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Juliette stumbled into a bar after catching her college boyfriend shacking up with her roommate/best friend. Hurt had slashed through her heart, and before she knew it, she was running.

Tears came down like storms, and no matter how much she tried, they wouldn’t stop. She got into her car and drove until the sky opened up and cried with her. Now, the city was flooded, and the vehicles were jammed on the roads.

That’s when she spotted the local bar on the roadside.

Juliette had never been one for alcohol, striving to be the perfect girlfriend for Tanner, her now ex-fucking-boyfriend. He always projected an air of superiority, pretending to be the guy she thought she could fall in love with. But just as she felt their chemistry had peaked and she was ready to commit herself to him, he revealed his true colors.

God, she hated him so much. She wanted to punch him and mess up his stupidly handsome face. Why, oh, why did she let herself be fooled by him? She was smarter than that, wasn’t she? She’d always been cautious about the people she surrounded herself with.

But this time, she made a mistake. She put her trust in not one but two wrong people: Tanner, her ex, and Jolene, her best friend. But that was more than an hour ago, and truth be told, she wanted to forget all about it.

To surprise Tanner on their second anniversary, she had dressed in a sexy black number and had invested a great amount of time in makeup and planning a date night. But all of that had gone to waste.

Juliette had let herself into the bar and ignored all the hungry eyes on her. To her huge disappointment, it wasn’t some high-class place her friends usually dragged her to. This was…sketchy. Like really, really sketchy. And dark. And creepy. And let’s not forget about all kinds of weird.

Juliette was pretty convinced that the last time this place had seen a health inspection was back in the Stone Age. Just the thought of touching anything there made her skin crawl.

She knew she wouldn’t last more than fifteen minutes in the place. There was something about the thick, lingering toilet smell in the air that made her certain of it. But then the pain in her heart surged back, along with a vivid flashback of Tanner’s betrayal, and she forgot all about her discomfort. With the roads jammed and the rain pouring angrily, she wasn’t going anywhere anyway.

So, why not do something wild for once? She could always blame herself in the morning and then cry again over another stupid mistake. Compared to being betrayed by the two people she trusted the most, drinking some cheap alcohol would be nothing.

Brushing away the painful tears, she snagged a stool at the bar counter and ordered the first drink on the menu.

By the time, Juliette was finished, she was drunk like a skunk and could barely tell the difference between a man and a woman. Her vision had blurred, and when the bartender finally cut her off, noting her slurred speech and endless ranting about her ex-boyfriend and backstabbing best friend, he had to practically drag her out of the bar.

What Juliette didn’t expect to happen was what occurred next.

Everything happened so quickly that she barely held herself awake.

Not even two wobbly steps towards her car she had taken when some men had surrounded her. They smelled of alcohol and smoke and perhaps a bit of peppermint which she couldn’t tell was doing the job. She had tried to walk past them, telling them to back off, but they were stubborn as hell and refused to let go.

Juliette let out a scream when one of them grabbed her arm and dragged her to a lonely one-way street. Despite being drunk and having experienced a moment of false bravery, fear rose in her throat rather quickly.

Her back slammed against a cold, unforgiving wall, and when she tried to resist with whatever consciousness she had left, one of them pinned her hands against it. They tore at her blouse, their dirty, icy hands tracing over her skin.

Juliette had never felt so dirty in her life before.

Her heart pounded in her chest as panic surged through her. She fought against the men with all her strength, but their hold on her was relentless. She cried out for help, but the empty alley swallowed her screams.

In a moment of desperation, Juliette’s hand groped for anything she could use as a weapon. Her fingers closed around a beer bottle in the trash crate next to her. With a surge of adrenaline, she swung the bottle at her attackers, aiming for anything vulnerable.

The sound of glass shattering echoed in the alley as one of the men cried out in pain. Seizing the opportunity, Juliette broke free from their grasp and sprinted down the alley, her heart pounding in her ears.

But she couldn’t run too far. Her legs refused to obey her brain. And before she could stop herself, she crashed into the waterlogged street. She was soaked through, and she felt like she wanted to die.

Of course, there was no time to dwell on that. Remembering her dire circumstances, she quickly tried to stand. Or at least she attempted to before everything around her started spinning, and she ended up on the ground with a splash.

The men were quickly closing in on her, and Juliette knew deep down that this was it. She was going to be preyed upon by these disgusting men and probably die of shame after they were done with her.

Why was this happening to her?

All she wanted was to live a happy life. Just to write and fall in love with a decent man. But because of her stupid mistakes, her life was being cut short.

Damn it, she couldn’t even make Tanner and Jolene pay for their betrayal. God should have given her some time for that at least.

“You think you can run, bitch?” one of the guys growled, his grip on her arm tightening like a freaking vise, hauling her back up.

“Please, let me go,” she begged, powerless tears streaming down her face, but they just scoffed and laughed, showing no mercy at all.

“That was the plan. But not anymore,” one of them spat, his voice dripping with venom.

“All you had to do was be a good little girl and cooperate,” the other sneered.

“But no. You had to make it difficult. Now don’t blame us for getting rough.”

“Come on, guys, let’s bring her to the den,” they started dragging her towards something. Perhaps a beat-up car. “Can’t wait to fuck her brains out.”