Unable to remain standing, I fell.
Fingers going slack, I dropped the spindle as my knees hit the hardwood with a bang. Body swaying I started to tip as bolts of electricity continued to be streamed into me courtesy of the service-issued taser Clyde held.
Teeth clattering, my head pounded.
The breath-stealing pain, some of the worst I’d ever felt, lasted a mere five seconds before ceasing, but it was long enough to steal my fight and render my body useless.
Boneless, my shoulder slammed against the floor when I tumbled the rest of the way to the floor. Dazed and unable to do anything except breathe, the world around me slowed.
Almost to a complete halt.
Across the room, Faye and Jade continued to scream, but they sounded millions of miles away. Beneath me, the disgusting wood bounced the slightest bit as El Diablo closed the space between him and I.
His irate face came into view just as my hearing improved, bringing back the terrified shrieks and pleas shouted on my behalf by Faye and Little One.
Please, they begged. Don’t hurt her.
They were wasted words.
Dominic proved that when his mouth twisted in a cruel smile. Kneeling next to me, he grasped my jaw, squeezing it tight. Arms weak and heavy, I didn’t have the strength to slap it away.
“You messed up, Miss Colombia,” he whispered, tone darker than soot. “And now you’re going to pay the price.”
His threat wasn’t empty.
Fear coiled around my jackhammering heart as he captured the front of my dress in his fist, nearly rending the fabric in half.
Standing, he lifted my back off the ground with ease and dragged me out of the foyer, bypassing Clyde, whose heated eyes were on Jade before going through the kitchen, and to the busted basement door.
I said nothing, though I screamed on the inside as he swung it open and dragged me down the ragged steps, cursing unintelligibly. Splinters from the cracked wood dug into my skin, drawing blood.
I cared little.
The small shards of pain were nothing compared to the agony—both mental and physical—to come.
What little air I’d managed to pull in with ragged breaths left my body in a quick swoosh when Dominic lifted me off the floor before slamming my back onto a rusted metal table.
A lone lightbulb hung from a string above me. Its flickering, white light was blinding. I couldn’t see. Not that it mattered. Having crawled through hell on my hands and knees more than once before, I knew the destination to come.
First, I’d be beaten.
Then, I’d be raped.
If I was lucky, I wouldn’t die.
Fisting my hair, El Diablo jerked my static-filled head off the table. “You stupid fuckin’ bitch! You don’t think I know what you’ve been doin’?” Eyes darkening before mine, he forced open my thighs, forcefully spreading them apart before wedging his hips in between. “You’re a whore!” he continued to scream, drops of spittle landing on my face. “Not a fuckin’ thief! Like the rest of my girls, you fuck for my money, you don’t goddamned steal it! Your stupid junkie ass gets caught doin’ some dumb shit like that and it’ll bring heat down upon us that I don’t need!”
Pushing down his sweats with his free hand, he grasped the crotch of my panties, one of the few pairs I owned, and ripped them. My stomach clenched and bile rose high into my throat when his rough fingers then grazed my center. “It’s time I remind you of your place.”
Tears streamed down my face at his unwanted touch. Every cell in my body screamed at me to rip out his jugular with my bare hands, but doing such a thing wasn’t possible.
“As for your little meltdown upstairs,” he snarled, body shaking with unrestrained rage. “Jade will pay the price.”
It was then, at that very moment, that something deep inside of me rose up, bringing with it the will to keep fighting. Whether it was primal instinct, the one that only a mother possessed, or something darker that had been born from years of torture and never-ending abuse, I don’t know.
But its roar was mighty.
I will not allow her to be hurt…
Not ever again!
Adrenaline surging, I struck out and clawed at El Diablo’s face, hell-bent on blinding him. If he couldn’t see, he couldn’t fight. It would give me the upper hand I so desperately needed.
Too bad I never got the chance.
Still weak from the damage the taser had done to my recovering body, all it took was one well-delivered backhand, followed by a punch to the side of my head for my world to tilt. Blackness caressed the corners of my vision. I gasped for breath and mentally begged my seized lungs to work as once again, my ability to fight dissipated.
Hard as I tried, air didn’t come.
My body was drained; my mind murky.
And my heart? It was breaking.
I’d danced with the devil and had battled evil, but despite the determination I’d wielded, the goodness in me hadn’t prevailed. Because of my failure to win the war I’d foolishly waged, one—maybe even both—of mi chicas would be made to suffer.
It wasn’t the first time either.
But I prayed it would be the last.
Everything hurt when I came to.
But the mounting agony that pulsated through my defiled body like a second heartbeat was nothing, and I mean nothing, compared to the terror that seized me when I caught sight of El Diablo.
Standing to the right of the table where I still laid, my skin burning with shame, his strong hand was hand wrapped around my bruised wrist as he stared down at my healed track marks, along with various scars they’d left behind.
“You’re still not usin’…” His words were a statement, not a question. “Why is
