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“Uh, uh.” He clucked his tongue.
“Cuff her.” Coulter commanded.
Instantly, the guard lunged, grabbed me around the waist, and wrenched me backwards.
“You want to act like an animal, Helene?” Coulter’s dark eyes found me. “Then you’ll be treated like one. Don’t forget, I own you.”
Four million dollars.
I shook my head as cold, hard steel snapped around my wrists. The tears that had threatened to fall slid warm down my cheeks.
“Bought and paid for.” He said, his gaze sliding down my body. “You can bet I’ll get my money’s worth, as well.”
Fuck you. My mind breathed hate, even as tears ran down my cheeks as I stared at him in the dark. Fuck. You.
“Sir.” Came a voice behind him.
Through the shimmering blur, two more guards stepped around him and moved toward the wall. It took me a moment to understand what was happening. But as soon as I saw the wires and the block of explosives, I knew.
“It was you?” I jerked my gaze to him. “All of this? It was you?”
He leveled that sinister stare at me. “You mean the rogue Sons? No. That wasn’t me. But why the fuck not take advantage of the castle crumbling all around me? I might very well take a page out of Hale’s playbook and go to ground. How would you like that, Helene? Just you and me living in seclusion while the rest of the world thinks we’re dead. I could devote my time to you then. One…hundred…percent, while you’re alive, that is. Then, I’d have to find a new mouse to play with. Your youngest sister, Ryth, looks a lot like you, you know.”
My stomach rolled until I thought I was going to be sick. I shook my head. “No…I won’t allow that.”
But my words fell flat as a small beep chimed and the guards rose from the edge of the tunnel wall. Neon red numbers counted down.
“Everyone back.” Coulter commanded.
The guard came for me, grabbed me around the waist again, and hauled me backwards.
“BOMB!” I screamed. “RIVEN! IT’S A BOMBBBB!”
My throat burned with the roar.
But Coulter just chuckled. “I don’t think they can hear you, my love. Still, you want to scream until your voice gives out, then go right ahead. But save a little fight for me. I have a feeling before this night is out, you’re going to need it.”
A shrill, scalding sound ripped free. I thrashed, trying to tear out of the guard’s hold. But he just kept dragging me backwards.
“Everyone get back!” Coulter’s command echoed. “Now!”
“It’s a BOMB!” I howled. “Riven, IT’S A BOMB!”
I didn’t know if they heard me. Please, I begged inside my mind. Please, let them survive.
The tiny red blinking numbers drew my focus as Coulter and his men headed back out of the tunnel in the dark, listening to the place rumble and shudder all around us. As my tears fell, that cruel bitch Fate dragged her sharpened nails along my spine. She moved closer, whispering in my ear.
Feel familiar?
I shook my head as the words resounded in my head and, as they dragged me further and further away from that ticking display, I remembered another time when I’d waited for an explosion.
The Order.
I was the one who’d destroyed that building to get my father free…and I’d paid the consequences for it. My back twinged as though by reflex. I’d attached a brick of C4 to the inside of that building and blew the wall out as I’d carried my father out of there. The same father who’d just sat there and watched me be violated in front of a room full of strangers…the father who’d sat by while I was sold to this—I found Coulter striding alongside us in the dark—this…monster.
The guard yanked me harder, dragging me as we rounded the curve of the tunnels and I lost sight of the tiny red blinking light of the timer. My bare feet skidded on the cold stone floor. Goosebumps raced along my spine.
“Stop this.” I jerked my gaze to Coulter. “Stop and I’ll…I’ll go with you.”
