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  Without further thought, I kicked off my shoes.

  “Don’t do it.”

  I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard him. He locked the door before he came farther into the room. The teal tie matched my dress. If we knew each other, we would look like dates. He only said three words, but his eyes said a lot more.

  “You work for Bones?”

  He didn’t answer me. “This plan is stupid. The second you crawl out that window, his men will see you. And he’ll kill you.”

  How did he know what I was doing? How did he know about Bones’s men? Why was he warning me? “Who the hell are you?”

  “Do your business then go back.”

  “Why should I trust you?” I couldn’t go back to that terrifying man. I couldn’t.

  “I didn’t tell you to trust me. You should never trust anyone. How do you think you got into this mess in the first place?”

  “Excuse me?” I snapped. “Are you helping me or insulting me?”

  “I was never helping you. Only insulting. Now do what I say, or you’ll regret it.”

  “Why do you care?”

  “I don’t.” He gave me a look colder than winter then walked out. He shut the door loudly behind him, making it bang.

  I stood in front of the sink, my reflection staring back at me. I had no idea what the hell just happened. I wasn’t sure if it was real. Did I imagine the entire thing? Was I making an excuse not to run away?

  I eyed the window at the top of the ceiling and released a loud sigh. I had no idea who that guy was, but he wasn’t working for Bones. Why did he come in here and talk to me? How did he know I was going to run? Maybe he knew Bones in some other way. Maybe he hated him as much as I did. But if he really wanted to help me, wouldn’t he have called the police? Wouldn’t he have given me his phone?

  I was so damn confused.

  I gripped the sink as I tried to figure out what to do. That man knew exactly what I was going to do, and I’d never met him. If it was obvious to him, then it was probably obvious to Bones.

  I had to go back.

  I didn’t want to. My blood screamed in protest at the idea. Freedom was so close, just a window away.

  But I knew I would never make it.

  The sobs screamed for release deep in my chest, but I never let them escape. I kept them bottled inside, refusing to give in to my grief. There was no time to writhe in self-pity. Maybe this plan failed, but there would be another one. And if that didn’t work, then there would be another one. I wasn’t going to give up. One way or another, I would find my way out.

  I returned to Bones like the obedient slave that I was. I walked up the stairs and returned to my seat, pretending I didn’t just attempt to escape his greasy hold. All I did was go to the bathroom and touch up my makeup. I didn’t meet a stranger who told me to return to the balcony. The last ten minutes of my life were uneventful.

  Bones turned his head slightly my way, appraising me. The look was eerie, like he’d been wondering if something more interesting would happen. Maybe it was a test.

  A test I passed.

  ***

  The week passed with redundancy.

  He came home from work, tied me up and fucked me, and then returned to his office and spent his time in solitude. I saw him again at dinnertime, and then he fucked me again before bed.

  That was my life.

  My time had been occupied by my thoughts. Who was the guy who marched into the bathroom like he owned the place? He spoke to me like I was annoying him, but yet, he was the one who chose to speak to me.

  It didn’t make sense.

  Why did he warn me?

  He knew what would happen. When I returned to my seat, Bones stared at me with a new look. He’d expected me to run for it. He probably wanted me to so he could beat the shit out of me.

  But Mr. Mysterious and his teal tie gave me a heads-up.

  It was driving me crazy. It was another problem without a solution. What did he get out of helping me? What reward did he receive? None that I could deduce. When men came to the house, I scanned every one of them, searching for the man with the teal tie.

  But he never appeared.

  I wouldn’t rest until I knew the truth. I needed to know if he was an ally or an enemy. He couldn’t have been a friend because he would have called the police. But he couldn’t have been an enemy either because he would have let me crawl out that window.

  Was I missing something?

  ***

  We ate quietly together at the dinner table. We were having his favorite dish, lasagna and garlic bread. I hated the living conditions and the man who raped me every day, but I couldn’t deny how good the food was. At least that was one thing to be thankful for.

  “I thought you were going to run.”

  The sentence came out of nowhere, and I couldn’t prevent my hand from flinching, even if it was slightly. My eyes were glued to my food, and I didn’t care to look at him. We hadn’t spoken much since the night of the opera. The only time he said anything to me was when he called me a dirty little cunt—his dirty little cunt. “Excuse me?”

  “At the opera. I thought you were going to try to run.” He kept eating like this conversation wasn’t confrontational. In most ways, it wasn’t. If it were, my head would be slammed onto the table.

  “Why would I do that?” I’d become a great liar since I started living there. When my life was on the line, I did crazy things to survive. “I understand how powerful you are. You showed me. Where would I go? How far would I get until you came after me?”

  That was the right response because his eyes glowed in pleasure. He loved to hear me stroke his ego, even if I was just blowing smoke up his ass. He loved knowing he had absolute control over me—everywhere I went. I didn’t pretend I didn’t want to run. I just gave the explanation he wanted to hear—and it worked. “Good little cunt.”

  The name still hadn’t grown on me.

