Page 69 of Asphyxia
I struggled in his grasp, my stomach in my throat as I felt his hands tighten around my neck and wrist.
I didn’t dare remove the other from my pocket; there was a good chance that he had already precalculated every possibility—analyzed every threat I posed against him.
No matter how hard I fought, Adrian would never let me go—physically or spiritually.
I was his prize to show off.
A trophy.
Damned to be his for as long as he walked this god-forsaken earth.
When I didn’t respond, Adrian lost his patience, ripping me from the wall by my throat and slamming my entire body down on his hard cot.
He climbed over me, straddling my hips and pinning my free hand against my side. Adrian didn’t leave any opportunity for me to fight back—my resistance only strengthened him, fueling his desire to take what he believed to still be his.
This was the moment I looked back on the stupid decisions that got me here and wondered where the fuck I went wrong.
Why did I believe that I was capable of taking the life of the one man who practically taught me how to do it?
Fuck sake, Mads…
Here I was, a strong, vicious woman, being overpowered because of fucking impulsive stupidity.
Chyler may as well carve that in bold print on my tombstone.
“Adrian.” I gasped as his palm pressed against my windpipe, slowly cutting off my air.
“Did you really just sneak your way in here for a half-assed attempt at killing me, Madison? What would your poor CIA boyfriend think—” He growled as he bent his body forward. I could feel him growing hard against my stomach with the movement. “When he sees his precious toy bloody and mangled on the floor of my cell.”
“That you need a fucking lesson in keeping your fucked up hands off what isn’t yours.” A sharp voice, all too comforting tohear, cut over Adrian’s as my eyes snapped to focus on the doorway where two figures stood silhouetted beside each other.
Adrian didn’t have a chance to speak before the cell door was forcefully kicked open, and an ear-piercing bang rang out in the tiny cell. I watched as he collapsed to the floor almost immediately.
Biting back the urge to shed a single tear as a pitiful whimper passed my lips, I released the scalpel I had white-knuckled in my hand before launching myself off the cot and into the arms of the two men I needed most.
Marcus and Dean.
Chapter 31
Marcus
Iwrappedmyarmsaround Madison, holding her tightly against me as Dean kept his hawk-like eyes on Adrian’s prone figure.
He wasn’t dead, just asleep, giving us enough time to figure out what the fuck we were going to do with him.
“What the fuck, Mads,” I muttered into the crook of her neck, breathing her in with a sigh of relief that we had managed to get here just in time.
Madison wasn’t supposed to be here. I hadn’t a clue how she even fucking managed to get past all of the security checkpoints with a fucking scalpel.
“We’ve got maybe thirty minutes before he’s back up again.” Dean alerted, holstering his gun and pulling cuffs from his back pocket.
“He’s not—”
“Dead? No. But he is unconscious.” I kissed Madison’s forehead before she turned to watch Dean crouch down beside Adrian and roughly cuff his wrists behind his back, ensuring they were extra tight. “Dean shot him with a tranquilizer dart.”
“How did you—”
“Sergeant Drake with Alpha-Six. He owed Marcus a favor, and we cashed it in early.” Dean grunted as he lifted Adrian’s body to a seated position, his back resting against the edge of the cot and his head lolling to the side. “What now?”
