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I swallowed. “No.”
He smiled. “Liar.”
I stayed quiet as panic gripped my soul. I saw evil in this man’s eyes. They weren’t Max’s eyes at all. The only thing they shared was color. And that sure as hell didn’t make them alike. His hand slid against my cheek. I gritted my teeth to keep the pain at bay as I felt it swelling. His fingertips played with the tendrils of my hair as he twisted one around his index finger. I tried to shake him off, but his finger didn’t move. I tried to lean back, but he only came closer. Until his abs sat against my knees and his disgusting breath pulsed against my face.
“In my line of work, little bird, I’ve become gifted at spotting a liar. At watching for the tells. A fluttering at the throat as the pulse quickens.”
His finger slid out of my hair and pressed against the pulse point on my neck.
“Or maybe a brief reflex. A twitch of the finger. A quirk of the lip. A widening of the pupil for the briefest moment.”
His finger ran up my neck. Along my jawline. Until he traced my lower lip. I leaned away from him as far as I could get. I felt my chair teetering along the edge of the pool as the two front legs came up. I felt his free hand grip the leg of the chair. He tilted me back quickly and I yelped. He dangled me there, my hair touching the top of the water as I wiggled and strained for dear life.
Then he brought my chair back down onto all fours as he snarled, “You love him, little bird. I know you do. Don’t you dare convince yourself that you can lie to me and get away with it. Many people have made that mistake in the past, and it’s gotten them killed. And it will be your undoing.”
My eyebrows rose. “My lie? Or my love?”
His eye twitched. “Both.”
I felt my fear morphing. It spiraled in my gut and fogged up my brain. I kept tugging at my restraints, only feeling them grow tighter as my hands started to tingle. I couldn't wiggle my toes any longer. I felt trapped, like the small animal I had become to these people. And as my tears betrayed my solid façade, I fought to stay in control, to blink them back, to keep a strong outer force against this terrible man as his hand came up to my face.
He wiped away a tear that escaped the side of my eye.
“Don’t cry,” he whispered. “This will all be over soon.”
My lower lip quivered. He stood up and turned his back to me, his hand in the air. With a snap of his fingers, the bodyguards moved. They moved to the body still lying on the grass. The smell of blood and sweat filled the air around me. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see them drag that poor man off. I listened to his body sliding across the grass as more tears leaked down my face. I was in hell. This was what hell felt like.
And I wondered if anyone knew I was even here.
When the shuffling around stopped, I slowly opened my eyes. It took a second for them to adjust through my tears. But when they did, I found myself alone. His father wasn’t there any longer. I saw none of the bodyguards. It was just me, this stupid chair, these damn leather bonds, and the very dark puddle in the grass.
That had drag marks leading back to the mansion.
What are they going to do with him?
I started tugging again. As furiously as I could. I didn’t know what else to do, and I prayed that one of the knots would come undone with enough manipulation. I craned my neck back to see if I could figure out how the knot was tied. But the more I shifted around, the closer the back legs of my chair got to the edge of the pool. They came so dangerously close that I felt the chair wobble, causing me to cry out.
And as I leaned forward, trying with all my might to keep myself from falling into that damn pool, I smelled something in the air. A stench I couldn't place. One that wrinkled my nose, curled my toes, and brought my eyes to the sky.
Smoke.
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I saw smoke rising into the air. Thick, black, heavy smoke coming from a chimney at the side of the mansion. The smell was rancid. It made my stomach turn over onto itself as I sat there, begging myself to wake up from this nightmare. And as my watery gaze fell back onto the pool of blood in the grass, I put two and two together.
Causing me to vomit between my legs.
38
Max
The gates blew open as I soared through at over a hundred miles an hour. I grunted as the tires rumbled over the spikes that shot up from the concrete. I heard guns firing. I heard the dents in the outside of the SUV getting deeper and deeper. But this was one of my father’s SUVs, so I knew it was decked out with the best of the best.
Things like flat-proof tires. Bulletproof windows. Double metal coats to catch hollow-pointed bullets.
I’m coming for you, Dad.
The gunfire kept up until I heard a bullet penetrate the car. I ducked down, trying not to let up on the gas pedal as I careened into one of the apple trees. The entire front of the car dented. I swerved out of the way, scraping the entire length of the car on the passenger’s side. Guns kept firing. I heard my tires screaming for mercy as the bullets penetrated to the core of the tire.
