Prologue
Stupid girl.
I should have stayed away.
Now the last few years have all been for nothing. I have achieved absolutely zero by being away, other than a bigger mistrust, and a deeper cavern in my heart made by the fact that I actually had hope, and now it’s been ripped away.
He stands behind me, his index finger gently brushing my tousled hair from my bare back. It makes me shiver. Not a shiver of pleasure like Denham gives me; a shiver of repulsion. A shiver that actually works its way down my whole body and back up my spine, settling in my nape with forboding. I think I’m going to throw up. I clamp my mouth shut tight and will the fear to go away.
I will be strong. He will not break me again.
But I know the power he has over me. The power to turn me to dust.
“Did you really think I was going to let you go?” he says, his voice resonating a dangerous undertone. “Did you?” He moves closer still, but doesn’t touch me. “My stupid, beautiful girl…”
His nose touches my shoulder and he draws it upwards along my neck, inhaling as he goes. My stomach does summersaults and I’m overcome with fear and resignation.
“I can smell another man’s scent, Arianna.” He pauses and I hold my breath, bracing myself for what might come next. That familiar feeling of preparing for a physical onslaught but not knowing in which way it will be delivered this time. “Sex…It reeks.”
It might have been almost two years since I saw him in the flesh, but I can remember the expressions his face holds, and I can picture his curled lip and the wild look in his eyes that always told me he enjoyed to watch my fear. He grabs the hair on the back of my head roughly and I cry out. Every follicle screams as I feel his grip tighten.
“How did you ever think I wouldn’t find you? How did you ever think you would be free?” He almost sings the words, a torturous lullaby, barely a whisper, but loud enough to ring around my head. “Money talks, Arianna. And in your case, the talk was cheap.”
The ringing in my head gets louder. Echoes further. My eyes lose focus. The pain pulling at my head takes over. “Please,” I manage to whimper. I hate how desperate I sound, but I don’t know another way out.
“My. Stupid. Beautiful. Girl.” Every word is punctuated with an exhale of stale breath across my skin.
He wraps an arm around my neck from behind and applies just enough pressure that my intake of breath is affected. My mind reacts out of instinct and I start to panic, but my body stays paralyzed from fear. I search my mind for ways to get out of this, ways to make it stop, when sharp pain hits the top of my leg,followed by a burning sensation. The mixture of his tightening grip and the realization that he just pushed a needle into me sends me into a spin.
Is he going to kill me? God, let it be quick, I plead silently. I pull every ounce of strength that I can from my body and claw at his hand with my nails. He drops his grip, letting me go with a cruel snigger and I run. I run as fast and as far away from him as I can. I make it to the bedroom when the edges of my vision blur and start to tunnel. The adrenaline pushes the substance he has injected me with through my body at top speed. It acts fast and my legs lose strength and buckle underneath me.
The floor seems to rise up toward me, and my head hits the ground with such force that it steals my vision and the world turns black. The last of my senses to leave me is my hearing. Everything echoes like I have my head underwater. I hear him approach, heavy footsteps stopping next to me. An evil laugh comes from deep within him, and I try to fight my body’s reaction. I try to muster up any last piece of consciousness that I can, but it’s futile.
“Still trying to run, Arianna. You’ll never learn.”
My body is jerked to the side and my last conscious breath leaves my body forcefully as his boot hits my ribs. My muscles contort. Old injuries protest. I’m aware that it’s happening, but I don’t feel a thing.
No feeling in my body, just sound eventually fading … fading …
“You’re mine. You’ll always be mine.”
His voice is controlled. Calculated. His words fade with every second that passes.
“You’ll come back to me. I own you. You’ll see.”
“Stupid. Beautiful. Girl …”
Chapter 1
Denham
Idon’t need this shit today.
Every day this week there’s been a problem.
Problems with the staff. Problems with the casino. And now, for the third time this week, problems with the CCTV system. You would think for the amount of money I pay Dom and his team, it should be running glitch free, but no.
And, to top it all off, I have to leave my girl to deal with all this shit.
