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  I felt his hot breath between my legs and my eyes popped open. He stared up at me, his face inches from my pussy with a smirk on his lips and one eyebrow quirked up in anticipation. His tongue parted me. Hot tender movements. I pressed my back into the mattress.

  No. Fuck. No.

  Every time I thought I knew what to expect, he fucking changed his tactic. He sucked my clit with almost reverent gentility.

  It was so much easier to fight when he was brutal.

  This…

  This was a different kind of brutality, and he knew exactly what he was doing.

  His warm touch melted the walls of security I held to with every bit of strength I had. His gentle touches, licks, and hot probing thrusts teased until every bit of strength was tested.

  I held back. Digging my body into the bed. Biting my lips together to hold in the sound.

  My forehead ached from concentrating so hard but I couldn’t give him this satisfaction.

  “You can try to hide it,” he whispered against my clit. Even the vibrations of his voice was nearly enough to push me over.

  It felt too good. My body continued to betray me. To act outside of my control.

  “But I know how wet you are,” he teased.

  The one thing I very well couldn’t hide. His tongue pressed inside of me while his thumb circled my clit.

  I grunted managing not to moan, but my body quivered giving up control. My eyelids fluttered.

  I had to hold back.

  But what if I just gave in and fell over the edge?

  So close.

  Dangerously close.

  What if I let him push me just a little farther?

  Temptation grew. All I had to do was ride the pleasure to a place where I didn’t care about reasons.

  Every lick ruined me.

  My hips shook. The building orgasm was going to claim me for the darkness. Then, he stood over me. “Do you want it?”

  Fuck. I stared up at him. Aching. Burning. But I refused to open my mouth.

  If I did it might betray me too.

  “Tell me what you need, darlin’.”

  “I won’t beg you for anything.” I knew it was a mistake as soon as I’d said it. I had just laid down a counter challenge.

  Colt cocked his head and smiled. “We’ll see.”

  He headed for the door. Leaving me bound and immobile. My arms burning with growing numbness, and my core aching for more. I tried rolling to my side to take the pressure off my arms, but the movement felt like it’d dislocate a shoulder.

  What the fuck had I just gotten myself into?

  I composed myself after Colt left just enough to test each of the bindings. I couldn’t free either leg because the cords stretched just enough for me to move, but the way they were hooked, they tightened around my ankles every time I pulled.

  The cords around my arms didn’t budge at all, but the burning pain was quickly becoming unbearable.

  Hold it in, I told myself. But unless I could free myself, the longer I held it in, the worse it would get.

  My other option was begging.

  Where had needing help gotten me thus far?

  Help from a teacher left me alienated in my own town. Help from a landlord landed me at Devlin’s mercy at every turn. Help from Devlin got me farther in debt with every breath. Help from Colt landed me in a stolen car, being dragged deeper into the underworld, fucked every which way in the matter of a day, and tied to a bed in absolute agony.

  My track record was un-fucking-deniable.

  I twisted and moaned, trying every way possible to take the pressure off my arms.

  How could I have agreed to six months of this?

  How could I have agreed to two years of stripping in Devlin’s club?

  My mind felt as numb and useless as my arms. Maybe it wasn’t getting enough blood either. I almost couldn’t stand it.

  Colt. Fucking Colt. I hated him. I was convinced he’d turn my heart into charcoal if it wasn’t already.

  But I couldn’t deny that he gave me something that I hadn’t had in a long time—hope.

  And in some dark, twisted way, power. I saw the look on his face. The repulsive smirk. The animal in his eyes as he took control of my body. I had that over him.

  Something that he wanted that he couldn’t get just by drugging some girl in a club. That gave me some kind of control for the first time in years.

  Devlin…. He obviously had a type too, but anyone is easy enough to control with drugs, money, and enough threats.

  Colt gave me something back that Devlin never would. I hated him, and deep down could be thankful for him in the same breath. While tied up in absolute misery, that revelation went a long way toward showing just how far I’d fallen and just how deep I’d buried myself.

  Chapter 7

  The ropes should keep her entertained for a while, I thought with sadistic pride.

  I pushed open the back door, letting the cold air rush in. Clucking my tongue, I motioned for Isabella to follow me. She pranced around the yard, sniffing every inch of the fence, while I collapsed on an old wooden Adirondack chair and rubbed my hands over my face. The cold air cut straight through me, but it was exactly what I needed. I pulled out my phone and scrolled through the contacts. I clicked on the name of an old acquaintance who ran a chop shop and auto body place across town.

  “Hey,” he answered. His voice was rougher than the last time we’d spoken, but given his tendency to chain smoke nearly a pack of cigarettes a day, that wasn’t the most surprising thing.

  “Jay, I need a window for a sixty-two Ferrari GTO.” Not an impossible feat, but damn close and if anyone could get me what I needed without raising a scene, it was Jay. We’d worked together since I started boosting cars. Even before that really, when all I wanted to do was rebuild cars for fun. Outside of fucking Aubrey, I didn’t really know fun anymore.

  Jay coughed and took a moment to compose himself. “Ain’t asking for much.”

  “What if I don’t care if it’s in a million pieces?”

