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Ripping out a silk sash, I ran the ertips It was soft, cool, and black Perfect
Grabbing another belt froown, I yanked it to see if it stretched Just a little give Good to know
With the belts clutched in my hands, I faced the bed
Tess whi the sheets From here, her face was flushed, not deathly white She was close to waking
I lad of the dark It was my friend, my ally The accomplice in what I was about to do
The bed hitforward till I positionedover Tess My fists indented the bed either side of her head as she slept
I allowed myself a moment to drink her in To trace the al at her perfect figure But it was the brand on her neck that enrapturedmonster inside She would never be able to remove the scar She’d announced permanently she would never leave ly allowing a sht was the last night she would suffer Tonight, I would kill the past and invoke a new future
By doing to her what the other cocksuckers had done before
I’d broken the hold of her rape by giving her a newLefebvre withmore liveable
I didn’t think it would work It was a stupid, stupid thing to do
But it did work And I had to believe it would again
I was about to
I was about to stamp out the past and replace each incident with a new memory
I was about to kidnap my fiancée
Chapter Five
Bind our twisted perversions, love me dark, leave your ht and day, rey
"Do it, puta!"
I’d held off as long as I could I’d fought and raged and been beaten for er
I pulled the trigger
The bullet lodged inside Blonde Angel’s forehead
With a whoosh of black swirls and icy wind, the dream unlatched its claws from my subconscious Winds buffeted as Leather Jacket and blood and dead worotesque memories and back to reality
Only this time I didn’t wake up to Q’s arms around me and his kisses in my hair
I woke up to a fate worse than death
My instincts understood before ain
It was dark Quiet Serene A lie The worst kind of lie
I’ brushed h the shadows--reaching forfor my eyes
No!
In an awful second, tis happened Two ed from when they’d taken me in Mexico
The first was I shut down
I switched off
All the passion and rage and spirit when I fought Leather Jacket was replaced with cold calculating nuive up To let ed beat and let the inevitable happen After all, fighting didn’t work
How many times must fate slap the sa up was ht stole htly sli hands on my ears made my skin crawl--the pressure of the blindfold sentbefore
Give in Just give in
I sent the e tostoppeddeep, too deep to switch off
And that was the second thing Sy I no longer kneirled fro e so brittle and blizzard-cold, I no longer knew ued everything My attackers position, his breathing, the pressure of the blindfold on my eyes His knees were on either side of ht ca the blindfold in place The mattress dipped as he shifted
I stayed prone and frozen, even while I sparked and conducted a battle inside A battle of acceptance orforth the reckless survival I’d always tapped into Half of ive in! Fate would never let me be free--I would never deserve Q I couldn’t afford to keep paying these unpayable tolls But the other half couldn’t give up It wasn’t inso precious to be stolen
A never ending second ticked past where my heart whizzed faster and faster until my chest bled with fear Neither of us moved No needle was shoved into my arm; no curse orn in my ear It was as if he waited Paused to see what I would do
A test then?
A test to see if I’d finally become the perfect possession to be traded Had White Man won after all? Had he brokenme believe in the falsity of safety?
The epito No longer willing to exist
Ahme with the weakness of the word
The ultimate question was did I want to die?
I don’t want to die
Did I want to live?
I don’t want to live like this any They’d taken too much And yet they’d come back for more