by Lana Grayson
I wove my fingers in her hair. Her weeping quieted. She finally woke, squirming against my body, but edging closer. She hid her face within my soaked shirt.
“I don’t want popcorn again,” she said. “Ever.”
I had no idea what to say to that.
“Deal.”
Her voice wavered. “Why didn’t he just hurt me? Why would he do this?”
It wasn’t a question I wished her to ask.
It was an answer that only my father’s eldest son would understand.
Beating her did nothing to break a woman already broken by hatred. The only way my father could punish Sarah Atwood was to destroy what made her so determined to defeat us. Her family.
My father forever tarnished the memory of her brothers with a black and evil knowledge no one should have possessed. Their last moments were theirs, not a burden for her to bear.
“Where were you?” She whispered.
“Where I shouldn’t have been.” I tightened my arms over her. “I’m sorry, Sarah.”
“You’re always sorry.”
Honesty. It served no purpose but to feed my guilt. “I know. It changes now.”
“You always say that too.”
“Things are different now.”
“No.” Her voice hardened. “They’re exactly the same. We promise each other the world and then destroy those vows the instant a secret is easier to hide. We end up here, always. In pain.”
“No more secrets then. No more running. We’re stronger than he is.”
“Maybe. Now. But I’ve seen how this will end. We’ll fight to be together, swear our love, and then we’ll ruin each other because it isn’t possible for us to have everything.”
“Then I only want you.”
“You don’t mean it.”
“I do.”
“You’ve chased power your entire life. Why would you give it up now?”
Easy.
Easier than any deal I ever made, dollar I ever spent, and selfish desire I ever put before others.
“Because you are the one irreplaceable thing in my world. You are everything to me. And I swear to God, Sarah Atwood, I will spend every minute for the rest of my life proving it to you.”
“And your father? The fertility drugs? The companies?”
“Forget them. I only want you to be safe.”
“I don’t feel safe.”
And I hated myself for it. “You will.”
“What about trying to get me pregnant? This ridiculous scheme to keep me alive?”
“It’ll end.”
Sarah rested against me, the tears returning. “This won’t end until he’s gone.”
She whispered of our greatest problem and one of our only remaining solutions, but the risk wasn’t worth the complication. Not yet. Not until we had no other options.
I held her tighter.
But how much longer could I risk leaving her so vulnerable?
The rap at the door startled her. She dove against me, but Max’s voice eased her thrashing. She stilled as he entered. I nodded to the warming towel against the rack, and he helped to pulled her from the water. The towel bundled over her. He leaned down to hold her close.
I stilled, edging from the water as a sudden chill chased through my veins.
Max’s words shadowed with regret, remorse.
I didn’t trust Max’s restraint.
I didn’t know what he’d say.
“You will never understand how sorry I am.” His voice rumbled low. He covered her with the towel, but his hands fell limp to his sides before he helped to dry her. “Baby, I will never, ever forgive myself. You get me? I won’t rest until I earn your forgiveness.”
Sarah didn’t understand.
Max stole her to the bedroom. I peeled the dripping shirt from my skin. I kicked off the jeans, replacing them with a fresh pair of trousers as Sarah rested on the bed. She huddled against the blankets.
Reed sat in silence across the room, his stitches just as dark and ugly now as they were in the shadows of the garage. Sarah stared, her lip trembling as fresh tears rolled over her cheeks.
“He did that to you?” She whispered.
He nodded.
“My fault?”
His nod came slower. I’d have scolded him, but Sarah hadn’t regained enough strength for lies. Not yet. She covered her face with her hands.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“It’s done,” I said. “And you’re safe. That’s all that matters.”
Her gaze hadn’t left Reed’s new scar. She tensed, her voice a deadened, frightening shade of resignation. “He tried to hurt me.”
He did hurt her, even if she wouldn’t admit it. Sarah took her first full breath. It chased the hollowness from her words.
“My brothers are dead.”
I looked at Max. He said nothing.
“It doesn’t matter how many times he tortured me with the video,” she said. “Even if I watched it a million times, they died only once.”
I brushed the hair from her face. “Don’t. You don’t have to be brave.”
“Yes, I do,” she said, holding each of our gazes. “I lost Josiah and Mike. But now I have three more brothers, three men I love. And you guys are still alive.”
Her eyes flashed, pinning me in place, promising the same intensity she once used to oppose me.
“And I won’t let Darius separate us. Not after he’s already taken so much from me.”
She let me pull her to my chest, though the limp and frightened girl was replaced with something more dangerous—someone volatile and more unpredictable now than before my father threatened her with the memory of her family.
“I’ll stop him,” she promised. Who was she convincing? I didn’t trust the hollow shock in her voice. “Before this is over, Darius Bennett will fear me. Nothing he does will ever hurt me again.”
Darius Bennett slept soundly in his bed.
I’d ensure he never woke up.
A knife twisted in my hand. A cleaver from the kitchen.
I didn’t remember stealing it. I didn’t remember anything.
