by Lana Grayson
“Enough, Sarah. I won’t have you hysterical. It’s dangerous to baby.”
A dozen expletives filtered in my mind, and a dozen more urges to gloat, to reveal the negative pregnancy test, to dash his hopes and exclaim the truth about Josmik and my infertility.
“You have no idea what danger is,” I said. “If you did, you never would have let me roam free.”
“It’s true.” Darius brushed his hand along my cheek. Pushing him away would have only dropped the towel and revealed my nudity. “I do spoil you, my dear. Forgive me, but having a new daughter is such a…” His gaze lingered to my hidden curves. “…Simple delight.”
Reed hopped from the pool. Darius’s voice hardened.
“Fuck her again.” He didn’t even look at me. “I don’t care if she is fertile or not, make sure she understands her place in this family.”
He left us alone, but turned halfway to the house.
“And, for Christ’s sake, son, don’t take her in the pool. Fuck her for conception, not your kicks.”
I bundled inside the towel as Darius stalked to the mansion. I breathed easier only once Reed gathered me, hiding me within the cabana, hidden from the estate’s windows.
I collapsed on the chaise before the shudders rolled over me. Reed knelt at my feet. The green in his eyes darkened like heavy storm clouds. He angered, but it wouldn’t help. My soft and gentle Reed was worth more than all the bullets and blood in the world.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You okay?”
My stomach betrayed me. I swallowed bile. “He touched me.”
“I know. I couldn’t—I didn’t know what to do.”
“Don’t tell Nick.”
Reed grimaced. “Sarah—”
“He’ll just freak if he knows Darius got…close again.”
“I would have stopped him if he…”
“I know.”
Reed drove his fingers through his wet hair. The drops didn’t bother him. They caressed his strength, highlighting the muscles and power that were useless against anything within the goddamned estate. He swore, pushing from the ground with a grunt.
“This can’t happen anymore,” he said. “I’m done.”
“Done?”
Reed grabbed his phone, swiping a few times before typing something with such force he nearly cracked the device in two. He paced, checking the time and counting days on his fingers.
“We’ll charter a plane,” he said.
“We’ll…” I blinked. “Wait, what?”
“The night of the gala will be chaotic enough. We can slip out after. Take the plane, stay in Mexico for the day, then fly out from there.”
“Fly?”
“I’ll pull money before we go, and we’ll stop somewhere so you can access your accounts. Then we vanish. Go to Belize or Thailand or somewhere. We’ll find a nice resort.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m getting you out of here, Sarah.” Reed’s voice hardened. “Like I should have done at the beginning of this nightmare.”
My chest ached—a quick relief and a dreaded terror all wrapped into the same choked breath.
“Are you serious?”
“This isn’t going to stop. It’s only gonna get worse. He’s going to kill me unless he watches me rape you to a bloody pulp. And, Sarah, I swear, I will not hurt you.”
“Don’t make promises, Reed.”
“I’ll make all the goddamned promises I want. I’m getting you out of here.”
“Reed, we can’t.”
“Yes, we can. We’ll do it quick. No one will know.”
I grabbed his hand, surprised he trembled more than me. “Think about what you’re saying.”
“You don’t know what he’ll do to you,” Reed said. “Christ, I don’t know all of what he’ll do to you. If you aren’t pregnant—”
“—I’m not—”
“Then we’re all gonna get fucked. But I can get us out of here.” He forced the gentleness into his words, but the dimple still reassured me. “We only gotta run for a year. We’ll go party around the world. Live it up like two billionaires should, right? Have some fun. See the sights. Be together.”
My heart ached for him. My handsome, good Reed.
He was a man I could have fallen for, had things been different.
Had I not needed a friend.
Had I not given myself to Nicholas.
“Reed.” My heart broke as I whispered the truth. “I’m sorry. But I’m not in love with you.”
“I’m not asking you to love me, I’m asking you to let me save you.” He kissed my hand. “Sarah, I told you before. I can be a friend or I can be your brother. Right now? I don’t care what you think of me so long as you let me help you. I can’t protect you if we’re in his shadow. But if we get out? I will make sure you’re safe.”
I believed him.
Reed was the only Bennett who made any goddamned sense, and yet I was still the one forcing him to hurt me. I was the one rejecting the only sane idea anyone had in the past three months.
I looked away. “I can’t.”
“Why the fuck not?”
If I didn’t speak it, my tears would have revealed it. “Nick.”
“Christ. He can take care of himself.”
“So can I.”
“Not now. Not in this. Not from him. God only knows what my father is planning.”
Whatever it was, it wasn’t divinely inspired. I shook my head.
“I will protect my company and family,” I said. “But if I’m going to protect myself, I have to end this my way. Darius hurt me. I’m going to hurt him too.”
“You can’t.”
“I will. I’ll take everything he has, everything he built, and I will burn it to the ground.”
“You won’t be able to stop him,” Reed said. “Whatever you plan to do, whatever power you think you have? It’ll destroy you. You’re too good for all…this.”
