I WATCH HER eyes roll back into her head while her body softens underneath mine. Her lips are turning a pretty blue color and her face is going pale. I shouldn’t be this rough with her, not after what she’s been through the last two days, but I can’t help myself.
Now that I know she’s okay—not going to die on me—I want to tie her to this bed and fuck her ass, making her bleed while she cries, begging me to stop. She deserves that.
Letting go of her neck, her eyes open and she looks around aimlessly, trying to get them to focus while she starts coughing. I get up off her hips, flip her over onto her stomach, and reposition myself between her legs, spreading them open wide.
Taking my hard dick in my hand, I rub her pussy with my other, feeling how wet she is. I push into her, my cock spreading her cunt wide to allow me in, making her gasp. Leaning over her back, I wrap my hand around her mouth from behind and lower my lips to her ear. “What you did was stupid and reckless, little demon—exactly what I told you not to do.”
She mumbles against my hand, but I don’t care what she has to say. Pulling my hips back, I shove them forward, stretching her cunt and loving the way her body fights mine.
“You’re still so weak, Elli. That’s what happens when you get fucked up.”
Her pussy pulses around my dick and I kiss the side of her face. Her hands dig into the fitted sheet, and I feel her body try to lift mine, but I spread her legs wider, pressing my body into her to keep her in place. “Fight me, little demon. Show me how bad you want me to take it from you.”
She tries to move her head so she can try to dislodge my hand, but I dig my fingers into the sides of her cheeks, making her whimper and eyes close.
“I love when you fight me. When you pretend that you don’t want it, but your pussy is soaking wet, Elli. Tells me just how much you love being used.”
Her hands slap against the headboard as it hits the wall, not caring if her father can hear us or not.
“There’s a reason my name is the one tattooed on your back.” I pull my hips back and shove them forward, making her cry into my hand. “Because I own you, little demon. I think you forgot that.”
As her pussy clenches around my dick, I smile. I’m going to use her as often as I can in the next week because the clock has officially started ticking.
_______________
I STAND IN the kitchen, fixing breakfast, when I look at the clock on the stove. It’s almost noon and Elli is still asleep in our bed. She was practically unconscious by the time I finished with her. She needed a distraction. A chance to get out of her head. She loves to get fucked up, but sex is her drug of choice. She loves the power exchange it gives her, leaving her helpless and at my mercy.
My cell starts to ring, and I answer it. “Hello?” I say to Chance.
“I moved up the wedding,” he says in greeting.
“I know.” Amelia sent it to me again when I didn’t respond to her the first time. I’ve ignored every call and text from her since. “Now call it off.”
A silence lingers on the line before I hear him whisper-growl, “What the fuck?”
“Call off the wedding, Chance. It’s no longer needed.” My eyes look up when I hear commotion, thinking Elli has woken up and I just got caught, but it’s Nicholas.
“Are you fucking serious?” he roars. “This wedding was your idea. You told me—”
“Exactly. It was my idea, so why the fuck are you refusing to cancel it now?” I demand.
He lets out a growl. “It makes me look stupid, Sin.”
“It makes you look like you don’t want to marry a druggie. I don’t see where that makes you look stupid.” I sit down at the table across from Nicholas and slide a plate over to him. “Eat,” I command. “You look like shit.”
To my surprise, he smirks at me and begins to dig in.
“Easton—”
“Make the announcement, Chance. You’ve got twenty-four hours.” I hang up and set my cell down. Placing my elbows on the table, I bow my head, running my hands through my hair and pushing it off my forehead.
There no longer needs to be a wedding. My ticket is sitting right in front of me. I made the deal with Chance before I even knew Nicholas was alive. And even when I found out, there was no guarantee the Spade brothers were just going to hand him over to me. I needed several eggs in my basket. Now I’ve got the golden goose.
He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and leans back into the seat, slouching into it. His eyes drop to my ring that has the Lords’ crest on it. He looks at it longingly, as if he wishes to have one himself. “So I’ve got a week,” he speaks, starting where our last conversation left off.
I imagine freedom isn’t as good as it sounds. Carnage is all he’s known for so long. It’s like a prisoner who is getting out on parole after serving thirty years but knows they won’t be able to function in the real world. Cage a person long enough and they believe they can no longer fly.
