Sins and Scars (Sinners Book 1) (20 page)

The cattle prod touches my skin again and I feel my whole body shake uncontrollably. My teeth chatter and I’m pretty fuckin’ sure I just bit my tongue. My hands clench and I try to keep myself conscious, but I’m having a hard time. When it finally stops, my head falls forward, and all the muscles in my body go limp. My labored breathing is the only thing I can focus on.
 

“Bring her with us. Let’s let our boy have some time to himself.” I can’t even fight the boneless feeling in my body right now. I wish I could stop them from taking her from me, but I can’t.
 

I’ve never been the type of man to pray to a higher power, but right now I would do anything to make sure that Harlyn was protected. The door slams shut and I can’t hear anything but my labored breathing. I don’t know how long I just stare at nothing before I can even get a word out.
 

“Please God. I know I’ve been a shitty as fuck human being over the years, but please don’t let that affect her outcome from this shitty situation. Please help Nikolai and Romeo find a way to get to her and save her before it’s too late. She deserves all the fuckin’ happiness that I couldn’t provide for her over the years. I didn’t deserve to ruin her the way I did.” My head hits against the table as I look up at the wall. My eyes are having a hard time staying open.
 

Before I can close my eyes, I hear the door open again and then shut quickly. I hear her cry out in pain. “Harlyn.” I whisper hoarsely.
 

I hear her bare feet slap against the concrete floor as she runs over to me. She runs her fingers over my face and she has a sad look on her face. “Stav.” Her whimpers fill the silent room and I wish I could do something - anything.

Her hand moves down to one of the stab wounds in my stomach and she puts her hand over it. “You’re losing a lot of blood.” She whispers. Her eyes meet mine again and my head falls forward. She grabs my face and forces my head up. “You can’t die, Stav. Please don’t leave me. Who knows what they’ll do to me if you die.” I wish I could reach out and touch her face once more.
 

Every inch of my body is screaming out in pain, and part of me wants it to be over, but the other part wants me to fight for her. Fight for
us
even though I know that there won’t be an
us
in the future.
 

“I… I … I’ll try babe.” I finally choke out. I start to cough and I can taste the blood as it starts to pool in my mouth. I cough again, and this time I end up getting it on her hands that are still holding my face up.
 

Her lip trembles and she puts her forehead against my collarbone. She silently sobs against my skin and I wish that there was something I could do for her right now. My eyes are getting heavy and I start to cough some more. I see blood spatter against her again, and I want to push her away from me, but she wouldn’t let me even if I could.
 

“I’m sorry my sins have touched you. I never meant for this.” I say in a ragged breath. I think one of the kicks to my stomach or my chest broke a rib. Breathing hurts, and I might have even passed out for a few seconds from the pain.
 

Someone comes in, who the fuck knows how long after, and releases me from the table. I fall to the ground and Harlyn pulls me into her body. Everything feels like jello since I haven’t moved in, who fuckin’ knows how long. I lay in her arms until I can start to get movement back in my limbs.
 

Wrapping an arm around her waist, I pull her to me, and hug her. Burying my face into her hair, I breathe in her scent once more. I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to memorize her, let alone hold her like this.
 

“You have to save us.” She whispers again. I try to stand, but I can’t force my body to work with me. After a few tries, she stands up and tries to pull me up with her. When I finally get on my feet, I sway a few times, and almost knock us both over. My hand goes to one of my stab wounds and I see the blood still trickling out of me. I’ve lost a lot of blood, and I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to keep upright like this. Hell, I’m surprised I’m still conscious right now.

When the door opens, one of the Fighting Rebels walks in and shuts the door behind him. He comes towards Harlyn and I know it’s the bastard that said he wasn’t afraid to give her a little something of himself. When he grabs her, I release her and grab the knife out of the holder he has connected to his jeans. Using a lot of my fuckin’ energy, I unsleeve the knife and thrust it up, and into his back. Covering his mouth with my hand, I feel his teeth sink into my skin as he tries to fight me. Pulling the knife back out, I shove it in right where his neck and spine connect, and he goes limp in my arms.
 