“But I can end him!”
“And my motorcycle can get us to San Jose in forty minutes. We’d be out of here before anyone knew we were gone.”
“What about Nick?”
Reed collapsed on the chaise, wrapping an arm over me. He pulled me close.
I swallowed. “Do you trust Nick?”
“Do you?”
I wished I hadn’t asked myself that question every minute of every day since they first kidnapped me. Despite every pounding instinct in my mind, I nodded.
“I have to.”
“Now you sound like a Bennett. Blindly following the one with the most to gain.”
“He also has the most to lose. The fortune. The company.”
“You.”
I shrugged. “It’s a risk we all have to take.”
“My father will never leave you alive if he thinks the corporation is in danger.”
I bit my lip, sneaking a peak at him. “It already is.”
“You told Nick you’d give it back.”
“I know.”
Reed hesitated. “Did you tell him the truth?”
I tightened the towel over my shoulders, hiding my disgusted and terrified shiver.
I was violated again by a man who deserved every hell I could inflict on him.
No way was I leaving the estate. The instant I ran was the instant Darius learned everything—the trust, the plans, the alliances with my step-brothers and how foolishly I fell for his heir. They’d have to reveal my infertility. And then?
My step-brothers would be in danger. My mother killed. And my future? A heart-beat from fortune or pain. We had a plan. We just had to see it through.
And Nick?
“Nick will just have to trust me.”
9
Nicholas
I seized Sarah before she descended the stairs, hauling her into my arms and cupping a hand over her mouth.
And I hated how desperately she clawed at my grip.
To get away?
To hold me closer?
/> Probably both.
I kicked the door open to her room and shoved her inside. My hand wrapped too tightly over her stomach, but she ceased her struggling.
“You have to listen to me.”
I hadn’t released her.
Christ, I didn’t think I ever would.
Not after what was going to happen.
Not when I knew she would never come back to my arms.
“Sarah,” I said. “Don’t say a word. Don’t fight. Just…listen.”
Sarah rarely listened, even when it might have benefited her, even when it might have spared her pain or torment. Her bravery was more important to her than her safety.
But it wasn’t to me.
And in this? Once she realized what would happen today? What waited for her downstairs?
She’d have to be brave, and she’d have to behave. I could promise her the world, but hiding her secrets and keeping her safe were two challenges determined to crash head-on. Her survival depended on her complete and total submission.
I tried to protect her. I thought of locking her in my suite and taking her to my office, never out of my sight. In my fear, I took her night after night, even when the only benefit was pledging my devotion to her. She wouldn’t conceive, but at least we promised our love in the darkness.
A love I knew I was losing.
I owned her heart on borrowed time. And I would break it if only to ensure it continued beating.
I’d thought I’d have everything. Both empires. My fortune. Sarah at my side.
I was supposed to be the future of the family. Instead, I threatened our very stability. The empire didn’t unravel—it collapsed. I was only beginning to collect the pieces large enough to fit it back together.
I silenced Sarah’s questions with a greedy, selfish kiss. I savored the innocence that controlled my every thought, decision, and regretted mistake.
“Do you trust me?” I whispered.
She hesitated.
In every aspect of my life, I wielded absolute authority, and the one person I expected to submit knew better than to surrender completely.
“Depends.” The calmness shattered her. “Why are you scaring me?”
“Because I’d rather you hate me than fear what’s about to happen.”
Sarah tried to flee. I pushed her onto the bed, and I knelt before her. Her delicate frame tensed, ready for battle. I witnessed too much of her frustrations and earned too few of her smiles. It shouldn’t have been like this.
“He killed my mother, didn’t he?”
Sarah wavered, but she didn’t cry. At least I could ease that fear.
“Your mother’s fine. I promise.”
She shuddered. Her relief washed away a flood of terrible thoughts.
“Then let Darius do his worst,” she said.
“Don’t.” I took her hand. “You can be as brave as you like to march around the house, but you don’t have to be that way with me.”
“What way?”
“Like you have no one to protect you.”
She looked away as I drew her fingers to my lips. “Nick, I can handle myself.”
But she couldn’t. Not for much longer. And that’s why I made the decision.
“I need you to trust me. If we can get through this, everything will change.”
“Get through what?”
Not yet. “I found a clause in the trust. One we overlooked.”
Sarah groaned. “I’m really starting to hate these clauses.”
I kissed her hand again. It didn’t relieve her. I didn’t expect as much. But the opportunity would make up for it.
“The trust is set to award on your twenty-first birthday,” I said. “I can make it happen sooner.”
She sucked in a quick breath. A flicker of hope colored her cheeks.
I held her gaze. “The trust can be released early if all parties agree to an amendment.”
“We…change the terms?” She asked.
“We’re only altering the timeline of the distribution, not the allocation of the resources. If all parties agree, there’s no reason we can’t award the trust to you before your birthday.”
“How soon?”
