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All I need to do is get to the train station and get a ticket out of here.
The bruises forming around my throat, my hips, and inside of my thighs are tender. A reminder of what almost happened, but I push down the pain and keep walking.
I’m close, so freaking—
Someone grabs me from behind, yanking me into a narrow alley between two buildings.
A scream tears from my throat but a tattooed hand forced it back in, clamping over my mouth. Panic saturates every cell in my body as defeat rolls through me.
“You’ve been a very bad girl,” Vaughn breathes in my ear as he drags me backward, the shadows swallowing us whole.
It’s late, the streets of Oxford deserted.
I claw at his hand, desperately trying to pry his fingers away but he’s stronger, easily overpowering me.
“You really fucked things up for me back there, baby,” he spits the words. “Now if I let you go, are you going to behave?”
I nod, aware that I need to play this right if I’m ever going to get away from him again.
He slowly unfurls his fingers, in favour of grabbing me around the neck and holding me at arm’s length.
“V-Vaughn,” I choke out. “Let me just—”
“Uh-uh, your privileges are revoked. Clearly, I can’t fucking trust you.” His wild gaze darts back and forth. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s high on something.
Which means I have to tread carefully.
“What did you do with him?” I ask, and a wicked smile curls at his lips.
“Don’t tell me you’ve suddenly grown a conscience?” He chuckles darkly. “A few weeks with your posh little boyfriend and you’ve forgotten where you came from, is that it?”
“No, I…”
“What? You what, huh?” He gets right in my face, anger rippling off him.
I blink away the tears, hating that he still holds so much power over me.
I don’t love him anymore, I’m not sure I ever did. But there was a time I was infatuated with him. The fact that he picked me. I was desperate and lonely and so broken that the second he offered me a scrap of attention, I wanted more.
It became my drug.
My addiction.
But it gradually turned into something twisted. Something dark and insidious. Deep down, I knew he was using me. Manipulating and exploiting me. But it was easier to pretend than admit the truth.
“I should have known you’d screw me over again. You’re nothing more than a selfish whore.” Vaughn backhands me so hard my head snaps to the side making me cry out in agony as pain floods my cheek and neck.
“I should have let him fuck you up. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t fucking do it. Fuck, fuck—” He hits me again, and this time I think I blackout for a second.
It isn’t the first time he’s hurt me. But this feels different. Our mutual betrayal hanging between us, poisoning the air.
“What am I going to do with you, baby?” He smooths his thumb over my tender cheek, forcing me to look at him. “Why do you have to make everything so fucking difficult?”
He pulls me down the alley like a rag doll, my head spinning so fast I see stars.
I try to take in our surroundings, not that I think it will do me any favours. Still, the shred of fight left inside me refuses to wink out.
It’s a narrow alley beside the hotel, a row of dumpster bins lining the wall. Vaughn pulls me around the corner and my resolve crumbles. It’s nothing but another long dark alley.
