e Bent

rrien roared, storming

He stopped inches from my face,

hey caught Chloe exiting my suite! If you had stayed at my side like you were told, n

p disgust. "I caused this? You were spread across a

omeone drugged my glass! As my mate, your only job was to cover f

Beaulah's voice sliced th

ng his jaws shut and ret

dian table. She unclasped a heavy gold pen, scrawled a

he Page treasury. Five h

orrow at eight sharp, you will sit beside Darrien at a press conference. You will announce that you were the woman in that room,

fless girl from the slums had no right to dignity. Five hundred thousand doll

r near the window scoffed. "It's t

o swallow my soul, lie to the city, and spend my life chain

ing clarity sett

. I reached out a

mug, triumphant smirk. "Good.

th both thumbs and rip

I folded the halves, ripped them again,

urled the scraps straig

ver her emerald silk

sp sucked the a

oice ringing out like a battle cry, "but our sp

hooting forward to seize my throat. "You don't walk awa

gth could pin me. I twisted my shoulder, slipped beneath his reach

mb beneath the heavy four-carat

it came free, but I tore

damn ring!"

num setting straight ac

de. Darrien howled in agony, stumbling backward, cl

hest and clattered into th

is dead," I anno

kward into the paneling. "Lock her in the subterranean

ical guards l

lead-crystal ashtray off the ta

e with a wet crunch. He roared, clutching his shattered face,

s all I

retched claw, and burst through the

" Darrien's muffled s

the freezing steps, tiny chips of metal and gravel driving into my soles, but the adrenaline burned the pain out

ors. Fo

pen, accompanied by the guttural,

rash bar and burst into the subterra

amp concrete, gasol

welve!" a guard roare

smearing the floor beneath my torn feet. Fifty yards away, the

d-end wall of high-

s tr

gged chunk of broken curb. If I was going d

r, his nose twitching as he cau

Take h

r shock batons a

-intensity halogen beam

ne. The vehicle drifted sideways with a deafening screech of burning rubber, slamming to a halt in

unlatched an

n was a cavern o

. Anything was better

ew myself forward, and dived head

pressurized, vault-like thud, cutting

h floor mats, gasping for

n's chair above me, t

n frost. Ancie

from the d