by Lana Grayson
He tilted his head. “They?”
So he didn’t know. Nick kept it secret, even from his brothers.
Was he that desperate to protect me?
Or did he really think he could stop it?
“The Bennett Board of Directors knows about me,” I said. “They sided with Darius. They voted to have me raped and bred so they can save the company. And if you refuse? They’ll look the other way while Darius kills you.”
Reed paled. “Jesus.”
“So, if anyone asks where I am, just tell them I’m taking care of some errands.”
I turned to the door. Reed swore, tearing at the cuffs on his hand. The bed shook as he yelled for me.
“Sarah, wait! You can’t go! If that’s true, it’s suicide!”
And that fear made my decision for me. I took a breath.
“I’d rather kill myself then give Darius Bennett the satisfaction of pulling the trigger.”
Reed’s voice hardened. “Yeah, that’s great. But remember where else he’s aiming the gun.”
My insides chilled. I stilled.
“See the problem? You march out that door, you kill us both.”
“But...I handcuffed you.” Why did I argue? Why didn’t I just go? Why couldn’t I leave without Reed understanding? “He’ll think I trapped you. He can’t blame you.”
“My father has never missed an opportunity to blame one of his sons for their failures.”
I didn’t have any other options, and Reed was always too honest with me.
“If I let you go, will you try to stop me?”
“Yes.”
It hurt. I knew he’d say it, but it still hurt.
“Then you are just keeping me prisoner here too.”
He didn’t hide it. “Yes.”
“That isn’t fair.”
“Sarah, you said you’d submit to keep my father happy.”
“And get raped?” My voice shrilled. “Is that worth keeping Darius happy? Watching him destroy my farm and my family’s honor? My mother?”
“It’s better than being dead.”
“Not if Darius wins.”
“The only victory is the one you’re imagining,” he said. “We are talking blood. Life or death. Forget the company. Forget the feud. Vengeance won’t save you.”
“It’s more than just vengeance.”
“Yeah. This feud is about people too. The ones killed in car crashes. The girl stolen in the night.”
“You don’t get it, Reed.”
He tried to soften his voice and failed. “Yes, I do, I know you’re afraid of him—”
“I’m not.”
“Sarah, you are so afraid of my father you aren’t thinking clearly. Admitting your fear doesn’t make you weak, it makes you human.”
“If I get scared it means I’ve given up.”
Reed tugged the handcuffs, but not to escape. He wanted to hold me. That was worth running from. I wasn’t admitting anything. I wasn’t letting Darius get into my head. I was doing this to save myself.
And nothing he could say would stop me.
“I’ll come back,” I said. “And we’ll pretend like this never happened.”
“That’s not possible.” Reed stared at the ceiling. “If you leave, we’re gonna have a problem, and I won’t be able to fix it.”
My chest ached, but it wasn’t asthma. “It doesn’t have to be fixed. Nothing is broken.”
“Do you know why I fuck you, Sarah?”
I stiffened. Reed didn’t mean it to be harsh, but it was the roughest he ever dragged his words.
“It’s not about knocking you up. It’s not about obeying Nick. It’s because I’m trying to give you a taste of pleasure, something that will give you the strength to fight.” He shrugged. “I told you before I’d protect you however I can. Sarah, I told you. I’d rather meet my father in hell than let him hurt you.”
“I remember.”
Reed looked away. “But I can’t protect you from Nick.”
I stilled. He stopped struggling against the cuffs, but with his surrender came something else.
Anger. Insult.
Betrayal.
“I hope to God you can control Nick,” he said. “Because I don’t care who you ally with in this house, if you cross Nicholas Bennett, no one will be able to save you.”
“I have to try.” I hesitated. “Can you forgive me?”
He didn’t answer the question. “You’re just as ruthless as they are.”
“Only because I have to be.”
“No.” Reed’s voice stung. “You’re choosing to be. You don’t realize how much blood will spill.”
“I didn’t draw it first.”
“But they’ll draw it last.” Reed tucked his arms behind his head, but only I flinched as the metal clanged. “Trust me, Sarah, my father will make it hurt.”
“I’m not afraid of him.”
“Yes, you are.” His voice layered with remorse. “But you haven’t seen half of what my father is capable of. If you leave, he will give you a real reason to fear him.”
12
Nicholas
“Sarah Atwood has escaped.”
It wasn’t the first time it happened, but it was surprising it took this long for her to attempt it again.
My father didn’t agree. His voice corroded with venom.
“I’ll find her,” I said.
“Yes, you will, after you’ve returned to the estate. First you will free your brother, and then I will meet with all of my sons to discuss what must be done.”
“…Free my brother?”
“Don’t delay, Nicholas.” His words sliced with a familiar rage that would split the long-healed scars on my back. “The little cunt’s final fertility treatment is tomorrow. I will have her home and bedded or it will be the last time I give her the opportunity to escape.”
Christ.
I slammed the phone on the receiver only to immediately call for my helicopter.
What the hell was Sarah doing?
If she was lucky, my father would break her legs and chain her in the basement to be fucked.
If she truly angered him, he’d do the same and then kill her.
