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29
LAKEN
I’m startled awake by something sharp being rammed into my ribs. Despite the darkness of the room I’m waking in, my eyes squint like I’m standing inches from the sun, and my temples drill my skull like I have the worst case of heat stroke.
My body is acting like it’s endured the workout of its life, and my mouth is drier than the desert, but my confused state isn’t the most obvious sign that something is amiss.
I have no clue where I am or how I got here, and the anxiety it hits me with sees me attempting to snatch up the pointing object when it pokes me for the second time.
I say attempt because my hands don’t move half an inch from the rickety chair my wrists and ankles are bound to.
“What the—”
“Don’t worry. Everything is still in working order,” says a familiar voice. “Regretfully.”
After switching on a light, blinding me further, Knox pulls over a chair next to an industrial-sized boiler before straddling it backward in front of me.
Even feeling on death’s door, I can’t help but smile when I notice his bruised face. I don’t know what day it is or how long I’ve been knocked out, but there isn’t a drug on the market that will strip the image of my fists pummeling his face from my mind.
“Bet you wouldn’t be acting so tough if I weren’t restrained.” I wet my lips to loosen up my words. I don’t want anything to take away the actuality in my tone when I warn, “I’m going to take you down, Knox. I am going to fuck your life like you ruined mine.” The more memories trickle through the haze, the angrier I become. “Her sister, Knox? Out of all the artists in the world, you had to sign your deceased girlfriend’s sister to your label.”
“Colette was never my girlfriend.” The rage in his eyes simmers when he spots the surprise in my eyes. I never knew the name of the victim I’d allegedly stolen from her family. Knox’s father said the less I knew, the easier it would be for me to move on after my brief incarceration. “And it’s kinda fitting when you think about it. Colette’s… what did Nicole call it?”—he hits me below the belt—“murder… saw me lose everything. So it’s only fair her family returns it.”
“Lose everything? What the hell are you talking about? Your parents are loaded.”
“My mother is loaded,” he corrects, his tone dipping. “She just wouldn’t stop pushing. Prying. For some fucking reason, she believed I was more capable of committing the crime you were charged with than you, and she wouldn’t give up hounding me until I snapped.” He laughs like the only hospital he should visit to check his injuries is one for the insane. “She didn’t just cut me off. She wiped my father clean. She took every. Last. Cent.”
My admiration for Mrs. Samson slips when he murmurs, “On the agreement she never mentioned you or your arrangement ever again.” Air whizzes from his nose as he struggles to hold back his laughter. “If you’ve ever wondered how much your freedom is worth, I can give you a figure. One hundred and seventy-threemilliondollars.”
He wolf whistles like even he’s impressed at the massive wealth his family accumulated since the slave era before he balances his elbows on his knees. “I didn’t think she had it in her, but I reckon we might get close to that figure now.”
Knox dumps a newspaper at my feet. Nicole is on the front cover. The article doesn’t mention how she wowed her fans with back-to-back performances yesterday, however. It’s talking about her “deranged stalker” and how he spent the last decade stalking her from his windowless prison cell.
“You fucking piece of shit.” I fight like hell to get out of my restraints. My anger is enough to fray the thick woven material backed up with handcuffs but not enough to add to the cuts and bruises on Knox’s face. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re playing at, but you’ve forgotten a vital part.” I wait for his full attention before spitting out, “The girl you’re trying to fool isn’t dead this time. She wasn’t left alone to die in the fucking car when you ran away like a coward. Nicole won’t believe your shit. She’s smarter than you give her credit for. She won’t fall for your nice-guy act.”
My blood boils when he smiles mockingly. “Nicole thinks I’m the only man she can rely on. She told me that only last night when she slept in my bed, snuggled in my chest.”
I fight, thrash, and growl. “Let me out of these fucking restraints, Knox! You think you’re all that, then fucking prove it! Stand in front of me toe to toe, you weak prick. Stop being such a fucking coward!”
“Even if I were to let you go, what would you do? Drag me to the police station and tell them I made you lie?” He shakes his head like he can’t believe I’m so stupid. I don’t understand his shock. I clearly am an idiot. I took the rap for him, didn’t I? “That will only see you facing more charges, and you havenothingto prove your claim…” He scrubs at his jaw, hopeful it will hide the snide furl of his lip. His attempts are woeful. “Except perhaps how you weaseled your way into your victim’s security team.”
“You hired me. You offered me the position.”
I chew on my words when he asks, “Where’s the proof, Laken? I don’t even have a signed employment contract to log in your defense.”
My fight weakens when I recall stuffing his employment contract into his chest when Nicole got hammered by the paparazzi, but only by a smidge. “I won’t let you get away with this. You lost your shit when you thought I’d stolenyour girl…” I spit out my last words in a way even someone as fucked in the head as him can understand. Nicole was never his girl. “So how will you handle it when I upend your entire fucking world? You won’t just be penniless when I’m done with you, Knox. You’ll be rotting in a jail cell.”
He swallows to clear the nerves from his voice before saying with a big sigh, “I kind of figured you’d get attached to the first person who feigned interest in you, hence me doing everything I could to keep Nicole away from you, so I put extra steps in place to make sure you’d heel like the dog you are.”
The cuffs bend under the strain of my yank when he places a legal-looking document on top of the newspaper article. It is the guardianship contract my mother was meant to sign to relinquish all rights to River to me when Knox handed her the fifty thousand she demanded. Her signature is at the bottom of the legally binding document, but my name is no longer on the top.
Knox’s is.
“There he is.” I yank away from him when he tries to pat my head like I’m an obedient dog. “Should have known I only needed to use your brother to puppeteer you again. I’m sure she sucks dick good, but so do the other three hundred million fish in the sea.” After mimicking the moves of a puppeteer forcing his puppet’s motions, he collects the newspaper and guardianship contract from the ground, then spins to face the dimly lit exit. “Once she’s earned back my share of my family’s wealth, I’ll shred this. Until then…”—he cranks his head back to face me—“I suggest you stay the fuck away. The restraining order Nicole requested this morning should be enough of a deterrent, but in case it isn’t, you should know that isn’t the only nationwide newspaper with your face on the front page. It’severywhere, and her fans are a crazy bunch of fuckers.”
He salutes me before pulling open a heavily weighted door that streams sunlight into the room and darting through the opening.
“Help!” I scream, hopeful the thick steel door is for show. “Help!”
