For weeks, he attempted to sway me, but when he got no response for his efforts, he gave in and went back to taking me with contempt and frustration.
There was no escaping.
Because just like the UFO Hotel, Max had the Inferno compound heavily guarded day and night and never missed an opportunity to let me know how his guards were instructed to shoot me on sight if I ever tried to escape.
Somedays, I thought dying would be better than living that way.
But I had too much fight and too much anger in me to let them get away with what they were doing, and I vowed to myself that I would get my revenge on them all.
Standing at the kitchen counter of the little cabin I was forced to share with Otto, I felt him come up behind me, and I stiffened like I always did when he came near me. I busied myself with the frozen meal I had just removed from the microwave and bit back my revulsion.
When I felt his breath on the back of my neck, I closed my eyes and prayed it would be over quickly. Everything inside me clenched, and the nausea rose as he exhaled roughly and tenderly touched my arm. He was going to try to be gentle and loving like we were something real and consenting.
“Don’t,” I whispered, cringing at the awkward caress of his calloused fingers on my skin.
But he ignored me. Instead, he pressed his body against mine and ran his fingers up my back. He’d done this before, come up behind me and, without a word, bent me over the counter.
Sick to my stomach he was going to do it again, I quickly moved away from him, but I wasn’t fast enough, and he grabbed me by the wrist. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m menstruating,” I said, pulling my wrist free. “And it’s heavy.”
It was a lie. I hadn’t had my period since before the UFO Hotel.
Otto frowned, his dark eyes accusatory. “Why aren’t you pregnant yet? I thought it would’ve happened by now.” He reached for me and ran his hand over my stomach. “It feels softer.”
Resisting the urge to take the knife from the countertop and plunging it hilt-deep into his chest, I moved away from him.
“It can take time,” I said, hoping like hell the idea of me having my period had put him off taking what I wasn’t offering. “Or maybe there is a problem.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Sometimes there can be underlining issues—”
He grabbed me roughly, his fingers biting into my chin as he forced me to look at him. “You saying I can’t get you pregnant? Because I’m as virile as they come, Tiger Lily. If I have to, I’ll keep you chained to that goddamn bed and fuck you day in and day out until you give me a child.”
I glared, hating him with every fiber of my being.
With an agitated growl, he let me go. “If I weren’t interested in saving my seed to make you pregnant, I’d make you get on your knees and suck my cock.”
“Like you do for Max?” I said before I could stop myself.
Rage gleamed in Otto’s eyes as he struck me on the mouth, dropping me to the floor. I wiped away the blood as stars danced across my vision.
“You will learn to respect me,” he growled, dropping to his knees to grab my chin again. “I will break you. Do you understand me, Tiger Lily? You will submit to me and be my dutiful wife, or I will hold you down and hurt you until you do. Do. You. Understand?”
Otto terrified me.
But my hatred for him kept me strong.
With a frustrated shove, he let me go and rose to his feet. “I told your father he let you be gone for too long. He should’ve dragged you back years ago. Hell, he should never have let you go in the first place.”
“If he hadn’t, I would’ve just left.” I climbed to my feet. “Just like Valentine.”
Otto swung back, his eyes blazing, his face like thunder.
“You think your brother ran off? You think he’s stayed gone all this time?”
“He escaped. He told me what he was planning to do.”
“Oh, I know he did. I overheard him.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. “What?”
Otto snickered. “That’s right. I overheard him talking to you. Listened to him tell you his plan. So I took that interesting piece of information to your father.”
Fear was a sudden tornado twisting its way through me.
Max knew Valentine was planning to escape.
Oh, God. What had he done to him?
My throat tightened with alarm. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying he’s dead, Tiger Lily. Nothing more than a pile of dusty bones.”
His words might as well have been a knife to my heart. Pain tightened in my chest.