“I don’t like when others play with my toys,” she says, and I struggle to remain as quiet as I have been.
“Jesus, Jessica, can you cut it with the details… that is my brother you’re talking about,” Zoey says, and Jessica has clearly had enough of her mouth as she clicks her fingers and one of the burly men comes over, whipping a roll of tape out of thin air it seems, and ripping some off before he covers Zoey’s lips. She kicks out at him to try and stop him, but he just sidesteps and then he’s taking his place back by the door. Zoey’s cries of rage are now muffled, and Jessica chuckles quietly.
“Always had a motor mouth that one,” she says, and I swear I would inflict so much pain on her if I could only get out of these damn chains.
“I bet you thought you hit the jackpot when you married him, huh? Bet you thought all of your Christmas’ had come at once. Well, I’m here to make sure you never put your hands on what is mine again.”
Another click of her fingers has the other guy walking over and standing beside her.
“I think Mrs Knowles needs a taste of what it’s like when you take something that isn’t yours,” Jessica says, and my blood runs cold at the manic look in her eyes. “Have your fun first before you finish her off.”
I struggle to breath.
I struggle to think.
I struggle to do anything other than watch in horror as the second guy comes over and quickly picks up my legs, bounding them together with his arms as the other fucker wraps rope around them.
“Don’t worry, princess, you’ll pass out before they really get going, and then you’ll be completely at their mercy,” Jessica says with a loud laugh, and I have to stop myself from throwing up, swallowing the bile back down because being taken out of here with sick all over myself would be an even sadder state of affairs.
Zoey looks at me in horror, her legs and arms moving wildly, but it’s no use. She won’t be able to get free.
“And if you’re thinking about those biker men coming to rescue you, then don’t. They’re all dead,” Jessica tells us, and I swear I see pain in Zoey’s eyes. “Ruin her,” Jessica tells the guys before my arms are uncuffed and quickly twisted behind my back. I’m lifted by the one of them, but before we get any further, a dark figure appears in the doorway, blocking the exit. The guy has black hair, a scar running down the side of his face from his eyebrow to his top lip. He’s tall and of a fairly decent build, and those eyes… no light in them at all, and that is where pure evil lurks. A dark brown colour that hinges on being black, and only the light from the windows shows the difference. The sly smile on his face chills my blood even more.
Who the fuck is this guy?
“Hi, sis,” he says as he looks at Zoey, and my eyes widen with surprise.
Sis?
What the hell?
“It’s been a long time,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest as he leans against the door frame.
I can hear Zoey’s muffled cry of shock behind me.
“Take the tape off of her mouth,” he says, and the guy not holding me goes to Zoey, and I hear the tape ripped off of her skin and I wince.
“Wha… How… Wh…” Zoey tried to piece together a sentence as I hear her breathing deepen.
“You didn’t really think I’d just disappeared never to be seen again, did you?” he asks her, his voice gruff with no kindness there whatsoever.
Zoey remains silent, and I can only imagine it’s from shock––pretty much what I’m feeling right now because I had no idea that they had another brother. But there has to be a reason for that, and all I can think is that he was cut out of their lives.
“I can see your brain working overtime,” he says to me. “So, I’ll fill you in quickly. I’m Lucas Knowles, and everything Nate has should be mine. The money, the power, the glory… he doesn’t deserve it. But I was made into the black sheep of the family when I killed our parents because I was sick of waiting for them to die.”
I gasp at his crudeness and at the sheer lack of emotion in his voice.
He killed their parents?
Christ. This man has absolutely no morals if he’s willing to do that off his own back.
“Nate was always the fucking favourite. Always the one that was lined up to be the most powerful of them all. And when I slit their throats, I thought I had it in the bag, but then shit went wrong and I had to flee.
“Turns out, no one really liked me much, and they all chose Nate over me. So, I bided my time, went underground, kept silent, and now, here I am, ready and waiting for him to come here to rescue you both… and he won’t even see the trap as he comes in here. He won’t be thinking clearly, and it will pave the way for me to capture him and torture him before he meets his maker.”
“No,” I cry out, the first words I’ve spoken in a while because the thought of him not being here kills me. I might as well be dead if he is.
“Aww, isn’t that sweet… You want me to keep him alive for you?” he says in a weird-ass voice that sends an uncomfortable shudder down my spine. “Too fucking bad, princess. His death has been on my mind for years, so as soon as I feel as if I have tortured him enough, I’m going to take my shot.”