  “You’re smarter than I gave you credit for. That fire still burns in your eyes, dimmer but bright. But your mind makes good decisions. You understand when you’re outnumbered and know when to yield. That’s what smart slaves do. The others were never so smart.”

  I wanted to stab my knife into his throat. I wanted to cut his carotid artery and watch him bleed out and die. When he disrespected me like that, I wanted to murder him. But when he talked about his former slaves, about how weak they were, it sent me into a rage. The fact he killed them so easily, tossed them aside like a used condom, just pissed me off. I didn’t just want revenge for what he did to me. I wanted revenge for what he did to all those others.

  I knew I needed to respond since he was staring at me in expectation. “Maybe one day you can give me power.”

  “Why would I do that?” He chuckled like the idea was hilarious.

  “Well, are you going to be single forever? You never think about having a wife? Children?” The more I hated him, the harder it was to manipulate him. The words burned my throat on the way out.

  “A wife?” he asked. “Why would that be a position of power?”

  “Mrs. Bones?” I asked. “Married to the wealthiest, most criminal man in the world? I think a title like that automatically comes with power. It comes with respect. It comes with privilege. She could walk up to anyone and shoot him in the head without a single consequence. She could raise your children to respect you, to fear you. It sounds like a position any woman would kill to have.”

  His dinner was only half eaten, but he no longer paid attention to it. He watched me with interest, replaying my words in his head. “I think I understand now.”

  Understand what? Did he know what I was doing?

  “You came here hating me. But now, you’re jealous of my wealth. My power. You want to get some power for yourself—even if it means marrying me.”

  Whatever keeps him from shoving a dildo up my ass.

  “I guess I’m not so repulsive after all. I guess you’ve learned how the real world works.�
� He drank his wine. “I admire your ambition. Not too many women have that.”

  I have a lot of ambition—to kill you.

  “I’ve considered taking a wife but haven’t found a woman worthy of the position. Maybe I’ve finally found her.” He clinked his glass against mine in a toast.

  I drank out of the glass, hoping this was going somewhere I wanted to be. If I were his wife, would he treat me as a slave? Would I be allowed to leave the house on my own? Because then I could definitely escape. “Indeed.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Crow

  “Now we know where he’s staying.” Cane placed markers on the map. “Two entrances. One in the front, and one in the back. I say we blast the front gate with grenades and hit him hard.”

  “You don’t think grenades would be too obvious?”

  “How else are we going to get in?”

  “How about climbing, fat-ass?” My brother didn’t think anything through. He went for the simplest way, the most destructive way.

  “And thirty men are supposed to climb the gate without being noticed?” he asked incredulously. “No. We bomb the gate down, drive in with the cars and take out all the men at the front. That shit will happen so fast they won’t even know what hit them.”

  “And it’ll give Bones a chance to run.”

  “Not if we get in there immediately.”

  I leaned back in the chair and rested my fingertips on my lips. “What if we bomb the entrance just like you said? The guys rush in and take out the guards in the front. But we climb the fence from the side and break in at the exact same moment.”

  “Like a diversion?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Not bad.”

  “We’ll snatch the girl and run.”

  “What about Bones?”

  I stared at him in silence, waiting for elaboration.

  “Kill him or what?”

  The idea was tempting. After what he did to my family, I wasn’t sure if I could pass up the opportunity. But if he died, that would be too easy. He wouldn’t suffer. He would just get shot in the back of the head. That was too good for him. “No.”

  “Really?”

  I shook my head. “I want him to worry about his slave every single day. I want him to throw up just from thinking about the horrific things we’re doing to her, the same things he did to Vanessa. I want to ruin his investment, depreciate her so much he won’t even want her back.”

  Cane nodded, a smile forming on his lips. “I like it. I like it a lot.”

  “Let’s get this plan straightened out. I want to do this as quickly as possible.”

  “Yeah,” he said in agreement. “I want to fuck that slave of his as quickly as possible.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Pearl

  I didn’t want to be Mrs. Bones.

  Damn, that was an ugly name.

  When the police asked why I went through with it, I would just explain I didn’t have a choice in the matter. It was necessary for him to trust me. Once I gained that trust, I would take off.

  And haul ass.

  My life around the mansion became even more boring. I had nothing to do while he was at work. I didn’t have Internet, games, or even books. All I did was lie in bed and pass the time.

  I watched the sun move across the sky, trying to figure out if I could really see it move or not. I tried to measure the progress with my thumb and one eye closed, but that didn’t work either.

  I missed my life back at home.

  I missed working. I missed the city. I missed Jacob. I hoped he was okay. Those men just wanted to traffic me, so I doubted they did anything worse to Jacob other than mug him. He probably made it home—safe and sound. I just hoped he didn’t waste all his time worrying about me. There was nothing he could do for me, so he may as well not think about it.

  That night, Bones and I had dinner together like we always did. We didn’t really talk, so I wasn’t sure why he wanted me there. He didn’t tell me about his work. The only information he gave me was from that day in the factory. I knew he made weapons and sold them to people.

  But I didn’t need to know more than that.

