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I gripped the knife tighter, wanting to slice his heart out and watch the light leave his eyes. “You can’t hurt me when you’re dead.”
He stepped closer to me, his thick arms remaining by his sides. All the muscles of his body were tense in preparation of the fight about to ensue, but his handsome features remained as stoic as ever. “Even if you cut me, it’s not going to slow me down. And you’re more likely to cut off your hand in the process.” His brown eyes narrowed in hostility. “So just put down the knife down, sweetheart. I mean it when I say I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You mean it?” I asked coldly. “You expect me to believe that? You’ve been lying to me this entire time. I thought you were some kind of good guy, but now I know you’re just Egor’s bitch.”
His eyes narrowed even more as both of his hands tightened into fists. “Be careful, sweetheart.”
“I will,” I hissed. “The only way I’m getting out of here is by killing you. And I’m not gonna stop until—”
He charged me. His lean but ripped physique came at me quicker than a bullet. His heavy feet pounded against the hardwood floor as he propelled himself with a formidable momentum.
I barely had a second to react.
I steadied the knife and sliced at him, but my blade only hit air. I pointed the blade right at his heart, ready to claim his life. I was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for my freedom—by taking someone’s life.
I missed.
Carter moved with stealthy speed. He grabbed my wrist, slammed it hard onto his knee, and forced me to drop the blade on the floor.
“No!”
He kicked it away then shackled both of my hands behind my back with one of his. Without the same gentleness he showed me before, he shoved me against the wall and pressed his chest into my body, keeping me in anchored in place.
Just like the last time he pinned me down, I could hardly move.
I was completely at his mercy.
He breathed heavily in my ear, his massive hands so strong I couldn’t even flinch. “You never had a chance, sweetheart.”
“I’ll make another chance.” My cheek was pressed against the wall, and I felt his hard-on through his sweats. My loss fueled him in many ways. “I’m not going back to him. I will never stop trying to kill you, asshole.”
He gripped the back of my neck, keeping me in place so easily. “I’m sorry you had to find out that way.”
“And I’m sorry for sleeping with you. I’m sorry for thinking you were a good man. You’re no better than him…”
He kept his mouth pressed to my ear. “You don’t have the full story, sweetheart.”
“I don’t care about the full story.” I tried to buck off him with my hips, to catch him off guard with my words. “I hate you, Carter. You can’t send me back to that monster. You have no idea what kind of shit he does to me.”
He pressed his forehead to the back of my head. A quiet sigh escaped his mouth. “Trust me, I don’t like this.”
“If you meant that, you would let me go.”
“It’s not that simple. My hands are tied.”
“No,” I hissed, bucking against him again. “My hands are tied.”
His hands loosened on my wrists, and he forced me to turn around. Pressing my back against the wall with my hands pinned beside me, he looked into my face. With a clenched jaw and remorseful eyes, he didn’t seem like the monster he’d just revealed himself to be. “I hate this, sweetheart. I mean that.”
“No, you don’t. You would let me go if you did.”
He clenched his jaw. “I can’t.”
“You can do anything, Carter. If you really give a shit about me, do the right thing. Be a good man.” A slight jolt of hope moved into my heart when I saw the sadness in his eyes. His feelings seemed sincere, as if he didn’t like the situation we were in.
“I can’t.” This time, his voice emerged as a whisper. “If I let you go, Egor will come after my family. I can’t allow that to happen. They’ve already been through enough.”
“And you don’t think I have a family?” I hissed. “Why is your life more important than mine?”
“I never said it was. But my family’s life is more important to me than yours.” He cocked his head to the side slightly, his eyes narrowing in pain. “I have to choose—and I have to choose them. When I bought you, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.”
I listened to every word, wanting an explanation for our situation. How did Carter get mixed up with Egor in the first place?
He sighed before he continued. “My cousin and I buy trafficked women from the Underground. We’ve been doing it for years. Their families pay us to get them out of the situation. We pretend to be genuine buyers. Once the money is transferred, we keep them for a while to avoid suspicion, and then we return them, untouched by us, to their families.”
