Capital Risk (11 page)

It didn’t thrill me. The surge of adrenaline and nausea poisoned me. I ran—naked and terrified—sprinting from the demon’s lair and through the halls of the familiar prison.

Nicholas shouted from the entry.

Reed echoed.

I didn’t hear Max.

Oh God. What’d happened to
Max
?

My steps thudded against the hall, but their voices abruptly silenced. I wound the corner at the top of the grand staircase.

Darius’s two bodyguards aimed their guns at Nicholas and Reed.

And my step-brothers steadied their own weapons.

“Sarah!” Nicholas didn’t take his eyes from the oversized brute pointing the barrel at his forehead. “Get out of here.”

The instant I rushed down the stairs was the moment I watched men I loved die. I stilled, covering myself from the leers of the two guards.

Darius seized me, ripping my hair and jerking my arm behind my back. He pushed me forward as if he’d march me down the stairs.

No.

Worse.

He teetered me over the top step, shaking my hair until I twisted, off-balance.

He’d push me.

He’d kill me.

“Sons,” Darius called. “Guns down, boys. No weapons in the house.”

Nicholas didn’t obey the order. “Let her go.”

“Are you certain?”

“You won’t kill her.”

“Probably not.” Darius proudly displayed my nudity to my step-brothers and the two guards he kept in his employ. “But maybe I’m not trying to kill
her
.”

He wouldn’t. He bluffed. His words twisted, and he nodded to the guards.

“Shoot them.”

“No!” I fought against his hold.

He jerked my body over the stairs. I shrieked, but his whisper violated my ear. He teased the words with a victorious smile.

“I have no need for those sons now, do I?”

“Don’t you dare.”

“What have you been hiding, my dear?” His voice lowered for only me to hear. “Tell me why you ran away. Why you’ve decided to face me now. Tell me what’s happened to you.”

“Go to hell.”

“Only once I’m certain that my name, my legacy, will live on in this world. Come now, Sarah. What secret are you keeping from your father?”

“You are going to die for this, I swear to God—”

He shook me, nearly losing his hold. “Don’t lie to me. I watched my wife swell with three sons and suffer through two miscarriages.
Don’t
insult me! Tell me what I want to know or—”

“You’ll kill me? Try it! Do it, Darius! Kill me if you’re so sure!”

Nicholas shouted for me. We both ignored it. Darius’s grip squeezed too painful. Blood dripped from his brow, splattering the stone and slickening my toes’ hold over the top step. His hands trembled, and his words edged with a venomous spite I heard only once before.

When he nearly took my life.

When he punished me with his body and returned for gluttonous seconds only moments after he had first pushed away. My aching cough and breathless pleas annoyed him, but he refused my inhaler. He shoved a pillow over my face to take his pleasure in peace.

I willed myself to die then.

It’d be the last time I’d ever have such a thought.

He kicked my leg, and I lost my footing, saved from the crashing fall by the piercing hold on my hair and his bone-breaking grip over my wrist.

Nicholas and Reed shouted.

He’d do it.

He’d kill me.

He’d kick me down the stairs to watch as I bled at the bottom to prove what he already knew.

Then he’d kill Nicholas and Reed.

I wasn’t lucky enough to earn a bullet.

“
Stop
!” I screamed. “You can’t hurt me!”

The sudden silence shamed me more than the first time Darius ever stripped me of my pride and presented me, bare and shaven, to my step-brothers.

Darius hummed. “And
why
can’t I hurt you, my dear?”

My chest seized in panic. I fought through the pain, the ache, the desperation of my own crippling weakness to keep the secret.

“Because I’m pregnant.”

“Louder.” He shook me over the stairs. “So
they
can hear you.”

I swallowed bile. “I’m
pregnant.”

The most horrifying sound in the world was the cackle of Darius Bennett’s victorious laughter.

He pulled me from the edge of the stairs. I pressed against his chest. He held me too tight, too close.

“Oh, my dear sweet child. You didn’t even tell the father.”

I tensed. “Nicholas knows.”

Darius tisked his tongue. “So many secrets and lies, Sarah.”

“Let me go.” My words humiliated me. “Hurt me and you lose everything. You wouldn’t want anything to happen to the Bennett
heir
.”

