Free Beyond Possession (Beyond #5.5) by Kit Rocha Page B

Zan had created of her, one who was sweet outside the bedroom and needed a hero to swoop in and save her.
    Tatiana didn't need a hero. She had a board with three dozen nails sticking out of it.
    She angled her body away, like she was flinching, because he'd like that. He'd get off on the idea of scaring her, and she needed to distract him. She needed enough room to do this properly.
    Buzz leaned closer. Tatiana closed her fist around the board and swung—hard.
    He roared in pain, waving one arm wildly. Tatiana tried to duck but couldn't relinquish the board. The back of his hand cracked across her face, smarting tears into her eyes, and she ignored it. The nails had embedded themselves in his side, which had to sting like a bitch, but it wasn't enough.
    Tearing it free, she rammed her knee into his balls and shoved him back. She wasn't small, and she'd never been more grateful for the extra weight. When he stumbled, she slammed into him, riding him to the floor. His hand shot up, locking around her throat, cutting off her air.
    She didn't think. Didn't second-guess. She smashed the board down with both hands, like she was trying to cut off his damn head. The nails split his skin, sinking deep. For an awful, eternal moment, nothing happened. Then hot, thick blood welled up beneath the board, beneath her hands .
    Buzz thrashed, flailing, and managed to knock the board away. Blood spurted from his wounds, splashing Tatiana's face and hands.
    She scrambled off him, crawling under the table before stumbling to her feet. Her fingers were slick with blood, but she snatched up the pistol and turned, leveling it at him while she put her back against the wall.
    He clutched at his ravaged throat and screamed. The sound gurgled out of him as he lurched toward her.
    Shooting him was a fucking mercy, but that wasn't why she did it. She put the first two in his chest to drop him before he could touch her again, and the third in his head so he could never, ever touch her again.
    Someone would come running soon. You couldn't fire shots in the heart of the marketplace without attracting attention. Stuart, probably, or someone else loyal to Dallas. Someone who wouldn't give a shit that she'd put down a slimy motherfucker like Buzz.
    But the word would spread. Wallace would know soon. Catalina. And Zan—God, Zan would be furious. Her carefully ordered world had just skidded out of her grasp, and she couldn't wrap her brain around any of it.
    She jerked her gaze from Buzz's corpse, and it snagged on her worktable. Her soap was a mess, the lines half-drawn and smudged. She'd ripped the swirling tool out of the partially hardened soap, leaving behind jagged tears and stiff peaks. She could salvage some of it for the sectors, but she couldn't sell it to Eden.
    What a stupid fucking thing to care about with blood slicking her skin and a dead man on the floor, but she couldn't move past it. The symbol of all of her hopes and lofty dreams, mangled by a past she couldn't outrun.
    There was nothing to do but start over. Again.

Chapter Seven
    Zan knew something had happened the moment he set foot in the market.
    This time of morning, the place should've been hopping, with vendors and customers alike thick in the streets. Instead, at least half the stalls were still closed up, and most of the folks stood clustered in small groups, whispering nervously.
    Worst of all, they fell silent when they saw him.
    He was five seconds away from snatching up the nearest asshole and demanding to know what was wrong when he spotted Stuart coming out of a side alley. The man stopped, squared his shoulders, and strode toward Zan.
    "You heard?" he asked when he got close enough.
    "No." Zan crossed both arms over his chest. "But you're about to tell me."
    "Buzz Miller's dead," he said shortly. "Wallace's favorite sycophant. The Stone girl is close-lipped about what went down, so I let it go and just dumped the body."
    "Wait, Tatiana or Catalina?"
    Stuart jerked his head