Page 123 of Contempt

She smiled back at him, unafraid. “That’s funny.”

“Why?”

“Because you were boring to me from the first second I met you.”

That did it.

That pissed him off.

Christian spun around with a hand already raised to hit Lucia. Instinct made her turn her head, and raise an arm to cover her face, but not before she shot one last look at the screen where Renzo was working. She watched him cut the wire, and sucked in a sharp breath at the same time before she closed her eyes to prepare for that oncoming slap.

Christian didn’t miss it.

That slap never came.

“What was he doing?” Christian demanded. Lucia opened her eyes to see Christian right up against the screens again. “What did he cut? Why isn’t it counting down? What did he fucking do?”

His voice become progressively louder until he was just roaring. Lucia covered her ears because it hurt to hear it.

She didn’t have time to think on it for long. He was already reaching for the cell phone he’d set beside the screens.

“Kill switch it is,” he hissed.

No.

The word screamed inside her mind. She didn’t even hesitate to jump up from the bed, and smack the phone out of his hand. She heard the phone skid across the floor at the same time Christian swung around with a closed fist that connected with the side of her face.

Pain bloomed.

It exploded in her mind.

Her vision blurred and stars burst in her eyes.

Lucia was sure she hit the floor from the force of the hit, but she couldn’t be sure, either.

Holy shit.

“Fucking bitch,” he snarled at her, “stay down there like the dog you are.”

She blinked in just enough time to see Christian turning his back to her. He bent down like he was trying to find the phone as Lucia got up to shaky legs. Her vision still wasn’t all that great, and her ears were ringing like crazy.

It didn’t matter.

He couldn’t touch that fucking phone.

She grabbed the first thing she could to throw—one of the monitors on the desk—and threw it at his back. The screen crashed over the back of Christian’s head, and sent him sprawling to the floor. It wasn’t enough to keep him down, though.

When he got back up, he came for her. She didn’t even have the chance to turn and try to run before he was taking her to the floor. His punches rained down on her one after the other, and the only thing she could do was try to deflect them, or protect her face. Sure, she got in a couple of her own hits—she scratched her nails down his face, too, but it didn’t do anything.

He wasn’t the least bit fazed.

God.

But he didn’t have that phone in his hands.

He didn’t have the kill switch.

That was all that mattered to—