Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
“What the fuck have you two been up to?”
I throw my arm over my chest and make a beeline for my shirt, covering myself with it while Beast pulls up his cargo pants like it’s no big deal.
“None of your business,” Beast replies.
I can’t even look at the guy. That’s how embarrassed I am that he caught us naked.
Raymond marches to the door, whipping out his stun gun and threatening Beast with it. “You. Stay here. And you,” he says, gesturing at me before pointing at the stairs. “Out.”
Panicked, I scramble to my feet, staring at him for a second, wondering what the hell is going on.
“Are you deaf?” Raymond adds.
Beast snarls, but I quickly step forward before another fight breaks out. I don’t want to see him writhing around in pain on the floor again.
“I’m coming,” I say. “Please don’t hurt anyone.”
“Good girl,” Raymond says, and he throws Beast a sneer. “At least someone knows how to listen.”
Beast bares his teeth, but Raymond ignores him and grabs me by the arm, dragging me up the stairs.
My heart pounds in my throat. “Where are we going?”
He doesn’t answer as he pushes me up and through the door. I blink a couple of times to adjust to the bright light.
Suddenly, Lex’s face comes into view, and I almost shriek.
“Interesting,” he muses. “I scare you, but that Beast down there doesn’t.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat. “How do you know?”
Lex snorts. “I know much more than you think.” He circles me like a vulture, and it creeps me out. He turns around to Raymond and says, “Leave us.” When he’s gone, Lex focuses his attention back on me. “I’m curious to know why you choose to trust that monster.”
“He’s not a monster. He won’t hurt me,” I respond.
“Wrong,” Lex replies.
My lungs feel like they’re constricted. “You don’t know him.”
“And you do?” He stops in front of me. “Did you forget he already tried to kill you once?”
Sweat drops roll down my back, but I ignore them. “That was on your orders.”
He steps closer, right up in my face. “And do you think I wouldn’t order him to finish the job?” he says through gritted teeth.
Panic swirls through my veins, making my heart thump in my throat. “You need me.”
“Do I?”
“I’m the only one who can get my father to talk.”
“Yet his guards were so eager to gun you down too,” he muses.
Tears well up in my eyes. “That was a mistake.”
“Was it?”
I hate him. I hate his guts. “What do you want?”
“Oh, just a chat,” he replies, groping his beard. “You see, there’s something that’s been bugging me for some time now … the fact that when we were at your house, bullets flying left and right, my hound first ran to you instead of me.”
I turn to look at the stairs right behind me, sweat drops gathering at the small of my back.
“You wanna go back down there into that hellhole?” Suddenly, he slams me into the wall, right beside the door. “Be with him?”
“It doesn’t surprise me he didn’t go to you first,” I quip.
But I regret it the moment I’ve said it.
“Exactly,” he retorts, his jaw tightening. “And that’s a problem. A problem that needs to be dealt with.”
Why do I feel like this is a threat?
“You’re cruel,” I say, not knowing what else to say or do to make this nightmare end.
He laughs again. “Tell me something I don’t know. In fact, tell me what the fucking PIN is so I don’t have to lose more men to your stupid antics.”
“I told you, I don’t know,” I hiss. “I’ve given you the papers. Isn’t that enough?”
He slams the wall behind me, making me jolt up and down. “Don’t play me for a fool!”
I slam my lips shut. Nothing I say is good enough for this man, and I have to be careful. He’d shoot me without a second thought if I got on his nerves.
“You’re lying and stalling. I know exactly what you two have been up to down there,” he says.
My eyes widen.
“Yeah,” he mutters. “My guards can hear every breath, every sigh …” He leans in to my ear and whispers, “Every moan.”
I shudder in place, feeling like my stomach is about to turn upside down.
All this time, I thought Beast and I were alone in that cell, but if the guards really can hear everything we do, everything we say, through that door …
Oh God, they could hear everything I told him.
“Do you enjoy letting him use you?” Lex asks.
Tears roll down my cheeks. “He wasn’t—”
“You’re a toy, Aurora!” he roars. “I gave you to him to play with.” He shoves me into the wall and pinches my shirt until my throat is clamped shut. “Why do you like him? Tell me why?”
My jaw drops, but I don’t know how to respond.