Chapter 7 · Crossfire in the Rain

The second shot didn't come. That was worse.

I lay under the bed frame with Lucian's weight pressed down on my back. Glass was in my hair and in my teeth. My wedding dress was shredded to my ribs, and the wind coming through the broken window howled like something alive.

His breath was hot against my ear. Fast, but controlled.

"Don't move," he said.

"Get off me."

"Bianca." Just my name. Flat and low. The same voice he'd used an hour ago when he said he'd own every night of my year.

I shut my mouth.

Something wet slid down my neck. Warm. It ran along my collarbone, pooled in the hollow there, and kept coming.

"You're bleeding on me," I whispered.

"I noticed."

"A lot."

"It's my shoulder. It's glass. Shut up and listen."

I listened. Rain hammered the floor inside the room. Forty floors down, the sea slammed the rocks. And under all that, a soft electronic chirp from the hallway. The biometric lock on the double doors, still trying to do its job in the dark.

His hand slid along my ribs, over the ruined silk. My whole body jerked.