Page 156 of Renard's Deliverance

She was going to vomit.

He’d touched himself while watching her sleep.

“My favorite times were when you would use that vibrator. You are so beautiful when you come.”

He reached out to touch her and she shied back. Instantly, she knew it was a mistake when he attacked. This time he didn’t hit her in the face, he simply grabbed her around the neck and shoved her up against the wall. He cut off her air supply and she couldn’t fight back with her hands tied. Instead, she attempted to kick him.

“Mine! You were meant to be mine! Then he came along and turned you into a fucking slut! Just. Like. Her.”

“Let go of her!” Mrs. G screamed, coming up behind him and pounding on him with her bound hands. “Let her go!”

Shit. He let her go and turned to his aunt. “Do not touch me! You don’t get to touch me!”

“How did this happen to you?” Mrs. G asked. “Your father would be so ashamed.”

Opal gasped for air, trying to breathe through the pain.

“My father! My father was a bastard who beat me!”

“What? No!” Mrs. G gasped as he loomed over her.

“And my mother was a slut who ran away with her boyfriend. Just like this bitch. Left me for some man she liked to spread her legs with behind my father’s back. Once she left, he started to hit me, hurt me. No one cared!”

“Barney, if I’d known . . .” Mrs. G said, sounding horrified.

“Nobody cared!” he roared before grabbing his aunt and throwing her against the wall.

She fell to the floor with a thump and didn’t move. That’s when Opal knew she had to make a move. There was no way she could wait for him to turn on her again. So she ran and jumped on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck. He thrashed around, trying to grab her, to throw her off. He slammed her into the wall over and over until she knew she was going to be extremely bruised. But finally, she choked him long enough that he went to his knees. Then to the floor. She held on a bit longer in case it was a trick. But he didn’t move.

God, she wasn’t even sure if he was breathing.

With a sob, she pushed herself back, away from him. What was she going to do now?

She looked from him to Mrs. G.

Run, Opal.

Run!

32

The door to the police department slammed open.

Renard turned to look out Jake’s office window, staring at the parade of Malones walking in, led by Alec.

“Fuck. This is all I need,” Jake said tiredly.

Opal had been missing twenty-four hours now. And they still didn’t have any real leads. He was going out of his mind.

Jake stood and walked out of his office. Renard and Saxon followed.

“What are you all doing here?” Jake asked.

“Simple. We’re going hunting,” Alec said grimly. “We’ve left our women at Dirty Delights under Devon’s supervision.”

“You can’t go hunting,” Jake said. “You have no idea where to look.”

“So we’ll look everywhere,” West said seriously.

---