by Lana Grayson
“I highly doubt they anticipated the challenges that would arise for you.”
“Nevertheless, I am willing to face those challenges.”
“Indeed. Here you are. Asking me to amend an agreement to destroy a company which yielded me a profit over the years. You’re asking me to ruin my personal and business interests even though you were not present in the initial negotiations.” He smiled, but not for my benefit. “Ms. Atwood, the only reason you sit before me is because you are the last surviving Atwood.”
I nodded. “It’s true.”
“It’s much to ask from a young woman managing a legacy her father never intended her to have.”
“Ask yourself, Mr. Wescott. Do you believe Darius Bennett will protect your family’s investments in the future?”
“It’s unlikely.”
“There’s your answer.”
“What is your incentive, Ms. Atwood?” He bid me to reveal more than I wished. “You are a billionaire heiress. What do you need with this potential revenue?”
“I have many reasons.”
“Name one.”
Survival. Revenge. Blood.
I swallowed.
“Security,” I said.
“Are you sure it won’t just endanger you more?”
“Nothing can endanger me more.”
“Maybe.” He sighed, folding his palms. “I want to help you, Sarah Atwood.”
I didn’t react. “Mr. Wescott, it isn’t help. This is a business arrangement which will benefit us both.”
“Please understand this decision does not come lightly. I have spent my life working for the Bennett Corporation—investing time and money and energy into a family I supported.”
“I understand.”
“Nicholas Bennett is a strong leader. He would lead his family and corporation to success.”
“I completely agree.”
Roman shook his head. “He would. If he were given the opportunity.”
The hair on my neck prickled.
“I bear no resentment for Nicholas Bennett.”
“Maybe you should.”
I didn’t respond. Roman leaned in, his hard stare revealing a lifetime of secrecy. He was no older than Nicholas, and yet he radiated wisdom, mystery, and danger. Though he was quite attractive, his words haunted me.
“I’ll agree to the amendments, Ms. Atwood. You can inherit your trust and engage the Bennett Corporation as you see fit—under one condition.”
I didn’t like conditions discussed without a lawyer or witness.
“Darius Bennett is not a good man,” he said. “His plans have severe consequences for everyone in the corporation, and his hatred lives on in his sons.”
I said nothing. He held my gaze.
“Ms. Atwood, I will consider signing this agreement only if you agree that the stock you receive, the interests you control, and the power you’ll possess in the Bennett Corporation remain yours.”
“I don’t understand.”
“If you want this trust, you will assume control of the Bennett Corporation.” His command stopped my heart. “And you will never sell your control back to Nicholas Bennett.”
I thought the estate was empty when I returned.
I was wrong.
Darius Bennett seized me in the foyer. I shouted, but his hand curled around my neck before I could call for help. His fingers stained with blood.
He squeezed.
It wasn’t the first time I couldn’t breathe in his presence.
“Where have you been, my dear?” The slithery rasp of his voice did not pretend to be kind. “We’ve been so worried about you.”
I said nothing. His grip tightened.
Hard.
Too hard.
I coughed. It made no difference. My hands clawed at his hold even though struggling would only excite him.
Darius liked when I tried to fight him. I’d learned that the hard way.
My pounding heart broke. Had I been quick, had I not panicked and went to find Mom, I might have made it back before anyone but Reed knew I had gone.
Now the estate stood quiet. Empty halls and emptier rooms awaited me, despite leaving Reed chained to the bed for too long. Way too long.
My step-brothers weren’t home.
Nicholas wasn’t here.
Only Darius.
I was alone with a monster who trapped with a grip more demonic claw than hand.
“You’ve been very naughty.”
Darius held me close. The decaying brown of his eyes hardened with something worse than his usual threats. Delight? Anticipation? It curdled my stomach.
“You know you aren’t allowed to leave the grounds without permission.” His attention cast down, practically shredding through my dress. “You know you aren’t permitted to leave your brothers’ beds.”
That tone. His words gambled between youthful chastisement and lechery, and every melodic syllable and growled intent promised something sick. His sadism rivaled only his perversion. He whispered terrible secrets against my flesh.
“You do not disobey your father.” He cupped my cheeks with both hands, bumping his forehead to mine. What might have been fatherly compassion disgusted me, his every touch a march of stinging insects that coiled over my spine. “Does Daddy have to punish you?”
I shook my head. I’d play his game and stay quiet.
I’d do whatever he wanted if he’d let me go.
Killing me wasn’t the worst thing Darius Bennett could do.
He wouldn’t stop until I begged for death.
And I would.
God, I knew I would.
I tried to be brave. Tried to pretend Darius had no control over me. Tried to lie to Nicholas every morning when he woke me from my nightmares. He chased away the fear with gentle hands and gentler reassurances. Then, I felt safe.
Now my lungs filled with Darius’s stale scent, a blend of cigar and leather. His drifted his paws from my cheek to my shoulders. He leered as I began to tremble.
I swore I’d never let Darius see me afraid of him.
He wouldn’t give me a choice.
