Rogue (Real #4)(80)
He is what I never knew I wanted and now all I need.
I believed it enough to come back to him. Enough to leave my fairy-tale land and follow him right into his exciting and frightening Underground.
He might never, ever know this.
Noises shuffle across an adjoining room and my stomach pulls and wrenches into knots as he approaches again.
Uncontrollable quavers seize me as I try edging my nails into the rope knot biting into my wrists. My hair is all over my face. I hate it. I. Hate. It. All my muscles are cramped as my blood rushes through me in an effort to make me move, to help me escape. The chair screeches beneath me and I wince at the sound.
Wyatt marches to a small, cracked window and peers outside, then he cants his head in my direction and stares at me, his eyes raking me on the chair.
The lust in his gaze is unmistakable, and it sends my fear spiraling out of control. Oh god, this can’t be happening!
A jolt of adrenaline kicks through me. Holding my breath, I press the inside of my wrists tight together and wedge my thumb in between the knot, using my nail to try to catch a tiny opening to get the knot to creak open. The rope loosens as I jam my thumb inside, followed by my other thumb, pulling it open on opposite sides, and I pretend to stretch and arch my back as I finally jerk one of my hands free, then wiggle the other one out.
In less than three seconds, he’s back on me. He grabs my hair with one fist and pulls me off the chair, then jerks me facedown on a rumpled makeshift mattress. “What are you trying to do? Huh? Escape?”
I’m scrambling, fighting to get free, but he flips me around and straddles me with his hips as he grabs my breasts and squeezes. My blood pounds, my face growing hot with humiliation as I fight him.
“Don’t touch me, *!” I cry as I buck and try using my knees.
He pins my arms above me and I turn my head and bite blindly, pulling out a chunk of meat.
He wails and I squirm free, panting as I get my bearings while my heart keeps pounding frantically in the middle of my throat.
He roars and lunges and I clip him with my heel, the gun clattering to the floor. Spitting out the blood from where I bit him, I grab the gun and swiftly turn when he kicks it away from me.
“Bitch.”
He smacks me.
The pain rips through me, then he grabs me by the throat and lifts me up in the air, and pain and the urgency for oxygen screams with every breath wheezing out of my throat. He grabs the gun and I kick in the air and raise my knee, ramming it in his nuts. “Ooof.”
He drops me.
I start running to the elevator, but when I spot the exit stairs just three steps away, I sprint over, grab the door handle, and jerk hard, trying to open it, yelling at it, “Come on, come on!” But it’s jammed, and I’m about to kick it open when I hear the elevator gate open and angry bellows behind me.
“Get over here, you f*cking cunt!”
Which is when the door I’m struggling to open finally gives. It swings open, outward, and I’m so attached to the knob, I follow it, taking a giant step forward—only to find there are no stairs, only a five-story fall, my body plunging into nothingness as I hear the most blood-chilling, desperate call I’ve ever heard in my life—“NO! PRINCESS!”—and I crash into blackness.
TWENTY-FIVE
* * *
FALLEN
Greyson
My world bottoms out.
I watch Melanie disappear through the gaping hole of the open door. Something takes over me. I hear myself yelling one more time, “PRINCESS!” as I charge for the empty space. My brother lunges at me, tackling me against the wall, grabbing my arm where I’m holding my gun. I overpower him easily, slide my SIG between us and aim it right in the center of his rib cage.
BOOM!
He howls, and I drop his writhing body to the ground and drop the gun as I run to the empty doorway. My chest is tight. I can’t breathe. Five stories below, I see a pool of golden hair.
“MELANIE!”
No response.
Derek steps out of the elevator and is instantly by my side, unrolling a piece of rope as I bark, “Lower me, I don’t want to crush her.” I grab one end of the rope as he slowly lowers me one floor, and then two, until there’s no more rope, and from two stories up, I leap down, crashing to the ground with a curse. “Call an ambulance!” I yell at Derek.
“Princess.” I roll to the side and crawl over to her. “Princess.”
She’s pale and lifeless. Streaks of blood cover her cheeks, streaming from her lips and nose. She mumbles something unintelligible.
“Baby,” I say as I reach out to touch her neck for a pulse.
I feel it, fluttering faintly under my fingers. My heart hurts in my rib cage. It hurts so f*cking bad. For the first time in my life, I feel impotent.
“Melanie, stay with me.” I sound like a *. Begging. But holy shit, she can’t leave me. She can’t f*cking leave me.
I check the back of her neck; it’s not broken, but I’m not moving her. I don’t dare. I simply cup her head in my hands because I thought I’d never see this f*cking face again and I stare at it. And stare at it. Her eyes closed, her smile gone, the blood trailing from her lips. Before I know it I duck my head and press my lips to hers, kissing her bloodied lips, my voice roughening as it starts breaking, “Baby, I told you to stay away from me.”