The thought shredded my heart, and the threat of madness fueled my veins with rabid fury.
If my gut twisted and blood poisoned when my father merely looked at her, what monster would I become if he dared to lay a hand on her?
And how could I prevent it? Sarah didn’t listen to me. Willful disobedience made for a sensual challenge but a terrible epitaph. Her safety depended on my one command.
Submit.
And still, she defied me.
At each and every turn, she disobeyed me.
And now she had escaped.
It was hard enough controlling her when she was at my side. She fled from our home to go…where?
Anywhere.
Anywhere she could free herself from the Bennetts.
Anywhere she’d be rid of me.
Sarah was slipping away. I held her in my arms, promised my love, and damned her to a life of captivity and horror. She blamed me for all of it—my father’s attempted rape, the fertility drugs, the conspiracy of the board. And she was right. I’d vowed I’d do whatever I could to keep her safe.
Except free her from my possession.
And the instant she realized it—when she truly understood my obsessive devotion—I’d lose her forever, no matter the restraints, seclusion, and madness that bound her within the estate.
All the more reason to find her before she did something reckless.
Something more reckless.
The helicopter arrived within a quarter hour. I texted Max from the air.
Where are you?
He responded with a slight delay. The estate. Enjoying the show.
What show?
You’ll fucking see.
I didn’t have time for cryptic games—not from my father, not from my brother, and not from Sarah Atwood endangering herse
lf in a foolish attempt to return home or hide from my family until she inherited the trust.
The trust.
Christ.
Sarah never retreated, she only delayed to arm herself.
The helicopter was halfway to the estate, but I didn’t order the pilot to return to San Jose. I knew exactly where she was. If she had any common sense, she’d hurry to the mansion before my father traded the last of his patience for a loaded gun.
If she wanted to survive, she’d leave me and never look back.
But the thought of losing her was a pain that surged with dark desperation and unjust rage. Sarah Atwood was the true cornerstone of any empire I’d ever build. Nothing else tempted me. Nothing else moved me.
I needed Sarah in my life, at my side, in my bed.
I didn’t trust myself to deny the selfish desires. My love endangered her more than my father’s wrath.
The helicopter landed. I met my brothers within Reed’s suite.
Nothing prepared me for it, and yet, somehow, I knew this was how it would happen.
“Oh, Christ, the cavalry’s here.” Reed knocked his head against the headboard. He wore only a pair of blue boxers. The color matched the light bruising on the wrist trapped in a handcuff.
Max snickered from the corner, twirling a set of keys in his hand.
“Would you tell him to fucking unlock me?” Reed clattered the metal around his wrist. “This isn’t as comfortable as it looks.”
I surveyed the room. No signs of struggle. No sign of Sarah.
Just my youngest brother, handcuffed to his own bed.
Like a jackass.
“How…did this happen?” I imagined it quite vividly, but I hoped I was wrong. Sarah slamming a chair through a window and running was acceptable panic. But overpowering my brother? Her escape was premeditated, and it would enrage my father.
“I’ll let you out,” Max said. “Just gotta say your own little safe word.”
“Fuck you, I have to piss.”
“That’s not it.” He dangled the keys in front of him. “Say Sarah Atwood made me her bitch. Then I’ll uncuff you.”
Why weren’t they worried? “Where is Sarah?”
Reed shrugged. The handcuffs jingled. She managed to restrain a man twice her size.
Sarah was as impressive as she was idiotic.
“She left about six hours ago.”
“Six hours?” It was like she tried to enrage my father.
Max frowned. “Where’d she go?”
My brother pointed to the cuff. “I wasn’t at liberty to follow her. She stole my car and left.”
“She stole your car?” Max’s voice rose.
Reed huffed. “She sure as hell wasn’t taking my bike. Don’t worry, she said she was coming back.”
“Why in the hell would she come back?” Max paced the room, but he made no effort to unlock our brother. “Where’s her dog?”
“She left him.”
That reassured me. “She wouldn’t leave Hamlet with our father.”
Max swore. “What the hell happened?”
“Christ. We were just messing around. I wasn’t paying attention. She cuffed me and ran.”
I didn’t want to consider the possibilities, but my mind was nothing if not a bastion for jealousy. “Why did you have handcuffs?”
Reed had the decency to look shamed. “She said she thought’d it be fun. Then she pretended to freak out with them on. I took them off because she was scared. Now I know she’s one hell of a liar. She blew me, cuffed me, and left.”
My spine stiffened.
“She blew you?”
Reed’s eyes jaded with impatience. “Yeah, cause that is the pressing issue at the moment.”
“You don’t make a lot of babies that way,” Max said.
“Fuck you.”
“Now you’re getting it!”
“Enough.” I checked my watch. “Max, let him up. We have to meet our father downstairs.”
“He’s pissed,” Reed said.
Max unhooked the cuffs. “No shit.”
“He’ll hurt Sarah.”
“No.” Max didn’t look at me. “He’ll make me do it. And it won’t end well.”
I cursed the horrific thoughts that stained my mind. “If he doesn’t decide to kill her first.”
My brothers silenced. I wasn’t giving up yet.
“We have to find her before he does.”
