I wasn’t running away. He should be glad of that. But as the thought hit me, I realized how stupid this was. Of all the damn places in the world I could be running to, I chose a goddamn storage facility on the other side of the city, for no other reason but more information about my goddamn warden.
I gripped the steering wheel of the Audi and glanced at the GPS. For someone so fucking smart, he needed to make sure he cleared out his regular routes. The monotone drone urged me to take the exit. I did, grinding the sports car’s gears as I went. “Leave me, motherfucker,” I whispered, dividing my focus between the road and the illuminated map in front of me. “No way. I’m the one who is leaving your ass…and I’ll take out your damn gearbox with me.”
With each turn of the wheel, that tiny ache under my breast flared, reminding me he was going to track me down eventually. But how long would that take? Not tonight, I was sure of that.
No.
Tonight, he was busy with his goddamn date.
I clenched my jaw and jerked the wheel to turn into a darkened road in the middle of nowhere. I looked out the window at the glinting lights in the distance and realized that out here, I was on my own. But then again, I was used to that, wasn’t I? I focused on the road but kept glancing at the blinking arrow beside me and tried to forget all about the clear blue eyes of my protector as he’d sat watching me while I slept and the soulless dark eyes of my captor. They could all go to hell for all I cared.
What I wanted was answers. Real answers, and deep down, I knew Ryth’s dad would give them to me.
“Destination point on your left. Destination point on your left. Destin—”
“Okay.” I reached over and pressed the button. “I got it.”
There were no lights illuminating the storage yard, no vacancy or even a no vacancy sign out front. I leaned against the wheel after I’d tapped the brakes, peered at the expansive building, and shifted my gaze before I sighed. There was nothing but a gigantic goddamn fence barring my way. I didn’t know what I’d been expecting, but it wasn’t that. “Shit.”
I slowed the Audi and jerked the wheel toward the driveway, slamming on the brakes and clutch at the same time as I prayed I wasn’t about to launch myself through the gate…
Then again.
The idea hit me. In an instant, I tore my foot from the brake and instead, stomped the gas, making the car lunge forward. Steel glinted in the headlights. The engine roared before I hit the gate with a crunch. My head jerked forward. The impact snapped my seatbelt tight across me. But it was the howling of the car’s engine that penetrated my shock.
I sucked in hard breaths and eased my foot off the gas as I stared at the dented front of the car. “Shit.” Then I winced, released the seatbelt, and climbed out.
The impact wasn’t as hard as I’d wanted. I was too slow and too close. I stared at the small gap in the gate at the front of the car, then shifted my gaze to the big crease in the hood. London was going to be pissed.
I scowled and stepped around the open car door. “Fuck London.”
Then I shifted my gaze to the real reason I was here, the storage facility and what secrets it held inside. Even if it didn’t lead me to Ryth’s dad, it was going to give me something, I just knew it. A man like London didn’t have a place like this without it being useful for something.
What better place to hide all his dark and dirty secrets? I stepped closer, looking at the nose of the Audi wedged against the gap in the gate. The faint howl of an engine drew my attention and in the distance, a car took the entrance to the long, darkened road sideways.
My stomach rolled.
My breath stilled.
Chills raced along my spine
“Oh shit.”
I jerked my gaze to the narrow gap in the gate as the roar of that engine grew louder, and I lunged. My hand slipped against the dented hood of the Audi as I searched for purchase. I shoved again, drove my boot against the bumper, and scrambled up the fence.
My fingers burned as I grasped the chainlink and hauled myself upwards as tires howled and the car skidded sideways before coming to a stop behind the Audi.
“Goddammit!” London roared, inciting the panic even higher inside me. “Vivienne, STOP!”
I drove myself higher and reached upward to grasp the top of the fence. Pain lashed along my palm as my captor grabbed me and yanked, pulling me back down.
“Get off me!” I screamed as I kicked and fought.
The bite in my palm was nothing compared to the agony in my chest. Rage narrowed my vision. All I saw was that building behind the fence where I wanted to be, and his hands as they gripped my waist and pulled me away was a battle I wanted to win.
But I was no match for his pure brutal strength as he tore me from the fence and hauled me away on his shoulder. I twisted and bucked, driving my hands against his shoulder, then his chest as I began to fall. But he grabbed me and lowered me carefully to the ground, his dark eyes wild. “What the fuck are you doing!”
