“Dusty?” I choked.
His hand clenched into a punching fist. A hazy glimpse of a skull tattoo appeared on the little area on his wrist that was exposed. It was different from the one Dusty had, but it was definitely Night Skull ink.
My jaws clicked at the first punch. It banged right through my head like a dinner gong. One more of these, and I’d pass out. Time to do something. Anything.
My limbs moved all at once, flailing in the air, hitting whatever part of him they reached. It distracted him for a second that his grip around my neck loosened, allowing me more air, and I gathered all my strength to shoot my knee up, swift and hard.
He grunted as I made contact with his balls, and I fell off his grasp. “Bitch!”
That voice. That grunt. I knew it.
Oh my God. That was Rush.
I crawled away from him as fast as I could, my mind too clouded to figure out why Dusty’s VP came here to beat me up. Didn’t Dusty send him for my protection?
It doesn’t matter now!Adrenaline and self-preservation screamed at me. I clutched at the doorknob with both hands, lifting myself up to escape. Trying to overpower a man like Rush in a fight was an act of madness.
His heavy hands fell on my shoulders and yanked me across the room. My back crushed against the cold surface of the coffee table. The sharp edges poked me before I heard the glass shatter and stab me like a million pins at once.
I screamed. Then I did it again much louder, crying for help, realizing it was an option I was too shocked to utilize from the start.
“Shut the fuck up.” He swooped down on me. More blows rained on my face. My eyes swelled, almost closing. Then he got something out of his pocket and shoved it in my mouth. “You’re making this way too hard than it should be.”
The rubber taste and the stretch of my jaws and cheeks as he tied something behind my head confirmed that was a ball gag in my mouth. My screams came out muffled as I pounded his chest with my fists, my knee aiming for another shot at his nuts.
He tried to pin me down as he straddled my hips, but I swiftly pushed myself backwards and put all my force to roll over on my stomach. I wanted to get up and make a run for the door, but his fingers tangled in my hair, pulling it hard.
“Where the fuck you think you’re going?” he growled, his grip tight in my hair, shaking my whole body with his yanks. “You’re mine now, bitch.”
What? His? What the fuck was going on?
“Sorry. I don’t mean to interrupt anything.” Ashley’s voice streamed from outside, and then her feet blurred on the threshold. “I forgot my…b…ag.”
No. No. NO. NO! My heart thrashed, and Rush swore.
She froze, staring vacantly at Rush. “You’re not Dusty.”
“Ashley, run! RUN!” I cried out at the top of my lungs so she could understand me.
Her eyes flashed at me for a split-second before she darted away.
“Shit. This’s gonna get very messy now.” He dragged me while he went after her. His free hand reached in the back of his jeans and got out a gun. Then he stretched his arm toward running Ashley.
“No! Leave her alone, you son of a bitch!” I elbowed him in the stomach, and dragged myself up to my feet. Then I kicked him in the shin and stomped on his foot.
It didn’t stop or even shake him.
Ashley couldn’t make it to the end of the hallway before the muffled gunshot pelted my ear and the bullet landed in her head.
CHAPTER 12
Cameron
I lost my sister all over again. That was how I felt as Ashley’s hair swam in crimson blood.
Rush dragged me around and scooped Ash’s body off the floor as if she weighed nothing. Her blood left a trail back to the apartment.
He dropped her inside without a care in the world and shut the door. “Someone is gonna call the cops now. Gotta get this done fast.” He dropped me so roughly I thought my nose broke when it hit the ground.