Carver brings his hand back and hits Sam across the face, instantly splitting his cheek wide-open. “You don’t speak to her,” he spits, adjusting the gun to sit right between Sam’s eyes. “Any last words?”
“Go to hell.”
A grin cuts across Carver’s face. “I’ll see you there.”
I see the exact moment that Carver goes to pull the trigger and I fly forward. “NO,” I yell, pushing Carver’s hand before he gets a chance to shoot the prick between the eyes.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Carver demands, grabbing my arm and throwing me back into Cruz’s chest. “I could have shot you.”
“You were going to kill him,” I yell, throwing my heated stare back at Sam who looks as though he’s about to collapse.
“Yeah,” Carver scoffs. “That’s the whole fucking point. I thought that’s what you wanted. That’s why we’re here.”
I shake my head, the anger burning up within me and making it hard to control myself. “No, it’s too easy. He kidnapped me. He threw me in a fucking dark, cold cell with no food or water for three days. He had me stripped and dressed up as a cheap whore and paraded around in front of a room full of men. I was sold, Carver. Fucking sold,” I remind him, just in case he’s forgotten exactly what happened to me there. “You saw the cell. You saw the cheap lingerie, the humiliation, the fucking nightmares you held me through, and you think one clean bullet between the eyes is enough? You think that’s going to make up for everything he’s done? What about the four malnourished girls we just pulled out of the dog cages? What about the girls who’ve already been sold and are getting raped every fucking day? No, Sam needs to pay for what he’s done. He needs to be punished.”
Carver meets my stare, his eyes boring into mine, and without looking away or even a second of warning, his gun sounds with a loud, haunting BANG.
Sam crumbles to the ground and my heart shatters for the revenge that I will never get. How could he do that? How could he take that away from me?
Tears well in my eyes. Those four girls deserved so much more. I deserved more.
My hands ball into fists at my side, and the devastation quickly morphs into a cold-blooded fury. My brass knuckles tighten around my fingers, and as I imagine the feel of Carver’s face under my punch, a pained groan tears through the small bunker.
My head whips around to find Sam laying in a pool of his own blood, his hands clutching his knee in agony. I suck in a breath. Carver didn’t fucking kill him, just put a bullet through his knee.
I still have my chance at revenge. I can still make him pay for all the lives that he’s ruined, stolen, and lost. It’ll never make up for all the pain and anguish those girls and their families face every single day, but it will certainly make them feel better knowing that he will never be able to hurt another woman again. After all, once I’ve thoroughly made him beg for death, I’m going to finally end his life, and I’m going to do it with pleasure.
Relief powers through me, and I flick my gaze back to Carver’s to find him watching me closely, watching every little emotion that filters through my eyes, but before I can utter a single word, Carver tears his stormy gaze away and glances at Cruz. “Help me get him out of here. She’s fucking right. This bastard is going to regret the day he ever decided to lay a hand on our girl.”
Our girl?
Fuck me. This is too many things to unload in one go. I’ll have to store that one away and come back to it once we get home. For now, we have a job to do.
Cruz instantly sweeps in and together they drag Sam out of the house, kicking and screaming while leaving a thick trail of blood behind. The guys haul him down the stairs and I get a small satisfaction out of the way his body drops down each one. That’s gotta hurt, and Sam’s grunts of pain only make it so much sweeter.
Grayson and King don’t say a damn word, just go with the flow, and by the time Carver and Cruz get Sam around the back of the Escalade, Grayson is already there, spreading a protective black plastic across the back. The boys tie his wrists and ankles with rope, and just for good measure, stick duct tape over his mouth and eyes.
They throw Sam into the back of the Escalade with a heavy thud and I quickly make my way over to the blacked-out SUV and climb in. King sits in the driver’s seat and the four girls are cramped in the back. Sam’s backup security will be here soon and we’re not about to be caught in the crossfire when it happens.