Shattered King

by Sherilee Gray

  I was facing him. I didn’t want to, but it was either that or rest the aching side of my head on the hard dashboard. The muscles in his forearms jumped and bunched as he drove. He’d added more tattoos. They hadn’t been full sleeves before he went to prison, and now his arms and hands were completely covered. My gut tightened at the sight of his scarred knuckles. How he must had gotten those scars . . .

  My gaze traveled higher, to his neck. More ink. As familiar to me as my own reflection. His eyes were focused on the road, but I knew him well enough to know he wasn’t as calm as he was trying to appear. For one thing, his square jaw was hard as stone, and the muscle at the side was jumping every now and then, like he was grinding his teeth. For another, those inked fingers were gripping the wheel tight enough to turn his skin white.

  “What are you going to do?” The words just popped out of my mouth, without my say-so.

  He didn’t answer, just kept his eyes fixed ahead.

  “Hunter . . .”

  His gaze slashed to me. “Shut the fuck up.”

  I shut the fuck up. Nothing I could say at this point would make him let me go. I knew that much.

  I thought about Josh, tucked up in that big double bed, so small and defenseless. God, what if he woke and got upset because I wasn’t there? Aunt Sara would be worried out of her mind. She’d agreed not to call the cops, but I didn’t know if she’d stick to that promise faced with the reality of me being MIA.

  Oh God, Pierce would find out I was in the city. He’d go to my aunt’s, he’d find out about my son. I squeezed my eyes shut, tried to slow my breathing. I was on the verge of a panic attack. I needed a phone. Somehow, I had to convince Hunter to let me call her.

  We drove for what felt like forever before we finally stopped. My neck hurt, I had a cramp in my side, and pins and needles in both feet. Hunter slid the keys from the ignition, then looked down at me. “You can scream all you like, no one will hear you.”

  On that comforting note, he climbed out, came around to my side of the car, and pulled open the door. Un-cuffing me, he dragged me out.

  The smell of earth and pine hit me before my eyes could figure out where the hell I was. Trees surrounded us—a forest. There was a small cabin a few yards away.

  Hunter gave me a shove, pushing me up onto the front porch, opened the door, and crowded me inside. He flicked on the light, but I didn’t see much because he kept moving me forward until we reached another door.

  “Get in.”

  I did as he said, scrambling into the small bathroom.

  He flipped the lid closed on the toilet. “Sit.”

  “Hunter . . .”

  “Sit the fuck down,” he barked.

  I sat.

  He attached the cuff, still dangling from my wrist, to a pipe below the sink, and I shot back to my feet, or tried too. “No. Please don’t . . .”

  One minute I’d wrapped my fingers around his forearm, the next I was up against the wall. Hunter stared down at me, nostrils flaring, eyes hot, wild, absolutely terrifying. He pressed against me from chest to thigh, breathing heavily.

  A cold tingle slithered down my spine, a gasp escaping when an unsettling warmth hit me low in the belly, tiny pulses of pleasure firing to life. It felt like my body was waking from a deep slumber, like one touch from Hunter had awakened those sensory memories, the ones I’d locked away. Things I’d tried to forget every day for the last three years.

  But my body remembered. It remembered exactly how he’d made me feel.

  What the hell is wrong with me?

  Hunter hated me. It was all there, the betrayal, the anger, the disgust. No, I hadn’t just burnt that bridge—I’d decimated it then torched it for good measure. At the time, it had been my only option. I believed that still. If I allowed myself to believe differently, I thought I might actually go mad.

  I’d always known he’d come for me. It was only a matter of time, and I’d known there sure as hell wouldn’t be a happy reunion.

  An eye for an eye, babe. Someone fucks with me, I’ll fuck them back, harder. Always.

  His words echoed through my head, words he’d said to me many times when I was his. That was the life he’d come from, a motto he lived by. I knew that and still did what I had to. Now I had to face the consequences of my actions.

  I didn’t care about myself. The only thing that mattered to me was getting back to Josh in one piece.

