AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He nods. “I have a safehouse upstate if you’re interested.”
Swallowing hard, I shake my head. “No. I have just the place. We can continue discussions there. Tristan, call Ernesto.”
“Back to the old Blackthorne estate, boss?”
I can only nod.
Isabella and I mended our problems there once before. Maybe we can do that again.
If there’s anything left to mend, of course.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Isabella
My sleep is peaceful, almost alarmingly so, but I still wake up in a frenzied panic. My heart is in my throat, the same place I left it when I fell asleep. I can’t help but feel my wrists heavier than usual, a hot pressure burning on my wrists where I realize rope tangles my arms.
I pull at it gently, finding the rope connected to the other wrist and then tied to the golden headboard of the bed frame. My body aches in a sluggish pile, and I stifle a breath, trying to pull free until I realize I’ve been here before.
The ornate wall mounts, the large window with a bay seat that overlooks the woods outside. There’s a city in the distance, far, far away from here. I have woken up here once before, and not in much better condition than I am now.
“Carter?” I ask, my throat sore and my voice raw. “Carter!”
His name echoes through the mansion, and the door to the bathroom squeals open. Carter is wearing nothing but ripped white-washed jeans. There’s something about the expression on his cold features that I recognize right away, and it steals focus from his perfect, shirtless body.
“Dove, you and I are going to talk.”
I shake my head, wincing as that picture returns to my scattered memory. “I don’t want to talk to you, Carter. I saw the picture. You… It was… It washer, wasn’t it?”
“Dove, you will let me talk.”
“I won’t listen.”
I shimmy backward, resting my arms against the headboard where I can turn my face away from him for good. I shut my eyes tight and ignore anything that comes out of his mouth, but this isn’t the kinder version of Carter Blackthorne that I’d come to know.
He’s back in his element again, the house we fled to so we could escape Jacob Lacey.
He is ruthless again.
His hand crawls up the back of my head and into my now-dry hair. He clenches a fist and yanks my head sideways, my eyes flying open in shock. I stare up at him, the fingertips on his free hand circling under my chin and stroking down to the base of my neck. He tugs at the shirt slightly as if wondering how to rip it off of me.
“Who gave you this shirt?”
“Rich did,” I whisper.
He shakes his head in disapproval. “Wearing another man’s shirt?”
“Better than watching another woman give you a pole dance,” I bite in bitter anguish. “How could you, Carter? Why would you ever—”
“Ssshh,” he says, his fingertips pinching my lips together. I wince slightly, the forming bruise still sore where he touches my mouth, but it’s not too painful to make me fight him. “You need to listen to me, Bella. These new enemies are not Jacob Lacey. They don’t fight with their guns or their cocks.”
I inhale sharply through my nose, my lips still preoccupied.
“You’re going to learn things, dove. Things that I’m trying to protect you from. And if you’re going to react this way for all of them, then you’ll be sequestered until this battle is over. I don’t want that, and I know you don’t, either.”
I nod in agreement. I don’t want to be set off to the side. I just want Carter and I to be happy.
That doesn’t seem like it’s going to be the case anytime soon, though.
