmen!” Jade yelled.
“Don’t!” Faye finished for her.
“I have no choice!” I hollered back. “I will not let neither him nor his gang of bastardos hurt us any longer!”
Which, speaking of, I had no idea where his lackeys were. Usually they would’ve already come running upon hearing all the shouting.
But not a single one was present.
I laughed aloud at the realization.
“Where’s your puppets, Dominic?” I asked, taunting him further. “You lose control of them too?”
My verbal barb was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Charging me once more, Dominic came after me with everything his drunk culo had.
But this time, I was ready.
Lifting the busted spindle, I grasped it with both hands as if it were a softball bat and smashed it across his cruel face the second he was close enough to strike, stopping him in his tracks.
Whack!
Cheek splitting, blood trickled down his face. Wide-eyed and in shock that I’d had the huevos to hit him, he touched the wound, then stared at the crimson smear staining his finger as a result in disbelief.
I smiled in triumph.
If I had anything to say about it, the small cut was only the beginning.
“How does it feel?” My shouts grew louder, more animalistic sounding with each suppressed word that broke free from my chest. “How does it feel to have someone hurt you? To violently touch your body without permission?” Silence. “Answer me!”
Shoulders tensed, he dropped his hand.
My grip on the spindle tightened even further when his malice-filled eyes found me once more. Burning holes into my anger-flushed face, he cracked his jaw with the heel of his hand, ready to go to battle.
That was fine by me.
I was more than ready to wage war.
“Carmen, look out!” Jade screamed, drawing my attention.
Stupidly pulling my eyes from Dominic, I looked at her. Finger in the air, she pointed at something, or rather someone to my rear. Without having to look, I knew who was there. The terror in Little One’s eyes told me everything I needed to know.
“Clyde! He’s behind—”
An
