Read Online Retribution by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Free Book Online

had, which was a lot for a little thing. The door hit him hard and slammed against his arm and face. Oh yeah, that was going to leave a mark.
    Stunned, he staggered back.
    That was a mistake. She came around the door with a feral growl and launched herself at him. Damn, it was like trying to fight off a mountain lion. Come to think of it, he’d rather fight a mountain lion.
    Those, he could shoot.
    “Stop!” he snarled, trying to get her off him as she pounded him with her fists.
    “Not until you’re dead!”
    He hissed as she bit his hand. “Trust me, you don’t want me to die.”
    She elbowed him hard in the stomach. “Why not?”
    Jess tried to get a grip on her, but she twisted out of his hold and kicked him hard in the leg. He put some distance between them in the hallway. “You’re locked in my soundproof basement, where no one will ever be able to hear you scream—and they won’t dare come down here to check on me, since they’re not allowed.” Definitely not true—he always had a hard time keeping Andy out of his hair, but she didn’t need to know that. “They’ll just think I’m coming and going on my own. You got about a day’s worth of food in the pantry down here. After that, hope you don’t mind eating rotting Dark-Hunter carcass, ’cause, babe, that’s all you’re going to have.”
    Abigail paused at his words. She would call him a liar, but something in his eyes told her he was being honest. Besides, it made sense from what she knew about Dark-Hunters and their habits. She’d been told by her Apollite brethren that their Squires lived in fear of them and that the Squires interacted with the Dark-Hunters they served only when they had to. Some of them had even welcomed death at Apollite hands to be free of their Dark-Hunter masters. “I could break down the door.”
    He scoffed at her bravado. “This was designed as a fall-out shelter with ten-foot-thick steel walls. Unless you’re packing some heavy artillery in your foundation garments, sweetie, it ain’t gonna happen. Ain’t no cell service down here or anything else. It’s like a tomb, which it will be if you kill me. But that’s up to you.”
    She wanted to tear his throat out. Unfortunately, even though she ached to kill him, her self-preservation kicked in. Last thing she wanted was to die  … at least before he did. “Why did you bring me here?”
    “Why are you killing Dark-Hunters?” he countered.
    Stepping back, she raked a repugnant sneer over him. At least as much of one as she could, given his wardrobe change. Dressed in a pair of red flannel Psycho Bunny pajama bottoms that added a sense of humor and whimsy to his I’ll-rip-your-throat-out tough guy aura, and a gray T-shirt, he looked  …
    Normal. The only thing lethal about him now was his giant size and those dark eyes that promised her death.
    She swallowed before she answered. “Why do you think?”
    “Other than the fact that you’re as loco as a three-tailed cat in a rocking chair factory, I’m as clueless as a newborn colt.”
    Abigail’s stomach churned at his words. “Oh I forgot. You think it’s all right to kill innocent Apollites and humans and prey on them. Well, I have news for you, buster. We’re not taking it anymore. Your days of killing us are over, and we’re hunting you now.”
    Frowning, he snapped his head back with a baffled expression. “Come again?”
    “Are you deaf?”
    “No, ma’am. But I know you didn’t just accuse me of killing the very things I protect.”
    His denial shot a fresh bomb of rage through her. Grinding her teeth, she lunged at him.
    Jess caught her against his chest. She stomped his instep. Cursing, he bent over and stumbled back. Big mistake. She slammed her hands across his ears. Pain splintered his skull. She would have kneed him in the face had he not put a little more distance between them.
    Sick of being beat on, he cursed himself for declining the handcuffs.
    His only course of action was to