Page 76 of Trigger Happy Ending

I suck in a sharp breath as my blood runs hot. I can’t let this happen.

“How ’bout now?” Derek asks.

“Jesus, Angel, fucking tell him!” Danika screams. “Tell him where she is!”

“Blondie,” Derek says, grinning at my silence. “Last chance.”

I lick my lips and estimate there’s about fifteen seconds remaining before those elevator doors open, and Carson’s private security arrives to end this fucking carnage.

“I don’t speak English.”

Ten seconds.

“You fucking smart-ass bitch.”

The backhand comes fast and hard. He hits me so hard from across the counter, my head snaps sideways, and I see stars. There’s the distinct taste of copper. Asshole made me bleed. I bite the inside of my mouth and count down from ten.

Slowly, I turn my head back towards him. Before I spit blood in his face, a shout echoes from the floor below. “Pres! Company!”

Carson’s private security has arrived.

Right on time.

Derek glares at me, breathing hard. “I’ll be seeing ya.”

I keep my eyes low as he spits on the bar and backs away, herding his men. I’ve never had to restrain myself the way I do right this second.

The demon inside me is pacing, teeth bared. It’s on a leash—for now.

Chapter 33

Raine

Ikeep my head down as I stand beneath a flickering 7-Eleven sign, waiting for Soren to come and pick me up. Desperate times, desperate measures, and all that shit. And, well, I’m desperate. I drag in a few deep breaths and keep my shaking hands out of sight, shoved deep into my jacket pockets.

The second Carson’s security detail swarmed in, I bailed, but not before I found Cherry. She was already moving, half-running through the dressing room corridor in her ridiculous platform heels, trembling and wide-eyed, one hand fumbling for her phone and the other clutching her duffel bag.

I caught her face between my hands and forced her to stop and breathe.

“I want you to listen to me and do exactly as I say. Go to your apartment, and pack a bag,” I told her. “Be fast. Then get to a hotel—a high-end one, one with a doorman and security.”

“Angel, what the fuck?”

“Just do what I say and call me when you are at your apartment.”

She stared at me for half a beat, panic swimming in her eyes, then nodded and took off.

The second she disappeared, I pulled out my phone and messaged Soren, demanding to be picked up a few blocks away. As I ran towards our meeting point, I called Smyth.

“I’m about to send you a photo of a woman I need an alias for urgently,” I said when he answered. “And ID to match.”

A pause. Then the familiar tap of keys in the background.

“Copy. Send me the details.”

I slowed my run and sent everything Smyth needed. Finally, I made it to the 7-Eleven where my phone rang. It was Cherry.

“Angel?” She was still panicking. I could hear the frantic rasp of her breath as she threw her life into a bag.