That voice caused shivers to skate through her body and had goose bumps lining her skin. She tried to move but not only were her hands tied to the chair, her legs were as well.
“Shhh. Don’t struggle, love. You know that will only make the knots tighter.”
Oh God. No. Please, no.
A choked sob left her and she cried harder. She knew all too well the knots Cameron tied. It had been a thing that tortured her and got him off. He could make it so any move she made had the nylon digging into her skin, even tearing her flesh. She still couldn’t see him, and that fact alone had every one of her senses screaming out. How had this happened? She had taken great care to make sure she wasn’t put in this situation again. The alarm. The name change. The fucking gun training. All of it was for nothing because in the end he still found her. Still had her at his mercy.
“I have to admit, love, you had me running for quite some time.” His warm breath teased her ear at the same time she felt his hands settle on her shoulders. “Didn’t I tell you I’d find you? Didn’t I tell you there was nowhere you would be able to hide from me?” he whispered and then dragged his tongue along the side of her neck.
Brea closed her eyes and cried out, but the sound was muffled by whatever he had shoved in her mouth. Trying in vain to get her hands free proved a fruitless attempt. The rope dug even further into her flesh and she felt the warm wetness of her blood as her skin ripped open.
“You know”—he kept one hand on her as he moved in front of her—“I could have forgiven the fact that you ran from me, Brea, but the fact that you spread those legs for another man is something I simply won’t tolerate.” She wouldn’t look up, wouldn’t look into his heartless eyes and give him the satisfaction of seeing how frightened she really was.
“Look at ME!” The sound of his voice, a roar in the small confines had her immediately obeying. “Ah, that’s my girl. You were always such a good and docile little bitch.” Cameron hadn’t changed. His blond hair was immaculately styled, and his handsome face was what had initially drawn her. He had her tied up and planned on doing horrendous things to her, that she didn’t doubt, but here he wore a light-blue oxford, Dockers, and loafers. He looked like a fucking advertisement for
Better Homes and Gardens
.
He took a step back from her and stared at her for so long all she wanted to do was gouge her own eyes out. He made a
tsking
sound, as if he was highly disappointed in her, and started rolling his sleeves up his forearms. Watching him do such a mundane act had her shaking, because she knew what came after he rolled his sleeves up. Pain.
“If you would have just stayed, Brea, we could have worked it out.” She wasn’t fooled. He had deceived her once, but she knew the kind of evil that lurked inside of him. “I want you, still do even after you became that common thug’s little slut.” When his sleeves were rolled up he started undoing several of the buttons of his shirt. “Did you know you were letting a murderer fuck you, Brea?”
Cameron was the master of all manipulators. She knew Adrian hadn’t killed that man, hadn’t killed his family, but Cameron thought he had left her in the dark. He was trying to use this knowledge, these lies to warp her feelings for Adrian. It didn’t matter, because whatever Cameron said would never change how she felt for Adrian. She was now glad things were over with her and him, because he wouldn’t be in the path of Cameron’s destruction. Her tears didn’t stop, and she saw the grin on Cameron’s face grow.
“You know how much your tears make me hard, love.”
* * * *
Adrian felt like a damn stalker. Here he sat, in his truck, staring at Brea’s house like if he watched it long enough he could magically make her come out. The sun had already set so he could easily see that her living room light was on. When he had found himself driving over to her house he thought for sure she would have left town, but when he saw her car in the driveway and her lights on a relieved sigh had left him.
With his head resting on the back of his seat, he did nothing but stare at her front door. The sound of a car door shutting had him looking to his right. The man that got out of the dark car looked like he belonged in this part of the city. He was rough looking, and there was no better way to put it. He hated that Brea lived here, and eventually he had wanted to talk to her about moving to a safer part of the city, but then the shit had hit the fan and she was running from him. He expected the guy to go into one of the other run-down houses in the neighborhood, but when he started making his way up to Brea’s front door everything inside of him went on high alert.
