Page 5

I capture the back of his head and pull hard, making him grin. I press my thighs together when I feel the warm blood coating my palm. The fucker groans. Without saying anything I stand on the tips of my toes and press my thumb against the cut on his chest while he swears through his teeth.

“Damn babe, you still got it,” he tells me.

His dark auburn eyes meet mine, and I have to look away. It feels as though he’s burning my skin. I slowly stroke my thumb over the open wound. He lets out a breathless gasp, his head lolling to the side. The fuckers body jerks as he tries to push his hard-on against my stomach.

“If you want to play, you should have said so earlier, before you knocked me the fuck out,” he says, coughing hard.

Tian looks around the room as he slowly swings back and forth, probably testing the chains secured to the ceiling. Will it hold his weight for much longer?

“What are you two scheming?”

My stomach drops as my eyes widen. How the hell does he know? I hold my head a little to the side while he narrows his gaze at me.

“Nothing,” I murmur. His eyes darken, knowing I’m lying. It’s like he can read my mind the way his nostrils flare. I slowly walk backward toward the light switch to stall for more time.

“If you’re thinking of turning the switch, know that I like this kind of foreplay.” He pauses and coughs.

Lunging for him I snarl, grabbing him by the throat. He leans back and looks at me through half-lidded eyes. He groans the moment the chains shake. “Give it to me good. Make it hurt.” The muscles in his arms strain while he rolls his head back, his head lulls to the side and his disheveled hair travels in front of his gaze. Glancing down I can feel the heat reflected in his eyes as they trail over my face.

“You both deserve everything coming your way,” I tell him in Mandarin.

“You missed me, didn’t you?” he retorts smugly, while I narrow my eyes at the motherfucker.

“No,” I tell him, but we both know it’s a lie; I can see it in the way the lines around his eyes soften for a split second.

I run my fingers through his hair to yank his head back, exposing his throat as I press one of Eliot’s blades against his artery. “Stop talking!” I yell in his face. “Stop lying, Tian. You killed us both that night.” I want every venomous word raging inside of me to incinerate his skin.

He has the audacity to look confused. “Seriously, what the hell are you talking about? What happened to you in New York?” he roars, pulling at the restraints as white plaster from the ceiling rains down on us. “Tell me,” he demands, the hurt and anger in his eyes tearing my heart right open.

“I once thought all the roads I walked led me to you,” I say quietly, ignoring his questions, fighting against the tears threatening to spill over. My heart slams in my chest as I look at the man I once loved. I clench my fist, wanting to punch him in the face again. He deserves everything he’s getting, what they’re both getting. That’s the promise I made to Eliot, to myself.

Standing on the tip of my toes to sort of reach his chin, I get into his face. He needs to see the anger in my gaze, the hate I feel for the man I caught. “I’m not going back to you, or my brother. My life isn’t in Shanghai. You both left me a long time ago. I’m done,” I tell him, the venom slicing through my hoarse voice. From the crying, the shouting, pleading not to take me when we let them find us and he dragged me to his house before I turned the tables on him. “I don’t belong to you, we don’t belong together, we never did.”

“You really think that?” he asks, his deep voice having an edge to it.

“Yes,” I counter, grabbing the gun and hitting him with it. Blood spills from his nose and runs down to his mouth.

Lifting his head, he grins, those dark eyes locking in on mine. “You really missed me,” he rasps, widening his smirk, his teeth covered in blood. “I missed you too, baby. I bet Moon missed Eliot too.”

“Leave him the fuck out of it.”

“Tell that to Moon. He’s been looking for him ever since you two fucked off out of our lives. You know we caught your scent a long time ago. We were abiding our time, waiting for you two to make a wrong move. And you did. You really think we didn’t know what you were up to?”

When he mentions my oldest brother’s name, a pang of guilt moves through my body. But I push it away.

“I wish you were dead,” I retort, turning away from him to stare out of the floor to ceiling windows. “I wish you died that night; you both destroyed him.”

His head whips back to me, the chains rattle and the ceiling cracks more, leaving little dust of white plaster on the floor like snow or cocaine in his case. “You both belong to us,” he bites out through clenched teeth. A muscle in his jaw ticks. He’s trying to hold himself in check before he explodes, I can feel the anger radiating from his body.

“After I watch you bleed out, we’re done,” I tell him, crossing my arms.

“I’m not letting you go.”

“You already did.” I already said goodbye to Eliot. Tears spring to my eyes. I know he needs to do it, but I also know I can’t live without him.

Tian’s nostrils flare while his chest heaves. “I will bury you, babe,” he threatens, his eyes dead and on fire at the same time.

“After he’s done that means one less vote for you.”