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Fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
I hop off the bed, running my fingers through my hair, but the feeling doesn’t go away. In fact, the rage only gets worse, and worse, and worse.
Rage, not against her … but against myself.
Because no matter how hard I fucking try to make her want me, the wanting hasn’t ever gone beyond lust. But my fucking wife doesn’t want anything to do with me.
This isn’t how I imagined my marriage to her would be, what I dreamed about the moment I put a ring on her finger and called her my wife.
Fuck!
Before she can say anything else, I storm out of the room and slam the door shut.
Jill
* * *
I don’t care what he says or how badly I wanted to save my sister.
I am getting the fuck out of here.
I know I told everyone that I’d marry him. I wanted to spare her from having to deal with him. But this? Him toying with my body and emotions like they mean nothing to him? I can’t handle it anymore.
So I toil and toil with the little hairpin I fished from my hair until finally the chain around my collar gives way and the lock falls to the bed. My jaw drops. I actually did it. A big, fat smile forms on my lips, and I force myself to keep the squeal inside as I jump off the bed.
The collar is still there, but at least I’m no longer chained to the bed.
I’m not staying here for another second.
When I’ve put on some shoes, I open the door and peer outside. The penthouse seems empty, and I don’t see Luca anywhere. But I can hear the shower running.
No time like now.
I search every nook and cranny of the penthouse until I finally find a spare key hidden underneath a crown in his bookcase.
The same crown I once wore when my sister, Luca, and I played back when we were young.
Did my parents give him this too?
I gaze at it for a moment, contempt filling my heart.
After tormenting me for so many years, of course he’d keep this as a memento.
I throw it away and use the key to open the front door and sprint through the hallway. I don’t go to the elevator. Too much time. They’ll catch me down in the hall. No, I take the stairs, jumping several flights as I make my way to the bottom floor of the building.
A rush of excitement forces energy through my bones. I know it’s not right. I know I made a vow, but I don’t care. I’ll find a way to get my sister out of my parents’ claws and bring her somewhere safe. Maybe Easton can help hide her too, and then we can both run together.
I nod to myself as I jump the final flight of stairs and burst out the door. The front door is unguarded. Only one person sits at the front desk, and she stares at me with blank eyes like she can’t believe I’m actually here.
Then she picks up a phone.
I run like hell through the revolving doors and out into the open, out … into freedom.
Chapter 21
Jill
* * *
For fifteen minutes, I’ve been running through the city with no idea where I am and not a clue where I’m headed. I thought I knew where Luca lived, but I was wrong. This place seems so unfamiliar to me, and I don’t have a phone to check a map because Luca took it. I could ask someone, but I’m too scared they’re in some way connected to the De Vos family or mine. I can’t risk getting caught.
I’m wandering aimlessly through the city. Shadows lurk in every corner, freaking me out.
Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to run without being prepared.
When it feels like one of the shadows begins to follow me, I ramp up the pace.
My heart is racing in my chest as I flee from whoever’s following me, hoping no one will find me. But if I know Luca well enough, he has spies all over the city.
Never alone, never really free, even when I run.
Still, I run harder, and harder, and harder.
No matter how out of breath it makes me, no matter how much my feet start to hurt from the high heels on my soles, and no matter how exhausted I get, I keep running. Because running is the only thing that reminds me of being alive.
And I will live, goddammit.
I head into an alley down the road. I have to find a street that I recognize so I can find my way around and make an escape. Or better yet, find any of Easton’s establishments and hide inside until I can contact him there and ask him to help me get my freedom back.
Bolstered by the mere idea, I rush through the alley and come out on a street near the docks. There aren’t many people here, and the grimy look of the buildings gives me the creeps.