It was eagerness that endangered her, how quickly she imagined the victory without considering the complications. Then again, Sarah was young, and she was never meant to manage the legal and financial interests of her family’s holdings.
She wasn’t like a Bennett. In some ways, it was a blessing. In others, Sarah was damned because she didn’t understand how a Bennett thought, the lengths they’d go to maintain their power.
“I have the consent of all parties but one,” I said.
She gasped. “You’ve already started it!”
I had to. The last pregnancy test offered me no other options. My father wasn’t pleased. Neither was the board. Billions of dollars rested in the infertile womb of one young woman, and only my brothers and I knew the truth.
My father might have tolerated months of failure if we kept Sarah’s captivity as a family sin, but the Bennett Corporation measured success in quarters. Three months passed with no progress.
And my company demanded results.
“I approached the men who sold to the Josmik trust,” I said. “But the plans are not finalized yet.”
Sarah stood, giggling as she twirled around me. I envied her enthusiasm.
“Then we did it,” she said. “This is really it. Nick, we won!”
I took her hand and guided her into my arms. “One investor hasn’t signed the amendment yet, and it requires a unanimous agreement. I need to convince Roman Wescott to sign.”
Which was unlikely. Wescott was a difficult enough investor when he approved of the Bennett family’s business. After he betrayed us to Josmik, he owed me no favors. He never offered them before.
And now, he refused to return my phone calls.
“Roman Wescott?” She crinkled her nose. “He met with my father and brothers before. A land deal, or something with the cattle.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
“Then it’s perfect! If he knows the Atwoods, he’ll sign it over. I know he will.” She laughed. “Hell, I’ll throw in all the Atwood almonds to get him to sign. Then he can figure out how to water those damn trees in the middle of this drought.”
“Sarah.”
She snickered. “Wow. I can make a ton of improvements to the fields when I inherit a new fortune courtesy of Darius Bennett.”
And there it was again.
That tone. A shadow to her voice which cursed her in hatred. Sarah no longer desired freedom. She wanted only to watch my father crumble in humiliation and defeat.
And that made my brothers’ promise of stock dangerous. With every passing day, every passing insult she faced from my father, she tightened the noose around our necks. Why would she return the stock when she could ruin my father’s every accomplishment?
“Sarah, this is bigger than a war with my father.”
She nodded, but promise of vengeance ignited her temper. It wasn’t about the money or stock or futures. She worked to defend her family and their memories. I knew just how much she would sacrifice to save what was hers.
It was why I loved her. And why I had to protect her.
“Sarah, we need a concession first.”
Her excitement turned to despair.
For as easily as I read her, Sarah cracked through my barriers. She was the first person besides Max who ever fractured that façade. Neither of them should have wielded that power, but Sarah learned more about me in three months than Max had in a lifetime of banishment in my shadow.
“What kind of concession?” She hesitated. “Nick, what the hell is going on?”
“My father is waiting for you downstairs.”
“Isn’t he always?”
“Sarah, he also knows the trust might be awarded early.”
She gnawed on her lip. She bit the puffiness more than she kissed. In another world, I would never have
let it happen. She’d have no worries, no fears. Just passion and pleasure and every promise of love.
“You know he wants an heir,” I said.
Her voice embittered. “More than anything.”
“There’s a doctor waiting downstairs with him. He’s here to administer the fertility drugs.”
I prepared for a slap. She retreated instead, forsaking the distance between us. The few feet felt like miles, so far it was as though she had never once settled within my embrace.
“Fertility drugs,” she said.
I held her gaze. “Yes. An injection. One medication delivered in the days before ovulation, another to induce it.”
“But I’m—” She whispered. “Does he know I’m infertile?”
“No.”
“Then why the hell would he force me to take fertility drugs? Nick, you can’t let him do this.”
“He’s convinced our timing is wrong. Or that we’ve not studied your cycle correctly.”
Sarah groaned. “Even if I could, there’s no guarantee I’d conceive if you took me on the right day at the right time.”
I nodded. “He knows. He…doesn’t like the odds.”
“Darius Bennett doesn’t like nature’s odds, so he’ll pump me full of chemicals before admitting defeat?”
“Sarah—”
“No way,” she said. “I’m not letting him touch me with any drugs. It’s not going to happen.”
“It’s only for a short time. Until I secure that last investor.”
“It’s hormones! This is dangerous!”
“We only need a month or two—”
“Two months?” Sarah held my gaze. “Nick, I am not doing this. What happens if I get sick? Or if they cause some sort of crazy cancer? Or if I actually…”
She didn’t say it.
Despite the horrors she faced and the fortune slipping through my fingers, I still hoped.
What if the drugs helped to get her pregnant?
What if she conceived?
What if my every demand to dominate her ended with an heir?
She would have my child. My legacy in the world. A new generation of Bennetts richer and more powerful than we ever dreamed.
As quickly as the temptation struck, my mind darkened.
What if that child was used as a pawn in a horrific game between feuding families? What would he do when he learned he was conceived in domination and darkness instead of the love of two people?