Page 160 of Dirty Salvation

So scared of him in fact, her belly greased over resisting the urge to beg him to answer. Hades loved nothing more than a person pleading to him. Instead, she tapped into her shred of control and anger.

"I was never yours and you're a colossal moron for even coming back here. Rider is going to kill you twice. I feel sorry for you because you brought it on yourself."

A vicious laugh cracked the air. “You think so? I beg to differ, he never did have much spine, sweet love, and yet you seem to favor him, I wonder why that is…”

"Because he’s a decent fucking human being, everything you’re not."Oh, god. Rider.What has he done to him? Her composure was dripping away. "You can't do whatever it is you're thinking of doing, you must know that. It’s a suicide mission, even you’re not that stupid. Be smart for once and walk away before he arrives." It was all bullshit, Rider didn't know where she was and her cell was back at the house. Zara wanted him dead, but more, she just wanted him gone, she would have said anything in that moment.

Her words held no effect. What did she expect from a volatile freak, that she could reason with him? fat chance, there's no arguing with his kind of rage, unless you crawl down to their level.

Zara’s pulse increased. It rushed blood loudly in her ears.

It was an automatic fear; the same fear this dickhead had forced upon her day in day out even when he hadn't been present at the Raging Rebel's clubhouse she knew to still dread the projection of evil he wore like a second skin. But she refused to relent to it or him ever again.

It was funny, Hades had never seen himself as evil, or remotely bad. Making him that much worse. In his eyes, she'd detected, he was a normal guy. Right. Norman Bates normal, maybe. His entire behavior, every terrible action was his normal. What kind of a life had that man had to make him the functional monster that was before her today?

She didn't know and didn't care. Didn’t want to know, life was choices and this bastard had made his. To any decent human being, bad treatment didn't beget bad behavior. It was a fuckingoptionand that abhorrent person had done a lot of bad to Zara, to countless others. Unforgivable. Unredeemable.

No heavens gates for him. She wanted him to rot in hell.

Some were born steeped in evil, she truly believed it and she was looking it right in the face as he smiled that handsome smile of his.

Dead behind his gray eyes.

Allcocksure.

Mean and terrifying.

He knew she was scared and was getting off on it.

"Tut tut, sweet love. Is that any way to talk to me? You know how I hate your insolence. You didn't learn a thing. Your boyfriend torched my place, killed all my fucking men, left me with nothing and then I see he has my fucktoy as well, my sweet love who I missedsomuch." Her stomach recoiled with the toast she’d eaten earlier threatening to reappear any second if she didn't get her swallowing reflex under control. “Put yourself in my shoes. Go ahead. Do you know how long it took me to collect those halfwits, to patch them in, to secure their allegiance to me? Doyou? And all gone just like that. That is so annoying.” His fingers snapped in front of her face, the unbalanced tic apparent in his eyes. Hades had always been a well-groomed man, he liked his clothes clean and pressed, his beard clipped short and his hair swept back with gel.Thisman was unclean, wearing grimy clothes like a down and out. No wonder he was so pissy if he was missing his weekly manicures. “You think I'm going to allow him to get away with that?Is that what you think? The stupid as fuck cops assume I set fire to my own goddamn place because of your loverboy I can’t go anywhere now, what do I have to lose, sweet love, in taking you all to hell with me!"

Though his voice hadn't increased, his teeth clenched showing his anger, the flash of his eyes tore a fresh strip of fear off Zara.

“I want him to watch while I hurt you, incapable of doing a fucking thing. He has it coming. He destroyed my club, my legacy! Do you know what common old fashioned revenge is, my traitorous sweet love? Oh, you’re about to. I’ll take from Rider like he took from me and I’ll watch him bleed for it. The holier than thou dickheadSoulspresident will beg me for your life like the pussy he is.”

Something like relief engulfed her. If he wanted Rider to watch him kill her it must mean Rider was okay.He was okay.She exhaled. It didn’t matter what happened to her now she knew he was okay.

“You already killed Tiny! Isn’t that enough?”keep him talking.

“Big dumb idiot didn’t even see me coming. It was hardly a thrill at all.” he shrugged nonchalantly like murder was no big deal.No big deal. Tiny had been her friend!

“You fucking bastard! You didn’t have to kill him.”

He laughed, her distress entertained him and quick like wildfire he reached out and grabbed her right wrist, bending it back, causing her to cry out, he wrenched Zara closer, their bodies touching, pressed together, sinister sounds coming from his throat when she crashed into him, she pushed back.

"Get the fuck off me, you lunatic! Did you assume you’d find the same poor weak victim when you looked at me? Sorry to disappoint you, I’m nother. That’s all men like you can have, smaller people to push around, to bully, to make them feel like dirt becauseYOU’RE THE DIRTand you know it, I see you know it. You belittle because you’re a worthless sack of shit who can’tbesane and you feel it so deep you do anything to hide from it. There is nothing you can do to me now that will hurt. I was ripped in self-loathing for what you did to me, castigating myself for the bad world you put me in, but no more, I am stronger where I was once a coward, kill me, hurt me, you're still nothing, you are beneath me, do you hear me?INFERIOR. Get on with it if you’re going to kill me, I’m bored of listening to your wah wah bullshit." slapping and punching as hard as she could with her free arm, the blows bouncing off his torso just as if she'd punched paper, she didn’t stop. He was rock solid, immune to her fists. No way in hell she was being taken by this man again.

No way.

It didn't matter he outweighed her, she'd die first before he laid another terrifying finger on her. So afraid, she tasted her stomach acid in her mouth.

"You're demented; you know that? The lights are on, but no fucker is home." Hades only threw his head back and barked a laugh, lips peeling off his teeth, capturing both wrists in his meaty hands as easy as picking up string.

Fuck that, she thought, she had the use of her legs.

No girlie kicks, fighting for her life, she knew if he overpowered her even for a second, to drag her into a vehicle she was as good as dead, so she applied the flat part of her boot and aimed it at his shin, using all her body weight into the kick, connecting twice.

"You little bitch! got some fight in you, do ya? I must not have beat it out of you, but I will now. I fucking love that, fight me, it only makes me harder, my love. We could have had something. We could have been something … you’llsee."

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