“What the fuck am I doing?” I screamed as I stumbled backwards until I hit the open door of the Audi. “I dunno, London. Maybe I want answers, huh! Maybe I want the goddamn TRUTH!”
He stilled, his chest rising and falling hard with savage breaths as he glanced at the building through the fence. There was a flicker of fear as he turned back to me. “And you thought a random storage yard in the middle of fucking nowhere would give you that?”
“Oh, don’t fucking play me,” I snarled as I took a step forward. Fear and anger were a Molotov cocktail inside me and I was staring at the match. “I know this is yours. I also know there’s no way in hell you’d have a place like this without it being useful to you. Because that’s your MO, right? You don’t possess things you can’t use.” Including me.
It’s the whole reason he’d gone out to fuck, wasn’t it? Because he couldn’t fuck me. I lowered my gaze to his crisp suit and froze at the bloody smear on his white shirt. “Anyway, it’s not like you fucking care.”
“I don’t care?” he repeated, those dark eyes even more chilling. “You. Obnoxious. Goddamn. Brat.”
I flinched. Obnoxious brat? Who the fuck was he cal—
He closed the distance between us, grabbed me around the waist, and lifted me across the hood of his dented Audi. I shoved out my hand, catching myself as I landed. Pain stabbed my palm. I bit down on the agony.
Smack! His palm landed on my ass.
“I don’t fucking CARE?”
SLAP!
I bucked and jerked as fire lashed my ass. Screams sounded in my head. Children’s screams…my screams blended into them. Memories of being smacked just like this slammed into me. “Stop!” I writhed, trying desperately to get away.
Slap!
The blaze tore through my abdomen. “London…STOP!”
In the corner of my eye, I caught his hand as it froze in mid-air, as though in his blind rage he’d suddenly heard me. His breaths were savage as he slowly let me go. Without his hold, I slipped down until my feet hit the ground. My ass felt the fiery imprint of his hand as I stumbled backwards and away from the monster.
But he didn’t look my way, just stood there staring down at the gleaming gray steel and, in a chilling voice, said, “Get your ass into the car, Vivienne. I’m taking you home.”
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t run. Couldn’t do anything but stare at the monster. Because at that moment, that’s what London St. James was. A cold, heartless monster. He didn’t care about me. The blazing burn on my backside told me that. He cared about his property and that’s all I was to him. His. Goddamn. Property.
“Vivienne…” His voice was etched with desperation. “The car…now.”
I sucked in hard breaths and stepped away, putting as much distance between us as I could as I rounded the other side of the Audi and all but ran for the black Mercedes. My knees trembled and my hands shook as I clawed at the door handle and climbed in as the damn gate that had blocked my way slowly opened.
“Fuck you,” I whimpered, wincing with pain as my ass touched the seat. “Fuck you to hell.”
Tears came as I reached down and tenderly touched the sting. Outside the window, London climbed into the Audi and drove it through the gate toward the warehouse, where he parked it and climbed out. An ache bloomed in the back of my throat as the outline of him came through the darkness, growing clearer the closer he came.
Despite the blur of my tears, I yanked the seatbelt across me and snapped it in place as he cut around the front of the car and climbed in through the open door. I could only press myself against the door and glare at him. He scared me now, maybe more than anyone had scared me in my entire life. I’d battled the guards at The Order and kept my mouth shut the entire time I looked for a way out of that place. But I couldn’t find a way out of this, could I?
I couldn’t find a way out of him.
He yanked the door closed and latched his own seatbelt before shoving the car into gear. The honed blade of silence cut through the air as he pulled away from the warehouse and turned the car around.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
I tried to swallow the thickness in my throat and forced the words. “Like what, London? Like you just beat me on the front of your car?”
He flinched at the words, his eyes almost midnight black in the wash of the dashboard lights. “I didn’t…beat you.”
My voice was so pathetically small. “My burning ass says otherwise.”
He snapped his gaze toward me and his lips curled as he narrowed in on the slow tears sliding down my cheeks.
“Fuck!” He unleashed a snarl and slammed on the brakes.
I snapped forward as the car skidded sideways and came to a stop in the middle of the road. The rush of his breaths filled the space. He stared at his fists as they strangled the steering wheel. “Vivienne—” he started, and I just couldn’t allow myself to hear another word.
