CHAPTER 48
A Losing Battle
Gabriela
Nothing—and I mean nothing—could have prepared me for this turn of events.
My guards were dead and now my ex-situationship was blocking my exit, with a deranged expression and a weapon in his hand.
The same weapon he used to kill my guards.
I didn’t understand why he was here or why he would do this.
The only thing I knew with certainty was that it was never Maverick or Franco.
All along, the culprit was Tom.
The break-in, the stabbing, and the texts.
He was behind all of it.
My chest clenched with fright and my throat tightened.
I didn’t want to engage with this motherfucker. So I clutched Luna to my chest and skirted down the seat. I could escape via the other side’s back door and burst into a run. We weren’t far away from Hunter’s home. Barely three minutes away. If I screamed my lungs out, someone—anyone—would hear me.
I just needed to make it out and not catch a bullet.
Tom quickly caught on and entered the car, cocking his gun against my head. “Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn’t move if I were you.”
I froze, the blood in my veins turning cold.
My brave Luna chose that exact moment to hiss and leap out of my arms, scratching the fuck out of Tom’s face. He howled and stumbled back.
She gave me enough time to lurch between the front seats to grab Oscar’s fallen gun.
But I wasn’t fast enough.
Five fingers wrapped around my hair and jerked me back hard, nearly breaking my neck with the force. I screamed as pain exploded along my scalp. Tom’s mouth came at my cheek, his breath sour and gross as he taunted, “What do you think you’re doing, Gabriela?”
“Fuck!” Tears coursed down my face as Tom yanked me out of the car by my hair. Like a fish out of water, I squirmed uncontrollably, crying and shouting, “Let go of me, Tom!”
“You’re coming with me,” he growled. “We have a score to settle.”
My back collided painfully against the road and my skin scraped as he dragged me towards an awaiting vehicle, the trunk already popped open.
The fucker was going to kidnap and do God knows what else with me.
My heart raced like it was trying to jump out of my ribcage.
Luna caterwauled, running after us, frantic to save me.
“Help!” Uselessly, I fought against his grasp, but I was no match for his strength, overpowered and hauled around like a weightless toy.
I never stopped screaming, making noise in hopes that someone would hear and come to my aid.
I never stopped digging my fingers in the back of his hands either, attempting to dislodge his hold, knowing at the very least I was breaking skin and his DNA would be under my fingernails. “Help, help, help!”
“Keep screaming, bitch,” he threatened, appearing like a fucking monster. “No one’s going to hear you.”
When he smacked me so hard across the face, my shouts died and my cheek split from the knuckle rings he was wearing.
Pain like I’d never experienced expanded inside of me.
It felt like a whip flayed open the skin of my back, my face, and my scalp. I wished I were numb. Yet I felt every ounce of hurt ringing in my bones. To the point where I was seconds from passing out.
Luna managed to climb Tom’s body and swipe at his cheek in retaliation, cutting open his skin and leaving three long lines that were akin to the hellhound mark.
He cursed and loosened his hold on my hair. I managed to scramble free for less than a blink of an eye before he caught my ends and dragged me back.
At that moment, Luna scratched his eyelid.
The burst of pride in my chest at Luna’s ability to disengage my attacker was swiftly squashed by fear when Tom howled, “Fucking cat! Should have killed you the first time I saw you!”
He grabbed her body and flung her away. She landed painfully on the ground with a feeble meow that broke me.
“No!” A renewed sense of fight funneled through me. I screeched until I thought my lungs would collapse, struggling in his hold as angry tears blurred my vision. “Don’t touch her, you fucking asshole! I’ll kill you!”
“I’d like to see you try.” He hauled my injured body in the back of his trunk.
He was twice my size and strength, and yet I still tried, and tried, and tried in vain to escape through sobs and sheer perseverance.
But Tom kept shoving me back every time I managed to lift my bloody, bruised self up.
The sadistic piece of shit was enjoying watching my futile attempts.
“After today, you’ll never be able to leave me ever again. ”
The last thing I remembered was a piece of cloth being shoved against my nose and mouth and Tom’s gleaming eyes staring me down as he suffocated me.
Then my body went limp and I fell into a dark abyss.