I ignored it.
I ignored everything except the way Rafe looked at me. “Would it be so bad for people to know the real you?”
Rafe stood so fast his chair toppled over and hit the floor with a bang that reverberated through the room.
Colt took a step toward us, but a glare from Bishop and Ash halted him in his tracks.
Rafe rested his palms on the table and leaned toward me. “You obviously don’t know your place here.”
“My place?” I snorted a cynical laugh. “I’m a reporter. My place is finding the truth, as you so elegantly pointed out. My place is writing articles that tell the truth about the Steel Vipers. What am I supposed to write about today?”
“Nothing.” Rafe pointed a long finger at me. “You are not going to writeanythingabout today.”
I smirked, even though I knew it was a horrible, horrible idea. “See what I mean? You’re being a total Grinch.”
Rafe grabbed my wrist and pulled me to my feet. “I’ve had it up to fuckingherewith your smart mouth.” He slashed a hand across his throat. “You haven’t learned your place. It’s time I teach it to you.”
He walked around the table, coming right up into my space and bending me toward him with my arm twisting behind my back.
Before I could understand his anger or his intentions, he spun us both around and marched me toward the stairs between the kitchen and the living area.
I shifted far enough to look over my shoulder.
Surely, Bishop or Ash would stop him. My wrist ached, and I tried to twist away. “What are you doing?”
“Teaching you a lesson.”
His gruff voice filled my ear and sent my thoughts spiraling out of control.
What if I’d been wrong this whole time and Rafe was an absolute psycho?
He had all the power.
I met Bishop’s gaze, then Ash’s.
Both men sat where we’d left them.
Bishop closed his eyes and shook his head, a breath parting his lips.
Ash tapped his fingers to his forehead in a mockery of a salute.
Was that supposed to make me feel better?
If anything, it made the nausea and fear worse.
That blatant disregard for my well-being meant he didn’t care about me at all.
Of course he didn’t.
I meant nothing to them.
Having sex and being taken out on the road with them meant nothing.
No one cared.
No one was coming to save me.
The wire I’d been wearing every day since I arrived tugged across my navel when Rafe turned me sharply to the left and pushed me onto the stairs ahead of him.