“You are a spoiled little whore,” Darius whispered. “Do you think you have the right to look us in the eyes? To argue with us? To run from us?”
His nails dug into my elbows.
It wasn’t his blood that stained his skin.
“Do you know what I’ll do to you?”
I didn’t let myself guess. I wouldn’t explore that dark and terrible place in his mind.
“I can starve you. Beat you.” He licked his lips. “I can ensure you’re raped every hour on the hour until your belly bloats with a child. I don’t care if you’re in pain or frightened or cold. The only thing I care about is right here.” He cupped my stomach, low, aiming for the womb he didn’t realize was barren. “If you don’t start to grow a little Bennett soon, Daddy’s going to be very disappointed in you.”
I nodded.
“Come with me, my dear.”
Darius grasped my wrist, tugging as he led me to the stairs. His fingers crushed my bone, but I’d wrench my hand off if it meant escaping him.
No.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. They promised it wouldn’t happen. That they’d protect me. Nicholas swore he wouldn’t let his father touch me again.
But they weren’t here. They were looking for me. Darius jerked my arm. Something terrible in my wrist popped. I yelped, but he didn’t care.
Darius dragged me up the stairs, into the darkness of the estate.
Why did I come back?
Why didn’t I just run?
Why did I do this to myself?
Nicholas.
I wanted Nicholas.
I wanted the chance to be with him and love him and escape with him. No matter the horror or pain or demons, I needed him. We struggled to build a life in shadow even when we knew it’d incinerate the instant it came to light.
How was I supposed to love a man who captured me, sa
crificed me, and deceived my trust?
And how was he to love me when I betrayed him to save myself?
I tripped over the stairs. It didn’t slow Darius. My hesitations and pleas, protests and screams would never stop him. He forced me to my feet, leading me up, up, up, into the desecrated secrets of his world and the depraved recesses of his mind.
Where was Reed? And Max?
God, where was Nicholas?
My chest ached with a breath that trapped too deeply within my lungs. I fought the asthma and ignored my fear. Neither would help me survive the pain, shame, and destruction Darius willed.
But I only needed to survive. Darius revealed too much of himself.
He’d keep me alive.
Broken, but alive, and that was his greatest mistake. I sacrificed everything before. I’d surrender my body if it meant I’d live to strike him down.
He hauled me to the landing, and I blinked back tears.
But Darius didn’t aim for his private wing—the desolate stretch of hell I hadn’t dared to explore. Instead, he forced me into Max’s sanctuary, the theater tucked within his hall. He took me to the first place in the estate that had offered me a moment of…comfort.
He didn’t plan to rape me, but that didn’t mean I was safe. He’d hurt me however he could.
I never thought I’d be eager for the bite of a belt or the rage of a flogging.
Pain I could handle. Pain I had endured, both at his hand and Max’s twisted protection.
But without my step-brothers, I had no idea if Darius had the restraint to end my punishment before it turned into a murder. He didn’t have Reed’s compassion, Max’s awareness, or Nicholas’s undying patience.
Darius possessed only absolute cruelty.
And I experienced a brutality that knew no limits.
But that didn’t explain why he forced me to sit in the leather recliner centered in the room. I stilled as he ripped the extension cord from a gaming console hooked to the theater system. He tested the strength of the wire and faced me.
His smile waged a cautious, lucid, merciless war.
Even my heart shivered. Whatever he planned would be worse than rape.
“I talked to your mom.”
Darius leaned over me to twist the wire against my chest. He looped it behind the chair and bound me against the leather. The cord nearly sliced me in two. He liked how I bit my lip to silence my squeal.
“You didn’t ask for permission to leave, but I understand. You missed your family, didn’t you?”
I swallowed my profanity. No sense endangering Mom.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You went home, my dear.”
I didn’t answer. Darius wrapped the cord around me a second time. It cut into the sensitive skin beneath my breast where he already punished once with his ropes. I didn’t let him see me flinch.
“The first time I asked, she lied.” He tightened the cord as he growled the word. I pinched my eyes shut. His force drove the air from my lungs. “My own wife. Lying to her husband to protect her whore of a daughter. Sarah, I won’t stand for that.”
Oh God.
He tied me too tightly to even tremble.
“Fortunately, Bethany is a devoted wife. She understands that I am her husband.” Darius knelt before me and surveyed his work. “She told me all about your visit. She said you acted…strangely. And that you were desperate for her to visit your aunt.” His voice lowered, the shadow of pure, utter hatred rumbled in his voice. “How dare you try to interfere in my marriage.”
My mouth dried.
How could she have told him I was there? She wouldn’t have betrayed me, not if she understood what she was doing.
A breath escaped in a pained cough.
She…forgot. Whatever illness cobwebbed in her mind captured a memory of my visit but not my plea to keep it secret. One conversation with Darius, and she spilled everything to him.
What else would she eventually forget to keep quiet?
How long did I have before she revealed my infertility?
“She’s not well.” I steadied my voice. “I wouldn’t trust a word she says.”
“I’ve learned how to decipher her. Despite your ill-intentions, your mother was thrilled that you came to visit.”
