“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means you don’t want to get on my bad side. You won’t like it much if you do.”
I take a quick glance around at the room I’m in. “This is me being on your good side?”
A chill runs down my spine when he says, “Yes. This is me treating you like a queen. Remember that the next time you want to tell me no.”
He tilts his head and gives a genuine laugh before saying, “I imagine Niki is going a little crazy right about now. Can you imagine the guilt he’s feeling at knowing he’s hand delivered you right to me? That’s going to keep him up at night for a while.” He scrunches his brow like he’s deep in thought. “I wonder how long it’ll be before he realizes it’s pointless and gives up. What do you think? A year or two, or am I being too generous? Maybe he’ll quit after a few months. Won’t that sting?” He laughs again and stands back up.
I’m still stuck on hisyear or twocomment to care about what he’s doing, because he can’t be serious. He’s not really planning on keeping me here for years. He can’t be.
“You heard me right,” he says, noticing my reaction to his words. “I said years. This is your home now. At some point I’m sure I’ll grow bored with you and sell you, but for now, you’re all mine, sweetheart.”
“But what about your life?” I ask. “Your career and family? You can’t ever go back now. You have to know this. The Melnikovs will kill you the second you show your face.”
“Oh no. You mean I don’t get to go back and teach spoiled little brats about education? I no longer have to face my boring wife and annoying kids?” His mocking tone fills the small room we’re in, and every last shred of hope I had starts to disappear. “I’ve planned for this. I’ve been planning for this. There’s not a single shred of evidence that connects the two lives I’ve been living. I left a note in my desk, telling my family I’m so sorry butI’ve met someone else and I want to be with her. I’ve left them all the money in the accounts and I hope one day they can forgive me. Blah, blah, blah, a tale as old as time, right?”
He leans down, resting a hand on the dirty mattress next to my hip so his face is right in front of mine. “You think your boyfriend is good with computers? Well, I’m better. I have millions stashed away in untraceable accounts and a new ID and passport that would withstand the closest of scrutiny. I can rebuild a new life wherever the hell I want. I won’t be found unless I want to be.”
His smile has me pressing back against the hard cement of the wall. “Maybe I’ll let your little boyfriend find you after I’m all done with you. A bit of a consolation prize. I think that might be more fun than selling you.”
Judging by the smug grin on his face, he’s incredibly proud of himself right now. I scoot away from him, tasting bile in the back of my throat. What he’s planning will destroy Niki. It’s the kind of thing he will never recover from, and I plan on doing everything I can to make sure it never becomes a reality. I can’t be the cause of all that pain for him.
When I try to scoot further away from him, he reaches out to cup my face. The feel of his skin against mine pulls another whimper from my throat, because the only man I want touching me is Niki. He brushes back my hair while his thumb gently strokes the bruise on my cheek. Even that small amount of pressure is painful, and I’m guessing that’s why he’s chosen to do it.
“The sooner you resign yourself to this, the easier it’ll be.”
“I will never resign myself to this,” I tell him.
His eyes narrow as he presses his thumb in hard enough to make me flinch and lean away from his touch. He lets me go, but not before digging his finger in one last time, hard enough to start a deep throb in my cheek that radiates up to my scalp.The bump on the back of my head flares back to life as I press in harder against the wall, trying to keep as much distance between us as possible.
“You will break, Savanna. They all do. Eventually.”
I don’t say anything. I sit huddled up on the filthy bed while he pulls his phone from his pocket. He holds it up and my first thought is that he’s reading something on the screen, but then he laughs and says, “That photo is going to haunt your little hacker.”
“Leave him alone,” I say, but we both know I can’t do shit to stop him.
“He shouldn’t have stuck his nose into my business, and he sure as hell shouldn’t have fucked the woman who belongs to me.”
The rage on his face has me biting back the words I want to scream. Keeping my mouth shut, I watch him walk to the door. Positioning his body so I can’t see, I hear as he pushes in the code. Five small beeps and then the door clicks open.
“Think long and hard about what I said. When I come back, I expect to find you a little more agreeable.”
I quickly decide the punishment for telling him to go fuck himself wouldn’t be worth it. I’ll fight him in my own way, and mouthing off will only hurt me in the end. I may not have the brute strength to fight him one on one, but I will never give myself to him. He will never have the satisfaction of making me beg for anything.
I know Niki would tell me to do whatever I need to do to survive, and I know he’d forgive me without question for doing any of those things, but I can’t. I know myself well enough to know that the only way this man is getting inside me is after I’m bloody and broken.
I hope I can survive it.
I hope we both can.
Chapter 17
Nikita
After scouring every goddamn inch of campus, my dad grabs my car keys and forces me to get in. I clutch Savanna’s abandoned bag, refusing to let it go because it was the last thing she touched, and I need to feel close to her right now. Her phone is in the bag, along with her laptop and her notes from class. Everything she’d brought with her had been lying on the office floor.
I’d taken Dr. Ellison’s office apart, and each second that had passed had left me feeling sicker. I found the note he’d left for his family, some shit about meeting someone else and wanting a new life with her, but I knew it was bullshit the second I saw it. When I’d checked the security cameras around campus and saw they’d been programmed to loop footage from this morning, I’d known exactly what had happened.