  Hunter leaned in so we were nose to nose, his cold eyes fixed on mine as he wrapped those long, thick fingers around my throat. He didn’t squeeze hard, but the threat was there, and the heat of his rough skin lifted goose bumps on my arms. “Do not fucking touch me,” he growled.

  Swallowing painfully, I shook my head, since answering was out of the question. There was an entire forest just beyond the front door, plenty of places to dump my body. If I didn’t make it, at least Josh had my aunt. Right now, only Sara knew about my beautiful son, and I knew she’d take care of him. As long as she didn’t call the cops, everything would be okay.

  I was under no illusion that Hunter would spare me because of our past.

  I didn’t believe in magic, or fate, and if you actually thought about it, fairy-tales were some of the darkest, most fucked-up stories there were.

  My prince certainly didn’t want to kiss me awake, rescuing me from three years of nightmares—no, he wanted to smother me in my sleep.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Lulu

  I jumped, startled awake. My face was smooshed against the wall, butt cold and numb, head aching. Sitting on a toilet seat lid for however many hours I’d been locked in this bathroom was not the most comfortable of places to nod off. I stared at the door, tilting my head to the side, listening.

  Then I heard it, the sound of Hunter’s heavy footfalls. His boots thudded against the hardwood floors as he moved around the cabin. A shiver traveled through me from head to toe. After he’d pinned me against the wall, those fingers wrapped around my throat, I’d thought, this is it, the end. But instead of choking me to death, he’d snarled, shoved away from me, and walked out. A door had slammed somewhere in the cabin and it had been silent—until now.

  My mind raced. What was he doing out there? What did he have planned for me? Was he just going to leave me chained to the toilet to starve to death, or did he have something else in store, something far worse?

  Josh would be awake now, wondering where I was. Missing me. Sara would have worked out something went wrong and would be sick with worry.

  I tugged on the cuff around my wrist, the clank of steel against steel echoing loudly in the small room. Pain radiated up my arm. I’d been forced to hold it in a weird angle all night and now it ached like a bitch.

  Jesus. I had to get out of here.

  The sound of Hunter’s boots got louder, moving closer. The lock in the door clicked and then it was pushed open.

  I sat up straighter, blinking against the light streaming in from behind him, into the dim bathroom. I didn’t say a word. He’d made it clear I wasn’t to speak. I watched him move closer, the nerves constantly going to town in my belly, increasing as he pulled something from his back pocket.

  I shrank back unconsciously when he moved toward me. Even as I did it, it felt wrong. I’d never once been afraid of him. Even though I knew he’d come after me one day, I’d never believed he’d hurt me physically, not really. I mean, he’d once loved me beyond reason, had looked at me in a way no one else ever had in my entire life. When he’d made love to me, that big body covering mine, hands in my hair, eyes locked on mine, he’d made me feel treasured, precious.

  How could that kind of love, that kind of connection, vanish completely?

  The realization that it had was another blow. I’d done what I had to in order to protect him, but even if I told him the truth, he’d never believe it, not now.

  He made a strange sound, kind of like a growl, making me jump, then released the cuff attached to the sink. Gripping my biceps, he hauled me off the
toilet and dragged me out into the living room. There was a chair in the middle of the room and he shoved me onto it. Pulling my hands behind my back, he cuffed me again.

  I waited for him to say something, anything, but he was silent. He just stood there, staring at me for so long that I wanted to squirm under that icy glare. It penetrated me like a laser. Like it had the ability to flay me wide open, reveal all the ugliness beneath. I tried, but I couldn’t hold that stare, not when what I saw there made me feel so raw, so damn exposed. The way he saw me was reflected in those hostile blue eyes, and what he saw was just another vicious emotional hit to add to the rest.

  I was the woman who screwed up his life. The woman who betrayed him.

  There was nothing else. Not anymore.

  He moved suddenly, walking toward me. I braced.

  He went down to his knees and, gripping my chin, made me look at him. “Ready for a chat, Lulu?”

