Page 222 of Powerhouse: Boxed Set
But she looked high on something that wasn’t even cocaine. Had he drugged her? The fear in her eyes was unmistakable. He was forcing her. There was a reason I had a reputation that inspired obedience. I protected what was mine. And she was mine.
“What the—?” the fucker began, but he didn’t get the chance to finish.
In the quickest flash of my life I was up against him, slamming against him hard as my hand reached inside my jacket.
And in that flicker of a heartbeat the blade went into his guts.
Take it.
Once. Twice. Three times. I twisted that blade and fucked up his insides like the mess of a man he was.
His mouth opened, and he paled, and he knew it, even as he stumbled away with his hands to his stomach, he knew it. He was dying. He collapsed, and I stared down at him with a sneer of my own. The knife hung limp in my hand, blood splattered everywhere, including over my beautiful Constantine’s dress.
And that’s when she truly started crying.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Elaine
Icould hearmy tears. Loud sobs from my chest as it heaved and lurched. I could hear them, but I couldn’t feel them. I couldn’t feel anything, just the buzz in my ears as I stared over at the man with the knife in his hand.
Lucian.
Lucian Morelli was really there. Really standing there with a bloody knife in his hand, staring at the man he’d just butchered. He’d just butchered Stephen. He’d just butchered Stephen forme. To saveme.
There was blood on me too, splattered all over my dress. The fabric was still hitched up above my thighs, my panties still torn at the seam where Stephen was trying to get inside me.
He didn’t get inside me. Thank God, he didn’t get inside me.
Lucian didn’t speak, just stared. His jaw was gritted as he looked over at me, and that’s when it all came crashing in, the vivid colors, and the sounds, and the smells.
Stephen was still gurgling as he took his last breaths. I could see the blood bubbling from his mouth, dripping down the side of his face, and his hands were still trying to clasp the wound in his stomach. He was failing.
Stephen was dying, and Lucian didn’t show even a flutter of regret. There was nothing in him, nothing but righteous fury.
I pressed tighter against the wall as he gestured the knife at me, and that’s when I realized just how badly I was shaking.
“Did he fuck you?”
“What?” I asked, in barely more than a breath.
“I said, did he fuck you?”
I shook my head. “No. He…he couldn’t…I didn’t let him…”
He didn’t reply to that, just stepped closer to the man on the floor and kicked aside his hands from his wound. “What the fuck were you doing here?” the Morelli monster snapped at me, and I tried to answer that, but my voice was still stunted.
“I…I…”
The monster was on me in a flash, pressing me tight to the wall, his breaths fierce. This time his voice was a snarl. “I said, what the fuck were you doing here with that bastard, Elaine?”
“I don’t know!” I blurted out, and the sobs were so hard they were hurting. “I don’t know…I just wanted…I just wanted…”
“What?” he said, right in my face. “What did you want?”
He pointed to Stephen as he gulped his final breath, and I looked over. I looked over at the body, and I couldn’t find any words.
“You wanted that, did you?” he said. “You wanted that worthless piece of shit?”
