Burn (Breathless #3)(95)

A frown tugged at her lips as she pushed inside, closing and locking the door behind her. The minute she stepped inside her living room she realized she wasn’t alone.

Her breath caught when she saw three men standing, waiting, grim expressions on their faces. She recognized two of them from before. What she’d assumed were Ash’s men. For her protection. In that instant, she knew she was terribly wrong. These men weren’t here to protect her at all.

Before she could react, one moved in quickly behind her, barring her pathway to the door. Not that she would have had time to escape anyway since she’d locked her door on the way in.

“Miss Carlysle,” one of the men said in a tone that sent shivers down her skin. “There’s a message I want you to deliver to Gabe Hamilton, Jace Crestwell and Ash McIntyre.”

Before she could demand to know what he was talking about and that they get the hell out of her apartment, pain exploded through her body. She lay sprawled on the floor, utterly bewildered.

And then pain. More pain, agonizing, splintering through her body as they meted out violence. Blood smeared her nose. She could taste it in her mouth. She couldn’t breathe right. It hurt too much. She couldn’t even scream.

She was going to die.

That thought hit her and, oddly, she didn’t fight it because it meant escape from the horrific agony she was enduring.

Then it went silent. A hand dug into her hair and yanked her head painfully upward. A man leaned into her face, his nose just inches from her own.

“You tell them that nothing they hold dear is safe from me. I’m coming after them. They will regret the day they ever f**ked with me. They ruined me. And by God, I’ll ruin them before I’m done.”

He shoved something into her hand and then dropped her head back onto the floor. Pain shot down her spine. She heard footsteps and then her door opening. And then it closing.

A low whimper stuttered past stiff, swollen lips. Ash. She had to get to her cell phone and call him. Had to warn him. He’d come for her. Everything would be all right if she could just get to her phone.

She tried to push herself up and shrieked in agony when she put weight on her right hand. She stared down at it, her vision fuzzy, one eye nearly swollen shut. What was wrong with her hand?

Using her elbow to prop herself up, she dragged herself toward the coffee table where she’d left her phone. She reached up for it, knocking it onto the floor and then praying she hadn’t broken it.

With her left hand she fumbled to push the right button to bring up her contacts. Then she changed her mind and hit recent calls because his would have been the last. She hit his name and with a whispered prayer as she waited for him to answer.

Chapter thirty-one

Ash sat in on the staff meeting with Gabe and their executives, but his mind was anywhere but here in this room. He had a hangover from hell after getting roaring drunk the night before. Gabe and Jace had poured him into a car and then brought him home and tossed him on his bed. He’d woken up the next morning feeling like he’d been run over by a truck, but the pain of the headache was nothing compared to the pain of losing Josie.

No, he hadn’t lost her. Not yet. He wouldn’t let himself go there. She was upset—rightfully so—and he’d given her last night. Time to spend apart from him and hopefully decide when she got over her initial anger that this was something they could work through.

At any rate, he’d given her all the time he was going to. As soon as this f**king meeting ended, he was out of here. He was going to Josie’s apartment and would get on his knees if he had to. Whatever it took to get her back home. To their apartment. In his arms and in his bed. And then he was never going to let her go again.

His phone vibrated and he glanced down, his heart clenching when he saw it was Josie calling. Without saying a word, he abruptly got up and walked out of the meeting, the phone already to his ear.

“Josie? Baby?” he cut in before she could even say anything.

There was a long silence and at first he thought she’d hung up. But then he heard it and the sound froze his blood. A low whimper. Of pain. His heart dropped into his stomach.

“Josie, talk to me,” he demanded. “What’s wrong? Where are you?”

“Ash . . .”

His name came out barely a whisper and it was obvious that she was in a lot of pain.

“I’m here, baby. Tell me what’s happened. Where are you?”

“Need you,” she whispered. “Hurt. It’s bad.”

Panic froze him in place. He couldn’t think, couldn’t act, couldn’t process anything but the agony in her voice.

“Where are you?” he demanded.

“Apartment.”

“I’m on my way, baby. Hold tight, okay? I’ll be there in just a minute.”

He turned in the hallway, having gotten no farther than the door where the meeting was being held and ran solidly into Gabe.

“What’s wrong?” Gabe demanded. “I heard you on the phone with Josie. What’s happened?”

“I don’t know,” Ash choked out. “She’s hurt. I have to go. She’s at her apartment.”

“Come on. I’ll go with you,” Gabe said grimly, even as he started striding down the hall toward the elevators.

Not arguing, Ash ran after him, his heart beating like a hammer.