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The sound of footsteps echoing through the conaled Brumley’s departure

Son of a bitch!

"What’s the ETA, Baker?" Cole de traffic!" Baker snarled "It’s not far but this is balls, ain when h PJ’s wire

"Why the tears?" Nelson asked ht over the honor to be his lover But maybe you’ll like er able to bear to hear anything more When he looked up, he could read the expressions of the others

They’d gotten the information they’d needed after all Bruirls

But at what cost? At what fucking cost? Soutted Cole to even dwell on what the success of this mission had cost PJ

As ive it all back and never kno to save those girls if he could take back what had just happened to PJ

CHAPTER 11

PJ lay sprawled on the couch, pain knifing through her body as surely as the blade had cut into her skin Nelson loo He didn’t like passive women He’d said aswas starting to wear off and if the asshole gave her just a little ht on his hands, because she wasn’t going to lie here and take it like she’d been forced to do for Brue ate at her It was acid in her blood, eating a hole in her very soul

There was nothingso helpless that she hadn’t been able to h for the bastard to rape her He’d gotten off on ed her It was an assault to her senses Sed cuts He hadn’t

Nelson left the room and PJ immediately tested her ability to move Some of the lead had left her lis She looked around for so, she could use as a weapon She wasn’t strong enough to get off the couch yet, but she could make the bastard sorry he’d ever touched her

To her utter shock, the knife that Brumley had used on her was on the coffee table just a few inches fro and reaching for the blade

She bu e sliced into her fingers It was a s it closer

She turned it so she could grasp the hilt and then she took it, transferring it to the hand closest to the inside of the couch, and then tucked her hand between the back of the couch and her side

Nelson returned athe smeared blood He frohen he realized she was still bleeding from the cuts

He lookedpissed

"There was no point in this," he muttered "No need to cut you at all, much less so deep You need stitches"

An odd thing to say when he planned to kill her What the fuck did it matter if she was sliced open?

"Please," she rasped out, trying to buy e student I was out for a good tio home No one will ever know"

Nelson’s lips thinned into a firm line "I have orders"

He wiped at ave up He rose, and she was appalled to see the bulge at his groin Despite his seeust, he was certainly turned on, blood or not

"I wanted you to be able to fight," he said in irritation "It’s not fun when you just lie there"

Coht

He unzipped his pants, not even bothering to remove thes apart and was on her and inside her in a brutally painful thrust that momentarily paralyzed her in her shock

"Coht me," he snarled

"Be careful what you ask for, asshole," she hissed

His eyes widened in surprise just as she nailed hih force to break it Pain lanced through her fingers, but she ignored it Then she raised the hand holding the knife and plunged it into his back

He howled in pain and i hi the effects of the drugs Her weapon was gone and noas up to her wits to escape alive

And then the roar of an engine and bright headlights flooded the entire living rooht for them

Nelson scra for the knife as he went The knife clattered to the floor and PJ lunged for it, prepared to defend herself however necessary

A lass and debris as a utility van crashed through the front s She threw herself onto the floor and covered her head to protect herself

"PJ! PJ! Goddaed in relief, her strength gone Her tea else would hurt her

Suddenly Steele was over her, his eyes so intense and full of hatred that she flinched

"He escaped out the back," she said hoarsely "He’s bleeding Don’t let hiet away"

Steele turned and barked to the others "Stay with PJ Van and I are going after Nelson"

Steele moved beyond her, Donovan on his heels And then she found herself carefully enfolded in a strong pair of arms

Cole

She’d know him anywhere Could smell him

She buried her face in his chest as shame crashed over her

"PJ, PJ, sweetheart Oh my God, baby Oh my God"

It seemed to be all he could say as he rocked her back and forth, his heart beating like a druainst her broken body

"I’m so sorry," he said brokenly "I’h her systeer call back Now that she was safe, her barriers were down The adrenaline rush was gone She had nothing, no buffers to what had happened She’d been raped by two men and sliced open like soo? To hide? They would all see her Her shame And know that she hadn’t been able to prevent what had happened

She wanted to crawl into a hole and die