“Why?” Reed rubbed his wrist. “Let her go. Do you think she’s stupid enough to come back?”
Stupid? No. Naive? Yes.
If Sarah wanted to hide her meeting with Roman Wescott, if she wanted to ensure the amendment to her trust stayed secret, she didn’t have a choice. She had to return. My father’s suspicions damned her each minute she strayed from the estate. Once she was returned and safe, we could lie. Make up a story about her fleeing in terror instead of an attempt to deliberately undermine the Bennett Corporation and institute a hostile takeover.
Sarah’s one salvation was the fate she denied. My father wouldn’t have cause to kill her if he believed breeding her was still the viable option. Creating her heir was still his first priority, murder his contingency.
Unless she forced his hand.
Unless she loaded the gun and stood before the barrel.
But Sarah didn’t trust that I would prevent him from pulling the trigger.
And she was wrong. I wished she realized how wrong she was.
I avoided violence, but only because I played our options, calculated the risks, and worked to secure empires instead of vendettas. But if the time came for blood to spill?
I’d slit my father’s throat before I let him take her perfection from me.
Reed leapt from the bed. Max tossed him his pants, but he darted first to his liquor cabinet to swig from a bottle of whiskey. He took the bottle with him to the bathroom and returned a minute later, a quarter of the amber liquid gone. He rubbed a washcloth over the abrasion to his wrist.
“Gonna be worse than that downstairs,” Max warned.
Reed tossed the bloody cloth in the hamper. “I’m a grown fucking man, not some little blonde troublemaker. What’s Dad gonna do to me?”
“Think long and hard about it. If you aren’t pissing your pants, you don’t know Dad.”
“Fuck this.” Reed downed another mouthful of whiskey and grunted against the sting. “I’ve had enough of this goddamned family. I’m done. I’m not dealing with this bullshit anymore.”
“You oppose him, and he’ll punish Sarah for your insolence,” I said.
Reed’s voice hollowed. “Yeah, well, she made her choice, didn’t she?”
The harshness shocked me. Reed was always so eager to help and appease Sarah. Whatever happened between them pissed my brother off. More than I expected.
Did she realize? She put herself in danger, but no handcuffs would ever convince my father Reed was helpless in her escape.
Sarah underestimated my father.
And this time, she wouldn’t be the only one punished for her disobedience.
Reed tugged a shirt over his head and headed downstairs without a word, without a plan, and without a hope to survive what awaited him. Max and I followed as he kicked in the doors to our father’s office to confront the monster.
He never learned.
His punch slammed Reed’s jaw before my brother prepared himself for the strike. He slumped, but my father pointed to us.
“Hold him up,” he said. “Both of you.”
This wasn’t a good sign.
I hoped my father would display some restraint. He hadn’t harmed Sarah in weeks, except for the ropes which tore her skin at the gala and an incident in the pool she refused to reveal.
My father attempted to break Sarah’s mind instead of her body, to spare her any accidents if she had been impregnated.
But he had no reason to protect Reed.
My father never offered mercy to those who opposed him.
Max and I
steadied Reed on his feet. My father rubbed the ache from his knuckles and sneered.
“You helped her.”
Reed spat blood. “How the hell would I do that? She cuffed me to the damn bed.”
“And why would you let that happen?”
I tasted the same challenge as Reed, but, unlike my brother, I had sense to not indulge it.
“We did it enough to her. Thought I’d see if it was as fun from the other side.” He held my father’s stare. “It’s not.”
I braced for the bastard to strike. So did Reed. The attack never came.
“You were careless, boy,” he said. “You let her escape. Who knows where she might have gone or who the little cunt has spoken to.”
“Good question,” Reed said. “Maybe she went to the Board of Directors?”
Son of a bitch.
Reed and Sarah obeyed none of my orders and consistently made life more dangerous for us all. Max knew not to react. Reed scraped the last bit of luck he had.
“You told the fucking board we held her captive, and you’re worried about Sarah getting loose?” His voice rose. “Half of the motherfucking board sympathized with the Atwoods. They sold their stock. Why would you risk any of them knowing that we’re trying to breed her?”
My father’s rage would shatter bone. “They don’t care about that girl! No one gives a damn about Sarah Atwood—it’s her fucking womb that’s worth billions. Christ, if it were any other organ I’d chop her open and rip out her entrails myself.”
I didn’t doubt it. His hand slammed against the desk.
“We need her womb. We need the baby you have yet to conceive! That little bitch is one fertility treatment from ovulating, and you let her escape!”
And there it was. The key to saving her.
Sarah was only one injection away from ovulation. For all my father knew, she escaped because she was afraid of conceiving.
He’d believe it. He lived to watch her cower in fear.
“Nicholas, you will find her and bring her to the estate.”
Eagerly. “Of course.”
“We’ve given that bitch free rein of this house. It ends now. She is here for one purpose and one purpose only, and she has yet to fulfill her responsibilities.” My father dared to hold my gaze. “I hoped my sons understood.”
Unfortunately, I knew exactly what he expected. I was tempted by the same greed and lust for power. I inherited more than just a company, an estate, and an empire from the monster.