Wincing just slightly, Shanna watched as the woman spun around, bent over and threw up while she gagged and choked, trying to get air while her dinner hit the floor from the blow to the stomach. They attacked me, Shanna reminded herself when she started to feel bad for the other woman who dropped to her hands and knees, still getting sick and struggling to breathe.

The pity Shanna felt didn’t last as two arms wrapped around her body and she discovered her arms pinned to her sides from the person holding onto her from behind.

Ovoly had gotten up, crept behind Shanna and attacked. Shanna reached up with her hand to grip the other woman’s arm behind the elbow and grabbed the wrist of the hand over her stomach. Shanna gasped in air, bracing her legs, and doubled over as hard and fast as she could, jerking hard on Ovoly until her weight slid over her body.

The shocked woman screamed out as she was flipped over Shanna to slam hard into the tile floor again on her back. Shanna jumped out of the way and watched both women as adrenaline pumped through her body. Both women stayed down and Shanna started to relax until the bedroom door flew open to admit a dark-haired house helper who took in the sight of her downed friends, snarled and charged at Shanna. A second later another one came rushing through the door. Shanna knew she was in a world of shit as the last two entered the room. Six against one, even with two of them down, wasn’t odds Shanna wanted to bet on.

“Totally screwed,” she sighed and then tensed, kicking out at the woman who launched herself at Shanna first but the woman dodged her foot.

Three of them grabbed Shanna as she kicked at the fourth one coming at her front but nailed the woman in the crotch. Shanna was fighting dirty and wasn’t going to apologize for it if it helped even out the odds against her. The woman she kicked screamed out, tripped in her haste to get away and collapsed on the floor in a ball, sobbing. Two of the women grabbed Shanna’s arms while the third one grabbed a handful of Shanna’s hair and suddenly yanked on her hard. Shanna screamed out in pain as she was jerked off the floor by the taller women. Her feet kicked nothing but air.

“Let’s kill her,” one of them snarled. “Human animal.” Shanna took a deep breath, trying to not scream out again from the pain of being held up by her arms and her hair, feeling as if all of her hair was being torn out of her head. She needed the air in her lungs to fight. The one behind her made the mistake of moving in closer to grab her around her waist, letting go of a fistful of Shanna’s hair so she had room to move her head a little.

Shanna put her head down and then threw it back hard, pain reverberating through her skull when it slammed into the blonde woman’s chin behind her. She heard something crunch, not sure if she’d cracked her cranium or the other woman’s jaw, but knowing it had hurt both of them a lot when the other woman cried out louder than Shanna did. The arm around her waist loosened and the other hand in her hair let go completely.

Shanna twisted in their arms, her foot going for one of the woman’s knees, and slammed her heel into it hard. The woman’s grasp on her arm loosened enough that Shanna’s weight dropped and tore her free of her grip. Landing awkwardly, Shanna twisted to face the one who still clutched her other arm. Shanna threw a punch at the woman’s throat, striking her, and caused the woman to choke. Unfortunately, she didn’t let Shanna go when she stumbled back, falling in her frantic battle to get air from the blow, and they both went down to the floor.

Something hit Shanna in the back before she could recover from having the air knocked from her lungs from the hard landing. She knew with wide-eyed pain that it was a bare foot that had kicked her hard, crushing her chest more into the floor. The next blow was to her side. She was sent rolling along the floor from the force of the kick, sucking air in her lungs, and then another kick came to her hip.

Shanna rolled under the bed and kept rolling. She stopped for a second, panting, and frantically looked out to see where the hell they were. Three were down but she saw three pairs of feet move toward the other side of the bed she was at. Shanna rolled the other way, even knowing she was going to have to practically climb over one of the women who were already down, the blonde woman who still gripped her jaw and sobbed.

Shanna made it to her feet before one of the women jumped up on the bed to come across it at her. Shanna made a split-second decision and charged for the open bedroom door. Sprinting in terror, she took off running, leaping over Ovoly who was still down and almost skidded into the doorframe as she made the turn. She ran down the darkened hallway into the living room. The front door was in sight when someone slammed into her from behind, taking her down hard with a tackle.

Pain tore through Shanna when she sprawled on the unforgiving hard floor. She ordered herself to fight, to get up, but the heavy weight on her back shifted, causing her more pain as she was crushed. The woman grabbed Shanna’s hair, yanking hard, and all Shanna could do was move her hands under her face, knowing what was coming.

Her head was slammed forcefully down toward the floor but smashed into her softer hands instead of the tile.

A snarl sounded somewhere above her from another direction. It meant two of them had her and hot tears filled Shanna’s eyes with the realization that they were going to kill her. Berrr was going to know what they’d done but it wasn’t going to save her ass since she was done for. She hurt too much to fight and the bitch on her back was too heavy for her to even get a real breath. She saw spots swimming in her vision telling her she was about to lose consciousness from lack of air.

The weight suddenly was lifted off her. Shanna gasped in air, her lungs burned for it, and lay there with her forehead on her throbbing hands that still hurt from catching her head. Panting, she sucked in air and waited for another kick to nail her side or her head. She wanted to throw her injured hands up to try to protect her face and ears but she was terrified if she did they’d try to smash her face into the tile again.

A hand gripped her arm and started to turn her over. Shanna sucked in air again, knowing if she didn’t at least try, she was going to die . I’m not a quitter and I’ve had to fight all of my life to survive. I’ll be damned if I just give up now because I’m tired and I really hurt damn near everywhere. As her body turned, Shanna used the last of her strength to tuck her knee up to her chest. She kicked up at the person who gripped her as she jerked her head to look at them to see where to kick.