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The floor beneath her froze her back, paralyzing her limbs. Every part of her felt broken and dirty, and still, she couldn’t let him leave like this.
Lions don’t surrender, Lena.
They roar.
“No, Pedro, you hear me. I don’t know when, and I don’t know how, but I will make you pay for this. I’ve lived with only half a soul for sixteen years. If I have to sell the rest of it to the devil to come back to haunt you, then that’s what I’ll do. If I have to choose between the pearly gates of heaven or torment your dark soul for eternity, I will choose fucking torture.”
Being chained up in a cold basement was nothing. Just another bump in the road she’d chosen a long time ago. It was just another dent in the armor she’d surrounded herself with.
She had survived worse. She had inflicted pain on the man she loved the most, only to be forced to live with the man she hated the most. Every day since then, she had died a little. The only thing that had kept her alive was her daughter. Vicky was the single, most beautiful thing she had ever created. She was kind, smart, and amazing. Hell would freeze over before she let Pedro get his filthy hands on her.
CHAPTER 4
VIKING
He was a father. Of a teenage girl. Overnight.
Viking tore his gaze off the girl as he walked over to the bar. If this wasn’t the time to break out Kristoff’s expensive vodka, then he didn’t know when was.
He grabbed a bottle and two glasses. After dropping her bomb, the girl hadn’t spoken another word. Still, she seemed to be taking this a lot better than he was. It was going to take him more than a minute to wrap his mind around this.
He took the chair across from her and opened the bottle. Just when he was about to fill her glass, a thought hit him.
“You twenty-one?” She sure didn’t look like it.
She scowled, a gesture that reminded him so much of Sy it hurt. His little brother had just become an uncle and didn’t even know it.
“No.”
She sounded caught. And he knew she’d never had a drink in her life. He was going to make sure it stayed that way.
“Then no drink for you.”
A smile formed on her face. “That’s okay. I didn’t really want one, anyway.”
The little shit was testing him. He could read it on her sweet, angelic face. “What’s your name?”
“Vicky. I think I was named after you.” She sounded hesitant, as if she was afraid he’d reject her and send her away.
He gulped his drink. It was smooth and burned going down his throat. It was nowhere near enough. He poured himself another one.
“Named by who?” That should have probably been his first question. But hell, it wouldn’t make a difference knowing her mom’s name. She was probably a one-night stand he wouldn’t remember, anyway.
She pulled up her knees and cradled them. A weary look entered her eyes.
“By my mom. Elena.”
The glass in his hand shattered. His vision went dark. Arrows of betrayal hit him straight in the gut, making him bleed. A familiar pressure inside him built and built, rising to heights unlike ever before. He allowed the darkness to swallow him whole. Then, the dragon inside him unleashed, flying out of the gates of hell.
There was a scream. Followed by a curse. After that, he didn’t hear or see much. Some words pierced through the fog clouding his vision, but they disappeared as fast as they came.
“Jesus, Viking. You’re scaring the girl.”
More sounds, screams, and pressure against his chest. He had to pull them away. No one could stop his rampage. No one. He was fury. He was hell. He was retribution.
“Yuri, get the girl out. Then get Kristoff.”
There was another scream in the echoes of his mind, this one farther away.
