His voice was low. But beneath it simmered resentment that had clearly been festering for a long time.
“Do you really think I’d ever let you go after that?”
My stomach twisted.
Everything clicked into place at once.
The masked men who had kidnapped me — snatching me away from my six brothers on the way to New York after I had just been released from prison...
It was him.
My former boss.
The man who had fired me because I rejected his advances.
It hadn’t been random.
It hadn’t been some unknown enemy.
It had been him.
Revenge.
Punishment for saying no.
Punishment for humiliating him in his own office.
For fighting back.
For refusing to submit.
My fingers curled into fists so tight my nails pierced my palms. Warm blood pooled against my skin, grounding me.
“You planned that?” I asked, my voice shaking but not breaking.
Hargrove’s smile widened.
“From the moment you humiliated me.”
Humiliated.
As if defending myself had been an insult to his ego.
He took another step closer.
“You thought I would forgive and forget?”
The words barely left his lips before the memory of when I was trapped inside his warehouse — where he kept me after he kidnapped me — detonated in my head.
His weight crushing me.
His hands forcing.
His men standing nearby—laughing.
The smell of alcohol on his breath.
The way he had taken what he wanted while I screamed until my throat burned raw and no sound came out.
