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“Yeah. It means I’m dead. Whoever planted it knows I’m here. They’re going to come for me.” I grab on to the edge of the counter to keep balance when my knees buckle at the realization. Panic courses through me. “All because my father got into bed with Nathan Van Dyne. I should have known things would turn out this way. Why else would someone like you want to get in close to him? Why else would you have played me like a goddamn piano? How could I have been so blind?”
The ache in my injured shoulder moans and groans, but I fight through the pain, the emotional trauma consuming all of my focus as puzzle pieces fall together. Part of this is my fault. If I’d kept my eyes and ears open over the years, if I’d have paid more attention to what was going on at home instead of burying my head in textbooks for so long, maybe this wouldn’t come as much of a shock.
Maybe I’d actually know how to handle enemy dealings and how to protect myself.
But no. I loved my blissfully ignorant bubble.
Now it’s erupted, spewing ugly truths that I don’t want to acknowledge because they could get me killed.
Tingling pains explode down the side of my arm. My head spins with scenarios where I end up thrown in a dumpster after being chopped up into tiny pieces after an excruciatingly horrible and torturous death.
No. Hell fucking no!
“I’m getting out of here. There’s no way I’m sticking around so more of my father’s enemies can find me again. I don’t have that many lives left.”
I dart to the front door, and just as I grasp the cool metal handle, Zak grabs me by my good shoulder and spins me around so my back slams against the door.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“You can’t lock me away. You think you can bargain with my life. Well, guess what? That makes you a complete idiot. My sister is dead, my brother probably is, too. All because of my father. What makes you so sure he won’t fuck you over, too? You think I’ll give you some kind of leverage? He doesn’t give a crap about me. How could he if he sold me to save his own ass?”
I elbow Zak in the gut, hoping to startle him enough so that I could open the door and flee down the hallway, not like I have any idea where to go in this getup of blood-splattered wedding lingerie. But my funny bone screams once it crashes into the wall of hard muscle otherwise known at Zak’s chest. I double over in temporary agony, cringing through the pain.
“Dammit,” I yell, stomping my slippered foot on the floor. It makes my shoulder jerk. I squeeze my eyes shut and hold it still to blunt the thrumming sensation rippling up and down the length of my arm.
“I thought I told you what would happen if you tried to hit me again. For someone so smart, you really don’t ever learn your lesson.” He steps forward. “I think you need some help with that.”
“I’m not afraid of you.” I push past Zak in a huff, still nursing my shoulder. Only when I’m out of his reach do I flip around to face him.
“I think you’re very afraid because you know exactly what I can do, and you fucking loved every second of it.”
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
“I don’t need to. Your body has already told me everything I need to know. Why are you ignoring what it wants? What you know only I can deliver?”
I scoff. “What are you going to do? Punish me? Chain me up? Torture me because you’re a sick bastard who gets off on hurting other people?”
As if I need to hear his answer.
I can clearly see the hunger etched into his expression, his gaze spitting sparks of desire that prickle my skin like tiny flickering embers of anticipation.
And I must be a total and complete headcase or worse, a glutton for his punishment, because I want so badly for him to teach me a lesson. So many lessons. Lessons foryears. Drilling me over and over until they are second nature in my mind.
And I don’t care how long it’ll take to cover everything.
I stand still, my feet rooted to the shiny tile floor while Zak approaches with the stealth of a predatory jungle beast.
“Not just other people.” His eyes light up with fury. I stare into his turbulent blue irises, wildfires blazing bright in the depths. “Only you.”
Chapter18
Zak
Skyla’s fear hangs heavy in the air, so thick I can bite through it. She watches every step I take, her eyes glued to mine as I close the distance between us.
She thinks she knows what comes next.
But really, she has no clue what I’m about to do to her.