  I was chained to a chair, the man in front of me making no attempt to hide how much he despised me. But my traitorous heart did a happy little flutter. My body suddenly felt electric, a mix of emotions confusing my senses, making me tremble harder. Nerves, fear, lust, and excitement tore through me at the speed of light. My heart raced so fast I could feel the vein in my neck throbbing hard and heavy.

  It’d been dark last night, but now in the light of day, I could see him clearly and I couldn’t help but drink him in. My gaze moved over him hungrily, taking in every detail of his face, his body. The clothes he wore. He was still lean but bigger than I remembered. His black T-shirt strained around his biceps in a way that made my mouth dry. The worn denim of his jeans hugged his long legs to perfection, cupping his dick in a way that made me hot and achy between my thighs. I noted absently that he hadn’t gotten another lip piercing, and his hair wasn’t cropped like he used to wear it. It was the perfect length to run your fingers though and hang on. It suited him. Made him look rougher somehow.

  We’d always had an intense physical connection. From the first moment I saw him, when he started working for Pierce, I’d wanted him. Pierce was mean and cruel and sick, but he was also a coward, picking on those smaller and weaker than himself. Which was why he never went anywhere without one of his men. Hunter had occasionally filled that position, but mostly he’d been used for debt collection. Leaning on those poor bastards stupid enough to forfeit their repayments to Pierce.

  Despite all that, as soon as I met Hunter, I knew there was no other man for me.

  He’d looked at me across the room that day and something had happened. We both felt it. He approached me that afternoon, and I was helpless against his pull. I never, not once in the two years we’d been together, said no to him. For any reason. Whenever he wanted me, I was ready for him, just like I was now. That low ache began to throb, and I sucked in an uneasy breath at just how much I wanted him.

  God, there had to be something mentally wrong with me.

  Back then, we’d somehow managed to keep our relationship a secret. I’d told Hunter my stepfather wouldn’t be happy that I was dating one of his employees. God, when Pierce found out about us . . .

  I shoved away the memory and gave him a jerky nod, telling him to get on with it.

  He gave me a once over, something I couldn’t name moving through his eyes. “Where’s Pierce hiding?”

  The question surprised me. I don’t know what I was expecting. No, that was a lie. I’d expected him to ask me why I’d done what I had, why I’d let him go to prison. It was screwed up, but his not wanting that from me, not needing those answers—it hurt. Deep. I thought he’d brought me here to finally learn the truth, and I realized in that moment how badly I’d wanted him to force it out of me, to make me tell him everything, to relieve me of this crushing guilt.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

  He stood, putting distance between us again and leaned against the wall, one foot crossed over the other. He shoved his hands in his pockets. All casual-like. “No?”

  This whole thing was bizarre. I mean, the setting for my interrogation was cute, almost idyllic. The furniture was worn in that rustic, cottagey way. Floral fabric covered couches, recycled timber table, and chairs. Trees rustled in the breeze outside, birds singing happy little bird songs. I shook my head.

  Disgust curled his lips—lips that a few years ago, I’d had the right to kiss whenever the mood struck. And the mood had struck a lot. All I’d had to do was put a hand to his chest and look up at him. He’d instantly lean down, giving me his mouth. I could’ve kissed him all day.

  For the rest of my life.

  “You really are an exceptional liar, aren’t you?” he said.

  “I’m not lying.”

  He stood straighter, crossing his arms over his wide chest, expression hard and unyielding. “You need to start talking or things get a fuck of a lot more unpleasant for you.”

  I tested the cuffs at my back. They were tight, no way was I getting out of this, not when he thought I knew where Pierce was.

  “I don’t know where he is.”

  A dark sound rumbled from his chest. “Is that where you were going after visiting your mom? Did I get in the way of a happy reunion last night?”

  Anger flared, and I was glad of it. “No.”

  He moved fast, came in close. His hands gripped the back of the chair on either side of my waist, caging me in. “I don’t believe you.”

  I turned away, refusing to look at him. It hurt too damn much. He trailed a finger down the side of my face, his skin warm, rough.

