Chapter 3

I was just about to leave the city for good, the last box packed in my car, when my phone rang. It was Ivy.

"Char!" Her voice was a choked scream. "Help me! Please!"

I heard a man's laughter in the background, low and vicious. Then the line went dead.

My blood turned to ice. I knew that laugh. It belonged to Kyle Russo, Kaitlin's brother. A violent criminal Hayden kept on his payroll as an enforcer-Hayden's pet monster.

I didn't think. I just drove. I tracked Ivy's phone to a seedy bar downtown, a place I knew Hayden owned through a shell corporation. I burst through the doors and saw them in a back booth.

Kyle had Ivy pinned against the wall, his hand tangled cruelly in her hair. He was whispering something vile in her ear. Ivy was sobbing, her face pale with a terror I knew all too well.

A white-hot rage, purer and more primal than anything I had ever felt, consumed me. I grabbed a heavy beer bottle from a nearby table and smashed it over Kyle's head with all my strength.

He staggered back, blood pouring down his face, a look of shocked surprise in his eyes.

"Get your hands off my sister," I snarled.

He recovered quickly, a cruel grin spreading across his face. "Bitch. You've got a lot of nerve." He took a menacing step toward me. "You think Hayden will protect you now? You're nothing."

I pushed Ivy behind me. "You touch her again, and I'll kill you. I swear to God."

Just then, Kaitlin appeared, looking immaculate in a white dress that probably cost more than my car. She surveyed the scene with a detached, cruel amusement.

"Well, well," she said, her voice dripping with contempt. "Look what the cat dragged in. The fallen queen and her pathetic little sister."

Kyle immediately started whining like a child. "Kait, this crazy bitch hit me! Look at my head! You have to make her pay."

Kaitlin's eyes swept over Ivy, who was trembling behind me. "Is this the one with the anxiety issues? She looks like a frightened little mouse." She turned to me, her smile widening. "Kyle is right. You need to be taught a lesson. Get on your knees and apologize to my brother."

"Go to hell," I spat.

I pulled out my phone to call 911, but one of Kyle's thugs snatched it from my hand and hurled it against the wall, where it shattered.

I shoved Ivy toward the back exit, but Kyle grabbed me, his fingers digging into my arm. I felt a sharp, sickening pain as my old shoulder injury, a souvenir from a car crash years ago, flared up. I cried out, doubling over in agony.

"Still trying to be a hero, Charlotte?" Kaitlin mocked. "You're so predictable."

She nodded to her men. They grabbed me, forcing me to my knees. The rough concrete scraped my skin raw.

"I said, apologize," Kaitlin repeated, her voice now hard as steel.

"Never."

She sighed dramatically. "I was hoping you'd say that." She gestured to Kyle. "Maybe her sister will be more cooperative."

Kyle's grin was predatory as he advanced on Ivy. I saw the absolute terror in my sister's eyes and knew, with sickening certainty, that I had lost.

But before I could utter a word, the bar doors swung open again.

It was Hayden.

He took in the scene in an instant-me on my knees, bleeding, Ivy cornered, Kaitlin looking triumphant. For a fleeting moment, I saw a flash of something in his eyes. Concern? Anger?

"Hayden," I breathed, a tiny, stupid spark of hope igniting in my chest.

He strode over to me, his face a mask of cold fury. He helped me to my feet, his touch surprisingly gentle. "Are you alright?"

Before I could answer, Kaitlin rushed to his side, her face a perfect mask of counterfeit innocence. "Hayden, thank God you're here! Charlotte went completely crazy! She attacked Kyle for no reason and was threatening us!"

Hayden's gaze shifted from me to Kaitlin. His expression went from concerned to glacial in a single, brutal heartbeat.

He turned back to me, his eyes now terrifyingly empty of any warmth. "Apologize to them."

The words were a slap in the face. "What? Hayden, you can't be serious. They attacked Ivy!"

"I don't care what you think happened," he said, his voice dangerously low. "You will apologize. Now."

He grabbed the back of my head and forced it down. My forehead hit the grimy floor with a sickening thud. The world swam in a haze of pain and utter humiliation.

"Say it," he commanded.

I couldn't. The words were a betrayal of every protective instinct I possessed.

He forced my head down again, harder this time. Blood trickled from my forehead into my eye.

"I'm sorry," I finally choked out, the words tasting like poison and blood.

Kaitlin let out a triumphant little laugh. Hayden released me and pulled her into a protective embrace. "It's okay, baby. I'm here now."

He led her out of the bar without a single backward glance, leaving me broken and bleeding on the floor with my terrified sister.