I wanted him to say something stupid—tell me I should be careful, that I didn’t know who I was dealing with, or that he’d lock me up in some dungeon, but instead, he did something far scarier than that.
Helaughed.His chest shook and he smiled wide, showing me that perfect set of white teeth. Probably the ones he chewed people’s hearts with.
“Do you know which one you are? Daring? Or a fucking idiot?” he murmured, still holding onto my hair. I didn’t like that. I wanted him to let go.Let go of my hair!“When are you calling your daddy next?” the demon asked right as a hot drop of his blood landed on my knee, but my hair—it was still in his clutches.
“Let me go!” I gritted, but of course, his response was a smirk. Repulsive. Dominant. Such a blatant display of power. He embodied everything that was wrong with men. Smug, self-assured, overconfident, physically powerful, thinking he was on top of the world.
Unsinkable.
“Ask nicely,” he taunted, pulling my head back. “When are you calling him next, preziosa?”
Thatword.Clearly, this guy wasn’t a moron—picking a nickname that played on my first name and my Italian heritage.
It was building inside me, that inimitable mix of rage and panic, a feeling I’d known all too well. It was going to spill over at the worst. Possible—
“Go fuck yourself.”
Moment.
I said it. His hand still cradled the back of my head, but I got right in his face—right in the face of the man who fuckingkidnappedme—and told him to go fuck himself. In the silence,it dawned on me that I was way out of my depth and that also, perhaps, just maybe…
I had issues.
His eyes widened like he’d just found a treasure, and my heartbeat sped up when I realized…I’d just fucked up.
“Right here?” He tilted his head, his gaze trailing to my bloody lips once more. “You going to help me, firecracker?” he whispered, his brown eyes sparkling with excitement, and my stomach dropped into my heels.
Wrong.
I’d taken the wrong path. I wasn’t daring or an idiot; I was being reckless, and he got off on it. I pressed my thighs together and shut my mouth, ignoring the hot tears pouring down my cheeks.
The smug asshole finally released my hair and straightened out, brushing me off as if I was trash beneath his feet.
"That's not why you're here, Jade,” he said coldly. “No one wants to fuck you. Especially when you look like a working whore in that outfit."
This was like fucking whiplash. This man infuriated me in the span of one single breath. This dress was classy and beautiful! It was pulled up a little too high and barely covered what was between my legs, but that wasn't my fault—they shoved me into the chair!
"I'm not a whore, you fuckingasshole!Do you get off on kidnapping young women and verbally degrading them? What the fuck kind of sick bastard are you?!" Adding injury to my insult, I did the only thing I could in the circumstances; I kicked up my foot and drove the heel right into his shin.
He didn't even flinch. He just stood there, hands in his pockets, looking down at me with that same reality-warping smirk, basking in all his over-inflated power.
But I wasn’t done becausefuck it.Fuck these guys! "But even if I were a whore, it’d still be more respectable than whatever the fuck it is that you do. Fuck you! I’m not scared of you."
I wasn't going to cower, even if I was zip tied to a chair. I'd been through too much to bow down to these low-lives. I may have been kidnapped, but I wasn’t a victim.
I’d never be a victim again.
“Yeah, I see it.” He nodded enthusiastically. “Really leaning into the feral thing there,Preziosa.”
“Stopcallingmetha—”
“Alright—enough!”
Another voice cut in suddenly and I snapped my head to the source—the blond guy. He stepped closer and joined the dark-haired demon in front of me, who tried to hide his little smirk—hide the way he melted in glee.
“Jade Moretti,” the blondie began so formally. “You’re going to stay here for the foreseeable future. You’re allowed to swim at the beach and go for walks. No phone, no laptop. There’s twenty-four-hour security stationed outside the house and throughout the property. Don’t run away, they’ll catch you. If something happens, like you slice your hand with a knife or something, security’s here for you."
Dear Lord, what the actual fuck was going on? I had so many questions and no idea where to even begin. The blond guy seemed more reasonable and normal than the Sasquatch, so I posed a pathetic question, "You're not going to touch me?"