  His lips brushed my ear. “I’ve never hated anyone as much as I hate you,” he whispered. “Not even my old man, not even your stepfather. I fucking despise you. At least they were honest about what they were. They didn’t play nice while they planned to fuck me over. All I’ve thought about for three long years, locked in that fucking shit-hole, was getting you alone like this. Making you pay.”

  My breathing started coming in fast, uneven pants. His words cut me to the quick. Knowing how much I’d hurt him, it hurt me, and I was so damn sick of living in pain. I knew that he hated me. Of course I did. But hearing it . . . God, it killed me. The fact that I was still breathing was irrelevant. “So what happens next? Beating? Torture?”

  He stilled, motionless for several seconds. “I may want to make you pay, but you know damn well I’d never lay a fucking finger on you, on any woman.”

  I spun to face him. “You kidnapped me, cuffed me to your car, and locked me in a bathroom all night. What am I supposed to think?”

  “Sweetheart, you can think whatever you want. I couldn’t give a fuck. You answer my questions, I cut you loose. Simple.”

  Another stab of pain. I cut you loose. Then he’d leave, put me firmly in his past, and make a new life for himself, with someone else. Look at someone else the way he used to look at me.

  “I don’t have the answers you want.”

  He gripped my chin again roughly, forced me to look into his eyes. “You’re back in town, and you expect me to believe you’re not going to pay Pierce a visit? His precious little protégée?”

  Oh God.

  “Jesus, look at you.” He looked at me in disgust. “You’re still that cold, twisted little monster he created, aren’t you? Did you and Pierce laughed when they locked me away?” He shook his head. “Don’t even try and sit there and tell me you don’t know where that fucker is. I know you do.”

  I froze, a violent shudder moving though me. “I don’t know!”

  He kept that hard stare aimed on me. Waiting.

  I shook my head. I didn’t know what to say. He wouldn’t believe me, anyway. I swallowed hard, close to hurling at his feet. The reality of the way he saw me, knowing that he thought it was all a lie, all of it, the love we’d had for each other . . . I couldn’t bear it. Josh’s precious face filled my mind and I turned away, staring out the window, at the morning sunlight shining in.

  My mother would be awake now . . .

  I jolted.


  Oh God.

  Had she called Pierce? Had she told him I was home?

  Hunter’s eyes moved over my face. “What is it?”

  I couldn’t answer.

  Josh.

  Pierce would find out about Josh.

  There was no other way to describe what happened next. I just . . . freaked out. A switch flipped in my head, and I started to fight like a mad woman. I shot to my feet as best as I could, cuffed to a chair, and backed the heavy wood into the wall with all my strength. My body jarred painfully, but I kept at it, tugging at the cuffs around my wrists. “Let me go! Please, I have to get out of here.”

  Strong arms came around me, holding me immobile. He went to work on the cuffs, releasing my raw throbbing wrists.

  “Calm the fuck down.” Then he rasped against my ear, “You want to go, tell me what I want to know.”

  His arms were locked around me, but the chair was gone, on its side on the floor.

  “I don’t know anything!” I screamed in his face, all the fear and anger exploding from me. “I haven’t seen that asshole in three fucking years.”

  Hunter shook me. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Who do you think I’ve been hiding from? Why do you think I’ve lived in one dump after the next, only taking jobs that pay cash, moving all the time?” I wriggled and got some space, enough to shove at his chest. “Why?” Then I started punching and scratching, fighting as hard as I could.

  I need to get to Josh before Pierce did. I needed to get to my son.

  His hands came down on my waist. I was lifted off the ground then dumped on the couch. He came down on top of me, heavy legs tangling with mine, holding my hands immobile on either side of my head. “Lulu, calm the fuck down, now,” he barked in my face.

  I couldn’t breathe, I was hyperventilating, his weight suffocating. “I need to call my aunt, please let me call my aunt Sara.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “He’ll find out. He’ll come after him.” The words were tumbling from my mouth. I was in a full panic, fear making it impossible to think clearly, to measure my words.