“I was chained in the basement of the clubhouse. They pulled me out of the wreckage. And when I woke up, there was my brother—my guardian angel, I thought. I wanted to thank him for rescuing me from that nightmare. But before I could, he slapped me across the face and told me to stop crying or he’d find another biker in need of a wife. And I realized something: the nightmare wasn’t over. It’ll never be over.”
My chest aches. She’s been through so much in her life. She’s lost all hope. Getting battered by evil men again and again has drained almost every drop of fire from her.
But not all of it. There’s hope in there. There’s still a spark.
I just have to make her see it.
“When I get my hands on your brother,” I snarl. “I’m going to make him regret every single time he put his hands on you.”
Her eyes go wide, as though she can’t quite believe my reaction. “Why do you even care?”
I glare at her. “Because I’m no monster. And I think you know that.”
She holds my gaze for a few seconds. Then she nods. “I think I’m starting to.”
I hesitate for a moment longer. Then I sigh and say what I haven’t said in almost fifteen years. “She didn’t see that, though. The woman I brought here. Her name was Annabelle. She loved me, I think. Maybe I loved her—I don’t know. And for a while, we were happy. But I’ve got this darkness in me. The Room is the only place I can let it out.”
Renata watches me, silent and free of judgment. I can’t meet her eyes, though. I stare at the stone wall behind her instead.
“I brought her down here one day. And she said the same things you’re saying. Show me. Explain it to me. Teach me what to do. Stupidly, I did it.”
Renata winds her fingers between mine. “And then what?”
I force myself to drag my eyes up to hers. I’m no fucking coward. I can tell the story without it tearing me apart.
“I hurt her,” I say simply. “It was an accident. But it was because we didn’t understand each other. We didn’t understand control. But that shit doesn’t matter at the end of the day. All that matters is that I hurt her and she ran. I never saw her again.”
I drop Renata’s hand and pivot away to do a slow pace around the perimeter of the room. “She stared into the abyss and the abyss stared right back into her. And because she didn’t know what it was—because I didn’t know how to keep her safe… it cost us everything.”
I finish my circuit and stop in front of Renata once more. “I’m not a monster, Renata. But there’s a monster in me. There always has been. And when you say to me the same things that Annabelle said… it wakes that monster up.”
I sink into a seat in the plush leather armchair in one corner of the room. It’s shrouded in shadow. My body is thrumming with dark, swirling energy. Mind racing with thoughts of that night all those years ago.
The red welts on Annabelle’s fair skin.
The shocked O of her mouth.
The blood. The tears. The screams.
And then her footsteps, racing up the stairs and disappearing forever.
I feel like I’m going to be sick. My chin falls against my chest and my eyes close.
Then I feel a presence slide in front of me. When I look up, it’s Renata.
And she looks like a fucking angel. Framed by the amber lights, she’s glowing around the edges. Dark hair, long and smooth, waist curving so thin that it looks like it should snap with the slightest pressure. Her lips are full and plump, her fingers graceful and thin.
I’ve never wanted anyone more.
In forty-five years, I’ve never felt this urge so powerfully.
And it’s for the one woman I can’t have.
“Show me what to do,” she whispers.
I’m being torn in two. I ruined this woman’s life when she was just a child. Just a little girl. Even now, she’s so young in my eyes. So fresh and unscathed, even after all the horrors she’s survived. It would be wrong to touch her. Wrong to take her.
But my God, the desire…