I had two options: kill her or take her with me.

By far, the easiest option was to kill her. It was the choice I was leaning towards. The last thing the club needed was to deal with this.

As I made the choice I had to make, she craned her neck so she could look at the dead body of the man who’d assaulted her. She then looked back at me and said, “Thank you.” Her voice was scratchy and she had trouble getting the words out, but her gratitude rang out clear as day.

I stilled.

People didn’t thank me for shit.

Well, except for Renee.

“Who was he to you?” I asked.

She exhaled a long breath. “He murdered my brother.”

My fingers squeezed the gun in my hand.

Itching to shoot.

Her eyes dropped to the gun. “Are you gonna hurry this up?”

You should care.

You should help her.

Fucking Renee.

My chest tightened.

“Fuck,” I muttered as I holstered my gun. “Can you stand?”

“Why?”

“Because you’re coming with me.”

She stared at me, wasting my time. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Yeah, you are. Now stand the fuck up.” When she didn’t do as I said, I barked, “Stand up or else I’m gonna pull you up and that shit’s gonna hurt way worse than if you do it yourself.”

Eyes that bled hate stared up at me. “Fuck you.” She may have been sitting on that bed in a world of pain, but her body straightened with determination. “Just kill me.”

I stepped forward and placed my hands under her arms. Keeping hold of her resentful gaze, I pulled her up. She managed to stand and I was surprised when not one sound of agony came from her.

“It’s not your night to die. Fix your dress,” I ordered.

She glared at me, but did what I said. I had a feeling that if she wasn’t battered, she’d be fighting me every step of the way. Either that, or taking the gun off me and blowing her own brains out.

After she repositioned the dress, I shrugged my leather jacket off and said, “Put your arms out. You’ll need to wear this out of here to cover as much of you as we can. I don’t need security looking at us any more than they already will.”

Once we had the jacket on, I guided her into the bathroom and cleaned her face and hair up as best I could. I also cleaned the cum off her dress. She gritted her teeth through the pain, again not uttering a sound through the process.

“Right, I’m going to put my arm around you and you’re not going to pull out of my hold. Keep your head down and don’t make eye contact with anyone. Your face is a fucking mess; I don’t need anyone getting a look at that.”

She didn’t respond, just continued watching me like she wanted to jam a sharp object in my chest.

I gripped her bicep, squeezing just hard enough to draw a cry of pain. “You make a fucking scene and that beating he gave you will seem like a walk in the park. You got that?”

Drawing herself close to me, she spewed her anger in a violent surge of words. “What I’ve got is that you’re no better than he was. How men like you sleep at night eludes me. Forcing women to do shit they don’t want to is one of the lowest acts a man can do.”

My whole body tensed and my nostrils flared as I took a deep breath. “Don’t fucking say that shit to me again. You know jack about me.”

With that, I yanked her out of the bathroom, and flung the hotel door open. Shoving her into the hallway, I draped my arm around her shoulders and led her to the elevator.

Every sense alert, I was ready to take on anyone who got in our way. I’d shoot my way out of this fucking casino if I had to.

 

 

4

 

 

Tatum

 

 

“Ghost” by Massive

 

There were moments in your life that brought you to your knees. Moments that punched the absolute fuck out of you.

I was having one of those moments.

I thought life had already handed me my heart on a platter. Bleeding and bruised. Turned out life wasn’t done with me yet. Bleeding and bruised wasn’t enough.

“Stop dragging your feet,” the big guy muttered as he dragged me through the foyer of the casino. His arm tightened around my shoulders as he picked up his pace. The front door was in view and I practically smelt his desire to make it through that door.

I could hardly match his pace a moment ago; I wasn’t sure how he expected me to match his new speed. My whole body ached, and I was convinced my ribs were broken. The pain was excruciating and breathing only made it worse. On top of the pain in my body, my head throbbed, slowing me down further. I didn’t want to walk and I sure as hell didn’t want to think, but this asshole was giving me no choice. If I wanted to make it through the night, I’d have to do both.

I attempted to walk faster, but my efforts only caused me to stumble. As I went down, his strong arms clutched me, holding me up.

The new surge of pain through my body killed like a motherfucker and I couldn’t hold my agony in. I cried out, stifling it as much as I could, but the sound was enough to draw the attention of casino security.

Suspicious eyes narrowed on me before swiftly looking at the big guy. Clearly the security guard didn’t like what he saw. He stopped us as we tried to exit the building.

“Ma’am, are you okay?”

The arm around me gripped my shoulder harder and I contained my wince. Nodding, I said, “Yes.”

The guard stared at my face before glancing at my body. “No, I don’t think you are. Is this man hurting you?”

My life flashed before my eyes for the second time that day. Was I really ready to die? Because that would surely happen if I didn’t do as the big guy had ordered. I knew that for a fact. He’d go down in a blaze of glory before he’d concede defeat, and I’d get caught in the crossfire.

So, I pushed every thought out of my mind and focused completely on convincing the guard he was wrong. Pulling my shoulders back, I turned my body towards the big guy’s and wrapped my arms around his waist. Looking at the guard, I said, “He’s my boyfriend; there’s no way he’d ever hurt me. The bruises you see on me are from another asshole who assaulted me earlier tonight if you must know. Now, if you’d please let us past, I’d like to go home and forget this day ever happened.” The body my arms were wrapped around stiffened.