“You better not be fucking looking at her cunt,” Maddox barks, jumping up from his chair.
“I’m not,” the guy says, holding up his gloved hands, the gun still in his right.
“He’s not,” I say quickly. “Maddox, he’s just doing what you told him to do.”
“Don’t fucking touch her cunt,” Maddox growls, setting his pistol down to zip his pants and buckle his belt.
The guy casts a nervous glance my way, and I open my thighs so he can get better access and hopefully not look like he’s doing anything wrong. When he glances at me, I give a single nod, my heart racing so fast I think Maddox will hear it. Even though I made sure he was looking at his belt when I nodded, I’m terrified that he somehow saw it anyway, that he’ll sense it or know. But he finishes up and stalks around the shop, then comes to stand at my feet.
While the artist’s back is turned to Maddox and only I can see his face, he gives a long, meaningful look into a back corner. I swallow and thank him silently, not daring to nod while Maddox is standing there. I want to look where the guy’s eyes directed me, but I wait, praying for the right moment to arrive.
It never comes. Finally, the guy sits back, and Maddox leans in to look over his shoulder and nod his approval. There’s no more time.
Heart thundering in my ears, I gather up my skirt and sit up.
It’s now or never.
I hop off the chair, turn in the direction the guy looked, and run. There’s a door at the back of the shop, and thank god it doesn’t need to be unlocked. It has a bar on the inside, and I slam into it so hard I almost don’t hear the men hit the floor behind me. My heart nearly stops when the door flies open, but I force myself to keep going.
That guy, that stranger, just put himself in Maddox’s path for me. I know I can never repay him, that Maddox will probably kill him for what he did to help me. Tears blur my eyes, but I blink them away. The only thing I can do to make that man’s sacrifice worth it is to get away.
My bare feet pound the pavement of the street outside as I run, holding my wedding dress up in the front so I don’t trip on it. I run like I’ve never run before, not with anger or to escape my shitty life, but to keep it. I run like my life depends on it, because in this moment, I know that it does.
“Vení!”
I hear footsteps pounding behind me, and I want to fall to my knees and scream, because it’s too soon, and he’s so much taller, so much faster, and he’s wearing shoes, and it’s all so fucking unfair. I never even got a chance.
But I don’t give up, even when I know there’s no hope. I run, and when he’s almost on me, I see a phone booth half a block ahead. I dash toward it and dive inside, slamming the door closed just as Maddox reaches it. He smashes into it, banging the plexiglass with both fists. I try to hold it shut, gripping it with both hands and leaning back, but he gets his fingers in and rips it open.
I stare up at him, at the wild man standing there breathing hard, his eyes lost in some place I can’t see. All I see is the savage madness in them.
I scream, and he dives inside, yanking the door closed and slamming me against the wall when I turn, as if there’s somewhere to run. I scream again, twisting to get away. He grabs my wrists, yanking them over my head and pinning them to the glass.
“Oh my god, Maddox, stop, you’re going to kill me!”
But it’s too late. He’s on me, yanking up my dress, growling and snarling and cursing. He shoves my legs apart and I hear the tape ripping as behind me, he yanks off the bandages covering his tattoos. Then he’s inside me.
“Go on, scream,” he snarls, ripping at my dress. “Scream my name, little girl. Not Lennox, not God. There’s no one here to help you,mi cariña. You’re stuck in hell with me now.”
I scream, my breath bursting into a cloud on the window for only a second in the heat.
“Don’t fucking run from me,” he growls, thrusting up into me again. “You’re fucking mine, little girl, and you’ll always be mine. You’ll never get away. If you try, I’ll find you, and I’ll throw you down and fuck you wherever you are, whether you’re in a phone booth or in your husband’s bed or in the middle of the grocery store. This cunt ismine.”
He drives into me hard and deep, his cock slippery with blood, though I don’t know if it’s his or mine or both mingling together like a blood oath as he takes over my body and claims it for his own. My feet leave the ground, and I scream again. He growls and snarls as he pounds into me from behind, yanking my head back by the hair, his teeth sinking into my neck.
I scream.
He releases my hands and slides his hand around my throat, slowing the pace but increasing the force of each thrust until I think he’ll tear my body in half with the power and rage and strength of his.
“Take it,” he growls, gripping my neck harder. “Take what’s yours. Every fucking inch.”
“Maddox,” I choke out, gripping his hand, trying to pry his fingers loose. “That’s too hard. I can’t breathe.”
He leans in, pressing his lips to my ear. “Swallow.”
I struggle to swallow, at last managing to gulp past my fear.
Maddox groans when my throat flexes, his cock pulsing hard inside me. A cry of terror and pain chokes out of me, and he growls, tightening his fingers.