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“I am not gay!” I shout, pushing at him again. “I am not gay. Just because we fucked a few times does not mean I am gay. And besides…” I drop my eyes to the dirt. “I like Haven.”

Yakov goes still. “What did you just say?”

“I like Haven. I only slept with you because I was desperate, and you weaponized that against me.”

“You better watch your tone right now,” Yakov warns, his voice dropping into a dangerous, deadly quiet. “And you better never talk about liking someone else when you are standing in front of me. Why can’t you just accept that I want us to be together?”

“Because I can’t do this!” I cry out, the frustration finally breaking me. “I am not rich. I am sorry I don’t meet your standards, and I am sorry I can never measure up to your world. I can’t just quit my job to hang out with you twenty-four hours a day. If I lose my shifts, I don’t eat. I can’t just go out there and be whoever the fuck I want to be. It is too hard.”

Hot tears spill over my eyelashes and track down my cheeks.

Yakov steps forward and pulls me into a tight hug, wrapping his arms fully around me. “Do not apologize for circumstances you cannot change. I didn’t ask you to quit everything just to marry me, but I do want to marry you, and I do love you.”

I push my hands against his chest and pull away from his hold. “If you loved me, you would have let me go.”

“Don’t say stupid things like that again,” he says, his tone hardening. “Wipe your tears. Let’s go home.”

“I can walk to my dorm by myself.”

“No, I am walking you back. It is dark out here, and I am not letting someone snatch you off the road.”

“You literally just snatched me off the road,” I shoot back. “Does that not make you a creep?”

“Not when I am stalking my own wife,” he replies easily. “Now let’s go.”

He guides me out of the shadows, and we walk in silence the rest of the way to the scholarship dorms. When we reach the front steps, Yakov steps into my space, pressing chest to chest with me. He leans down and kisses the top of my head.

“From now on, I want all your thoughts focused entirely on me,” he orders. “Don’t think about any other man, woman, or anything else breathing. Just think of me, exactly the way I am always thinking of you.”

He leans down to kiss my lips, but I quickly turn my face away. His mouth lands hard against my cheek. Instead of pulling back and accepting the rejection, he opens his mouth and bites down on the sensitive skin of my cheek.

“Don’t turn your face away from me,” he whispers against my skin. “Or next time I will chew the flesh off your bones.”

My eyes go wide in shock. He uses my hesitation to capture my lips, kissing me hard and dominating my mouth. I keep my eyes wide open, looking frantically around the quiet courtyard to see if anyone is watching us. He does this on purpose to ensure everyone knows he is sleeping with me. I begin to struggle against his hold, and after a long moment, he finally pulls back. He stares down at me with a dark, crazed look in his eyes that scares me, but I have no power to stop him.

“Alright, go upstairs, wifey,” he says, stepping back. “I will talk to you tomorrow.”

I turn and walk inside. I glance back over my shoulder twice, and both times Yakov is standing in the same spot, watching my every move. The second I step out of sight, he puts his hands in his pockets and starts walking away, perfectly timing his exit.

I reach my room, unlock the door, and slide down the wood the second it clicks shut behind me. I sit on the floor, trying to figure out what the hell I am going to do. When I finally push myself up, my boot scrapes against paper. I look down and see a thick envelope resting on the floorboards. This wasn’t there this morning when I left.

I pick it up and tear it open. Inside is a formal invitation to the underground Halloween party called Devil’s Night. I heard whispers about it last year, but I never went. Only the elite students and a few chosen outsiders ever get invited, and no one actually talks about what goes on inside. But everyone knows the winners get massive cash prizes. This year, the prize is 100,000 euros.

A hundred thousand euros would fix everything. It would save my mom, clear my debts, and give me enough distance to get away from Yakov finally.

I make up my mind right there. I am going to Devil’s Night. I have no idea who sent me this invitation, because you normally have to know someone deep on the inside to get one. I rack my brain, but I can’t figure out who would slip this under my door.

It doesn’t matter. It feels as if my luck is finally turning around. I smile, fold the thick paper carefully, and hide the invitation in my desk drawer before falling exhausted into bed.

Chapter 9

Elias

I burst out of the thick bushes where we’ve been hiding with Haven and Samarah. My heart slams against my ribs as I tear deeper into the dark forest outside the mansion. “Oh, my God. These people are serious as fuck. They actually want to kill us.” Branches slash violently across my arms and face, but I keep moving. Who the fuck is that guy? How does he know Haven? Sick guilt twists in my stomach for leaving her, but I have no choice. I cannot fight off a six-foot wall of muscle.

I stay low to the ground, ducking behind old trees and thick shrubs. The rules of Devil’s Night echo in my head: find a hidden token, and you buy your safety. If I can find one, I can circle back to protect Haven. If I find three, we can split the massive prize money and get the fuck off this island.

I move low through the shadows as screams rip through the trees from every direction. Masked figures hunt in packs. Some snatch screaming girls and throw them over their shoulders like sacks of meat, hands already shoving up skirts and ripping panties aside while the girls kick and cry. Others pin girls against tree trunks, forcing their legs open, mouths clamped over theirs in brutal kisses while thick fingers shove deep inside them right there in the open. Wet, ugly sounds mix with the girls’ muffled sobs as the masked men laugh and call them free-use whores for the night.