We both fall to the ground, and I try like fucking hell to get the knife out of him. Harlyn squeaks out and then comes over to me and helps me up again. “I need the knife babe. It’s the only way I’ll stand a chance against them.” She looks back and forth between me, and the guy that has the knife stuck in his back. Harlyn grabs the knife and pulls it out. She hands it over to me and I walk with her away from his body. Her hands cover her face and she hides in my neck. My free hand runs down her back and I move us against the wall, sinking us onto the floor. I hold her in my arms until the door opens again a while later.

My hand absently runs over the tattoo that he forced her to get. When I look down at it, I see his name written on her skin, and the monster inside of me wants to gut the fucker for even trying to take her from me. When the door opens, I see Flint’s eyes scan the room. He sees his man on the ground and I can’t help but grin at him.
 

Harlyn moves out of my lap and sits on the ground next to me, watching as Flint comes further into the room. His eyes never leave me and that makes the monster inside of me ecstatic. Not that I can really move all that much. Every move takes way more effort than it should, but I won’t let that stop me from gutting this bastard like the fuckin’ pig he is.

As he moves closer to us, I slowly get to my feet. “I see you got some of your anger back. That’s good.” He grins. He looks over at Harlyn and reaches his hand out to her. “Come, my dear.” She shakes her head no and he reaches down to grab her. Pulling the knife out, I grab him by the neck and push him back into the wall behind him. My fingers flex around his neck and I want so bad to crush his wind pipe, but that would let him off too easy.
 

I want to make him suffer like he’s been making me and Harlyn suffer.
 

The knife slices his skin quickly as I recreate what he did to me. The only difference is I push the knife into him deeper than he did to me. He yells out, and before I can get any further, men start storming in the room. Grabbing him around the neck, I walk backwards towards Harlyn, keeping the knife firmly against his neck.
 

“Let me go and I won’t make her suffer too much.” His voice is nothing more than a few gasps, but I don’t release him. I don’t give a fuck what he says; there is no way I’ll let him go. When I do, I’ll be right back against that table, unable to protect Harlyn from these fuckers.
 

“I’ll gut you before I let you go.” I feel my body start to wheeze and I know I won’t be able to keep it up much longer. My body is giving up, and I feel like I’m failing her.
 

Just as I’m about to thrust my knife into his throat, I feel something hit me, and the electrical jolt knocks me on my ass. Flint pulls himself off of me as my whole body starts to twitch. Every muscle in me is being fucking shocked to hell. Harlyn goes to touch me, and when her hand touches me, I see her eyes widen as it must have shocked her too. It stops, and my whole body goes limp on the cold, hard ground. My eyes close, and the last thing I hear is Harlyn screaming out my name as someone grabs her and drags her away from me.
 

A knife digs into my skin and my eyes fly open. Trying to move, I realize that I am now strapped back down to the table. Breathing heavily, I look around the room and try to find Harlyn. When I don’t see her anywhere, I look at Flint running the knife across a big part of my chest.
 

The burning sensation as my skin splits open makes me grit my teeth, but I still don’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that he’s got me where he wants me. “Where is she?” I grit out.
 

“I have her in my room. I plan on finally taking her after the shit you pulled. You killed my sergeant at arms.” I spit at him and he just pushes the knife deeper into my skin. My vision gets hazy and I pass out again.
 

I awake to another beating, but it doesn’t even matter anymore. If he hurts her, everything I’ve done will be in vain, and there is nothing I’ll be able to do to protect her anymore. Blow after blow brings me in and out of consciousness. Nothing I do can keep my body from shutting down. I can feel the blood sliding down my face and dripping onto my chest. Every hit brings me closer to the end, and I know that at least I went out with a fight.
 

I tried to save us both, but I couldn’t. My eye swells and I can barely even see out of it anymore. My whole body aches and I know that they aren’t even close to being done with me. They’re still trying to figure out how much I can take before they kill me.
 

Flint brings a knife over with him and slices through my skin. Everything around me goes black, but I can hear Harlyn screaming for me. They brought her back into the room, just so she can watch them kill me. I want to be there to hold her and tell her that everything will be fine, just like I did the night I brought her back after that bastard kidnapped her.
 

Fuck, I’d give anything just to feel her body against mine one more time. She has no fucking clue about the color she brought into my grey and fucked up world. I’ll never get to see her belly grow with my kid, and I sure as hell won’t get to kiss my way down her body as she moans out my name.
 

Every good memory flashes through my head, and I’m able to hold on to one moment that stands out against the rest.