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“I was starting to think you weren’t coming.” A hint of a smirk was visible in the faint light from the pool. “But I should’ve known. You were always so predictable.”
Hearing his voice again was like being doused with a bucket of ice water. Every instinct in her body told her to run. Get the fuck out of there and never look back.
She took a single, tiny step closer. “Tell Doug I’m here.” She cleared her throat, wanting to sound stronger, braver, but it didn’t do any good. “Tell him to leave Holly and Justin alone.”
Micah threw back his head and laughed. God, it was a chilling sound. She loved this man once. Obsessed over him. Gave herself to him in every way possible. The very idea made bile rise in her throat.
“I’m not joking, Micah.” There couldn’t be more than thirty seconds left before nine. “I did what you said. Call your fucking friend off.”
The humor drained out of him as she spoke. “You fucking whore. How dare you speak to your Master that way.”
“I’m not—”
But he didn’t give her a chance to finish her objection. “Enough! Unless you want your sister’s blood on your hands, I suggest you get on your knees and fuckingbegme to forgive you.”
Absolutely fucking not.
The words were right there on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t make herself say them. Not until he made that goddamn phone call.
Swallowing down the vomit clawing its way up her throat, she dropped slowly to her knees. “Please forgive me, Master.” She almost gagged on the words and had to force herself to keep going. “I know I shouldn’t speak to you that way. It was my fear for Holly and Justin talking. I’ll never forget my place again.”
He took slow, prowling steps toward her, a look of utmost satisfaction on his face. “And what is your place, Noelle?”
Nell longed to close her eyes. To shut all this out, pretend it wasn’t happening, disappear.
Not. An. Option.
“Whatever you want it to be, Master.”
He hummed his approval. “Good. Perhaps you haven’t been away too long after all. I won’t need to completely retrain you.”
When Micah circled around behind her, she had to dig her fingernails into her cuticles, focusing on the sharp pain to keep herself from turning around. Doing it would only make him lash out; she’d learned that years ago. She had to keep him calm for as long as humanly possible.
She couldn’t help jerking away when he slipped his hand beneath her hair, brushing his fingers against her neck. It made every inch of her skin crawl, as if a colony of ants had taken up residence inside her.
Micah grabbed a fistful of her hair, yanking her head back. “Don’t you dare pull away from me, you little cunt. You’re mine. Mine to touch, mine to punish, mine to fuck. You’re only alive because Iwantyou to be alive. Don’t you ever fucking forget it, or I can change my mind like that.” He snapped his fingers right in front of her eyes, making her flinch.
“I’m sorry, Master,” she whispered, blinking back tears. “I didn’t mean to. I was startled. That’s all. I’m so sorry.”
Fucking fuck, she had to keep himcalm. Her body needed to stop betraying her if she wanted any chance of everyone surviving this unscathed.
She locked all her muscles, willing them to remain immobile no matter what. “I’m yours to command, Master. Please instruct me on how best to serve you.”
His thin lips lifted into the shape of a smile. “So you haven’t forgotten.”
“Never, Master.” Her tears were hot against her skin. “I’ll never forget.”
Reaching out with his free hand, he traced a fingernail along her jawline. It felt almost sharp enough to slice open her skin. “I’m going to have such fun with you. And I’ll start by finishing what I started the night before you left. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
For a moment, she was back in his house, strapped to a table as he carved her hip with a scalpel. Pain lanced through her as her mind sunk deeper and deeper into the memory.
Nell dragged herself back to the present by sheer force of will, the image of Holly and Justin playing in their front yard her only lifeline. “I’m yours, Master, to do with as you please. If you’ll please just call Doug, let him know I’m being a good girl—”
His hand moved down to circle her throat, pressing hard enough to send a spike of fear careening down her spine. “I don’t think you want to find out what’ll happen if you ask me that again.”
Panic flooded through her, making her breath come in short, loud gasps. His fingers pressed like bars of steel across her windpipe every time she sucked in more air.
Why wouldn’t he make the call? Was it already too late? Were Holly and Justin being hurt even as she knelt here on this fucking path, the packed earth hard as stone beneath her knees?
