Psychos (Depraved Sinners 1)

I clench my jaw as I try and try again, and just when I think all hope is gone, the bar comes free and my body flies across the backseat. My ribs slam into the opposite door but I quickly shake it off, wanting to get out of here and put as much distance between me and the brothers before they realize that their new little dungeon mate is gone.

Without skipping a beat, I reach to the front seat and search for the little button to unlock the doors. But as my finger skims over the top of it, I pause, realizing that a move like this could potentially set off the car alarm.

The brothers are occupied in the warehouse and the Escalade is at least a hundred meters away. So if I do this, and the alarm goes off, I’ll have one shot at freedom, one single chance to run for my life.

Taking a deep breath, I squish my nerves straight back down and I unlock the car.

20

My foot slams against the door of the Escalade as my fingers curl around the handle. I yank it open and I have a short moment of relief, realizing I’m safe. The alarm hasn’t gone off, but the internal cab light sure as hell just lit up the whole damn street.

Fuck.

I scramble out of the car, hoping to God that the DeAngelis brothers are far too occupied to even look back at the Escalade. So as I get that first taste of freedom when my feet hit the hard earth below, I make it count.

My feet pound against the dirt, catapulting me forward and away from the Escalade. I don’t dare look back, terrified that the brothers are already coming for me. I have no choice but to race across the road to get to the thick woods on the other side, and I do everything that I can to keep in the shadows.

My heart thunders in my chest and I briefly wonder how the hell I’m going to get away with this. If I somehow manage to make it through to morning, I’m going to have to hitch a ride and get my ass as far from here as possible. Hell, a fucking one-way ticket to anywhere but here will do.

My momentum has my feet slamming hard against the road, and my stomach drops as the noise echoes toward the warehouse. They have to know. They’re too good at what they do to allow me even the chance to get away with this.

Nausea burns within me, and I promise myself that if I get out of this and am still alive come tomorrow morning, I’ll spare a few extra seconds to throw up in a bush, but until then, I have to keep running. Soft music flows through the street, and it’s my only hope that it’s loud enough to drown out the sound of my escape.

Looking back over my shoulder, my gaze scans the front of the warehouse, but so far, I see nothing. The brothers are nowhere in sight and that could only mean one thing—they have no fucking idea.

My foot hits the edge of the road, and I launch myself toward the thick shadows of the woods when big fingers knot into the back of my hair. I’m yanked back and a loud, pained screech tears out of me as I’m knocked right off my feet.

My body crashes onto the road with a hard thud, and before I get a chance to fight off my attacker, he takes off, dragging me along the rough asphalt. My skin burns as the road rips it to shreds. I try desperately to get my feet under me as I reach up to the tight fist knotted in my hair, clawing at his skin.

“LET ME GO,” I scream, digging in with everything that I have and feeling his blood pooling under my nails.

“FUCK,” he roars, throwing me hard across the road and into the dim light splaying out from the old warehouse. It’s not a voice I recognize and my heart pounds, the loud pulse like Levi’s drums right in my ears.

My body skids across the road like a tumbleweed caught in the wind, and I do everything that I can to try and ease the momentum, only the man is there again. I look up, meeting his hard stare, and as he steps into the dim light, recognition has my chest sinking.

It’s the guy from the party, the arrogant asshole with the bad attitude who jumped the bar in the hopes of strangling me right there in the middle of the room. Marcus had shown up just moments before he could slit my throat, and in return, I stabbed him right in the gut. Roman had disposed of him, and in my mind, I figured that meant he was already dead. If I knew he was the man they were coming for tonight, that they’d planned a nice little trip to properly see him off to the underworld, there’s no way I would have allowed myself to be so vulnerable. Fuck, I guess that’s what you get for playing with fire.