Page 83 of Unraveled Love

I couldn’t focus through the pain that seemed to be coming from every single muscle in my body. I shook, trying to dislodge his hand from my hair, but every time I did, he pulled harder until it felt like he was trying to rip my scalp off.

“Get up,” he growled, and God, I wished I could see him, wished I could see the man who was hurting me so badly. I struggled, breathing ragged, and fought through the pain coursing through me as I got to my feet.

As soon as I did, his other hand reached out, grabbed my hands behind my back, and squeezed them so tight my skin burned. “Now, we’re going to walk down those stairs and out that front door. You understand?”

Oh God. Where were Shawn? The rest of the guys? If we could walk out that door as easily as he made it sound, had something happened to them? A different kind of agony seared my heart at the thought, and I squeezed my eyes closed, tried to focus.

I couldn’t let him take me out of there. If Shawn and the guys weren’t around to help, it meant I had to rely on myself.

Come on. Do what he says until you figure something out.

I whimpered and nodded as his grip tightened. He pushed me toward the narrow and steep stairs. I was fighting his hold on me, but he held my wrists in one of his hands while his other still yanked on my hair. My balance was shit, and I stumbled over the first step.

My pulse was racing, and the roar of a storm rushed through my ears.

I stumbled over another step on the narrow staircase, and as I steadied myself, I felt a brief flash of relief when his grip fell from my hair.

Then, something cold and metal pressed to my temple and ice slid down my spine.

Oh God. Of course the animal had a gun. Of course he’d use me as a shield.

Footsteps from below rumbled and echoed down the hallway, and I tried to throw my shoulder into the guy behind me, but he moved and shoved the gun to my temple harder so it dug into my skin. My head pounded and I whimpered. He was so steady, and I was a mess.

“Back up or I shoot her here!” Landon called through the closed door.

The footsteps stopped and a lump burned my throat. They were coming for me. Shawn would keep me safe.

A rush of hope flooded me. If they were coming for me, at least not everyone was injured.

Shawn’s voice called out, “You shoot her, you don’t leave here alive.”

Tears burst in my eyes, and I couldn’t fight back. He was here. He was okay. Thank God. I barely had time to be thankful before Landon kicked at the door.

His breath hit my ear, and it was so rank I fought back hurling at my feet. “You’re going to open that door slowly and step out even slower. One wrong move and I have no problems ending the night with your brain matter all over my face.”

Stay alive. Think.They were the only two things I had to do. “Okay.”

Reaching out, I opened the door. Shawn was there, gun drawn, face carved from marble, no longer looking anything like that surfer boy I’d met weeks earlier. Now he was all warrior, rage tightening his features, and yet he was still relaxed, arms loose, elbows slightly bent as he held his gun, head tilted to the right as he had it aimed, ready to shoot. His face said he could burn the world down, and his body said it was another day at the gun range. It was that relaxed, steady posture that helped settle me. Shawn was here. He knew what he was doing. All I had to do was be smart, and we could get out of this.

The way he glanced at me, quickly scanning my body and cataloguing all my injuries in a flash then refocusing on the man behind me, told me he wasn’t missing a thing. He was ready for whatever was about to happen.

At least one of us was.

“Back up,” Landon snarled.

Shawn listened, stepping backward while his gun stayed aimed just above my shoulder. “You’re good,” he told me, and I nodded, trying to suck in breaths through my chest, which felt like it was collapsing.

For a brief second, the gun left my temple, and he waved it toward the next set of stairs. “Back downstairs.”

Shawn’s lip curled, and then he complied, again. He didn’t take his gun off the guy behind me, didn’t so much as twitch a muscle, but he moved, walking backward all the way down the hall and the stairs, and once there, I saw his face pale and fear flash in his eyes as he took in Briggs.

He was still sitting in his chair where he’d been before they sent me upstairs. Except now, there was a gun trained on the back of his head.

And Daniel Johannsen was holding that gun.

Dressed in a suit and wearing a smarmy smile, he looked like he’d come from an office and hadn’t been hiding for weeks. His black hair was slicked back like always, but it was those eyes of his that were the ugliest, even if I knew many would call him handsome. There was no happiness in them, no joy. There was only evil and revenge, and this asshole had the upper hand.

“Hello, my fiancée. You’ve caused quite a bit of trouble for me recently.”

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