Angry was the last word Vin would use to describe how he felt. He was enraged. He was so royally pissed that one could see it in the way he gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. It was in the way the muscle in his jaw ticked alarmingly. His body buzzed with energy, with aggression that he needed to get out. You don’t mess with the Baros family and get away with it scot-free, but Reich was about to, for the second time. That wasn’t something Vin would take lying down. On top of that, Callie had disobeyed him. How hard was it to stay inside the car? And how hard was it to drive off at the first sign of danger? He needed to drill her in self-defense as soon as possible. “Where are we going?” “I didn’t say you could speak, Callie.” In his peripheral, Vin saw the singer visibly stiffen at the sharpness of his tone. Even more frustrated with her fear response, he floored the accelerator. Fear was not an emotion he wanted from Callie, at least not fear of him, he re

Beautiful. That was the only word Vin could come up with right now to describe Callie. He had only known her for a couple of weeks, but Callie had wormed her way into his life without effort. She intrigued him, and like a starved man, he wanted to know everything about him. He wanted to solve the mystery that was Callie Moore. As he carried her up the steps to the bedroom, and even as he cleaned her up, his mind was filled with this beautiful woman. In a hushed voice, he left Z a voice message to come and meet him in the safe house as soon as he could. “Keep the men close, Reich may be around, still.” Vin stayed with Callie, quietly staring at her sleeping form until his phone vibrated with a message from Z telling him he was downstairs. With one last glance at Callie, Vin reluctantly left the room to talk to his man. When Callie woke up, it was to an empty bed but a delicious soreness between her thighs. He must have carried her from the living room. A blush crept up and colored

They were running away from armed men, but Vin’s mind was filled with the way Callie was clutching onto him. He was surrounded by her scent, and he had to mentally scold himself for even thinking of taking her there on the forest floor. Callie was incredibly light, but he knew they wouldn’t get far on foot. He needed to find a vehicle for them as soon as possible. Thankfully, Vin knew this forest, and he knew that about a mile from where they were was a diner that bikers frequented. “You can let me down, I can walk,” Callie muttered under her breath, embarrassed and shy about her position. But Vin merely hoisted her up higher onto his back as he continued on the path. “You’re not walking on that foot. Stay still.” Callie knew to shut up then. She didn’t understand what the hell was going on, but she wasn’t stupid enough to believe that Vin wouldn’t take his frustrations out on her if she said the wrong thing. Just as he’d thought, the diner came into view a few minutes later. He

Just when Callie thought her horrors for the day were over, she couldn’t be more wrong. Not fifteen minutes from when Raleigh had her seated and strapped into the backseat of his car, Callie found herself witnessing an interrogation. No, not an interrogation, a torture session. She had asked—begged—over and over for them to stop, but no one listened to her. Even Vin was indifferent. He sat in an old metal chair across from Cullen Reich, who was tied to one. Blood caked on his fingers where nails used to sit, fingernails that Z so mercilessly pulled using some ancient-looking contraption. By fingernail number three, Callie’s throat was sore, and it hurt just to speak. She couldn’t bear to watch someone be tortured for the heck of it. Vin wasn’t even asking questions! Cullen gave away where he was keeping those he kidnapped before the torture started. His men had just started to beat him up without prompt. But Callie learned quickly that closing her eyes only made the torture worse.

“You’re safe now.” Callie repeated the phrase over and over as she held her friend close. But as she did, Callie realized she was muttering the phrase to herself as well, like a mantra, to convince herself that she wasn’t in danger anymore. What happened back at the warehouse would haunt Callie forever. She had an idea of how cruel these mafia families could be, but seeing it first-hand was a different thing entirely. Especially because it was Vin who had tortured him. Vin who had caressed her skin reverently was also capable of such horrible actions. “What about you?” she heard Sienna mutter after a while. Ella continued her examination and proceeded to treat her minor wounds. “What about me?” Sienna threw her an accusing stare. “What happened to you? Who are these people? No offense,” she added, to which Ella snickered. “They’re uh…” Callie began, glancing nervously between Ella and Raleigh, who was leaning on the door frame, watching everything unfold. “They’re the Baros mafia