  “Okay… that’s an odd one, even coming from you. Wouldn’t any glass work in that case?”

  “Nope.” I needed something to leave behind for Merc. A note of farewell from his pride and joy, but I couldn’t take the chance of actually breaking a window. Wilson may not appreciate that, and there’d be too much mess and unnecessary noise.

  “Geez.” Jay went quiet again. “You usin’ again?”

  Unfortunately, he knew me during that time too, and had taken the totaled car off my hands when I nearly killed myself. “No. Can you find what I need or not?”

  He grumbled, “I’ll have to call you back.”

  But I had one more stipulation—and I had to hope he wouldn’t just hang up on me. “I need it by the end of the day.”

  “Fuck dude,” something slammed on his end of the line. “You’re as impossible as ever. I’ll see what I can come up with and let you know in an hour or so.”

  “No shitting me either, Jay. I need it to match within reason.” Not that he’d ever pulled one over on me before, but this was fucking important.

  “Got it. Sure you ain’t usin’?”

  I hung up. He had no idea how tempting it was and if he asked one more time….

  “Colt,” Aubrey screamed. It should have been music to my ears, but I was too on edge. I wanted to collapse, fall asleep, escape into the darkness, but I couldn’t stop moving. My feet twitched, my hands clenched, every cell in my body buzzed until I wanted to rip off my skin to get away.

  I rubbed the bridge of my nose and sat back. It’s all in your head. Concentrate.

  No matter what my body and mind wanted, I had a job to do. I knew how to start Merc’s car. That wasn’t the issue. Not one of the major ones anyway.

  I need it to look like it wasn’t me. It had to be messy. Even better would be someone specific to pin it on. A drug dealer he’d pissed off. A former employee. Someone was going down.

  I may as well aim high.


  “God damn it, Colt,” Aubrey yelled even louder. “Fucking asshole….”

  She continued yelling but I tuned her out. There was only one word I wanted to hear.

  By now her arms were probably numb. They’d hurt like a bitch when I finally untied her. That’s what she’d get for being so fucking stubborn.

  Isabella ran up to the porch with a stick she’d found in the yard and dropped it at my feet. I picked it up and tossed it to the back of the yard, and she ran after it. The colder months were always her favorite time to play outside, and as large as she was, she was still young enough to act like a crazy puppy when excited.

  Or when she didn’t get her way.

  I had moved into this house right after totaling my car and getting sober. I had owned it for a while, but preferred being in the center of everything where it was easier to score and get anything I wanted. The second night, I found Isabella sleeping in my garage. She tried to follow me into the house and scratched at the door until I finally got fed up and tossed her some scraps.

  I had vowed to call the pound, but they were too close to police in my recovering mind and I didn’t want an officer of any kind snooping around. So I called Jace and talked him into picking her up and taking her somewhere. When he showed up, she hid in the corner like a beaten child, then nearly wrapped herself around my feet.

  I was stuck with her and rationalized that she might make a good guard dog when she grew up. All she had to do was stand up and bark and she could scare the piss out of anyone, even if she was the most gentle dog I could imagine. And as little as I wanted to admit it, she kept me grounded, and gave me something to do.

  A knocking interrupted my thoughts and Isabella barked toward the front gate. I groaned, then cut through the house and peeked through the front window.

  Alex.

  I paused and groaned before opening the door.

  “What can I do for you Lex?” She didn’t look in any condition to be driving. Her eyes were bloodshot and the bags under them looked like they’d doubled overnight. It was pathetic to see her in her current condition. For the past year and a half she’d looked closer to death every day.

  “Devlin w—” she began.

  “You can stop there. I don’t want it.”

  She stared down at the manila envelope and then up at me. We both knew she was helpless to do his bidding. She and I had been friends long before she got involved with Devlin, and I had warned her time and time again to stay away from the bastard. I told her what he was capable of, but she got mixed up with him anyway. After one slip, she managed to get away, but like me, she had the overwhelming need to go numb and turn off the world.

  She wanted to lose herself, and one night while she floated away from all her problems on a high, she landed right in Devlin’s web.

  And then his bed. Devlin relished ending as many of my relationships as he could that way. Lex was the last one I had to lose. She knew every one of my vices and we’d fucked at least a dozen times only to go back to being friends the next day. We fucked to find a way out of the world, not to be close to someone. But after Devlin, all that was lost to the turning wind. I couldn’t look at her without remembering that betrayal. It didn’t matter that she’d been high. Didn’t matter that she’d been lost. She crossed the line that I had begged her not to. And she knew all of that from the moment it happened.

  She never looked me in the eye again. Never spoke to me more than a few words. In general, she avoided me. She’d chosen drugs and months later, I’d gotten clean.

  Now she was only Devlin’s slave. Empty. Obedient. A whore for all of his friends.

  “I have to,” her voice was dead and empty. There was nothing left of the girl I knew.

  “Whatever the fuck it is”—I leaned into her face—“I don’t want it.”

  She took a step back, then another, gingerly placing the package on the banister before running back to her car.

  “Colt,” Aubrey screamed, nearly shrill enough to vibrate glass. “I’m going to rip your fucking dick off.”