  As far as I could tell, he didn’t have any friends or family. There were no photographs on the walls or picture albums tucked away on a bookshelf. There were hardly any signs of life in the house at all.

  I had to wonder how he became this way. He was a monster, but had he always been a monster? Was he a normal person once upon a time? That was an answer I would never get. It wouldn’t change anything anyway, so there was no point in asking.

  He cut into his chicken and ate slowly, his eyes on his plate the entire time. He sipped his wine as he ate, usually downing three or four glasses every night. It was harder for him to get off when he was drunk—which prolonged my pain even more.

  I stared at my own knife and seriously considered stabbing myself with it. Who knew how long it would be before I had a chance to escape. What if I never escaped? What if I lived there for the rest of my life? I’d definitely prefer death over that.

  I grabbed the knife by the hilt and held it steady, thinking about how it would feel to die. People said it was scary and painful, slipping into the darkness for eternity. But I thought it would be peaceful.

  Bones eyed my hand, watching my movements. He still didn’t trust me. Maybe he never would. “What are you—”

  An explosion shattered every single window and made the ground beneath our feet shake. The plates and silverware fell onto the ground, and the candle tipped over and caught the table runner on fire.

  “What the fuck?” Bones jumped to his feet and reached for his gun in his pocket.

  I’d never been in a gunfight before, but I knew what to do. I tipped the table over and used it as a shield to protect myself from the bullets flying across the room. Men shouted and screamed as the war raged on. I didn’t know if it was coming from inside or outside the house. It erupted all around me, swallowing me whole. I placed my hands over my ears because the gunshots were so loud.

  More gunfire and screaming erupted. Bones gave his men orders, and another man rounded up his soldiers. Without looking over the table, I knew it would be a bloody battlefield out there.

  Please kill Bones.

  Please.

  “Where the hell is she?” a man shouted.

  “You think I know?” another responded.

  Were they looking for me?

  Was someone here to save me?

  Did Jacob contact the authorities, and they kept up on the trail and followed me here? Was I being liberated? Was this the end of my captivity? It was too good to be true.

  A man appeared on my side of the table with a pistol in his hand. He had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. His bone structure was prominent and his jaw rigid. Within an instant, I recognized him.

  It was him.

  “Come on.” He shouted over the gunfire. “Now.”

  I didn’t think twice about it. This man was there to save me. He’d been watching me at the opera to get intel on my captor. He worked for the Italian authorities. Or maybe he was CIA. I didn’t care. He was getting me the hell out of there, and that’s all that mattered.

  I came to his side, and he grabbed my hand. It felt so good to be touched in a normal way, not to be sexualized or forced. It was a hand of aid. He was there to help me, to set me free.

  I wanted to cry.

  He peeked over the table until the coast was clear. “Alright. Let’s move.” He dragged me with him, his gun held at the ready if he needed to take someone out. Most of Bones’s men had been exterminated, but the man was still in a rush to get out of there.

  We left from the side of the house, and he opened the back door of an SUV. “Get in.”

  I jumped inside and kept the tears back. I was going home. I was returning to Jacob. I was returning to my friends. Everything was going to be okay. Living with that fiend was torture, but I somehow made it through.

  “Step on it,”
he ordered.

  The driver took off and headed to the street. With a quick turn, he skidded onto the road and hit the gas.

  Bones’s house was no longer in sight. It was gone from my vision, just a distant and painful memory. I could breathe again. Never again would I have that disgusting thing on top of me. Never again would I have to take his cock in my mouth. I was a free woman again.

  I was free.

  “Thank you so much.” I was so happy I leaned over and hugged my savior. He was brave for breaking in to that home just to save me. That type of heroism was rare. I appreciated it more than words could say.

  “Get the fuck off me.” He shoved me aside, repulsed by my touch.

  “Sorry...” I didn’t mean to piss off the guy who just risked his neck for mine.

  “Don’t thank me.”

  At least he was humble. “You saved me. How can I not thank you?”

  He pulled a pair of cuffs from his back pocket and clamped them on my wrists instantly. “I didn’t save you.”

  Panic erupted in my heart all over again. I stared at the metal on my hands, unable to understand what I was looking at. What the hell was happening?

  “You just left one monster to be with another.”

  I tried to slip them off my wrists using my own sweat. I started to scream, hyperventilating. What the fuck was going on? Why did people keep treating me like a mule? Why did people think they had a right to do what they wanted with me? “Let me go now.” I kicked his leg as hard as I could. “I’ll break your dick the first chance I get.”

  He pulled a syringe out of his pocket and pulled off the cap with his teeth.

  No. I hated being drugged. I hated not knowing what was happening to me. I hated losing all sense of control. “Stop. Stop.” I shifted away against the opposite window. “I’ll be quiet. Just don’t put that in me.”

  He put the cap back on and shoved it into his pocket. “Make a sound, and you get the syringe.” He stared out the window with relaxed shoulders. After all the mayhem at the house, he seemed bored.

  First, he warned me about Bones, but then he broke me out to keep me himself. How did these criminals get away with this? I had so many questions, but I couldn’t ask any of them, not without fear of the needle going in my neck.