I didn’t answer. He tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear.
“I know you miss her. I know you miss all of your family.”
“It’s expected when someone’s been kidnapped.”
The gentle hush to his voice was worse than any profanity. “We’ve tried to make you a home here. You know I’ve thought of you as my little girl.”
He thought of me in ways no daughter should ever have been imagined by a loving father.
His touch burned me with a warned shiver, but the cords bound me too tightly, biting through my skin even as I remained silent, pressed hard into the recliner.
Darius’s hand slid along my leg, savoring the soft skin of my knee. I looked away, but he only explored. His fingers pressed no higher than the uncomfortable swell of my thigh.
“I try to be a good father,” he said. “But it’s difficult raising a disobedient little girl who doesn’t respect her family the way they deserve.”
He wouldn’t pry a single word from me. His fingers dug into my skin. I’d bruise, but I’d survive.
“You understand, don’t you? Your father just wants what’s best for you.”
The grip turned painful. He’d rip my leg off if I didn’t acknowledge him. I nodded.
“I have enough trouble keeping my boys in line. I’d hate to think that my little slut daughter would cause as much mischief as them.”
“Where are they?”
“Your brothers?” Darius’s voice lightened. “Oh, there was a…bit of an accident. Nothing for you to worry about.”
An accident?
Blood on his hands.
Oh God.
“Darius—”
He wagged a finger. “Now, my dear, I told you. Nothing so formal.”
The word soured on my tongue. “Dad. What kind of accident?”
He ignored me. “It warms my heart how much you care for your brothers.”
What did he know? I didn’t react.
“You’re probably worried they’ll end up like Josiah and Mike—dead and burnt and scraped together into a bundle of charred flesh to be buried.”
He should have just hit me. I’d be sick. I wasn’t ready for him to mention my real brothers. He didn’t deserve to speak their names, let alone use their death to frighten me.
“You miss Josiah and Mike. Your mom does too. Luckily for my girls, I have something that can take the pain away.”
Nothing he offered would ever give me comfort. I twisted. Just the memory of my brothers exposed every raw and vulnerable nerve for him to fray.
My father’s death destroyed the family. Josiah and Mike’s deaths destroyed me.
And Darius knew it.
Of course he knew it.
He saw it at their funerals. He heard it in my voice every time an insensitive asshole demanded details of their crash.
Only a bullet to the head would end that pain.
And he wasn’t kind enough for that.
“I have something for you,” he said. “It took me a while to acquire it, and it cost a decent amount of money, but…” He caressed my cheek, his thumb pausing over my lower lip. He pushed as though he expected me to suck on it, but he turned before succumbing to that fantasy. “Nothing is too much for my little girl.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I can give you one last chance to see your brothers.”
Darius tapped my nose as I stared at him, bewildered.
“You stay here.” He chuckled at his joke as he surveyed the bindings. “Daddy will be right back with your present.”
What. The. Fuck.
My stomach hollowed.
He left the theater. I fought against the wires bindi
ng me, but Darius knew how to trap someone within his grasp. My skin sliced against the cords. I couldn’t escape before he returned.
He carried a DVD.
None of this made sense.
Darius paused at the popcorn cart tucked against the wall. He added oil and kernels to the popper while humming a quiet tune. The machine whirled to life and kicked out bright kernels of fluffy popcorn. I flinched with each jarring pop.
He added a handful to a bowl and pumped glob after sickening glob of thick, gooey butter over the popcorn. He sat the bowl next to me and tightened the cords behind the chair with another cruel twist.
“Are you comfortable?”
He admired his work, how the bindings forced me stiff against the chair and raised my breasts high. My hands lost feeling. He didn’t care.
“I know it’s a bit much, but I don’t want you to miss a single moment of this.”
He waved the DVD in the air. Had he gone completely insane or was this just par for the course? I tempered the question as best I could, but my voice still trembled. Not like I could be calm when my skin abraded under the rope, the bondage ached my back, and his grin radiated pure evil.
“Darius, what the hell are you doing?”
“We’re going to watch a home movie.”
“What home movie?”
Darius tapped the DVD. “Why, one of your brothers, of course.”
I didn’t understand, but the dread prickled over the parts of my body that hadn’t yet gone numb.
He settled in the recliner next to me, pressing a few buttons on the remote. He shoved the bowl of popcorn at me, chuckling as the ropes didn’t allow me to even flinch away.
“Don’t worry.” He pressed a kernel to my lips. “Let Daddy help.”
I tried to refuse the greasy popcorn, dripping fake butter and offered from fingers that smelled of cigars and blood. Darius forced the bite into my mouth.
I spat it out.
“Let me up! What are you doing?” My voice rose. “What do you want from me?”
He frowned, shushing me with a finger. “No talking during the movie. Bennett house rule.”
Now I would be sick.
A button on the remote dimmed the lights. The screen projected a shaky video of a rest stop overlooking a busy desert highway.
The cellphone video focused on a group of teenagers before spinning upwards, capturing a small, private jet flying entirely too low.