I yanked the door handle and shoved, but fell out of the damn car. I didn’t know where I was going. All I knew was that I couldn’t stay there staring at him like that. He looked…broken…desperate…in turmoil. I couldn’t afford to feel. Not for him. Not for any of them…
And here I was with tears burning just as hot on my cheeks as the handprint on my ass.
The driver’s door opened behind me as I stumbled backwards and turned, scanning the darkness for a way out of this torment.
“Vivienne, stop!” he barked.
“Fuck you!”
“Vivienne…”
I stumbled, tripped, and fell, unable to see a damn thing through my tears. Still, I ran. The heavy thud of steps boomed behind me until I was grabbed from behind and hauled off my feet.
“You don’t run from me,” he raged as he pulled me against his chest. “Do you get that? You don’t run from me.”
I hit him, pummeling his shoulders and the sides of his head with feeble blows. “Fuck you…fuck you, London.” But the fight was gone, leaving me washed out as I pushed and pleaded. “Let me go, London…just let me go.”
He carried me back to the car and pushed me against the hood of the still-running Mercedes. I whimpered at the impact but I had no time to wiggle or thrash as he slid his hands down my arms, captured my wrists, and pinned them above me as he growled. “You don’t get to run from me, do you get that?”
I struggled against his hold, but he was too strong for me as his leg pushed in between my thighs…and tonight he was too dangerous. I didn’t know what had happened to him, but I knew it was bad. I felt it in the cruelty of his grip and I heard it in the desperation in his tone.
He ground his body against me. “I shouldn’t have done that. Shouldn’t have hurt you like that. I’m not that man, Vivienne. I’m not that man.”
“You are.” I shoved against him.
He stiffened, not fighting me. “I don’t want to be. Not with you. I won’t raise my hand again in anger. Not to you. But you don’t get to run from me. Not now…not ever.”
Heat burned and it wasn’t just on my bruised ass against the car, it licked between my thighs, drawing me away from the pain. “No,” I moaned as he thrust his hips, slowly grinding against me. “No.”
“No?” That slow thrust came again, rubbing against that heat between my thighs. “Are you sure about that?”
I struggled, yanking against his vise-like grip around my wrists. “No, no. I don’t want you.”
He fucked me through our clothes, grinding his hard cock against my core. “You forget how wet I made you last night, Vivienne. You forget I can still fucking taste you.”
I closed my eyes and released a moan.
“You think you don’t fucking torment me?”
I thrashed my head from side to side even as my legs inched wider, giving him all the room he needed. “I don’t want you.”
He ground that hardness against my core. “Liar.”
The burn in my ass was secondary to that unfulfilled ache between my thighs. His dangerous stare held me hostage until he lowered his head and kissed me. I closed my eyes, giving into those hard lips as they took what they wanted before he broke away.
He released my wrists, but they still stayed there, lying where the hood met the cold glass of the windshield as he sank to his knees.
“I fucking know you want me.” He worked the button of my pants then tugged the zipper down. “So I’m about to prove you wrong.”
My pants were yanked down. Those demanding fingers dug under the elastic of my panties before they were dragged to the side. “You don’t want me, huh?” He slid his finger along my pussy, spreading me. “You’re so fucking wet. Look at yourself.”
I bit my lip.
“Do what I tell you,” he snarled.
I had no choice but to obey, meeting that brutal stare.
“Open your goddamn legs for me.”
Oh God…
My breaths were racing as I did what he wanted, shifting my stance until my pants pulled taut.
“Don’t want me, Vivienne?” He slid his finger along my crease and pushed me. “You don’t fucking want me?”
I moaned, exposed, lying against the front of his car in the middle of nowhere while he fingered my pussy. “You want me to fuck you?”
Heat bloomed. I bit my lip harder.
“Tell me…do you want my cock here?”
I shook my head. “No.”
He pushed in deeper. “I’m breaking the fucking contract right now,” he growled. “This is all they need to take you from me, you realize that? I’ll kill them if they try. I’ll murder whoever they send and they’ll never find the bodies. All you have to do is say the word. Tell me, I’ll break the contract even more. I’ll spread you on this car right now and fuck you. I’ll stretch you, wildcat. I’ll fucking stretch this tight cunt until there won’t be a goddamn second where you don’t remember it. Tell me to do it. Tell me right fucking now…”
I tried to catch my breath, opened my eyes and lowered my gaze to him.
“Tell me,” he forced the words through clenched teeth. “Tell me to fuck you and I will.”
