I’m pushed inside the house and directed to the left, towards the informal sitting room—the one we didn’t use when guests came around.

“Check for casualties,” Isaac snaps over his shoulders to Leon, who is walking behind us, “and prepare for war. I want those bikers destroyed like the cockroaches they are.”

My heart skips a beat, cold filling my veins. Fear makes me stumble and he jerks on my arm to right me. The pain that shoots up my shoulder has me biting on my bottom lip to stop from crying out until blood pools in my mouth. The metallic tang of it is weirdly reassuring. It tells me I’m still alive and that I still have breath in my body to fight him.

And I will fight him this time. I’m not the meek little girl who left him. I’m changed, different. I have shit to live for this time.

He shoves me and I sprawl onto the floor, my knees jarring as they hit the wooden floorboards. This time, the cry escapes and I’m helpless to stop it.

But I don’t give myself time to recover, twisting so I’m facing him. Having my back to him always makes me anxious. Isaac is a man who needs to be in my line of sight always.

“So, you whored yourself out? Left me for some filthy biker?”

His words piss me off. I want to spit out that Nox is twice the man he is, but I can’t.

“Nox has got some kind of hero complex. He didn’t touch me.” The lie falls from my lips so easily, twisting the dagger further into my heart, but I’ll die protecting Nox and the club. Isaac will never get the truth from me.

I watch as his lips pull into a snarl, like a wild animal tasting blood for the first time. His hand flicks out, striking me across the face and my head snaps to the side. My tongue rattles against my teeth and I feel something warm running from my nose. I don’t care what he does to me. He no longer has the power to keep me scared.

I hate him.

I hate him with a fiery rage that burns through my body, destroying everything it touches.

“I’m not lying. I just had a job there, working in the bar,” I grind out.

Isaac peers at me, uncertainty crossing his face and I internally smile at the fact he’s falling for my lies, or so I think.

Without warning, his foot lashes out, catching me in the ribs and I cry as pain explodes through my chest. I struggle to get up, to protect myself, my arm wrapping around my middle.

“Lying bitch.” I groan as I cradle my ribs. “Do you know what a humiliation it was losing my wife? I looked for you for years.”

“I bet you hated that I outsmarted you,” I gasp out, trying to draw air around my bruised lungs.

He bends at the middle, so he can get closer and roars in my face. “What the fuck did you say?”

I shake my head, letting the rage run free. “Threats don’t work anymore, Isaac. I’m not the same Natasha who left you.”

The snarl returns, marring his ugly face even more. Then I’m roughly dragged up and pushed face down onto the sofa.

“You stupid bitch.”

I feel his fingers at the waistband of my jeans and I thrash against him, but his hold is too secure. I can’t move as he tugs them down my legs, my underwear coming with it.

I fight him, because what else is there to do? I won’t allow him to take another piece of me again, not when all my pieces belong to Nox. I won’t allow him to defile me, to take what he wants. Not without a fight. It doesn’t matter that I’m going to lose this one. He’s bigger than me, stronger, always had the advantage—even in the past. But I’ve never fought him before when he tried to take what he wanted. I would lie there, paralysed with fear. Now, I’m like a wild cat, thrashing beneath him, trying to claw at any piece of skin I can find. I don’t know if I meet my mark, but I continue to fight against him.

One meaty hand comes up and captures both my wrists behind my back, taking all my power from me. Face down, I can do nothing as he pulls his trousers down.

“Boss.”

I recognise the voice. Elijah.

“What?” Isaac growls, still on top of me. His aftershave tickles my nostrils, making me feel sick.

“It can wait, Sir.”

Isaac looks down at me, a sick, sadistic smile curling his lips.

“We’ll finish this later, wife.” He gets off me and I hear the clanging of his belt as he does his trousers back up. “Get fucking dressed,” he snaps out when I don’t move and I jump, ignoring the way my ribs scream as I quickly shift, so I can tug up my jeans.

I barely have them in place when motion catches my attention. I glance up as Isaac’s fist comes towards my face, smashing against my temple. My vision blurs as my ears ring and darkness starts to overtake me. Nox’s smiling face dances in front of me before the darkness swallows me.

26

Nox

The wound to my shoulder hurts like a fucker. Thank fuck it just grazed, my bicep taking most of the damage. Rav gives me a bottle of whiskey to numb the pain, but I don’t drink it. I need to be clear headed. My driving need to get to Lucy is already clouding enough of my judgement without adding booze to the mix.

“Hold this while I get the lidocaine,” Whizz says as he presses a piece of gauze over the top of the wound, pushing my hand against it.

Fire blazes through the area the moment he touches it. I have to grit my teeth to keep my groan locked behind them. It’s nothing compared to the pain gnawing at my gut, the pain of having Lucy taken from me, of her betrayal, of loving her but hating the lies she’s told.

“That’s not going to knock me out, right?” I sound a little breathless as I speak. The smell of my blood in the air is clogging the back of my throat.

“It’s just a local anaesthetic, brother. I don’t think you want me cleaning it out and sewing you back up without it.”

I nod, telling him it’s okay to proceed and he steps over to one of the cabinets. Inside, there’s enough drugs to rival a fucking pharmacy. I watch him rummaging for a moment before I bring my gaze to Rav who is eyeballing me like I’m a feral animal. I do feel on the edge, but I’m not in danger of going over it.

“We need a plan here, Nox. Know you want to go in there all guns blazing, but I ain’t burying you.”

I understand his hesitation. If I was in the right frame of mind, I would share it, but all I can think about is what Isaac Blackwood is doing to Lucy. It makes my stomach churn and my mouth feel like I have cloth stuffed against my tongue. I’ve seen my share of demons in men’s eyes. Hell, half of my brothers have them reflecting in their own, but the darkness in Blackwood is something else.

Whizz moves to my side and draws up a syringe with the lidocaine. He pulls my hand away and blood spurts down my arm, adding to the dark stains already there.

He meets my eyes, and I can see he’s in full doctor mode as he says, “This might sting a little.”

Without waiting for me to say anything else, he sticks the needle into my flesh. It more than stings. It fucking burns through the already sensitive area. I roar out a curse.

Gritting my teeth, I try to keep grounded as he injects around the site of the wound. Every stab of the needle is like a knife sliding through my flesh. The pain helps me stay focused, helps me remember what I’m fighting for.