TWO WORLDS. TWO CODES.
ONE PATCH.
I’m a Marine and a patriot.
It’s my job to bring the guilty and sadistic to justice.
But I failed.
Some of Naomi’s tormentors still live.
I can’t allow them to go unpunished.
The ones who tortured her have to die for their crimes.
I’ve got a plan to take them down but there’s a rat hiding in the Crossroads.
Even though I took a bullet to save her, she’s still a target.
I killed to protect her. I’ll kill again.
My brothers think I’m crazy, but I won’t let anyone harm her.
Naomi’s no longer alone or unprotected.
She’s MINE.
It doesn’t matter if she’s broken.
I’ll do whatever it takes to make her whole again.
Or die trying.
She doesn’t understand the depth of my conviction.
Cold, ruthless vengeance is a particular skill I learned long ago.
The men who hurt her will regret what they’ve done.
To keep her safe, I’ll ride with my Reaper and all the fury of Hell.
Hope is a lifeline.
Vengeance is forever.
3 months earlier ––
“Stop crying. It won’t help.”
The words were spoken with a calm indifference that was somehow more frightening than the knowledge of what awaited every single one of us once the van reached our destination. Each woman had been prepped prior to leaving the hovel that Alexi called home, a building with high concrete walls and fences lined with barbed wire. A structure with one purpose, to keep us prisoners.
Escape would never be possible but I yearned for it anyway. Maybe there was still some tiny part inside me that wanted to fight. A little spark that burned low but flickered with a defiant consistency that held onto the girl I’d once been.
Before I met Alexi Voltoy and his colleague Sean Jones.
Sniffling reminded me that I didn’t have control over a damn thing in my life except my reaction to the horrors and trauma that I endured on a daily basis. I wasn’t alone. Countless girls experienced the same fate. Some worse than others.
I reached for Katya’s hand and squeezed, ignoring the trembling of her fingers as she squeezed back. This was only the third time I’d seen her but we already developed a connection. That was odd for me. I didn’t get to know the girls that were endlessly paraded through Alexi’s compound.
His uncle Solonik was a cruel and ruthless Bratva crime lord who visited once a month to inspect his “product.” Girls were moved around to different locations to meet demand. Only a few remained at Alexi’s. I was one of the ones who never left.
It wasn’t hard to figure out why I was one of Alexi’s favorites. Most of the girls that came and went were nameless and hardly roused his interest more than asserting his dominance. I knew what that meant and tried to find a way to be busy when new shipments arrived. He never sent me far, preferring to keep his little concubine close enough that I was at his beck and call. Alexi chose and groomed me from the moment we first met.
I never saw this coming, the future that I was cursed to live in. An unending nightmare of new men who saw me as nothing but a toy to play with and easily discard.
“Maybe there won’t be many,” Katya whispered in broken English as I pasted a smile on my face, intentionally downplaying the certainty that it would be a long night.
“Of course, Kat. We’ll drink champagne and dance until dawn.”