“Here’s the deal…” he says, loading something in the small device and pressing a plunger at the back. It sort of looks like a hot glue gun, except the tip is sharp and damn painful.
I wait for him to finish his thought.
“This time, I’ll put the tracker here.” He traces his fingers along the muscled curve of his neck. “You won’t be able to remove it without probably killing yourself. I would have done it that way the first time, but it didn’t occur to me you’d go back on our deal.”
Hot slimy guilt eats at me from the stomach up to my throat. More so for the venom in his tone when he says it.
I swallow and nod. What other choice do I have? If I don’t agree, he’ll probably kill me and save himself the hassle later. If I do agree, he’ll kill me anyway when he learns the secret I’ve been hiding. There are no good choices here, so I have to take the one I can live the longest with.
I sweep my still wet curls to the side and tilt my head to expose my neck.
He shuffles forward on the sheets, his knees meeting the tips of my breasts as he leans down to find the spot where he wants to do the injection. “Good girl.”
I latch on to his bare knee for support when the first pinch of the gun shoots through me. It’s over in seconds, and he’s leaning back, scanning my face. A hot pearl of blood slides down my neck to land on the bedding, staining it too.
“Are you all right?”
I nod, swiping at the tears overflowing my eyelids. More out of anger and despair than actual pain. It’s nothing but a dull ache under my skin. Hopefully, it will be gone by morning. “I’m fine. Can we go to sleep now? I’m so tired.”
Without a word, he scoops me up into his arms and walks us across the bed on his knees to lay my head on the pillows. My pillow. Our pillow.
More tears fall, and I can’t stop them now. I don’t bother trying. Quietly, he uses his phone to turn down the lights.
He gathers me into his arms so I’m pressing my wet face against his chest, the tears falling to land on him. I feel even worse letting him comfort me right now, knowing what he’s about to go through when he learns the truth. But I can’t give him comfort. Not while I’m at my weakest. Maybe in another day or two, I can gather my strength and try to save all of us again. For now, this is what I need to keep going.
“Angel,” he whispers into the now darkened room. “If you leave me again, I will kill you. I won’t hesitate, and I won’t take excuses.”
Fear arches through me, chasing my sorrow. His voice is calm, honed, like the sharpened edge of a blade. One he uses on me with deadly accuracy.
41
ADRIAN
Having her home feels right. For the first time in days, I want to sleep, yet I can’t get my mind off the unanswered questions. Why did she run? Where was she going? Who did she meet, and most importantly, who helped her?
She had a cell phone, clothes, food…all things she hadn’t walked out of the building with. Clothes maybe, but that’s it. The rest she would have had to buy elsewhere, or someone met up with her to assist.
My first suspicion is Kai. But even if he had helped her, he wouldn’t have lied to me about it. A little lie to others is nothing, but to me…never. None of my five would dare help her escape, then spend time searching for her alongside me. Especially with Andrea still in precarious health after her attack.
With Valentina’s escape, I feel like none of us got to properly process Vincent’s death. Of course, he was cremated, as requested, but none of us got to have a drink or tell stupid stories about him. Val stole those moments from me, and it’s another thing to add to her ever-growing list of sins. First of which is not answering my damn questions.
I stare down at her sleepy face, resting against the crook in my shoulder. She’s perfect like this, a living doll almost. And so young. When you look into her eyes, it’s impossible not to feel her life’s experiences there. But now, with her pretty eyes closed, she’s so fragile and so very, very young.
Marking her with my cum and putting my tracker back under her skin isn’t nearly enough to take the edge off my rage. My fingers clench, and I gently ease out of the bed so I don’t wake her, then head into the bathroom to grab a glass of water. Even as I gulp it down fast, letting some drip down onto my bare chest, I glare at the doorway leading back into the bedroom.