I still have the distinct impression she knows something, but I can’t be chasing whimsical fancies, not when I’m out of my head like this.
I exit the room and go immediately left like she said, but my eyes are skating left and right.
I need to find him. I need to know if he’s okay.
“Y’alright, miss?” A security guard to my left asks me.
“Oh, fine, just need a breath of fresh air,” I say, flashing him my most winsome grin.
“You can’t go that way—”
“Be right back,” I say. I turn, and I run.
He shouts and comes after me, when a wall of McCarthy men turns the corner and I come to a screeching halt. I know them immediately by their size and ink, and damn it all, I don’t want them to recognize me. I duck my head and run past them, but their appearance stops the guard from chasing me.
One of them looks after me, but I don’t look to see who it is. I feel his eyes follow me. I see an open doorway nearby, and quickly duck in. I need to be able to observe them without being seen.
“Did you see that?” says a voice I don’t recognize down the hall.
“What?”
“Swear I bloody knew that girl.”
Their voices fade. I peek out the door as discreetly as I can. The guard’s gone back to his room.
Oh, God. The McCarthys have Tiernan with them. They’re walking toward an exit.
He’s alive. Thank fuck, he’s alive.
Now what do I do?
I look around and see an exit sign in this little room. I’ll make my way back home. I’ll text Karla to get my things. The McCarthy men aren’t taking any of us home tonight, that’s for bloody sure, and for some reason, that appeases me.
I push open the door and pause. I have the distinct feeling I’m being watched. I turn to look behind me but see only the vacant room. The McCarthy men have left, along with the bloody guards.
Is it safe out here?
I have to lay off the fucking drugs. I swear to God I’m imagining things.
When I turn, terror shoots through me when I feel a hand on my arm. I open my mouth to scream just as another hand clamps over my mouth.
“Don’t you fucking make a noise.”
I crane my neck to find the man I spent the night with glaring at me.
No. My pulse spikes.
“Think you got away, did you? Soon as I heard Vivian’s girls were coming tonight, I came to find you.”
I try to kick him but he’s too fast. He ducks the blow, removes his hand off my mouth, rears back, and slaps me across the face. I use the opportunity to scream. “Help! Somebody help me!”
“You bitch,” he growls, dragging me back into the room I just exited. I fight with everything I’ve got, shoving him off me only to have him return, angrier and more vicious than before.
“You stole from me!” I scream. “You bloody stole! How dare you say I did anything?”
“You hit me and ran with my wallet,” he says. I didn’t, the fucking loser.
His hands are on my arms, and he’s shoving me to the floor. “You’re a good slut, aren’t you? Spread your legs, then.” He shoves my legs apart, and I know then he’s going to assault me.
“Let me go!” I scream, writhing underneath his firm grip, but he’s stronger than I am, like a goddamn demon. He yanks my skirt until it tears, then reaches for his trousers.
I kick and scream, which only gives him another excuse to strike me. Stars shine in my eyes, and my ears ring from the power of his blow. Tears stream down my face. He’s going to fucking rape me.
“Help!”
Someone’s coming. I hear the sound of footsteps, but it isn’t from outside the door where everyone else is. It’s from the street side. The door yanks open, and a large, angry man stands in the doorway. Moonlight illuminates him from behind, casting the rest of his features in shadow.
“Motherfucker,” my assailant mutters. “Get the fuck out of here. This has nothing to do with you. She’s consented. Likes to be fucked like this.”
I turn to him, my voice wobbly and plaintive. “Please! It’s a lie! Help me!”
“You fucking bitch,” the guy says, and he raises his hand to slap me again.
The man in the doorway lunges. I scream when the men collide like rock on rock. My assailant stumbles off me, and I scramble away to gather my tattered clothing and get the hell out of here. I run to the exit, but find it locked.
My stomach plummets to the floor. What the hell am I going to do now?
Fists are flying, as they curse and roll on the floor, when a stream of moonlight hits my rescuer’s head. His hair’s tinged red, and he’s already bloodied.
Tiernan? I blink. Is it?
He assaults the other man as if he’s trained for just this moment, his movements violent and terrifying but somehow, some way, beautiful in their fluid grace. My assailant draws a knife, and I scream, but Tiernan knocks it out of his hand.
“I’ll fucking kill her!” he screams. “You might have stopped me this time, but I will find her and when I do —”
It all happens so fast, yet it feels like slow motion. They roll and tumble and he reaches for me, as if he’s going to attack me again, right here in front of Tiernan. And Tiernan seems to lose his mind. He snaps. His movements grow feral, his growls filling the room, as he reaches for the man’s neck, restrains him, and in one vicious, final move, snaps his neck.
I fall to my knees as the body slumps to the floor.
He’s dead.
I just watch a man murdered.
Tiernan murdered a man.
For me.
I’m on my knees, both palms braced on the floor in front of
