A Kingpin Love Affair: The Complete series(43)

“Remove them both. Get them out of my f*cking sight before I kill them.” He pushed past one of his men, the force almost knocking him to the ground.

“Get up,” the man next to me ordered. I turned my face toward him, allowing him to see the fresh bruise I could feel forming on my cheek. Is this what he stood for? Is this what he wanted for his life?

“Help us…” I begged, my voice a whisper as I prayed Israel wouldn’t hear me. My eyes pleaded as his eyes bled into mine. I could see the apprehension in them—he wanted to help, but something was preventing him.

“Don’t be dumb,” he growled, his hand weaving into my hair as he pulled me from the ground by it. Rage formed in my veins—hate and anger formed from the pain they were causing me.

“You’re a monster! A pathetic, disgusting, degrading, evil f*cking monster!” I screamed as tears fell from my eyes. I could hear the room grow quiet and feel the tension pulling tight like a rubber band. They wanted to hurt me, they wanted to break me down. I couldn’t let them.

“What did you say?” Israel twisted around, his eyes filled with anger and madness. A shiver ran down my spine. I should be afraid, I should be scared, maybe I even should’ve kept my mouth shut, but doing so would have given him more power over me than he deserved.

“I said…” I narrowed my eyes at him, “you’re a pathetic,” pulling from the man’s hold on my hair, feeling it being pulled but was past the pain, “disgusting,” leaning forward as I watched him step right in front of me, “degrading,” I spat the word at him, no fear in my voice, “evil f*cking person who gets off on hurting others.”

My eyes glazed over as one last single tear fell from my eye. I saw the blur of his hand coming toward me but had no time to move—either that, or I felt no reason to do so. If he wanted to kill me, he would.

“You have made a grave mistake disobeying me.” One hand wrapped around my throat while the other forced my eyes to meet his. Air is forced out of me as he squeezed tighter and tighter. My mind felt foggy as the light behind my eyes dimmed. I continued to hold on, gritting my teeth as my body started to sag from the loss of oxygen. My eyes flickered between a state of consciousness and unconsciousness. My body felt heavy, my mind unfocused, yet I clung to the chance to let him know he hadn’t won.

“When you wake, your boyfriend will be dead, your body will belong to me, and your mind will be nothing but useless.”

It was with his final words I could no longer hang on. I was gripping at the rocks along the side of the cliff, begging myself to stay, attempting to force air back into my body.

Don’t let him win. Those words echoed to me inside my head as I tried to move my hands, anything to keep me alert.

“Stop fighting it. Stop pretending you don’t crave me or the darkness I can and will offer you.” I could feel his lips against my own, and it was then I let go.

Let go of the pain, the hate, and the anger that was holding me to the earth.





Chapter Twenty-Five


Jared

My body felt as if it had been slammed through five floors of concrete, my legs numb from enduring hours of pain. The cold concrete beneath my face cooled my skin. I could smell my blood in the air and taste it on my tongue, but through it all, my mind was still drifting to Isabella.

You’ve failed. You’ve failed to protect her.

I clenched my fist against the concrete. I had no strength left. Just pain and a desire to make those who had hurt us pay. My head pounded loudly in my ears doing nothing to ease the ache. Air filtered into my lungs at a snail’s pace as I heard footsteps off in the distance.

“Jared.” The way he said my name had me pushing up onto my arms even if I knew they would give out against my body weight. I had to show him he hadn’t won—I had to try.

I grunted, unable to find my voice, my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth.

“Interesting. Here I thought you died on us.” I couldn’t see him, even as I looked up. The light above forced me to blink my eyes closed the minute I opened them.

“I’m tougher than that…” I moaned. My legs burned and I could feel the blood flowing from the open knife wounds as I tried to move them.

“Tougher than I thought maybe…” he paused, “or just extremely f*cking stupid.” I never saw the kick coming until it landed on my stomach. Spasms of pain rocked through me as I tried to catch my breath.

“Do what...” I heaved in a breath, my chest aching, my stomach threatening to revolt all its contents onto the ground, “…you need to do to me, but let her go.” I attempted to make a bargain with him.

“Pick him up,” he ordered his men. They did as they were told, both men grabbing onto one arm each. They lifted me up, dragging me across the floor and pushing me down into a chair in the middle of the room.

“Look at me,” Israel stated. I had no idea what his name was until I heard Isabella begging him to stop. I narrowed my eyes as much as I could, my head down toward the floor. He could beat me, destroy me, attempt to kill me, but he would never take the love I had for her away.

“I know things—things about you. Things not even you know… things about your mother.” My head snapped up the moment I heard what he had said. I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to know what it was he thought he knew, but in the same instance, I knew there was no way anything he was saying could be considered true. He was evil, a bastard of a man who got off on hurting people.