I expected him to release me, but the genuine
excitement
, the celebratory amusement in his voice sickened me more. Darius’s exuberance corrupted what should have been a beautiful event—in any other world, with any other name, in any other family.

I was infertile. A child should have been a miracle, a welcomed addition to a sweet family once I was older, out of college, found the right man. Fell in love with someone who hadn’t kidnapped me and stolen my virginity as I lay helpless, bound to a bed and ready for my
breeding
.

“You’ve done very well, Sarah,” Darius said. “You did as you were told, what your body was
made
to do. I couldn’t be more proud of you.”

“I will kill you for this.”

“Misbehave, and I’ll order them to shoot Nicholas.”

“He’s your
son.
”

He whispered his threat, low so only I heard. The words screamed within my mind.

“I’ll have another very soon.”

I’d be sick.

It wasn’t his.

“Let me go.” I strengthened my voice with a false confidence. “You can’t kill them. You won’t do anything to endanger this pregnancy. And if you don’t let me walk out the door right now, who knows what this stress will do to my son.”

“Bennetts are hardy boys.”

“And your wife miscarried twice.”

“Can’t have that now, can we?” Darius chuckled. He gestured to his guards as he stepped from me, placing a hand over the wound on his brow. “She’ll dress and return home—wherever this little vagabond has decided to nest. Sven, take their guns. You’ll drive her. I don’t trust my sons. They might defy the wishes of their father.”

I pushed from him, but his eyes lingered upon my body, more exposed and vulnerable than ever. I fought the instinct to hide from him.

He liked that.

“You did well, my dear. You waited for someone to do it
right
.”

I’d repeat the words until the world finally stole my last breath. “It isn’t yours.”

“Deny it if you wish.” The cut on his face bled harder, faster. He couldn’t open his eye. I only wished I sliced deeper. “You know the truth.”

“It isn’t
yours
.”

“And he is only yours as long as he’s curled safe within your womb.” His voice snapped, another layer of chains and shackles collaring me to the Bennett Estate. “That child is a
Bennett
. I told you once, Sarah. You would remain with us until you were bred and bore us a son. In six months, you’ll be lucky you don’t bleed out after I slice the child from your gut.”

“You will never touch my son.” I didn’t flinch from his sneer. “Your time is running out, Darius. I have the child. I have the company.”

The threat tasted of blood and pain. I loved it.

“You will have
nothing
when I am done with you,” I promised. “Not even your life.”

There was a time I’d never tolerate the weight of a gun in my palm.

Now I regretted not firing.

I watched as my father escorted Sarah into the car. One bullet might have ended the horror.

And one harsh strike to her stomach would have ruined me.

My father’s guard delivered her to the agreed location—the parking garage beneath the Bennett Corporation. Reed swore the entire drive, twisting in impatient agony as the bodyguard drove professionally, cautiously. I ran a red-light to follow close.

Had Sarah not been pregnant, he would have killed her.

The exchange was quick. We pulled into the garage, and Sarah burst from the passenger seat. She didn’t run. She waited until the driver peeled away before quickening her steps.

I expected her to fall into my arms. Cuddle against my chest. Or maybe that’s what I needed.

Sarah pushed Reed and I aside and vomited behind our car—a sickness she refused to expose before my father or his guards.

She gasped from her knees. “Max? Where’s—”

“We found him,” Reed said. “He’s on his way.”

“I thought he—” She was sick again, but she didn’t let us comfort her. “I thought he was dead. They shot at us.”

Reed sighed. “Don’t worry about Max. He can take care of himself.”

“Nick, you’re covered in blood.”

I said nothing. How could I explain murdering a man with my bare hands, not just to my own sanity, but to the sweet, innocent woman carrying my child?

But maybe she wasn’t so innocent now. A new hardness edged her voice, her actions. At first, I thought it was courage.

I was wrong.

It was hatred. The same fury that strengthened me to pummel a man to death. My father—my family—corrupted Sarah. She was poisoned with rage.

And it was my fault. For the shame she suffered and the minutes she spent naked before my father.

God only knew what he did to her.

But he wouldn’t have touched her. Not if he suspected she were pregnant.

Not even he was that cruel.

Or was he?

