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His hands grab at my hips, and he yanks me backward as he bottoms out. He doesn’t start slow; he fucks me brutally against the dirt wall of the grave. My face smashes into the soil so hard I close my eyes and mouth to avoid having them filled with dirt.

I moan with each thrust as his cock stretches me, and fuck, he is thick. One of his hands leaves my hip, and he snakes it around my neck and squeezes. Not a light little squeeze someone does when making sure they don’t kill you; this is done with no care.

Panic sets in and I open my eyes.

My brain separates it from a fun sex kink to: “Oh shit, you’re going to die.” Using my free hand, I try to pry his fingers away, but he only thrusts harder. Spots dance before my eyes, and they flutter closed. In the darkness, I hear him groan his release.

I gasp for breath as I feel cool air on my neck, and it finally trickles down my throat, the black swirls of unconsciousness slowly fading as oxygen returns to my system. I only realize he has stepped back when my lungs have enough air in them again, and I turn to glare at him, but he simply smirks at me as I use my uncuffed hand to pull my pants up.

“Fuck you,” I snarl.

He takes a few steps toward me, and his arms cage me in, palms pressing flat against the dirt behind me. “Next time, leave my name off the fucking list. If you mess with Jess again, I will fucking kill you. That was just a taste of what death feels like.”

He is so close my breasts press against his chest, so I bring my head forward quickly and headbutt him.

“Fuck!” he shouts, pushing himself back, though his arm flies out to catch my neck in a chokehold again. “You think I’m afraid to kill you? Stop fucking pushing me.”

As I fade out, I glimpse a glow behind Clay. Then my eyes close.

Chapter Ten

Ares

Kayla is still asleep. I have checked her breathing twice in the last hour, but I haven’t done it out of concern. I set my coffee down on the desk and lean back in my chair, facing my bed where she is curled beneath my covers. She needs to see me the second she wakes up.

Clay didn’t know I was watching when he wrapped his hand around her throat, neither the first nor the second time.

It wasn’t the time for me to be involved in the sexual escapades.

One of Clay’s fundamental flaws is that he gets consumed by what he wants and becomes careless.

I waited until the exact moment to use this to my advantage, and just as her eyes shuttered, I moved in. A second sooner and she would have seen me.

I have thought about what happened a lot this morning; how I can use it when she wakes up and pieces together that it was me who stepped in. It will rewire how she feels about me. Without her knowing why, she will always feel something—a feeling that binds her to me.

Vero was too consumed with Brawley to see Clay assault Kayla, and it ate at him. I won’t be the one to tell him how it looked from where I was standing; it’s not my job to hand over information when it serves me no purpose.

I called Cipher, knowing he would have a way to remove the cuffs—he is always tinkering with something. Thankfully, she was out cold because he brought a grinder to get them off. Vero acted like a little bitch about it, but they are now both free from the cuffs.

Kayla is the first person in a long time who has truly looked at me. I feel she can see right through me, even without knowing the details of what she is actually looking at. She is observant, and I need to be more careful—hence why I stepped in to save her.

Most people hand me their trust easily. They want to be understood, and I am great at pretending to give them that, even though it’s just transactional to me. But Kayla asks the right questions and moves on. I know she’s a lot like me, tucking the information away for later. That either makes her interesting or really fucking dangerous—I haven’t decided which yet. I almost hope it’s both.

The door handle jiggles, and I shift my gaze to it as Vero pops his head inside.

“Is she okay?” he asks, and I nod.

“She will be fine. Why don’t you start making breakfast? I’m sure she’ll be awake soon and hungry.”

Vero smiles. While he can’t cook for shit and will probably burn the kitchen down, he likes to feel useful. He nods and disappears.

Kayla stirs. I see the exact moment she wakes and realizes that she doesn’t know where she is. She sits up ramrod straight, looking guardedly around the room, and when her eyes find mine, I smile.

“I’d started to think he might have actually killed you.”

Kayla smirks at me as she brings her hand to her throat and shifts herself to get out of bed. Once she is on her feet, she looks down and notices she is no longer in her filthy clothes.

“I hope it didn’t cross too many boundaries, but you were covered in dirt. I tried to clean you off the best I could, and Vero insisted you wear one of his shirts.”