Page 22 of The Red Queen

He grunted but recovered quickly, reaching for Desi. The moment his hand landed on her arm, she gripped his fingers, twisted, slammed his hand down onto the table and rammed her steak knife through it.

His knees gave out as he shouted in agony, and Desi whipped around behind him and reached for his gun holster. She growled in frustration when she realized it was empty and yanked the knife out of his hand. When she tried to slam it into his neck, another of the bodyguards punched her in the side of the head.

Desi flew backwards into the wall behind them and fell to the floor. She could feel the shaking of the floor as the other men pounded toward her. She flung herself at the first man, gripping him around the knees and tripping him, sending him toppling into the two men behind him.

Desi lunged toward the table, intent on using it as a shield, but another man gripped her around the waist, lifting her off the floor. She slammed her feet down onto the table as she was lifted and pushed herself up into a somersault, flipping over top of the man and gripping him around the neck.

She checked his holster. Also empty.

Fucking Giovanni had them disarm before entering the private room. It pleased her that he took her combat skills seriously, but it annoyed her to have to deal with seven men while unarmed, eight if Giovanni entered the fray.

She squeezed her arm around the guy’s neck until he gurgled and tried to slam her into the wall behind them. The hit didn’t remotely faze Desi and when another man reached for her, she swung her free fist into his face and kicked him in the balls, dropping him.

She tightened her arm against her captive’s jugular and was gratified to feel him weaken in her arms. He outweighed her by at least eighty pounds, but the weight didn’t matter if he couldn’t counter her move. He was obviously not trained in MMA style fighting.

When the next guy came at her, she used her captive’s body as a shield, allowing him to get beat up as he slowly passed out from her chokehold. After a moment, his dead weight started to drag her to the floor, so she had no choice but to push him away.

When another guy flung himself at her, she used the edge of her hand to knife him in the spot where the shoulder meets the neck. He went down like a ton of bricks, his eyes glazing over as he pissed himself.

“Next,” she growled, beckoning the remaining men to come at her.

“Well done, Desiree,” Giovanni said, standing. He straightened his cufflinks as he spoke. “There’s no way to leave this room without me though, so you can stand down.”

“Then I’ll leave this room with you,” she snarled, edging away as he circled the table toward her.

One of his men reached for her, but Giovanni waved him off. “You can try.”

Desi flung herself over the table, launching herself at Giovanni and sending what was left of the food and drink to the floor. He sidestepped, gripped her by the throat as she passed him and flung her backwards, slamming her down on the table.

As she lay stunned, trying to catch her breath, he pulled a gun from the holster under his jacket, proving that not everyone in the room had been unarmed.

He pressed it to her forehead before leaning down until his lips were hovering over hers.

“You’re just as good as I hoped,” he said, his voice deepening as he kissed her.

Desi held perfectly still, her hammering heart pumping blood through her veins. Adrenaline slammed into desire as he shoved his tongue into her mouth and tasted her fight.

He lifted his head and, with barely a sideways glance to take aim, shot two of his men. One had been the man who lay unconscious on the ground and the other was the man who’d punched her. Blood sprayed across them in the confined space as each bullet found a home in a skull.

Giovanni’s other men took a quick step back, alarm on their faces as their boss straightened away from the table and helped Desi to her feet. She swayed, but he steadied her.

The fight drained from her as she tried to figure out what had just happened. She’d been trying to escape, but Giovanni had stopped her without breaking a sweat, then had executed two of his own men. What the fuck?

He answered her unspoken question by aiming his ire at the remaining men. “I told you this woman was not to be injured.”

Desi stared at the dead men as she tried to figure out what they’d done to her to deserve a bullet in the head. One had backhanded her and the other had slammed her into a wall.

An entire world of possibilities opened up as she realized what Giovanni’s edict meant for her. If he was unwilling to allow his men to harm her, then she could do anything to them without fear of retaliation.

Chapter Ten

They didn’t finish their meal. Most of it was on the floor, mixed with the blood and gore of the two dead men. Desi wasn’t interested in food anyway. She was interested in Giovanni.

The magnetic power emanating from him made her feel like she was being sucked into a vortex. He was the darkness at the center, and she was helplessly spiraling into him. Perhaps it was her conditioning. Maybe she needed a master to feel complete. She didn’t know, and she didn’t care. She was becoming obsessed with her new owner.

Until now, she’d fought him, planned his death, but now that she was seeing him in his element, she wanted more. She wanted to fuck him. She wanted to see into his brain, to penetrate his inner thoughts, because anyone who could casually assassinate two of his own men to protect his captive was a man she wanted to understand.

She was so focused on her thoughts that she barely noticed when he re-holstered his gun, gripped the skirt of her red dress, which had been pushed up her hips in her fight for freedom, and dragged the material down her thighs. He took her hand and escorted her from the room.

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