Page 93 of Bad Luck, Hard Love
Ace laughs, the sound echoing through the hangar. “Always so eloquent. Is that how you won over Terrance's wife? Your sparkling conversation?”
“Where. Is. Charlotte?”
“Close,” Ace says, tilting his head toward the metal room. “Very close. You can probably hear her if you listen hard enough.”
As if summoned by his words, another muffled scream pierces the air from behind that steel door. Raw. Desperate. The sound of someone being broken piece by piece.
“You sick fuck,” I snarl, lunging forward despite the guns trained on me.
The nearest Reject slams the butt of his rifle into my skull, sending me crashing back against the wall. Stars explode across my vision as warm blood trickles down my face.
“Easy there, hero,” Ace chuckles. “Save some fight for the grand finale.”
“What grand finale?”
“Oh, you didn't think this was just about the money, did you?” Ace's grin widens, revealing teeth stained with tobacco. “We’re just getting started.”
CHARLOTTE
I waketo the taste of my own blood and the sound of Terrance's voice slithering through my drug-induced haze.
“Wake up, Charlotte.” His fingers dig into my jaw, forcing my head up as cold water splashes across my face. “I said, wake up. You have a visitor.”
The world tilts and spins as I struggle to focus, my eyelids feeling impossibly heavy. My body feels distant, disconnected from my mind. I'm still on the bed, still restrained, but someone has propped me against the headboard.
“There she is,” Terrance coos, his face swimming into focus. “I need those pretty eyes open for this.”
I try to speak, but my tongue feels swollen, my lips cracked and bleeding. All I manage is a raspy moan that sounds nothing like the defiance I'm trying to summon.
“Someone's here to see you, darling.” He steps back, giving a better view of what’s behind him.
The door to my prison creaks open, and my heart stops dead in my chest.
Thor.
They drag him in, two men hauling his massive frame between them. His face is a battlefield of bruises and blood, one eye swollen shut, his lip split open. Blood dripping from a wound in his leg.
“Your knight in shining armor. Though he's looking a bit tarnished at the moment.”
He's alive. My foggy brain latches onto that single, precious fact.
“Thor?”
His good eye finds mine across the room, blazing with fury and something else—relief. Relief that I'm alive, even in this state. The men throw him to his knees with a sickening thud. His hands are zip-tied behind his back, shoulders wrenched at an unnatural angle, but he doesn't make a sound. Just keeps his gaze locked on mine like I'm the only thing in the universe.
“Isn't this touching?” Terrance circles Thor like a vulture, polished shoes clicking against concrete. “The biker who thought he could steal my wife.”
Thor's jaw tightens, a muscle twitching beneath the blood and bruises. “She was never yours to begin with, you sadistic fuck.”
Terrance's response is swift and brutal—a kick to Thor's ribs that sends him sprawling. The sound of bone cracking echoesthrough the room, but Thor just laughs, a wet, ragged sound as he spits blood onto Terrance's shoe.
“Is that all you've got?” Thor rasps, struggling back to his knees. “No wonder she left you.”
Rage flashes across Terrance's face as he delivers another vicious blow, this time to Thor's face. Thor's head snaps back, fresh blood streaming from his nose.
“You know what I love about this moment?” Terrance says, straightening his cuffs, “The symmetry. You took what was mine, so I took what was yours. Your brothers. Your safety. And now, I'm going to take her right in front of you.”
“Touch her again and I'll tear you apart with my teeth,” Thor growls.