Did Brea know that man? Was that Cameron? Adrian remembered her saying Cameron was a psychologist or something similar, but the man making long strides up her driveway certainly didn’t look like someone that should be giving professional advice. The urge to confront him was strong, but he didn’t want to make a scene, especially since Brea had told him she wanted him to leave her alone. Of course that wasn’t going to happen. He wasn’t going to let the best thing that had happened to him since losing Addie just run away from what they had. He knew she felt it, too, because there was no way something that strong between the two of them was only felt by him.
The man in question held a large black duffle bag and when he banged on the door Adrian immediately climbed out of his car and stalked toward him. Just as he made his way to the driveway the front door opened and the guy went inside. Adrian hadn’t seen Brea when she opened the door, but the thought that she would let that man inside had his blood racing.
What the hell? Brea just let a scumbag like that walk inside?
Jealously was a bitch, and he was feeling it now. Before he could take another step the man left her house, minus the duffle bag.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Adrian stood there, arms crossed over his chest. The asshole in question stopped suddenly and gave a startled look at him. “I said. What. The. Fuck. Do. You. Think. You’re. Doing?” He enunciated each word, because it was clear whoever this joker was just didn’t get it.
The guy looked behind him, almost panicked, and took a step back, closer to the black car Adrian had seen him exit. “Listen.” The guy looked like a badass, but the way he held himself said he was a lowlife piece of shit with no balls. “You should get out of here, okay? The girl doesn’t want anything to do with you.” A low rumble filled the air and Adrian realized it was coming from him. He would have laughed at the balls this guy seemed to grow in the few seconds they stood here, but this was regarding Brea and there was nothing funny about it.
“You didn’t answer my question.” Adrian took a step closer. The prick reeked like cigarette smoke and booze. “You’re going to answer my question.” He took another step closer. He was twitchy, and it was clear he was also a junkie. Why in the hell was Brea associating with someone like this?
“Listen, dude. I don’t want no trouble. I was just told to watch the girl. I just did my last deed by dropping off that bag.” He held his hands up, as if they would save him.
“What the hell are you talking about?” They stared at each other for a moment. “You’ve been watching Brea?” None of this made sense, but he had no doubts that he would get all the answers he needed.
“I have to say, love,” Cameron said as he wiped his face off with a rag, his grin satisfied. “You have gotten stronger since our time apart.” Wrists achingly sore from straining against her bonds, she prayed for an escape, but wasn’t foolish enough to believe it would come. He had since taken the gag out of her mouth because he liked to hear her beg for mercy, but this time she refused to give him the satisfaction. Finding all of her strength and bringing it forward, she kept her mouth shut, gritted her teeth, and took whatever he gave her.
“Hearing you scream my name will be my number-one priority.” Blood had gotten on his shirt and he had since taken it off. Cameron’s enigmatic personality and good looks were what had snagged her from the beginning, but there was so much evil underneath that façade. He had slapped her so many times her lip was split and her left eye was swelling shut. When she had spit on him and blood sprayed all over his oxford, the rage that had been reflected in his gaze had her breath stalling. That darkness had vanished almost as quickly as it had come, and in its place was excitement.
“When we get back home I’m going to show you how much I’ve missed you.” No, she couldn’t leave with him, wouldn’t. If he managed to get her back to his house she would never be able to escape. He wouldn’t allow it. Death was far more welcome.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.” Her words were distorted from the swelling in her jaw, but he heard her all the same. She might have only had a few months of peace while being away from him, but that time had hardened a piece of her. Sure, the fear had always been there, but now that she was confronted with Cameron after all this time, she saw a difference inside of herself. She was not the docile little punching bag any longer. She would never be that way again.
Aside from his satisfied smile that had only slipped slightly when she told him she wasn’t going anywhere with him, Cameron looked like the professional everyone paid a lot of money to unload their problems on. “That’s where you’re wrong, Brea.” He knelt beside her, the nauseating scent of his cologne causing bile to rise in her throat. “I’m going to have fun breaking you.” He turned his back to her and started putting his shirt back on. “This time away has made you forget who is in charge. All of that will change, though. I’ll make you remember.” She turned her head and spit, seeing the saliva-and-blood mixture seep into the carpet. She had prayed every night that she would never be in this situation again, but here she was.
