Free Hitman's Revenge (a Forbidden Bad Boy Romance) by Emilia Beaumont Page A

down I wasn’t a killer, but he could at least given me a fighting chance. Rage swelled in my belly as I wiped away the remnants of blood and gray matter from my already filthy shirt. There was no use going over what if’s . I had to figure out a way out with just the tools I had. All I had was a pretty smile and a decent body; the thug had given me an idea. Flesh would be my currency, and maybe, just maybe I’d get out.
    Because I certainly didn’t have my protector anymore. I couldn’t rely on Jack to come save me like he had when we were kids. For all I knew he was gone, too.
    Don’t think like that, he’s alive, he’s coming!
    Flexing my arms, I walked over to the sink, running the cool water to wash my face and neck. There was no doubt in my mind I was going to get out of here. It was my father’s voice I kept hearing, urging me not to give up, not to let the bad guys win. “ Be strong Hazel girl ,” he would say when I was on the verge of tears. “They can tear you limb from limb, but they can’t destroy your soul. Remember that.”
    I was hanging onto those words.
    Where are you, Jack? Even the thought of his name sent a shiver down my spine and my heart thudding loudly in my chest. At one time he was a close friend to me, helping me through some of the toughest times of my life. He had appeared so unexpectedly when I was just three, taken under my dad’s wing and trained to become a ruthless killer… why I still didn’t know. Maybe my father had always wanted a boy to follow in his footsteps? ’Cause he certainly hadn’t given me that chance; he was always shielding me from the bad things in life. Well, that wasn’t working out too well now, was it?
    Jack was a trained hitman and a darned good one from what I had heard. Because of his “career” he’d rarely been around since he had left home for his first job, and I’d been devastated ever since.
    Our bond felt unbreakable as I grew up with him always by my side, but as I become older, it was hard not to look at his toned body or the way his eyes sparkled when he laughed. He was every teenage girl’s naughty fantasy, and slowly but surely he became mine. But since he lived under the same roof, living like family, it made all my newly discovered emotions unbearable and confusing. Yet it didn’t stop me from fantasizing about him, dreaming that he would come back one day to confess his undying love for me, and we would ride off into the sunset.
    How stupid I’d been.
    Snorting, I looked over at the door, the dark window. I had learned on my second—or was it third?—day here that all it showed was another wall, giving me no indication of where I was or what was on the other side of the door. I also realized that they were watching me from some hidden camera that I still hadn’t been able to find. I’d learned that one the hard way.
    In a desperate move, I’d tried to fashion some sort of weapon after jimmying one of the metal bars that held the bed together away from the frame. In an instant, the door opened, and two burly-looking men came into the room, snatching away the bar. I had fought then, desperate to be able to protect myself, and they had made me pay. I was lucky that my ribs weren’t broken from the kicks I sustained.
    Blinking back the tears, I patted my face with the now grimy towel that was provided and started my walk around the room, stretching my sore muscles gingerly. There was nothing else for me to do but wait for my evening meal to arrive. I would stand by the door in hopes of surprising them the next time they came to visit.
    I would see what was beyond my cell even if I had to scratch and bite, and maybe, if it came to it, kill every last one of these bastards.
    I sighed. If you’re alive, Jack, I really need you right now.

Fifteen

Hazel
Sixteen Years Earlier
    H azel crept around the corner to Jack’s room, the sounds outside shaking the house. A hurricane—one for the centuries they’d called it—but she