Chapter 23 · The Debt Collectors

The hand came over my mouth before I got my next breath.

I bit down hard enough to taste somebody else's blood.

“Bitch!” the man behind me hissed, jerking his hand away.

I drove my elbow back. Hit ribs. He grunted. Then somebody caught both my arms and slammed me against the side of a parked van so hard my teeth clicked together.

My mother’s locket punched into my chest.

For half a second, all I could see was Darius standing in that damn gazebo, staring at me like he wanted to say sorry again.

Sorry didn’t bring dead people back.

Sorry didn’t make sixteen years of lies disappear.

“Get her in,” a voice said.

I twisted around and caught a look at them.

Three men. Not wolves, unless they were hiding it better than the ones I’d met lately. Cheap black jackets. Work boots. One had a split lip bleeding down his chin because of me. The van’s sliding door stood open behind them.

No windows.

Yeah. No. Absolutely not.

I dropped my weight like I’d done with Mr.