The thought tore through my mind. She faced a monster with false bravery to shield her from his gaze, his touch, his perversions. But she hadn’t cowered or cried. I hardly recognized the little fairy I once trapped in collars and ropes. She no longer fluttered in a timid fear of my father.

I reached for her.

Sarah pulled away.

Why?

What had changed?

“Sarah,” I whispered. “Did he…?”

“I want to go home.”

I recognized her tone.
Home
. The only request she uttered that scared me more than when she told me
no.

Home
to her was no place I belonged. It existed beyond me, and nothing I ever did or said convinced her that I’d provide a warm, safe home.

Yet.

I’d give her that safety. I’d earn her trust.

I’d kill for her.

But blood ruined my suit, stained my skin. It didn’t invigorate me. Didn’t leave me craving
more
. I took a life, but the only ones that mattered—Sarah and my baby—waited before me, cold and trembling. Suffering.

“We’ll go to my penthouse,” I said. “I want her under my roof.”

Sarah was quiet. Reed helped her into my car. She shied away before his hands lingered too long.

My gut twisted, but comfort had to wait. First I needed to ensure her safety.

Nothing about my newly purchased penthouse fit Sarah Atwood. Or me. For too long I lived at the Bennett Estate, and it scarred me more than the visible childhood injuries inflicted by my father. I left, but I had nothing of my own. I didn’t recognize
Nicholas Bennett
outside of the cold stone and shadows.

Not like Sarah. She knew exactly who she was. She stood, unbroken, and faced every horror with roots she dug deep into the ground, stretching from the farm to the estate. I couldn’t rival her tenacity. Not with my arrogance mistaken for pride.

God, I envied her.

She hesitated in the unfamiliar setting of my penthouse. Reed leaned against the wall, gently touching the torn skin around his neck. Neither spoke on the ride, too proud to ask for my help.

“Your place is a little…” Sarah studied the open floor plan of untouched furniture and unconnected electronics. The lamp closest to the leather L-shaped sofa wasn’t plugged in, and the recliner was still covered in plastic from its delivery. “Sparse.”

“I haven’t had time to settle in.” I locked the door. “I was too busy searching for you.”

It wasn’t meant to hurt her. I wouldn’t regret saying it. Not when it was the truth.

A first aid kit waited under the sink. I brewed tea for Sarah and prepared alcohol swabs and dressings for my brother. He’d never tolerate them. Reed nearly scratched out the stitches earned from our father’s blade, but I wasn’t letting his neck get infected so soon after I saved it.

Both of them were asleep before I returned. Sarah curled into a small knot on the sofa. I laid a blanket over her, but she didn’t notice, too exhausted to care that I was there.

Or maybe because she knew that I watched over her.

I failed her, but even when the trust wavered, she still looked for me, felt me, wanted me close.

So why did she push me away?

I nudged Reed. He groaned, but my patience wore thin. He cleaned up in the nearest powder room, flinching as the sea-green of his left eye clouded with the burst blood vessel.

“I’m gonna scare people like this.” He rinsed his neck.

“It’ll heal.”

“Thanks for the...rescue.”

I nodded.

He washed the cloth under the faucet, but left the water on to muffle the conversation. “We gotta check on Sarah.”

She needed a moment of peace first.

“She was naked,” Reed said.

My jaw tensed. It was the only way my father had to shame her.

Reed shuddered. “Nick, something’s wrong. She won’t say it. But something happened.”

“Reed—”

“I can’t.” He pitched the bandages in the sink. “He’s trying to kill us. He kidnapped her. Now he knows about the baby.”

“Calm down.”

“
Calm down
?” Reed swore. The powder room echoed the profanity. “You beat a man to death with your bare hands. You had a gun pointed at your face. And now Sarah is fucked up.”

“Don’t say it.”

“She is! Whether you want to admit it or not. Dad did something to her.”

“He wouldn’t endanger the child.”

“Fuck, who know how long it took Sarah to tell him she was pregnant. Look how long it took for her to tell
us!
”

“Reed, getting upset won’t solve anything.”

“Then I don’t know what else to do because
she
won’t let us help!”

My phone buzzed. Max called from outside the building. I pointed to Reed.

“Watch over her. But stay calm, for her. That’s what she needs now.”

“And then what?”

My stomach twisted. “She’ll tell us what she’s been hiding.”

Reed swore. He leaned over the sink, but he pushed away to hover over Sarah as she slept.

