It’s his mother. Kashton failed her. He saw her locked up day after day, and a part of him knew that as long as she was in there, she was safe from the world his father forced him to live in. Kashton thinks the only way to protect me is to throw me in a cell and keep hold of the only key. I’ll be untouchable to anyone but him. It sounds as pleasing as it is terrifying.
I’ve always been caged. It became home. Is that why I ran back to Carnage for him so fast? It was all I knew for so long. I crave the pain, his touch, and the need to please him. My past has shaped me into who I am just as much as his has.
I sit up, and his hand falls from my neck as he does the same. I get out of bed and turn my back to the mirror to face him while he stands on the opposite side. “Will you hand me my jeans?” He removed them on that side of the bed.
“Get undressed,” he orders, his now heated stare dropping to my shirt. “You don’t need your clothes.”
“I have to drive home.” As much as I want to be his toy tonight, we have to get out of here. I have to call in this job to have the dead man’s body removed.
“Leave your car. You’ll ride with me,” he states. Problem solved.
“I’m not leaving my car here.” Fuck, he’s being more unreasonable than usual. “It’ll get stolen.” At the very least, it’ll get broken into.
“I’ll buy you a new one. Whatever you want.”
Goddammit. “I like my car. I want my car.” I sound like a spoiled brat, but he’s being a dick.
His cell goes off, and he pulls it out of his pocket and reads over a message. Then he puts it away, bends down, and grabs my jeans. “Go ahead.” He tosses them onto the bed in the center. “But just so you know, I’m going to be ripping those off you again soon.”
I grab my jeans and go to the restroom really quick. After washing my hands, I slide them on, and I hear my phone go off.
Opening up the message from an unknown number, my stomach drops at what’s written across it.
FIFTY-ONE
KASHTON
She just got her assignment. I can tell by the way her entire body stiffens while she clutches her cell.
One text has changed her night.
I exit the motel room, needing to grab my bag from the car. I came prepared to drag her back to Carnage. Now I’ll use it for a different reason. When I walk back into the room, she’s sitting on the bench lacing up her boots. I can see her hands shaking trying to thread it.
“I got a text,” she informs me.
I drop my bag onto the bed, and she looks over her shoulder before her eyes snap back to mine. Walking over to her, I squat and start lacing them for her. “Me too.” I actually received two. But who’s counting? I look up at her as I tie the laces and start on the next one.
She sighs, running her free hand through her messy ponytail nervously. “What now?”
“I do what I have to do,” I answer, and she swallows, knowing what I mean by that. I’m not letting her go, and if the Lords think otherwise, then they can go fuck themselves. When I finish lacing the other, I stand and take her hands, forcing her to her feet. “I’m sorry.”
Biting her bottom lip, she averts her eyes to my T-shirt. “None of this is your fault.”
She thinks I mean her past, but I’m referring to her future. “I’m going to make you hate me.”
Her eyes meet mine, and she gives me a sad smile. “I could never hate you, Kashton. I was just…frustrated.”
She’s referring to what I’ve done to her the past week. The therapist, having her restrained and sedated. She has to know that I can do much worse to her than that. “I’m going to break you, Eve,” I admit. “You understand that, right? What the Lords want me to do to you?”
Slowly, she nods.
Bill and Sin told me this would happen, and I told them she could take it.After everything I know now, I’m not so sure she can, but there’s no stopping it.
Her pretty green eyes scan the room, unable to meet mine. “I trust you, Kashton,” she whispers.
“I love you.” Leaning forward, I gently kiss her forehead. Pulling away, I walk over to her purse and remove her car keys. Putting them in my pocket, I pick up her cell that was next to her on the bench. “I’ll give you a sixty-second head start.”
She tilts her head to the side in confusion.
