First Taste of Darkness by Cynthia Eden Read Free Book Online

care. 
    “Drop your weapon!” Carson shouted.
    Jess tried to turn back and look at her kidnapper, but Blake’s hold was too strong.  He held her close against his chest, and Jess could feel the frantic racing of his heart against her.
    No, maybe that wild thunder was her own heartbeat. She couldn’t tell, not for certain.
    She heard a clatter behind her.
    Blake pulled back, just enough to stare down at her.  “Are you hurt—” Blake began, but then his gaze dropped to her throat.  “
He fucking cut you.”
    “I’m okay,” she tried to tell him. “Blake, really, I’m—”
    Too late. Blake shoved her behind him. Then he pushed Carson out of his way.  Blake lunged at the man who’d kidnapped Jess. They met in a tangle of limbs. Fists flew. Fury boiled in the room.
    “Blake!” she screamed.  The kidnapper’s discarded knife was on the ground.
    And Blake—Blake was beating the hell out of the bastard.
    She hadn’t expected the hotel magnate to fight that way. To fight hard and dirty and lethally.
    The kidnapper’s nose crunched. Blood flew. He tried to swing at Blake, but he missed.  Blake drove his fist into the guy’s ribs. “You never should have touched her.” Another brutal punch connected. Another. “
Never.”
    Jess stared at him, horrified.  Everything was surreal. This…Blake…She lifted her hands and saw the blood on her wrists. When she’d worked so desperately to free herself from the ropes, she’d sliced her wrists. Made them bloody and raw.
    Jess started to sway because
this couldn’t be happening.
    “
Blake,” she whispered his name.
    Carson had just hauled him off the kidnapper. The man who’d terrified Jess now lay in a bloody heap on the floor.
    “Leave him for the cops, boss,” Carson said, shaking his head. “Just leave him. The guy’s done.”
    Blake’s eyes found Jess. His stare—there was so much rage in his dark green gaze. The kidnapper’s eyes had been cold, but Blake’s burned red hot.
    He took a step toward her.
    Instinctively, Jess backed up.
    “No.”  Blake took another step toward her. He kept coming toward her, even when she retreated again. Then his hands—the hands that had attacked the other man so brutally—were reaching for her. “I’d
never
hurt you.”
    She couldn’t look in his eyes right then. She looked over his shoulder instead. Carson had turned away from the guy on the floor.  As she watched, Carson lifted a phone to his ear, and his gun—
I hadn’t even noticed the gun!—
was now holstered at his side.  He started rattling off an address.
    And the man on the floor began to rise.
    “Jess, dammit, look at me,” Blake ordered her, his voice rumbling.
    The kidnapper was smiling.
    Rising.
    And pulling out his own gun. The gun had been tucked under his shirt. Hidden…
    “I swear,” Blake told her as his hands tightened on her arms, “you’re safe with me. I wouldn’t hurt—”
    “Gun!” Jess screamed as she threw herself against Blake. They both hit the floor.
    They rolled and twisted, and Blake covered her with his body. 
    Gunfire blasted even as the scream of sirens echoed from outside.
    “Blake,” she whispered, fear tearing through her.  Had he been hit?
    His head lifted. He stared down at her. His eyes glittered.
    Then his head turned, just a few inches.  Blake didn’t move from her. He kept shielding her body.
    “Is he dead?” Blake’s voice was flat. Hard. So cold.  But his eyes blazed.
    Beneath him, Jess shivered.
    “Yes, sir,” Carson responded but his voice was—weak?
    “He shot you. Shit.” Then Blake was gone. Rising away from her and moving swiftly toward Carson.
    Jess sat up, shaking.  Her ears still rang from the gunshots. Or was it from the sirens?  They sounded so close.
    She blinked and tried to focus on Blake and Carson. Carson was against the right wall.  He had his weapon gripped in his hand.  He was pointing that weapon, even as blood soaked his left shoulder, pointing the gun at