I met Max downstairs, but I hadn’t expected a bounding Hamlet. Then again, the dog was the only one of us who could make her smile.

Max looked like he had been through hell, but that only meant the men he faced fared worse.

“What happened?” I didn’t speak until the elevator doors shut. I pointed to the security cameras wrapped within the gold and red décor of the cabin. “Do we still have visitors?”

Max nursed a black eye, fat lip, and a limp that pained me. He complained about none of it.

“I’ll head back tomorrow,” he said. “Make the beds. Give the furniture a good dusting. Leave it in the condition the Atwoods wanted.”

“Good.”

“You?”

“Watch the news tonight?”

Max smirked. “Damn biker wars. Streets aren’t safe anymore. Reed?”

“The same.”

“He wanted us gone.”

“Yeah.”

The doors opened. Max didn’t let me out.

“And Sarah?” he asked. “What happened to her?”

“We’ll find out.”

“Are you sure you want to hear it?”

“It’s not about me now, Max,” I said. “It’s about her.”

My brother didn’t answer. I locked the door behind him. For as much as I wanted an armed guard, deadbolts, and every manner of security system, my father would try nothing else tonight.

Sarah was safe as long as she was pregnant. She’d be safer once I had him killed.

It was only a matter of time.

She stirred as we entered, twisting the blanket in her hand. “
Hamlet
!”

The goldendoodle bolted, launching over my brand new leather furniture in a flurry of yipping and excitement. He curled next to her, licking her face and settling his head in her lap. He rested over the softness of her stomach. He knew. Hamlet protected her better than any of us.

“Are you okay?” she asked Max. “What happened?”

“Don’t worry about me. Heard you had a rough night.”

She shrugged, stroking Hamlet’s ginger curls. She studied everything in the penthouse, but not me. I recognized her hesitance. My house was designed differently than Max’s, but the features remained the same. Balcony. Back bedrooms. Open kitchen. Bar in the corner. The best that money could buy varied the architecture, but not enough to banish the memories of another pain, another attack.

I had to know.

“Sarah, did he hurt you?” I asked.

She petted Hamlet. “No.”

“Is the baby okay?”

The thought stilled her hand. “Everything’s fine. I’m an Atwood. We’re resilient.”

Reed and Max sat across from her. She pretended not to shy from their attention, but I saw.

“Did he…” I didn’t want to say the words. “Did he touch you?”

Her silence struck us like bullets aimed for our temples.

“You’re all bleeding,” she finally said. “Nick, you’re covered in someone else’s blood. Reed, you look like death. And Max…I watched you kill a man. I nearly lost all three of you tonight. Would anybody be
okay
now?”

Reed shrugged. “We’re fine.”

“No. You’re not. None of us are. Why did Darius try to kill you guys?”

I exhaled. “He must have known you were pregnant.”

“Of course he knew I was pregnant. He figured that out at the art show.” She held her head in her hands. “And now he’ll kill you all because he got his heir. He doesn’t need his
sons
anymore.”

Reed and Max shifted. It was no secret that my father would have murdered them had I not forced them to take their turns with Sarah. They were disposable to him. Max, the cripple. Reed, too gentle for a Bennett.

But I was the eldest. I was the heir. The Bennetts didn’t skip generations. Father to son. Always. He had no cause to kill me unless he truly believed I’d let Sarah raise the baby as an Atwood and deny his true blood.

I’d be a better father than mine was, but I wasn’t a strong enough man to let her go.

“We can’t do this anymore,” Sarah said. “This is why I have to leave. He knows about the baby, and he’ll murder you all because you defied him. I won’t let my son live a life of fear.” Her voice softened. “And I won’t let Darius hurt any of you because of me.”

I frowned. “We can protect ourselves. Don’t worry about us.”

“I
always
worry about you!” The admission frustrated her, and she bit a profanity. “He threatened me tonight. He’ll do whatever it takes to steal this baby, even if that means killing his
own children
to secure his new heir.”

“He’s not taking my son,” I said. “It’s not going to happen.”

“He’s already planning it.”

“And we’re planning for the end as well.”

“He’s going to kill you. I can’t…I
won’t
survive that. I’ve endured so much, Nicholas Bennett, but I can’t handle the thought—”