Page 71 of Rogue Voice

Bea’s scalp burned, but her anger was stronger, far more raw. “You’re too late,” she spat out. “You won’t be the first man inside me.”

Emiliano turned so he was standing in front of her, one hand still wrapped painfully around her hair, tight enough that she felt he might pull it out by the roots. His other hand was closed into a fist, and she readied herself for the blow, because she wasdone.

She was done cowering.

She was done being afraid.

As her uncle raised his fist towards her, there came a loud, hearty laugh.

“Oh, this is rich. Seriously. You couldn’t make this shit up,” the man across from her said, then started laughing again. For a moment, Bea feared he’d lost his grip on reality. It took her a long instant to realize Emiliano had released her hair.

“What did you say,cabrón?”

Thorne kept laughing, hard enough that tears rolled down his cheeks. Bea glared at him, as if she could drive some sense into him.

Be quiet. Look down. Stay alive.

But he kept laughing and laughing, until Bea suddenly realized what he was doing. He hadn’t lost his mind. He was goading Emiliano—goading Emiliano to take the man’s attention away from her.

Emiliano turned and slammed his fist into Thorne’s jaw. “You think this is funny? Let’s see how hard you laugh when you’ve lost all your teeth.”

Roberts made a tsking sound with his tongue. “We don’t have time for this, Emiliano,” he said blandly.

Her Uncle’s fist fell on Thorne’s face again.

Bea cried out.

“Don’t worry,florecilla,” Emiliano said. “I will be right with you. This will only take me a few minutes.”

34

Rogue

“Thorne just activated the emergency tracker on his tooth,” Rogue said. “Guess where he is?” He didn’t wait for Griffin or Slate to answer him. “The industrial side of the harbor.”

“Fuck. You think he’s found Emiliano?”

“What the hell is he doing there without us?” Slate asked. He’d only recently come back from the hospital, where he’d been keeping watch over their friend. Though Dark was still unconscious, the swelling had gone down, he was stable, and the doctors were hopeful he would wake up on his own when his body was ready.

“Do you think Rahmer and Roberts are with him?”

“I just sent Rahmer a message, she replied saying she’ll meet us there,” Rogue said.

“And Roberts?”

“He’s still not picking up the phone.”

“I’m not worried about him. The cocky bastard’s probably gone somewhere for the weekend and forgot to let us know,” Griffin said.

“Come on. We’re leaving,” Rogue said, tapping his foot impatiently. Thorne wouldn’t have activated his emergency tracker if he didn’t have a good reason to do so, and Rogue had a feeling that reason had to be connected to Bea’s disappearance.

They had to get to Bea now. The longer they waited, the higher the chances she would simply disappear. And Rogue would never stop looking for her. He would continue looking for as long as he lived, but he knew enough about the world to know how easy it was for a person—for a young woman—to disappear.

Slate slipped into the driver’s seat, giving Rogue no chance but to sit in the passenger’s seat. Griffin slipped in behind him.

“We don’t go in half-cocked,” Griffin said. A warning.

Rogue didn’t bother replying to that because, really, anything he said at this point would be a lie. If there was any chance Bea was there, he was going in to get her, and anybody who didn’t like that could just stay behind and look the other way. Because nothing would stop him from getting Bea back.

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