“You’re not going back to Carnage.” I stand, picking up his plate and placing it in the sink.
“What?” He jumps to his feet. “They said a week until they collect.”
“You’re free. Don’t fuck it up.” I go to return to the bedroom, but he grabs my upper arm, spinning me around to face him. His face inches from mine, eyes narrowed. “What did you do?” he demands.
“What needed to be done,” I say simply.
“Easton—”
ELLINGTON
MY FATHER’S EYES meet mine over Sin’s shoulder and he stops whatever he was about to say and lets go of him, stepping back. Sin turns to look at me and sighs heavily.
I heard enough to be confused even more. I don’t know what Carnage is or why my father was there, but I didn’t like that Sin said he did what needed to be done. If it involves the Lords, it’ll require flesh and blood.
My dad runs his hand through his hair, pushing it back off his forehead as if he’s trying to fix it. To look more presentable in my presence. It’s weird to see him. It’s him but he doesn’t look the same. He was always in shape, took care of himself. But he’s skinnier than I remember him ever being. His hair is graying, and his eyes look dull. They were always a pretty blue. Not as blue as mine and my mother’s but just as beautiful. He’s got a scar across his right cheek that wasn’t there before. Another on his forearm. They both look like they’ve been there for years.
“Sit down, Elli. You need some breakfast,” Sin states, walking over to the stovetop. He grabs a plate and starts putting eggs on it.
I walk around the island, my back to the counters so I can keep an eye on my dad and fall into a chair, watching him walk over to the table as well. He takes the seat farthest away from me at the opposite end, sitting at the head of the table.
Sin comes over and sets a plate down with a fork and a bottle of water. Leaning over, he kisses my forehead and then sits down to my right, facing the entrance of the kitchen. “Eat up. You need the energy.”
An awkward silence falls over the room as I drop my eyes to look over the eggs, bacon, and piece of toast. “I’m not hungry,” I whisper.
“Elli—”
“Why is he here?” I drop the fork to the table, listening to it clank, and look at Sin, interrupting my father. “Why are you here?” I growl, getting to my feet, irritation building. “Why are you both in my house?”
“There’s a lot we need to talk about,” Sin states, his eyes showing he’s getting irritated as well that I won’t just give up. Like I don’t deserve to know the truth.
I let him fuck me senseless this morning but that’s sex. He knows it’s a weakness of mine. That doesn’t mean I won’t be levelheaded afterward. “Let’s start with you.” I place my hands on my hips. “Hmm? What the fuck are you doing here?”
“The truth,” he gets to his feet, the chair scraping across the floor in the process, and turns to face me, “is that Gunner called and told me you were at a party getting fucked up. As usual.” He steps closer to me, and I swallow. “And asked what I wanted him to do. I told him to drag you out of that party if necessary. When he called me back, he had found you in a bedroom, by yourself. Unconscious and vomiting.”
I narrow my eyes up at him as he takes another step closer, my back now pressed against the counter. “I was fine…”
“You were overdosing!” he shouts. “Holland lied to you. Mack didn’t give you ecstasy. It was fentanyl. Gavin had to give you Narcan which led to withdrawals once it wore off. You could have died, Elli. Why did you do it?”
I can’t answer. That would show him just how weak I am.
“Tell me! Why did you take something from someone not knowing what it was?” he demands.
“Easton…” My father stands from the table. “Calm down. She—”
“No,” Sin interrupts him, eyes glaring down at me. “She wants to know what’s going on. I want to know what the fuck she was thinking.”
“Why the fuck do you care what I do anyway?” I snap, trying to deflect. “You’re marrying Amelia. I’m marrying Chance. It’s over for us. Go home to your soon-to-be wife, Sin.” Giving him my back, I go to storm out of the kitchen.
“You’re my wife, Elli.”
I stop dead in my tracks and turn to face him. I expect him to laugh. Or to say sike. That it’s another sick joke he’s playing on me. But instead, he walks over to me, his look growing heated in a way that makes me think he’s going to wrap his hand around my throat and choke me out. If my father wasn’t present, I’d beg for it.
“Till death do us part, Elli.”
