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“Cost you?” He laughs but it’s a cruel, almost unhinged sound. “What did you lose?”

“My job. My reputation. Every dime I had. And even my ability to make money because I had a felony attached to my name!”

“Well, you broke the law.”

“So did you!” I shoot back.

We glare at each other. Then he chuckles. “Oh, this is going to be fun, breaking you.”

Breaking me? Ew. That sounds horrible but he doesn’t know me. He doesn’t understand that I’ll die before bending to a man like him. To any man really, but specifically him.

“I like feisty women. My Marissa, she was so damn sassy.” He smiles, another weird, unhinged smile that makes him look more disturbed than happy or reminiscent. “That’s what made it fun to do what I did to her.” He turns to me. “Don’t you understand? Women today are so damn independent and bossy—they need to be brought down a notch. A man needs to be the king in his own castle.”

“By teaching men to rape women who are asleep?” I demand incredulously.

He rolls his eyes. “They didn’t know what was happening and didn’t remember when they woke up. In my case, she was my wife so I had every right to take what I needed. Especially once she got sick. She was incapable of giving it up because she was so sick, so I waited until she was asleep. It wasn’t even that hard, she was so drugged up at that point.”

Asshole.

I don’t say that, though, I just stare, letting him rant.

“It was win-win,” he continues. “I mean, she wasn’t aware, so how was it hurting her? She got to rest and I got what I needed.”

“Do you really not see a problem with raping your sick, dying wife?” I whisper incredulously.

He turns with a snarl. “What about me? I had to take care of her for four fucking years! Years! Always puking and crying and complaining. And Jesus, she was so ugly at the end. Bald. Skin so pale it was almost translucent. Broken fingernails. Chapped lips. Fucking her wasn’t as much fun as you might think.”

“Then why did you do it?” I ask quietly. “Why not find a hooker or even a random stranger? You’re a good-looking man.”

He frowns at me. “And break my marriage vows?”

I’m amazed at the fact that he can still amaze me.

“We had a good thing going, and you didn’t just ruin it for me—you ruined it for all of us.”

“How?” I counter. “I’m the one who got arrested and banished into WITSEC. You guys could have picked right back up where you left off.”

“It wasn’t the same!” he yells. “The website got taken down and every time we tried to start a new one, the FBI found it. They were on to us, and it was impossible to hide.”

Cry me a fucking river, buddy. Your rape assistance program couldn’t find a new home? If I wasn’t in such a precarious situation, I would have rolled my eyes.

“So, what’s the plan?” I ask amiably. “You know Rage is going to come looking for me.”

He smiles. “I look forward to watching him suffer, knowing that the woman he loves is dying a slow, painful death.”

“He knows you put bets on the fight.”

“That’s not illegal.”

“It is when you try to control the outcome of the fight.”

He shrugs. “No one can prove that. Bronco won’t rat me out—he’s in way too deep.”

“Candy? Neil? They’re all going to keep your secrets?”

“Neil just wants Candy, and Candy likes money. She has a nasty cocaine habit that keeps her on the verge of homelessness every single day.”

I never considered drugs.