My jaw clenches. “Don’t you dare speak her name.”
His eyes sparkle with humor and he gets back on track with his little speech. “It’s a real shame your actions have cost your brother his future, but he knows he’s welcome home. He can have a seat at the table. But you, never. You’re too stubborn, outspoken. You’ll do well to zip your fucking lips and learn how to submit. It’ll make the next twenty years a shitload easier for us all. If Marcus knew you had such a rotten mouth, he’d never let us forget it and you’d be as good as dead. You should be thankful that I even set this up for you. Do you have any idea how good you’ve got it? If you would just shut up and do what you’re told, you’d have the fucking world at your feet, but you insist on being an ungrateful bitch.”
I gawk at him, not believing for one second that he did this for me. “You made this deal to line your fucking pockets. You couldn’t give a shit if I ended up in a fucking ditch.”
Lucien shrugs, his eyes darkening, and warning me that my time is up. “Maybe you’re right, but what I do know is if you screw this up for me, I’ll be the one to put you in that ditch.”
I swallow back, not doubting his words one bit.
He looks down at me and I struggle against the handcuffs.
This is it. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to go but to endure it again. His hand reaches for his belt. “You missed this, didn’t you?”
“Like hell,” I spit, trying to kick him away as he gets closer. “You wouldn’t know the first thing about pleasing a woman. Your dick is fucking repulsive. Small and wrinkly. Did you learn your moves by watching cheap porn?”
His hand slaps hard across my face, his thumb hitting my eye and making it sting. “You’ll fucking pay for that.”
I clench my jaw, trying not to show the pain. Instead of tearing up, I look up at him with a smug grin. I figure that if I’m going to go out, then I should at least get in a few hits as I go. It seems someone has a little performance anxiety.
“Daniella and I would sit up at night, laughing about how pathetic you were, exchanging stories, and you know the common thing that kept coming up? How you don’t have a clue about how to satisfy a woman. You didn’t twenty years ago and from what I see, you still don’t. No wonder you have to go around raping women. Is Maria tired of you flopping around on top of her, playing dead fish? You have to get it from somewhere else?”
Lucien’s gaze darkens and he reaches for my shirt but I yank it out of his grip with my free hand, desperately trying to hold onto it. “You know you could just pay for it, right? At least, I know Maria does. She’s been fucking the pool boy for the past two years.”
Lucien’s hand snaps out and he grabs my throat, squeezing it tight. “Shut the fuck up, you little bitch,” he demands, desperately trying to pull his limp dick out of his suit pants.
“LUCIEN? Where are you?” Maria’s voice echoes through the hallway outside my bedroom door.
Lucien’s eyes go wide as they snap down to mine. His hand squeezes my throat tighter and I struggle to breathe, but it’s nothing I haven’t already suffered through. His eyes narrow in warning. “You keep your fucking mouth shut.”
Keep my mouth shut? But I thought he said he sound-proofed my room. Shouldn’t that mean that I could scream all I want and have no one hear me from outside? In fact, should I have been able to hear Maria out there?
I narrow my eyes right back. If I’m going to die here, then I might as well go out fighting.
What have I got to lose?
“HELP” I scream over and over again. “HELP ME. MARIA.”
“Fuck,” Lucien grunts, ripping his hand from my throat and hastily trying to get his dick back inside his pants before his wife catches him moments from raping a minor.
His belt gets done up just as my bedroom door flies open and Maria stands gawking in, staring at me as though she’s seeing a ghost. “Well,” she sighs, pressing her lips into a tight line. “Look who decided to show up.”
Chapter 3
“You have a lot of nerve showing up here,” Maria snaps as she strides into my room, glaring at me while Lucien discreetly takes a step back, making me realize that he’s shit scared of this woman. All this time I thought it was Lucien who wore the pants in this relationship but my eyes are finally open. She may dote on him and think the world revolves around him, but she’s the mastermind here, not him.