Page 121 of The Vow

I sucked in a breath. He knew Damon had lied about the women.Damon was in trouble.

As if to corroborate my thoughts, there was a crash from down the hall that was loud enough to make it to us.

Uzair smirked. “Sounds like your husband wasn’t too pleased to hear we were spending some time together.”

Fear didn’t even begin to describe what this man instilled when he looked at me. He was a monster in human form. Asoulless, morally vacant figment of a man who used and abused women before killing and discarding them like trash.

“He will kill you.”

Uzair’s sadistic smile spread. “He will already be dead.”

He stepped close enough for me to strike, and I didn’t hesitate. I threw my arm out just like my brothers had trained me and then lowered my center of gravity as soon as my fist connected with muscle.

Uzair doubled forward on the impact, and I pushed off to the side, my heart vaulting into my throat as I lunged around him.

And then pain boomed on the side of my head, the back of his hand slamming into me. I stumbled forward from the blow, only to be yanked back with a hold of pure fire as he grabbed my hair. Pain seared my scalp as he dragged me backward by a fistful of my hair.

“God, I love when they fight,” he snarled and lowered his face to mine, his tongue licking the side of my face where I realized his blow had broken skin. “Love when they bleed.” His tongue dragged my own blood over his lips with a smile.

I threw my elbow back with a cry, the pointed bone nailing him in the stomach.

He didn’t completely release my hair, but I was willing to sacrifice strands if it meant escaping him.

It didn’t.

Hair ripped from my scalp, the burning pain like an acid bath on my skin, but for all my efforts, I only made it another step before his boot landed on my spine.

I flung forward, crashing into the nightstand and toppling the lamp to the floor.

I grabbed the edges, steadying myself and realizing that another two inches to the left and I would’ve been impaled on the sharpened elephant tusk mounted on the wall.

“God, you’re going to be so good. I knew it.” Uzair salivated and gripped the back of my neck, crushing my head to the wall and pressing himself against me.

His other hand roamed over my body, pinned like a rag doll between him and the nightstand. I felt how hard he was. He pulled my head back and then rammed it into the wall hard enough to see stars.

Darkness fizzled at the periphery of my vision, but no pain or threat of unconsciousness could hide how he grew harder from hurting me.

I let out a scream. Of pain. Of fear. Of fury.

And Uzair only laughed.

“Don’t worry. They’ve been trained to watch,” he snickered in my ear.

He slammed my head into the wall again, and I sagged from the impact.

This couldn’t happen. I couldn’t let this happen.

I had to fight.

I had to find Damon.

Distantly, I felt him tug at the waist of my pants. I blinked, the familiar surroundings of the room swimming into focus.

I tried to scream again, but his hand grabbed my throat, his fingers gouging my neck.

My vision blotted. The expensive scent of him burned my throat.

And then I saw the elephant tusk hanging loose from the wall. He’d broken its moorings when he’d grabbed it as leverage to slam my head again.

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