It was too hard to think over the sound of my brothers’ screams. They ached in my head. An endless ringing. A demonic cry from beyond the grave. It echoed and twisted and would never end, even with the knife, even with the darkness, even with the images finally over…
Darius Bennett slept soundly.
He didn’t deserve that peace. Night after night, I slept in quivering terror. His hands never left me in my nightmares. I bled and fought and struggled.
And I hated it.
I hated him.
I hated the control he wielded over me. Nothing he said, did, or hurt would ever compare to the horrors I imagined myself.
Darius was no longer a man. He was my ultimate fear.
He corrupted every strength I had and every future I might have possessed.
As long as he lived, I wouldn’t. As long as he breathed, I couldn’t.
No matter the ropes or threats or locked doors in the Bennett estate, the chains that bound me most effectively weren’t twisted over my body. They invaded my mind.
I stepped closer, but the knife weighed heavy in my hand.
I could do this. I had to do this. I had no other way to protect myself or the ones I loved.
Every day Darius’s eyes feasted on my curves. I knew what he wanted, what he imagined. I pretended to be brave. I stilled my trembles and cleared my voice and met his gaze. But every second spent peering into his blackened soul corrupted my courage.
Faking my bravery only exhausted me. Fear would kill me before it he did, if not from a strike too hard against my temple, then the asthma would do it for him.
I wasn’t going to live a life cowering from my shadow waiting for a demon to emerge from my own hell. Darius changed the game. It wasn’t just me getting hurt anymore.
Another step toward the bed. I stared at the monster. My hesitation was every mercy he refused his o
wn son.
He’d hurt Reed in an effort to find me. But Reed proved to be as much my brother as Josiah or Mike. It didn’t matter though. How long until Darius’s blade slipped and the steel punctured his heart instead of the scars on his cheek?
How long until Darius blamed Max for my misbehavior and flayed him for my escape?
How long until he learned that it was Nicholas who gave me strength?
I loved Nicholas, but I hated myself for never trusting him. If I had, maybe a knife wouldn’t have trembled between my fingers, clutched white-knuckled in my hand.
I snuck from Nicholas arms, torn between nightmare and hallucination, only to stand before the origin of my every fear.
And I froze.
The spine-rending terror paralyzed me within the shadows of his lair. No surging forward. No retreat.
Just stillness.
Waiting.
Clutching a knife.
My brothers’ screams tore through my mind.
Hours. I endured it for hours. At least it was quick for them.
They died once in a flash and it was done.
I died with them thousands of times.
My heart stopped with theirs. My breathing staggered in their panic. I didn’t share their pain, but that was nothing. I’d suffered enough of Darius Bennett.
He was a demon for forcing me to watch the footage, but he was a fool for not realizing how much it would enrage me.
The knife twisted in my hand.
Darius Bennett slept soundly in his bed.
My brothers slept soundly in the ground.
That injustice would be righted.
“Well, go on then, my dear.”
Darius hadn’t shifted. The leeching darkness of his room blinded us, but his skulking stare tore over my skin. My heart shuddered, twisting from my chest as though I aimed the blade for me instead of Darius.
“I assume you’re here to kill me.” Darius’s voice crackled. “Unless you wish to warm my bed?”
My stomach heaved.
No doubt that’s what he wanted.
But why hadn’t he done it yet? The violent and lust-crazed Darius Bennett fostered a cunning and calmer monster—one who bided his time, punished with a caress, and preferred madness to blood.
He had me alone in his house, helpless against his strength, and he didn’t strike. He didn’t hurt.
He hadn’t touched me.
I didn’t understand. Darius acted as though I wasn’t a threat. He treated me like a child.
Or like he thought I was carrying a child.
The bastard infected my mind. He took pride in how every minute of his torment, of his indifference, silenced like a slap to the mouth.
“You’re a monster,” I whispered. “Do you know how cruel you are?”
“I have my limits,” he said. “I didn’t show the video to your mother.”
“But you could.”
“Why should I? I don’t need to break her.”
I swallowed. The lie thickened my tongue. “You haven’t broken me.”
“Yes, I have.”
“No.” I touched the knife with both hands, if only to reassure myself that the weapon was in my palm and not his words. “Never. I won’t let you.”
“Because you’ll kill me?”
“Yes.”
“Then do it.”
My eyes adjusted to the dim light. Darius slept without a shirt. Greying chest hair curled over his heart. He crossed his arms behind his head. I ignored the bulge between his legs.
“Come, my dear. Climb into bed. Stab me. Hurt me. Kill me.”
Do it.
I silently repeated the words, filling my mind with something other than the constant screaming of my brothers.
Do it.
End it.
Stop him.
Save yourself.
Save them.
Do it.
“Sarah.” He called. “Come now. You disappoint me.”
“I’m glad.”
“I always meant to claim you as my daughter. But this weakness shows me the truth. You are not my blood.”
“I never was.”
Darius sighed. “I had such hopes for my little whore. Fuck your brothers. Endure your breeding with a modicum of grace. Birth us a son.”
“Screw you.”