  Alex turned back and frowned before scrambling into her car—probably figuring her escape was more important than investigating the screaming female in my house.

  I leaned against the doorframe, staring at the package. My brother’s idea of a gift. I didn’t need to open it. Now, I fully understood his little “guarantee” the night before. He was going to push me over the edge.

  “Colt….”

  I listened to Aubrey continue her brazen rant while Lex’s car disappear around the corner.

  Aubrey screamed again, and I closed my eyes. I should have gagged her while I was at it. Or at least duct taped her fucking mouth shut. I could shove my cock down her throat and see how loud she wanted to scream.

  Staring the package down, I finally grabbed it off the banister. The last place I needed to leave it was out in the open. Back inside, I locked the door behind me and stuffed the envelope in the cabinet behind the model car supplies.

  Then, I went to shut Aubrey up. “Can I help you, darlin’?”

  Her jaw was clenched, and her face red, heated with anger. “My arms are killing me as if you don’t know.”

  “That’s a pity.”

  She squirmed and wiggled. Too stupid to know she was damned either way. The cords dug at her ankles and the wire likely dug at her wrists and arms, both making it impossible to her to find any comfortable position.

  “Untie me,” she yelled.

  “You’re not in a position to be giving orders.”

  Her voice taunted my throbbing head, but I was having fun.

  “Colt—”

  “Aubrey.” I tried to act impassive, but my mind was screaming louder than her and between the two of them, I thought it might explode. “You’re not going to win here. What are you trying to prove?”

  “So you’d let me lay here until my arms turn black and fall off?”

  I grunted and untied one ankle. She jerked at it and tried to kick me, but I flipped her over on her stomach, then linked the bungee from the ankle through the cord holding her arms tight. “There, that should help with the problem.”

  “Mother fucking asshole.” She thrashed again, bouncing on the bed a couple of times before going slack and dropping her forehead to the mattress.

  “That all you got?” I patted her red arms, and she screamed into the blanket.

  “Fucking,” she screamed again, flexing her fingers and jerking as circulation returned.

  I rubbed the skin while she twisted and moaned in pain.

  “Untie me, Colt.” Her cheek rested against the bed, tears welling in her eyes as her body quaked with the biting pain of circulation returning to her arms and hands.

  “What’d I just tell you about giving orders?” I smacked her arm lightly and her face twisted in pain.

  She squeezed her eyes closed and fisted her hands. Her jaw twitched from the pressure. “Please,” she grunted quietly.

  I leaned closer to her face. “Couldn’t hear you.”

  “Please,” she repeated louder.

  “What do you want?”

  She clenched her jaw, and stared at me through teary eyes. “Please, fucking untie me you God damn asshole.”

  Creative, but close enough. “That works.”

  I jerked at the cord until it was loosened, then left her to free herself.

  Chapter 8

  I stayed hidden in the bedroom the rest of the day, and aside from walking in and putting a sandwich on the side table, Colt left me alone. I didn’t want to face him. I didn’t want to see myself through his eyes again. Every emotion I had left felt like it was being ripped to shreds—twisted, pulled, turned into feelings I didn’t even recognize. Despite trying to put a positive—or comparatively less negative—spin on the situation, I was powerless and trapped.

  In some ways even more trapped than I was before. At least I could escape Devlin during the day. Retreat to my apartment¸ and listen to my neighbors scream about their
problems—but I had my own space. My own time. I could walk across town and grab a coffee, or sit at the park and watch the damn squirrels harass joggers.

  Suddenly, I was completely trapped, by a man I didn’t understand. A man I’d barely known for two days. I wanted out. I needed out—to know that it would all come to an end. But Colt…. Was I wrong to think I could ever have any power over him simply because I had something I wanted? He’d shown well and good just who had the power in this house. But it was all because I had to go and be a stubborn fool again.

  That’s what got you into this mess.

  I curled up at the head of the bed and stared at my phone, expecting it to ring or buzz with some demand from Devlin. Why couldn’t things be simple for just one day?

  I’d gotten his threat but the rules to his game were still in question. Was I supposed to call him?

  And, what if Colt and I got caught tonight?

  Did that make everything null and void anyway?

  Or did it mean Devlin would take out my debt on my family anyway?

  I pulled up Aiden’s number and stared at our last messages. Then, I typed in four characters and pressed send.

  Me: Aid?

  There was a long pause while my stomach nested in my throat.

  Aiden: You okay, Bre?

  I sighed in relief.

  Me: Yeah, I think I fucked up.

  Aiden: No shit.

  Anything I can do?

  He’d been so pissed at me. How long had it been since he’d offered to help? It seemed like an eternity in sibling years, but then again, that was my own fault.

  Me: I have to find my own way out.

  Aiden: You’re in over your head this time. Go to the fucking cops and just get out.

  I exhaled and pulled my knees to my chest and resting my chin against them.

  Me: If that were an option I would.

  I’m going to make sure you and Breanna are safe.

  It took forever for the next response.

  Aiden: Keep yourself safe too, shithead.

  I swallowed my laugh.

  Me: Promise.