“What do you want?” Tiffany spits, her eyes burning.
Eric chuckles. “Oh, sweetheart, I don't want anything from you. You’re just a bonus.”
He turns to me.
And his expression shifts—grows darker, colder, meaner than I’ve ever seen.
“You owe me, Holley.”
“No,” I whisper. “I don’t owe you anything.”
He crouches in front of me, tapping my cheek gently where the bruise blooms.
“Oh, but you do. I invested years in you. Then you left me to deal with the fallout. The debt collectors. The judgments. The humiliation. Made it out to be my fault. You didn’t work hard enough.”
“You did that to yourself?—”
He backhands me.
White-hot pain explodes.
Tiffany lunges against her restraint, snarling. “Touch her again and I’ll tear your throat out!”
Eric wipes his hand casually. “You Hellion women really are something. Fiery. Loud. Very marketable. I learned a lot when I went on a deep dive on the dark web.”
He strolls toward her, examining her like she’s livestock. “Your family has enemies. There are people who will pay big money to punish a Hellion.”
I feel sick.
“Tiffany,” he says slowly, “you’re worth far more than Holley ever was. Beautiful. Strong. Defiant. Some very wealthy men prefer a challenge. Then there are the ones who want to get at Smoke.”
She spits in his face.
He wipes it off, unfazed. “I could break you,” he murmurs. “But that reduces your value.”
“What do you want?” I choke out. “Money?”
“Oh, sweet girl,” he laughs, turning back to me, “I want freedom. I want the debt erased. I want the men I owe to stop breathing down my neck. And lucky for me…”
He gestures between us.
“…you two are more than enough to cover everything.”
My stomach drops.
He’s not threatening us to scare us.
He’s making a business transaction.
“Eric,” I whisper, trembling. “Please—don’t do this.”
“Oh, Holley. You always were too gentle to survive without me. But don’t worry—this time I’ll make sure you don’t run.”
A sob tears from my throat.
He cups my chin again.
“You should never have left me.”
