He didn’t flinch. His face remained completely expressionless as I tried to get myself under control.
“Grow up, Callum. Of course I killed him. No one leaves Apex without my blessing. You think I didn’t know what he was planning? You think I didn’t know he was trying to take you away from me?”
Damian stalked toward me, his movements slow and unhurried. He was slightly shorter than me, but it didn’t matter.
I was afraid of him.
The little boy inside me cringed and curled up into a ball in my chest.
Don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me…
When he was inches away, he stopped, locking those whiskey eyes on me. I flinched as he raised a hand to gently stroke the side of my face.
“You’remine,Callum. You. Belong. To. Me. It’s time I remind you of that.”
Rage, terror, and self-hatred were warring within me. My fingers twitched at my side, aching to wrap around his throat and snap his fucking neck, but every time I tried to tell my arms to move, nothing happened.
It was like he had me hypnotized. I was working against years of conditioning and brainwashing. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t lift a hand against him, and Ihatedmyself for it.
“I don’t belong to you,” I snarled, “I fuckinghateyou.”
He cocked his head to the side, still stroking my face. I hadn’t managed to step away like my mind was screaming at me to do.
“Who do you belong to then? Certainly not that new man you’ve been spending so much time with.”
Dropping his hand away from my face, he pulled a tiny black remote out of his pocket and clicked a button. Suddenly, all the screens behind his desk were filled with images of Vox and me standing in front of Fairview Funerals.
My eyes widened in fear.
How had he gotten those pictures?
They weren’t traffic surveillance photos, it looked like they had come from a fucking camera. Was he having me followed?
He pressed another button on his remote, and all the screens combined to show one large closeup of me kissing Ryan. Both of us looked deliriously happy with smiles on our faces despite the fact that our lips were touching.
“If you touch him, we’re done,” I growled, and Damian’s eyes flashed, telling me I had just confirmed what he already suspected.
“If you want to keep your little toy alive, Callum, you know what you have to do.”
The rage that was storming inside of me felt like it was literally smashing up against my internal organs. My face was hot, and my hands were shaking. All this anger and resentment had nowhere to go, no outlet. I had to stuff it deep down inside of me and take this punishment so I could keep the people I cared about safe.
After a long, tense moment, I managed to swallow everything down. The dead feeling I had been cultivating since I was a child rushed through me, putting out the burning flames of my hatred like water over a forest fire.
“Fine.” I nodded, and a smile curved across his lips.
“Good boy, Callum,” he purred and walked toward the door. He paused, glancing back at me, where I was still standing, staring at the black and white photo of Ryan and me kissing.
“Come, Callum,” he ordered, and my head snapped away from the screens. My body moved to do as Damian commanded.I followed him through the concrete hallways of Apex and down into the basement, with the image of Ryan’s smiling face burned into the fabric of my mind.
Iknew that fucking bitch killed Gavin.
I fuckingknew it.
And now he had fucking Cal in the basement doing god knows what to him. Not on my watch. I wasdonewith Damian Ryker.
The only reason I hadn’t fucking left Apex already was because I couldn’t leave Cal behind. Damian had his claws so deep in my friend I didn’t think hecouldevenleave if he wanted to. I’d seen the way Cal tended to freeze up whenever Ryker issued an order. I knew Cal had gone through more conditioning than all of us combined. For some reason, Ryker had always been obsessed with Cal. More so than the rest of us.
If I was going to extract my friend from this shit hole, I was going to need to be smart about it, and I was going to have to make sure Cal’s sisters and his new boyfriend were safe, or there would be no convincing him to leave with me.
