Shades of Gray (KGI #6)(23)

Rage ate at her. It was acid in her blood, eating a hole in her very soul.

There was nothing more horrific than being so helpless that she hadn’t been able to move. She could barely speak. And it hadn’t been enough for the bastard to rape her. He’d gotten off on making her bleed.

The smell of her own blood gagged her. It was an assault to her senses. Smeared all over the front of her body where he made the jagged cuts. He hadn’t minded the mess. He’d wallowed in it like a gluttonous pig.

Nelson left the room and P.J. immediately tested her ability to move. Some of the lead had left her limbs and she could move both arms and legs. She looked around for something, anything, she could use as a weapon. She wasn’t strong enough to get off the couch yet, but she could make the bastard sorry he’d ever touched her.

To her utter shock, the knife that Brumley had used on her was on the coffee table just a few inches from her grasp. She leaned as far as she could, straining and reaching for the blade.

She bumped it, sending it into a slight spin. Swearing mentally, she tried again, wincing when the edge sliced into her fingers. It was a small price to pay for pulling it closer.

She turned it so she could grasp the hilt and then she took it, transferring it to the hand closest to the inside of the couch, and then tucked her hand between the back of the couch and her side.

Nelson returned a moment later with a damp cloth and set about cleaning the smeared blood. He frowned when he realized she was still bleeding from the cuts.

He looked . . . pissed.

“There was no point in this,” he muttered. “No need to cut you at all, much less so deep. You need stitches.”

An odd thing to say when he planned to kill her. What the f**k did it matter if she was sliced open?

“Please,” she rasped out, trying to buy more time. “I’m just an American college student. I was out for a good time. I don’t even know who you are. I just want to go home. No one will ever know.”

Nelson’s lips thinned into a firm line. “I have orders.”

He wiped at most of the blood and then finally gave up. He rose, and she was appalled to see the bulge at his groin. Despite his seeming disgust, he was certainly turned on, blood or not.

“I wanted you to be able to fight,” he said in irritation. “It’s not fun when you just lie there.”

Come get some, bastard. You’ll get your fight.

He unzipped his pants, not even bothering to remove them. He shoved them down his hips and then he yanked her legs apart and was on her and inside her in a brutally painful thrust that momentarily paralyzed her in her shock.

“Come on, bitch, fight me,” he snarled.

“Be careful what you ask for, ass**le,” she hissed.

His eyes widened in surprise just as she nailed him right in the jaw with enough force to break it. Pain lanced through her fingers, but she ignored it. Then she raised the hand holding the knife and plunged it into his back.

He howled in pain and immediately rolled off her, ripping himself from inside her. She struggled upward, fighting the effects of the drugs. Her weapon was gone and now it was up to her wits to escape alive.

And then the roar of an engine and bright headlights flooded the entire living room. It was obvious that whatever it was, it was coming straight for them.

Nelson scrambled away and bolted for the back, his hand reaching for the knife as he went. The knife clattered to the floor and P.J. lunged for it, prepared to defend herself however necessary.

A moment later the living room exploded in glass and debris as a utility van crashed through the front windows. She threw herself onto the floor and covered her head to protect herself.

“P.J.! P.J.! Goddamn it, where are you?” Cole roared.

She sagged in relief, her strength gone. Her team. It was her team. Finally here. She was safe. Nothing else would hurt her.

Suddenly Steele was over her, his eyes so intense and full of hatred that she flinched.

“He escaped out the back,” she said hoarsely. “He’s bleeding. Don’t let him get away. Don’t let that bastard get away.”

Steele turned and barked to the others. “Stay with P.J. Van and I are going after Nelson.”

Steele moved beyond her, Donovan on his heels. And then she found herself carefully enfolded in a strong pair of arms.

Cole.

She’d know him anywhere. Could smell him.

She buried her face in his chest as shame crashed over her.

“P.J., P.J., sweetheart. Oh my God, baby. Oh my God.”

It seemed to be all he could say as he rocked her back and forth, his heart beating like a drum against her broken body.

“I’m so sorry,” he said brokenly. “I’m so damn sorry.”

Pain screamed through her system and she let out a whimper she could no longer call back. Now that she was safe, her barriers were down. The adrenaline rush was gone. She had nothing, no buffers to what had happened. She’d been raped by two men and sliced open like some piece of meat.

Where was there for her to go? To hide? They would all see her. Her shame. And know that she hadn’t been able to prevent what had happened.

She wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

“I’ve got you,” Cole whispered, his voice choked. It sounded like he had tears, but she was nearly unconscious now.

“Blood. All over you,” she managed to whisper.