“How did you find me?” It really didn’t matter at this point, but if she could buy a little bit of time she might be able to think of some way to get herself out of this. Once she was fully in his grasp, there was no way Cameron would let his guard down again.
He didn’t turn around to speak to her. “You’d be surprised how far fifty dollars goes.” He turned around then, his eyes on her as he buttoned his shirt. “Your landlord was pretty forthcoming in giving your ‘brother’ the code to your alarm system.” His grin told her there was much more to the story and she felt her skin crawl. “You know, you still look so beautiful when you sleep.”
Oh God.
The bile that she had successfully kept down rose to the surface with so much force she couldn’t hold it back. When the contents of her stomach were out, she cried out in pain when his fingers grabbed her chin, angling it up to him. “There were so many times I wanted to take you while you slept. Even in slumber your body remembered the delicious pain I gave you. I wanted to spread those pretty thighs and fuck you harder than that back-alley fighter did. Then I would look at you and get disgusted that you had let another man’s cock inside of you.” He shoved her head away and went back to buttoning his shirt. “Don’t worry, though. There will be plenty of time for you to make it up to me. You’ve inconvenienced me, Brea. You’ve made me look like a fool in front of everyone I know. I will not stand for that any longer.” His voice was hard and cold.
The very thought that Cameron had been in her house, watching her sleep, being that close to her, made the ability to stop crying impossible. Actually hearing him admit he had someone following her, watching her and Adrian’s every move and reporting the information back, had her skin tightening in fear and disgust. Just thinking about how the scumbag Cameron had hired to do his dirty work had
spoken
to her left a bad taste in her mouth. It was clear as day that Cameron would go to any length to destroy her life. She could see his haggard face as he sat across from her at the coffee shop. She knew there had been something off about him. And then when he entered her house, watching Cameron slap her continuously, there had been no compassion, no sympathy for her situation. He was a dirtbag that had taken the wad of cash Cameron had given him and left without a backward glance.
Cameron bent down when his clothes were in their rightful place and unzipped the duffle bag said asshole had dropped off before he left. She couldn’t see what he had gotten out, but when she heard the sound of a gun chamber being opened and then closed, her heart stopped. He turned around, her father’s Colt .45 in his hand. Her eyes danced between the gun and his face. She knew he wouldn’t kill her, not yet anyway, but he did like to maim.
“When I found your little getaway bag I was surprised to find this little beauty tucked in there. You even had the chamber fully loaded. I have to say, love”—he lifted his eyes to her and lifted the gun, his brow rising at the same time—“I find it a turn-on that you were actually going to use this on me.” He tossed the gun back in the bag and then stalked toward her. “Although I’d love to finish what we started right here, I find this atmosphere unattractive.” He scowled and started untying her hands and feet. Before she could stand, both his hands were on her shoulders, his face right in front of hers. “If you try and leave me again, Brea—” He slammed his mouth hard on hers. Teeth and lips clashing together, she tried to turn her head which just resulted in his grip tightening.
When he stopped the kiss, he hauled her up by the arms as the front door splintered open. Cameron let go of her with a curse and she sank to her hands and knees, her body just too weak to stay standing. The shrill sound of the alarm going off was dull compared to the curses and shouts that rang out around her. Her wrists were raw and bloody, but she braced her hands on the floor and pushed herself up. The first thing she noticed when she was upright was the front door hanging by its hinges. The second thing was Adrian standing on the threshold, his hand gripping Cameron’s henchman by the neck. The guy was beaten up, his lips, mouth, and nose bloody and both his eyes already starting to turn black. Cameron was only a few feet to her left, but with him distracted she took a few more steps away. Just being near him had her whole body shaking.