Until Ash.
Now, she knew love didn’t have to come at the end of a stick, a belt, or a string of harsh words. Everything she’d thought she understood about love had turned sideways. It wasn’t her job to please a man. All she had to do was accept what was freely given. Ash’s love came without demands. He gave without taking. He didn’t hurt or yell or make her feel like she had to step carefully with her actions or words.
Spencer showed no signs of letting go, but she wasn’t helpless. She closed the distance, giving Spencer what he wanted, but she only gave the illusion that she was submitting to his will. He never suspected anything until her fingers wrapped around his neck. She applied pressure to his carotid artery, using the same maneuver she’d used on Bash at the airfield.
In less than two seconds, Spencer stumbled on the landing, collapsing on the floor. When he passed out, his chest didn’t move with the rhythm of breath. The danger of that technique settled like a weight on her shoulders. It could kill. She crouched beside him and felt for a pulse. A thready beat fluttered beneath her fingers.
A few moments later, Spencer came around, groaning and struggling to form words. “Elsbeth!” he growled. “You’re going to pay for that.”
That name stopped her in her tracks. “What did you call me?”
“That is your real name, isn’t it?”
No one should know that name. She and Forest had buried it a decade ago.
He rolled to his side and held his head. “What the fuck did you do?”
She’d almost killed him, and she would have, if she’d pressed a little longer. Now that she knew he knew her name, she almost wished she had.
Spencer swallowed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. He pushed himself up to a sitting position, reeling as blood rushed back to his head. He’d be a bit disoriented for the next few minutes.
She needed to leave.
Now.
The red glow of the exit sign beckoned, but he’d used a name he had no right knowing. And that terrified her.
He put his head between his knees. “What the fuck is going on?” He brushed off his suit and then stood on shaky legs, putting a hand flat to the wall to support himself. “Once your divorce is final, we’ll get married, and if you’re really good, we might put all this behind us.”
“Married?”
He cocked his head. “Don’t test me on this.”
“Or what?”
He shifted his position, moving too close.
She backed away.
“Do as I say, or I’m going to make a very public disclosure of exactly who Angel Fire’s lead singer married.”
Her entire body went still.
“Imagine what will happen,” he continued, “when the world finds out that Dr. Skye Summers got away with the murder of Clark Preston. Or when Blaze finds out how intimately you and Bean trulyknow each other?” He gave a harsh laugh. “Or that you’re no angel. I know you were once a whore.”
Forest’s words returned to her, and she clung to them with a desperate conviction, hoping they were true.
“You were never a whore.”
And Forest was right. She hadn’t sold her body to her foster father’s clients. Her foster father had done so.
Spencer was recovering quickly, becoming more dangerous as his strength returned. “I’m assuming he doesn’t know?”
She’d lost her chance to run, and somehow, Spencer knew her deepest secrets. Her silence gave Spencer exactly what he needed. She’d validated the truth of his words, but she had a gut feeling there was more.
“Won’t your little guitar hero love finding out that little secret? Incest, a whore, and a murderer.”
Blood roared in her ears, thundering so loud that she barely made sense of his words.