“I hoped my little girl would be happy, healthy, and fucked until she couldn’t stand under her own power. Isn’t that what every father wants for his daughter?”
“You aren’t my father.”
“And what a time to remember it.”
Hatred and disgust seized my mind. Pure insanity. My brothers’ terrified cries.
The knife trembled in my hand, but I was still strong enough to imbed it in his worthless flesh.
I dove at Darius’s chest, slashing and kicking and cursing. The blade caught him. Tugged. I laughed as it slid within his skin and dragged down, down, down.
He bled.
And I loved it.
But the slice only enraged him. Darius roared. His fist slammed me in the gut.
The knife snapped from my hold.
I fought, but the darkness trapped me as effectively as Darius. I fell against the bed, screaming until the cold bite of the metal pressed into my neck.
Darius straddled me, his laugh a serpent’s hiss.
“You think you can walk into my bedroom in the middle of the night, threaten my life, and not suffer the consequences?” The knife drew blood. “Have I taught you nothing, my dear?”
He didn’t move.
Neither did I.
I fought the cough that might have driven the blade through my neck.
“So why don’t you kill me then?” I stared where his eyes might have been, if the evil polluting his soul hadn’t eroded everything human and left only twin pits of hell. “Do it. Kill me.”
“And ruin the opportunity to breed you like a dog and take your company? No, Ms. Atwood. You’re more useful to me alive.”
“Are you sure?” Rage faked my confidence. “What happens when I seize control of the Bennett Corporation before you get your bastard child?”
The knife stilled. I let the sneer color my voice with hatred.
“Josmik Holdings is mine. It passes to me as soon as the amendment is finalized, and I just had a very productive meeting with my last benefactor.”
Darius’s hand drifted over my chest. He groped and punished, gripping hard against a breast sore with the lash of rope. I ignored the throbbing hardness between his legs.
“It won’t work, my dear. My son and I regained the stock we needed to keep control. You are a wealthier woman because of the trust, but you are of no consequence now.”
“I have a majority.”
“How?”
I savored every word and only wished I might have seen his reaction instead of enduring his rage.
“Your sons gave it to me.”
The slap cracked against my cheek.
The first real emotion I forced from Darius in weeks.
I grinned, tasting blood.
“Nicholas? Max? Reed?” Their names offered me courage. “We made an agreement. They gave me their stock so I might get rid of you.”
“I didn’t know you could make those kinds of deals on your knees.”
“The Bennett Corporation is mine. And my first order of business?” I leaned up, whispering in utter delight. “Stealing your sons. Taking your wealth. And leaving you with absolutely nothing.”
Darius tossed the knife away, but his hands braced my wrists. He pinned me. Savored how helpless I was beneath him.
He leaned down close, his breath hot and panting against my neck.
I shuddered as he licked the soft skin.
“You are an Atwood, through and through, aren’t you?” He shifted against me, his hardness growing despite the threats I whispered. “Always preoccupied with your own gain, how to take your vengeance, what is best for you.” His hand pulled at my thighs, trying to force them a
part. I twisted and fought. “You never stop to think what might benefit the family.”
“How does slicing Reed’s face benefit the family?”
“How does sneaking in my bedroom in the middle of the night with a fertile womb secure our assets?” Darius slapped me again. “You think only of yourself. You’re a selfish, entitled little whore. I don’t know how you ensnared my sons, but it doesn’t matter.”
He gripped the waistband of my pajamas. I shouted, kicking at his arms.
“This ends now. Take my company. Bewitch my sons. Once you are fucked and bred, none of your wealth will matter. Stealing that cunt will be worth all the stock, power, and billions to my name. Do you know why, my dear?”
His hand pressed low, gripping a part of me he so often stole in my nightmares. I stilled.
“Because every torturous second you carry my son, you will suffer. You will bear the destruction of everything that is yours and the creation of everything that is mine.”
I batted his hands away. He hit me again. My breath lost as he punched hard against my belly, where he planned to inject every foul and horrible poison from his body.
“I will ruin you, and I will enjoy every minute of it.”
I screamed as he ripped at my pajamas.
The sudden flood of light stilled us both. Darius roared, curling his fist for a punch. The choked, rasping grunt of his breath stilled his fight.
Nicholas hauled him from the bed, trapping his father in a headlock meant more to break his neck than keep him still.
Max pulled me from the blankets only to toss me into Reed’s waiting arms. He faced his father, but Nicholas held him firm.
It wasn’t Max’s responsibility to protect me.
Now, it was Nicholas’s turn.
“You will not touch her.” Nicholas’s voice tainted with a rage I didn’t recognize. The spiced smoothness twisted, splintering into the dagger sharp threat of glass. “Not now. Not ever again.”
Reed hid my face in his chest. Sweet and naive Reed. He thought I’d be frightened.
I’d eagerly watch Nicholas break his father’s neck and kick his lifeless corpse into his own blood.
“Let me go.” Darius didn’t struggle, as though he didn’t believe the thinly veiled madness trembling Nicholas’s once-eternally still hands. “Release me, son. Now.”