Page 131 of Inside the Wicked

He made me see there was more inside of me that I was too afraid to show the world. He’s the reason I believe in myself more than I ever have.

Back in the car I begin to tunnel away, knowing what will come next.

“Can you let them go now?” I whisper.

“Would that make you happy?”

“Yes.”

“Then I will. But if they get in my way, I won’t stop to consider it again.”

“Thank you,” I say. Only because it’ll keep him satisfied to hear the hollow words.

“It’ll all be over soon, darling?—”

The gunshot comes out of nowhere. The explosion that follows, sending the car in a tailspin, shatters the world around me. It’s all I hear. All I am. Something slams into me, and the world is all crashes and pain and spinning, spinning, spinning ...

I cough violently, then splutter, at the hot liquid that comes up. My ears feel like they’re bleeding too with the mixture of ringing and cracking that fills them.

I hear voices, but I can’t make out many words. They sound so faraway, as if I’m trapped in a void and no one will find me here.

When I open my eyes it takes a few tries to gain focus. Slowly, I make out the horror of my situation. The car has flipped onto its side and I’m lying in a bed of shattered glass. Tipping my gaze up, I see I’m alone.

Did I fall unconscious while Jacob got out?

I fight tired sweeps, unable to uncurl myself from the pitiful heap that doesn’t want to move. I don’t have any fight left to push the pain away and get out of the wreckage. I know it’s dangerous to stay here when I can see amber diffusing outside. I’m lying in a ticking time bomb.

I want to live. I want to live. I want to live.

I am Anastasia Kaiser.

I hold on with everything I am.

CHAPTER 45

Rhett

I’ve gone over at least a dozen ways I want to kill Jacob Forthson in the ten minutes he’s flaunted his possession ofmy girlto this venue packed full of rich shits.

Tearing his hands from his body for touching her would be a start. Stabbing my thumbs into his eyes for looking at her would be justified. Cutting off his worthless dick forthinkingof her would be next.

“Should we follow them?” Rix asks, sounding as pissed as I am.

“No. She agreed to this and wants to keep things tame for as long as possible.”

“So by the end of the night she’ll leave with him and we’ll try take him out in the car she’s in?” Adam repeats our reckless plan.

I despise it more than he does, knowing Ana will be caught in the crossfire.

“It’s the only time he’ll be without guys surrounding him,” Rix says. “We have a guy who knows how to stop a car with minimal loss of control—something about the timing and which tire to blow when. We’ll take out the driver, then there’ll likely be other cars of his following, and we’ll be ready for them too.It’s the best way to catch them unawares. If all goes to plan, Ana should be completely unharmed.”

If all goes to plan.

I’m pacing like a wild beast inside myself.

“Then we take that bastard to Lanshall and get Allie back,” Rix says, laying a hand on my shoulder tentatively, as if I’m a bomb that might erupt. It isn’t far from fact.

“You really think he’ll just hand her and Liam over?” Adam asks skeptically, ordering a drink.

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