Page 72 of Accidentally Forever

My luck runs out as he grabs me around the waist and flattens me out on the floor. My eyes widen at the inevitability of this position, horror flooding my expression when instead of hitting me, one of his hands moves to my jeans. “Maybe I’ll ruin you in another way,” he jokes, his fingers catching the button.

I wriggle beneath him, struggling for purchase as I flail around. Screams tear from my lips as I try to fight him off and fail. I manage to flip back over, crawling away from him but then he’s over me again, his hot breath at my ear. Tears gather in my eyes as I continue to struggle. “Why? Why the fuck are you doing this?”

I get that he needed an out. But this? There’s no need for this.

“Maybe because I don’t fucking like getting played.” A growl echoes through the room as he grips the back of my shirt and rips it open. “God, you’re gorgeous. It’s too bad that I’m going to have to ruin this.”

I’m not fucking going down like this.

He rocks against my ass, the vileness of the movement urging me to fight back. I do everything I can but the grip he has on my waist is keeping me from getting far. That’s when I notice the gun just past my fingertips. He’s too focused trying to get my jeans off as the tatters of my shirt hang off my arms. But none of that matters.

Just a little closer.

“Stop squirming, bitch. Or this is going to hurt.” He’s jams his fingers in the waistband of my jeans as I curl my hand around the barrel of the gun and swing it backward, catching him square in the cheek. There’s a large crack as he falls to the side and I scramble to my feet, flying toward the door to escape.

He’s there in an instant, smashing my face against the door as he fights for the gun. Every part of me is screaming for relief, to stay alive, to be saved but I know that if I don’t fight, there won’t be anything left to be saved.I don’t have to be in control, I tell myself.They’re on the way.But if they can’t find me, I’ll have to save myself.

Something wet drips down over my top lip, Marion roughly grabbing the back of my neck as I hold the gun to my chest. “Give. It. Back. I have no idea why you’re fighting so much. Actually no, stand there. I can fuck you just fine against the door.”

Both hands grab the waistband of my jeans and yank them down my legs, a horrified yelp pulling from my lips. I fumble with the gun, trying to remember all of those goddamn movies, anything that will help me get this man off me. Something clicks and I twist around, hooking my finger around the trigger and pulling. It’s not angled right but Marion stumbles back anyway, blood trickling down his forehead.

He wavers, the sound no doubt ringing in his ears as I sag against the door, trying to hold myself together. My fingers are trembling as I fumble with the doorknob, cursing at it to open, to let me out, to let me free. Tears blur my vision as I struggle, a scream tearing from my throat when the door is thrown open but then there’s just utter relief, Hawk scooping me up into his arms, his purr immediately rumbling through him.

“I got you, Trouble. Fuck, I got you.”

Chapter fifty-two

PUMA

That filthy bastard is going to answer to me. It doesn’t matter that there are officers on route. It doesn’t matter that this shit could land me in jail. My fist is going in that piece of shit’s face. I hear bones crack beneath the pressure when I connect with Marion’s cheek, the guy stumbling back into a wall. Gray is right behind me, both of us seething with anger and rightfully so.

Not only did Marion steal our Beta, he tried to ruin her. I heard enough on the phone. Her screams. The terror through the bond. The moment she nearly resigned to her fate. God, Marion isdead.My fist connects with his nose this time, head thudding against the wall. “You fucking touched my Beta,” I growl out, my hand going around his throat. “You put your fucking hands onmymate and thought it was just going to be that easy?”

I nearly had a fucking heart attack when the connection to her phone dropped. There were three possible streets for him to have gone down, each several houses long. I was going to go fucking crazy until Gray spotted her car up top the hill. And now, Marion is in front of me sputtering for an answer. “You weren’t supposed to—”

Gray lets out a cackle, throwing his own punch at Marion, the Alpha groaning in pain. I’m going to do so much worse to him the moment Hawk takes Violet outside. I can’t even bear to look at her right now, knowing that I’ll see that fear in her eyes—fear that we almost didn’t make it and that’s on me. “What was the fucking reason, you piece of shit? You got yourself in too deep and then thought you’d put your hands on what’s mine?”

I punch him again, this time in the stomach. His eyes roll into the back of his head as he tries to push away from us. It doesn’t work. He’s scrambling for an explanation but I already heard everything over the phone. He already spilled his guts, already mentioned that not only was he dealing in fakes, that he’s hardly the main character of our nightmare.

Each word out of his mouth pisses me off a little more, my control waning as I let my anger out on the man who almost took something from me. It takes me too long to realize why I’m so fucking pissed. Because I almost lost what was mineagain. This time I was lucky but next time I might not be and that terrifies me.

Someone clears their throat behind, a sense of authority following it, enough to pull me back to reality. I twist around to a detective I recognize—Detective Grayson from the main station in Ansdale. He’s usually the one I deal with when it comes to possible issues in the art world, one of his brows raised as he stares at me. “Seems like you’ve done a number on one of our suspects, Mr. Ashford.”

We’re both on a first name basis but he’s using my last name as a sign of respect. “He nearly—”

The detective holds up his hand, shaking his head. “Don’t need to explain to me. However, my partner will be here in a second so maybe… wrap it up?” He wiggles his brows as I turn to the heap of trash at my feet. I’m not sure when that happened but I’m more pissed that he’s still alive. “He looks like he can still talk, which is great for us. Why don’t you go home and I’ll give you a call when things settle a bit.”

He’s giving me an out and I take it, despite what my instincts are yelling at me to do. I throw him a nod of thanks before slipping past him and heading toward the car, knowing full well that we’re against protocol. The other detective frowns at my departure, Detective Grayson calling him inside. “Leave him be. They just came to retrieve their mate. The guy we’re worried about is in here.”

Violet is curled up in Hawk’s arms in the backseat by the time I get there, his jacket wrapped around her shoulders. There’s blood dribbling from her nose and a bruise forming below her right eye. My heart drops into my stomach at the fragile sight before me—Violet still trying to be strong despite the emotions running through her.

“Dove—” My voice cracks on the word, my beautiful tortured Beta scrambling to climb into my arms. I hold her tight against my chest, her legs wrapped around my waist as she cries into my shoulder. “Fuck, I wasn’t sure we’d get here in time. Are you okay? Do we need to call—”

“No.”

That one word is all it takes. We’ll go home and then I’m not letting her out of my sight. Not that I think she’ll want to leave any time soon. She tucks her face into the crook of my neck, clinging to me like I’m her lifeline and despite the questions I want to ask, I just climb into the back beside Hawk. Gray hops in the front seat, barely waiting before he’s tearing down the road back home.

Violet is trembling against me, her tears slipping down my shoulder and it takes everything in me not to demand Gray to turn the car around so I can finish the fucking job. Hawk isn’t that much better as he slips a gentle hand into her hair, pressing light kisses to her temple. She’s quiet the entire way home, passed out by the time I’m climbing out of the car and handing her to Gray.

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