STAG: MC ROMANCE (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 7) by Samantha Leal Page A

advantage she seemed to have was that this man was so fixated on violating his prize that he seemed oblivious to the fact that “it”, which is to say that she, was waking up.
    He was feverishly pulling her panties down and she could feel his fingers clawing at her crotch, as he tried to jam a few fingers inside her. With his other hand he was trying, unsuccessfully as well, to unzip his pants. Frustrated at his inability to multitask at this crucial moment, he quickly withdrew his hand from between her legs, so as to address his damned stuck zipper.
    Rebalancing himself on his knees to pull down his vexing pants, he leaned back and away from her just a bit. The subtle shift in his weight offered Jessa just enough freedom to reach the extra inch and wrap her hands around the very welcomed feel of cold hard steel. Seizing the moment instinctively, she adroitly pivoted on her hip, quickly capitalizing on his momentary off-balance posture. The man toppled over and she was now the one in charge. With surprising speed and agility she straddled him, and just as quickly and unhesitatingly, she plunged the shears into his chest down to the handle. Springing away from him, she watched as the bleeding man reached for her, keenly aware he might still somehow have some fight left in him. One thing was clear by the shock in his eyes. He definitely had not seen that coming.
    Jessa stumbled away from him as his arms quickly fell to his sides and he toppled face first in the dirt, dead. But the bigger danger had not passed. She put her head down to collect her thoughts. What the fuck was she going to do now? The question kept running through her mind. The answer was harder to find.
    They were going to have to leave the community. It didn’t matter that the man attacked her. There were many people that wouldn’t believe her and would surely think that it was somehow her fault. She wasn’t very talkative and people found that trait suspicious. Some people felt like women did not have the option to say no anymore, let alone fight back in the new male-dominated landscape. A woman had the choice of finding a man to protect her, or traveling as a gypsy from place to place with the constant risk of being assaulted.
    It took a minute for her to realize she did not have any clothes on below the waist and that her shirt was almost ripped off of her. Finding the clothes that had so recently been torn off and dressing herself helped her collect her thoughts even as she touched her head gingerly, feeling a bump forming. Blood had clotted in her hair and smeared her face, even as it mixed with Chase’s blood on her clothes. She walked slowly to the stream nearby so she could take a quick impromptu bath. She was thinking hard about how she was going to get into town in this state without drawing too much attention to herself. She didn’t even notice the man watching her from behind the trees.
     
    ***
     
    Michael stepped back and went completely still as she passed. If he had not just witnessed what he had, he would have never believed it. He had come across the two as the man sat on top of Jessa. At first he was unsure what was happening but then had seen the blood on her head and knew something was very wrong. Just then she had started to struggle. Before he could utter a word though, he watched her stab the man to death with one quick strike. Her eyes were filled with an emptiness that he had never witnessed in a person, let alone a woman.
    Shock kept him transfixed as the woman watched the man die, not a second of sympathy, or any real emotion, just a hollow look as she had stood by ready to finish the job if needed. Then it appeared that she had a moment of uncertainty. At least that’s how it looked, but as quickly as it was there, it passed as she apparently came to a decision. He followed from a distance in the brush as she made her way to the stream. He watched a moment longer, till she had stripped at the water’s edge and hurriedly