But Victor was faster.Bigger.He snatched my arm and slammed me against the wall.
“Yes,” he snarled, his breath scorching my skin, “you are.”
“If you think I’m going to stay married to you now that I know what kind of monster you truly are, after you tried to have me abducted, you’re crazier than I thought.”
He tilted his head, studying me like a puzzle he thought he’d already solved.“You’ve fallen in love with him, haven’t you?”
I didn’t answer.I wouldn’t let him stain Henry with his filth.Henry was kindness and loyalty and fire beneath steel.Victor didn’t deserve so much as to speak his name.
“Well, I hate to tell you this, sweetheart…” Victor’s smile sharpened, and a ball of dread formed in my stomach.
I’d seen this smile before.
It was the way he looked at me whenever he was about to deliver a devastating blow.
“Henry’s dead.”
His statement hit me with the force of a boulder.My lungs seized.A wave of cold swept through me so fast I felt nauseous.
No.He couldn’t be dead.I’d know.I’dfeelit.
“You’re lying,” I hissed.
“Once I realized who that voice belonged to when I’d called the man I hired to find you,” Victor continued, almost giddy, “I tracked his movements here.Had someone override his security system.Henry’s not the only computer genius out there.But I needed to lure him away.”His smile stretched, slow and vile.“What better way than to let him think he’d found me?”
My stomach heaved, regret coiling deep inside.
I should have fought harder.Insisted Henry slow down.Stayed by his side.Something,anything, other than letting him leave when I knew what Victor was capable of.
Now I’d have to live with that regret.
“So you see… There’s no reason for you to stay anymore.Time for you to be the obedient wife I trained you to be and come with me.”He shoved me toward the door.
For one disorienting moment, I let him, my grief turning me back into the version of me he’d built.The docile, hollow woman who survived by disappearing inside herself.
But then a single thought broke through like a crack of lightning.
Henry.
Henry, who told me I was brave.
Henry, who made me believe I could fight.
Henry, who laid down his life so I could finally be free.
Was I really going to let Victor drag me back into hell?
Back into being his punching bag?
I couldn’t.Not when Henry gave his life for me.
I planted my feet, my muscles trembling but locked.
Victor jerked back toward me, surprise flickering across his face.Then I slammed an open-palm strike into his nose, the cracking sound echoing around us.He howled, bringing his hand up to his face to stop the flow of blood, disoriented long enough for me to drive my knee straight into his groin.
He folded with a strangled grunt, and I ran toward the side table a few feet away where I knew there was another gun.
“Kitty grew some claws,” Victor sneered from behind, but I didn’t look back.Not when every second counted.
