“No,” Luke says, his voice weary.

“Fuck!” I bellow. “How am I supposed to find him?”

“You’ve got the recourses, Dimitri. Just go back through what you’ve got.”

“It’s not enough!” I bellow. “We couldn’t fuckin’ find him last time.”

“He’s not going to hide now,” he adds. “He’s going to be waiting because he knows Jess is safe now that she’s with him. He’s got no reason to hide from you.”

“This is fucked up,” I growl, running my hands through my hair. “She completely fucked me over.”

“I’m sorry about that, boss.”

I turn and walk out of the room, not saying another word. What is there to say? She used me. She made me think that I could finally trust someone, that maybe my need for revenge was dramatic and misinformed. It was all a lie. She was never interested in helping me; she was only luring me close enough so she could get the chance to run. The moment she got that chance, she took it.

Now who’s the fool?

That’s what you get for trusting.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Jess

Let me go!” I cry as Roger drags me down a set of rickety stairs.

We seem to be going underground. The stairs are going lower and lower and it’s getting darker and smellier down here. As we draw closer, I can hear the sounds of chattering voices. Other people? Why would he take me in front of other people? He reaches a large, metal door and shoves it open, dragging me into a well-lit room. I gape when I see what he’s got down here.

A fighting ring.

There’s a massive ring in the middle, surrounded by a floor to ceiling cage. My stomach turns and I struggle to keep the vomit from rising. Why would he make people fight in a cage? As we move closer, I notice the ten or so people in the room have stopped speaking. I can feel their eyes on me, burning into the back of my head as I move. I keep my eyes to the floor as Roger pulls me closer to the ring.

He’s not going to make me fight . . . is he?

Suddenly I’m sure I can’t keep the vomit down. I begin to retch. Roger spins me around in front of him and slaps my face hard. I cry out, cupping my cheek. “Stop your fuckin’ retching. I need you in top form.”

Top form?

“Rex,” a man says, approaching Roger.

It clicks now. Rex is obviously his name in this world.

“How are we doin’, Trev?”

“Ready to go. Sheila is raring. This your girl?”

The man’s eyes turn to me and look me up and down. “She ain’t big enough, Rex. She’ll get knocked down in one hit.”

Oh God.

Oh no.

My knees begin to tremble and my skin prickles all over.

“We’ll give her a go. Sometimes the smallest fighters are in fact the best.”

The man looks unconvinced, but nods anyway. He turns and disappears, muttering something about five minutes. Then Roger turns to me, smirking. “Ready to fight, little Blair?”

“What?” I gasp, feeling my bottom lip tremble.

“I have big plans for you, but I need to see how you move. If you succeed, you’ll be doing this . . . shall we say . . . more regularly?”

No.

“I can’t f-f-f-fight.”

“Oh, but you can. I know all about where you’ve been all these years. Don’t try to tell me you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I don’t know where you got your information,” I rasp. “But it’s wrong.”

He grins and looks down at me, bringing his face closer. “So you haven’t been on a ship with pirates, all of whom are run by a man named Hendrix?”

My knees give way. I fall to the ground and he lets me go, staring down at me as if I’m some sort of pathetic loser. He doesn’t jerk me up, he just leans over me and begins to taunt.

“I know you’re pathetic, but you’ve got only two choices here, Blair. You fight and you come away unscathed, or you don’t fight and you get beaten to within an inch of your life. You decide.”

“You’ll kill me,” I cry, trembling.

“Then you will fight.”

No, he can’t do this to me. I’m not a fighter. I’ve spent my life trying to be anything but. I can’t be what he wants me to be.

“Sheila’s ready,” someone yells.

I turn my eyes to the ring to see a large, raven-haired girl jumping from side to side, just like Dimitri does. I begin to shake all over. She’s twice the size of me and she looks like she wants to snarl and rip apart the next thing that comes close. That thing is me. Roger reaches down, jerking me to my feet. “If you don’t want her to kill you, fight.”

He drags me toward the ring. No . . . no. I struggle, kicking and screaming as loudly as I can. Nobody notices—well, more to the point, nobody cares. They’re all here to see if I’m going to be good enough to make them money. They won’t get money from me. I’d rather die. Wouldn’t I?

When we reach the ring, Roger shoves me in and my world clouds over. I can’t see, I can’t think, I can’t fucking breathe. I see a pair of blue eyes in my head and I tell myself over and over that he’ll come for me. He won’t let me die. He won’t let me stay here . . . he won’t. He’ll fight for me.

The raven-haired girl glares at me, and my skin prickles. I struggle to fight back the tears welling in my eyes. I can’t let her see my fear but how do I hide it? How do I pretend that the entire situation doesn’t scare me. I can’t. She knows she’s got me, and she is smiling about it. A crooked grin that most definitely tells me she’s going to enjoy every single hit.