I tripped on a stair and began to fall forward when his hand grabbed my elbow. His momentum kept us going as he half-dragged me up the stairs.
One flight.
Two flights.
Ground floor.
A piercing alarm sounded.
We stopped at the locked door leading into the hallway, which led outside. There was running and shouts below us in the stairwell. I knew the protocol; the place would go into lockdown and we’d never escape.
“I don’t have the code to unlock the door,” I said. Anton had changed them after the Scars escaped, and this time, he hadn’t given them to me. All the doors leading onto the ground floor were locked.
“Figured that. This doesn’t always work with security systems, but it did on your cell.”
He called my bedroom a cell.
Cold, sterile, and with nothing personal. Since I was ten years old, my bedroom had been four white walls, a bed, and a bathroom.
Once, one of Anton’s men, Roarke, had given me a novel called Pride and Prejudice. I’d read it a hundred and fifty-two times and would have again if my husband hadn’t found it beneath my mattress.
The Scar let go of my elbow and stood in front of the code box while I pressed my back against the wall, catching my breath.
I held the knife with both hands in front of me.
A door slammed on the floor below.
We had to find another way. There wasn’t enough time. “We need to—”
“Babe, shut the fuck up for five seconds.” He stood, calm and composed, staring at the code box as if he was thinking about what to do.
I stayed quiet despite the subtle wave of defiance that rose at his harsh words. A defiance that had been crushed until I had nothing left to fight except a shell of existence that had been cracked and chipped at for years.
Who I’d been had been eaten up by my own body, not because it was my choice, but because it had been my survival. Now, I was so far within myself, I couldn’t find my way back.
The code box turned a bright orange and smoke billowed around it before it sparked and hissed. My eyes widened as his eyes changed, melting away the black until they were solid gold with a red dot in the center.
What the hell?
Oh, my God. Could Scars do that? How could he do that?
A click sounded and the door unlocked. Holy shit.
He held out his hand, and I put mine in his. He pulled me through the door, down the hallway, and then pushed me ahead of him.
“Go,” he ordered. “Run.”
I hesitated as he aimed his gun at the deserted hallway behind us. Suddenly, two men barreled around the corner, and he fired off two shots. Both went down in quick succession.
“Go!”
I whirled around and ran as fast as my quivering legs would go.
The gun went off again and I staggered, putting my hand on the wall while looking over my shoulder for him. He was bent over one of the men he shot, checking for something.
I turned and ran again.
“Babe. Fuck. Stop,” he shouted.
The door to my right flung open and a hard body slammed into me, knocking me off my feet. But I didn’t fall to the floor because an arm hooked my waist and I was jerked up against a broad chest.
There was heavy breathing next to my ear before my captor grated out, “Sweet Rayne. Where do you think you’re going?”
Oh, God, Ben. My husband’s right-hand man.
The man who took pleasure in watching me suffer. Who got off on it. I hated him. Maybe more than my husband, because in some demented way, my husband did all this for the purpose of science. It was wrong. It was cruel and I was a product of that, but Ben…he enjoyed hurting others.
And I’d enjoy hurting him.
My grip tightened on the handle of the knife as I jabbed it as hard as I could backward into his thigh. The second it hit flesh, it was like plunging into a sponge. It jerked to a stop when it hit bone and jarred my hand.
“Fuckin’ bitch,” he screamed, then looped his arm around my neck while his other hand knocked the knife from my grip, yanked the blade from his thigh and tossed it to the floor.
“Let her go, dickhead.” The Scar stood several feet away, gun pointed at us.
The cool hard metal of Ben’s gun came to my temple. He cocked it. “How about you drop it before I put a bullet through her skull.”
The Scar laughed, but it wasn’t a good laugh. It was rough with a harsh tone that sent shivers down my spine.
“You won’t kill her.” His dark brows flicked up and he smirked at Ben. “Her husband will cut off your balls and shove them down your throat if you do. And despite wanting to see that, I’d advise letting her go before I kill her myself.” He readjusted his aim from Ben to me. “I live. She dies. Then her husband tortures you. Seems fair enough.”
“JUST ONE TASTE, SWEETNESS. That’s all I ask. A drop to ease my suffering.”
I rolled my eyes, laughing. “Your self-control is that of an ant at a picnic. One taste and you’ll be back for more, and I’ll become a dried-up piece of beef jerky.”
One taste and I’d be breaking the Scars’ law—thou shall not willingly allow a vampire to drink thy blood. Vice versa was a bigger no-no. Balen knew that first-hand.
Actually, sleeping with the enemy was not much better, but it wasn’t breaking any laws.
“Mmmm, I like beef jerky,” Liam said as he slid his hand down my inner thigh and back up again. “And I like you.”
He liked that I was a Scar and against the rules. Blood—my nickname for Liam—might have a truce with the Scars, but he was a vampire and could never be trusted. I was here because he couldn’t be trusted and it was a good way to keep a close eye on him.