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Ben had damaged Ream for two years. Whatever happened in this room had been horrific for Ream. He didn’t have to tell me any of it; I saw all of it in that body lying motionless.
Suddenly the door opened.
I staggered backwards until I hit Ream’s chest and felt his hands on my arms holding me steady. Alexa strode in with Greg and Lance, her knowing smile brilliant as she glanced at the bed and then at us.
“Well done, Ream.” She gestured to Ben’s lifeless body. “And deserving, I imagine. I knew you’d like your gift from me. Ben was all giddy about being able to fuck your girlfriend here. Didn’t take much to convince him to come here.” She tilted her head to Lance and Greg, and they started toward us.
“No. Wait.” All the hope I felt when Ream walked through that door was gone.
Ream’s fingers squeezed my arms and I felt his breath against my ear as he spoke, “She’ll let you go. You walk away alive.”
“You trust her? You think she’ll let me go?” I broke free of his grip and whirled around in his arms. “It’s not over. What are you saying? Ream, damn it. You can’t …” I couldn’t even get the words past my lips. How could he even consider staying with Alexa. For what … my freedom? My life? How could I live every day knowing he was with her. Forced to stay.
“Kat, listen to me.” He glanced up and his eyes narrowed, and I suspected Lance and Greg were moving in on us. “Go home. And you won’t say one word to anyone about what happened to me. We will disappear from here and it will end. This isn’t a request.”
I trembled so badly that I thought I’d collapse. He couldn’t mean that. Deck and his men, they did this kind of thing … he got Emily out Mexico. He’d help—
“She’s been planning this for years.” He grabbed my arms and shook me like he knew exactly what was going through my head. “Kat—years. She’s thought of every contingency … fuck, she had years to think of every contingency plan. We end this now. All of this ends right now.”
I stared up at him for a while, at least it seemed like a while and probably was because I could hear Alexa clearing her throat and the click of her high heels as she strolled toward us.
“And what makes you think she’ll just let me live? That she won’t kill me the second you’re out of sight.”
“’Cause she gives me proof, and if she doesn’t, I will never be hers.”
I wanted to scream that he wasn’t. That he was mine, but the words were locked in my throat. I was stubborn and I’d fight for us with my last breath, but I wasn’t stupid. Ream and I wouldn’t escape past Greg and Lance.
“One more thing,” Alexa’s words sent a chill straight through me.
Ream jerked. “Alexa. Our deal.”
She smiled. “Oh, it’s just a little reminder to the little princess as to whom you belong now. And what will happen if she ever opens that luscious mouth of hers. I promise, she won’t be hurt and then I’ll have Greg drive her back to the city.”
My heart pounded so fast I felt as if it would break through my ribs. The gleam in her eyes sparkled with pleasure at whatever she had planned.
Greg walked up and took my arm; I instantly reacted, trying to break free, feeling as if a noose was tightening around my neck.
“Go with him, Kat.” Ream’s words tore open my insides. There was nothing in his voice that was alive. It was like a frost had settled over him and numbed the blood running through his veins.
But I did what he asked and walked quietly beside Gregg, with Ream and Lance behind me, and Alexa’s stiletto heels clicking, leading the way.
***
I writhed. I struggled. Fought. I shouted and I even resorted to begging. I knew it wouldn’t stop what was about to happen. Nothing would and yet, remaining silent … I couldn’t do it.
But Ream never fought. His face stoic and emotionless as Lance secured him to the wooden post, hands cuffed to a ring above his head.
Greg had his arm locked around my waist and his other hand was clamped around my wrists so tight I could no longer feel my hands.
Alexa strolled around the post like a cat stalking her prey, her long graceful strides, nothing like the girl Molly who she had pretended to be. “This is for her, Ream. To protect her. I’d hate to have to have her killed. She’ll see the truth in my words once we are done here.”
“I won’t fucking say anything, damn it. I swear.” But as I said the words, I knew they were a lie. Alexa saw it too. She knew what Ream meant to me. She knew what I was like; she’d been watching me and everyone else for months. There was no question I was lying because I’d hunt her down and kill her myself if I had to. I’d never leave Ream, and I’d do whatever it took to get him back.
“I suspect you will the first chance you get. You’ll call Deck and then maybe the police, but I will show you what will happen if you do.”
She walked over to the far side of the room, and Lance pulled a string which flicked on a light bulb above his head. It felt as if I’d been hit in the stomach as the air left me, and I choked back my horror at the array of weapons that hung on the wall. “No. Please. Don’t do that to him.” I sagged in Greg’s arms as the devastation at what Alexa was going to do tore a hole through my stomach.
“We’ll start light, shall we, Ream? To warm you up to the idea. Doesn’t matter about scars now, does it? I don’t mind them. It will be a reminder as to who you belong to.” Alexa plucked a long coiled whip off the wall and walked back toward Ream. She ran her fingers along his tattooed back then down his spine to his jeans. She leaned close so her breasts were up against him, and I saw her whisper something in his ear.
