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her fingers, she pushed on.
The same litany of the words played over and over in her head. Have
to hurry. Have to get out.
Every few minutes she flexed her wrists, testing how much she d
accomplished. Finally, she tugged her bonds and felt a significant
amount of improvement in the play of the plastic. She was almost there.
Just a little more and she would be loose.
She was so close. Her hands began to shake; nervous energy made
them unsteady and anxious. She could almost taste the sweet ambrosia
of freedom.
A groan and the rustle of chains had her eyes flying open and her
head swiveling around to stare in astonishment. Shame was being
carried into the room by Dempsey and another goon she hadn t yet seen.
Her hands stilled. Behind the goons dragging Shame was the big man
himself. The air of self-confidence surrounding the man, his manner of
dress and the very way he commanded attention, hinted at who he was
long before anyone bothered to confirm his identity. Lucian Tremaine
swaggered into the room, his presence lending a more powerful menace
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Amanda Young
to the air than the goons could ever hope to accomplish with all their big
talk and bolstering.
Tremaine was a handsome man. Thick black hair waved back from
his high forehead and mesmerizing chocolate eyes. His skin was pale, the
color of fine bone china. He stood tall, a head above the other men. The
sleek lines of his black suit accentuated the broad width of his chest and
the trim dimensions of his waist and hips. Long legs carried him
confidently across the room to where his thugs dropped Shame like a pile
of refuse on the cold cement floor.
She tore her eyes from the Master Vampire who held her life in the
palm of his hand and looked instead at the man she loved with every
fiber of her being. Shame lay unconscious, his body limp and sprawled
out over the floor in the exact position they dropped him in. Not a single
muscle twitched as Tremaine came closer and kicked him in the ribs.
Dempsey and the tall, scarecrow-looking thug stood on either side of
Tremaine and cheered him on, yelling obscenities and telling him to  kill
the fucker .
 No! Stop it! she screamed, knowing that even if they could
understand what she was saying, he wouldn t stop. Again and again he
kicked until Shame finally came to. Tears streamed down her cheeks,
intensifying with every jab, every heart-wrenching grunt Shame issued.
When his eyes opened and met hers around Tremaine, something
snapped inside her. One minute she was sitting on her knees, bound and
gagged, crying. The next, she was ripping through what remained of her
bindings and rising to her feet. One hand yanked out the ball gag, while
the other gripped the small piece of glass in her fist.
No one looked her way as she launched herself into the air. It wasn t
until she landed on Tremaine s back that they paid her any mind. By
then it was too late. She struck, burying the glass in Tremaine s neck,
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Shameful
dragging it across his throat and laying him open. Blood gushed from the
wound, spraying wildly. It coated everything around them in a sheet of
deep red gore. No more than thirty seconds elapsed between when she
jumped and when she slit the vampire s throat.
Tremaine gurgled, attempting to speak. His hands swished through
the air around her head in an endeavor to dislodge her from his back. He
quickly gave up, his hands going to his throat and holding it tight,
frantically trying to staunch the flow of blood.
Strong hands gripped her around the waist and ripped her off him.
Her back slammed against the floor and knocked the breath out of her in
a great whoosh of air.
She looked up and found Dempsey above her. He was in partial
wolven form, his snout extended, mangy patches of fur covering the
exposed skin of his face and neck.
Gulping, she crawled on her hands and ass away from him. He
advanced toward her, one slow step at a time. With nowhere to go, she
backed into the wall and shut her eyes, praying for her end to be a fast
and painless one.
A deep growl above her and the absence of the blow she expected
caused her to open her eyes. It was then she noticed what was going on
around her. While she d been blinded by her aggression toward
Tremaine, Shame had risen. He currently had the gangly thug down on
the floor and was using the chain between his cuffed hands to strangle
him. One violent twist and the deviant s neck snapped with a sickening
crunch.
Shame straightened and looked her way. His face was flushed a deep
red. A small trickle of blood oozed from a cut near his temple. His eyes
flashed in anger. Whether toward her or Dempsey, she couldn t be sure.
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Amanda Young
She had no reason to believe his anger didn t extend to her as much as
the others.
In her quest to help Kenze, she d betrayed the man she loved and
ended up putting the life of the child she hadn t known she carried in
jeopardy. Now, when she needed help, where was Kenze to return the
favor?
Dempsey, who stood with his back to her, jolted into action when
Shame stepped closer. Shame wheeled around as he approached. His leg
flew through the air, jabbing a brutal roundhouse kick to the side of
Dempsey s head. Dempsey s head jerked back, spittle flying from his
open mouth as he grunted at impact.
Gail scrambled to her feet, her back pressed tight against the wall.
She was torn between wanting to stay, to make sure Shame was okay,
and fleeing in case he planned to come after her next.
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Shameful
Chapter Thirteen
Shame s feet hit the floor at the same time the thug s ass did.
Shame s gaze immediately landed on Gail. Relief, sweet and thankful,
rushed over him when he saw that she hadn t moved. She was still right
there, against the wall, and though she appeared rattled and upset,
physically, she was okay. When he d seen the shape her car was in, he d
been so worried that he was going to be too late. That he d lost her.
Gail had come to warn her brother, but he didn t care. Could he
really say that he wouldn t have done the same thing if he was in her
shoes? That she had helped Ty, even after she d been told what they
planned to do as soon as he was well, endeared him to her all the more.
Seeing her beautiful face so pale, the blood drying on her fingers,
made his blood boil and an intense rage surge within him. She came
there to help Kenze, but where the hell was her brother now? If he had [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]