“I’ll be the perfect wife,” I whisper. “I’ll do anything you ask of me.”
He chuckles, his breath whispering across my cheek and sending a fresh wave of nausea through me. “Careful what you promise, Ember. You have no idea how dark my tastes are.”
I bite down on my bottom lip to stop myself from snapping back at him and carefully reposition the blade between my fingers.
It’s now or never.
I lift my hand slowly, as if I’m going to place it over the one he has wrapped around my throat, but instead I slice across the tendon connecting his thumb to his wrist.
One of the lessons Travis taught me was how to escape an attacker’s hold, and it’s stuck with me all these years. I’m just glad I found the blade.
Blood squirts at my face, and I clamp my mouth shut as I shove my hips back, grip his bleeding wrist, and use my body to flip his to the ground in front of me.
The move is a little rusty, but I’ve caught him off guard, and he’s barely had a moment to scream in pain, let alone fight back.
“You stupid bitch!” he yells, and I’m faced with a decision.
Kill Lucas and risk Cain coming back when he hears all the commotion.
Or run.
It only takes me a second to make the decision to get the fuck out of here.
I can work on killing them both later, but right now, I need to escape. I need to get out of this dress. I need to eat and drink some water. I need to grieve.
Revenge can wait a few days.
I gather the bottom of the dress and start toward the back of the chapel. I need to get the hell out of here before Cain comes out because he’s far larger than any man I’ve taken down, and I don’t love my chances with how weak I am right now.
The heels and dress slow me down, but when I’m just a few feet from the doors, I realize I’m going to make it.
If I can get onto the street, I can find someone to help me.
I know I can.
People suck, but surely seeing a bride on her wedding day covered in blood will be enough to get someone to at least call the police.
Or at least, that’s what I tell myself as I drop the bottom of my dress to reach the door.
But before I can make it, a body slams into my back, taking me to the filthy carpet so hard my forehead slams against it.
Stars burst into my vision, and it’s long seconds before I can blink them away and realize Lucas is straddling my hips witha hand against the back of my head, pressing my face into the ground.
“You little fucking whore.” He seethes. “I was going to give you the world. I was going to give you a life, children, every fucking thing you could ever hope for.”
“You were going to whore me out to your friends and use me to pump out babies. That’s no life for anyone,” I snap back. I’m done being placid. I’m done not fighting back.
“I didn’t think you’d have a problem spreading your legs, considering how easily you did it for Orion,” he growls, using his free hand to shove up the back of the god-awful dress.
Dread rolls over me in heavy waves as panic begins to take over, hitting an all-time high when he gets the dress over my ass and finds the barely there lingerie that was given to me to wear.
“I knew your ass would look incredible in these.” He slaps a hand down on the bare cheek, and I cry out. This is nothing like the spankings Orion gave me, and I can’t stop the onslaught of tears that fall against my cheeks.
I’ve had a lot of my biggest fears play out, but this might be the biggest.
Everything I’ve done, everything Travis did, was all to stop me from being assaulted. And yet here I am, covered in my almost husband’s blood, about to be raped in the middle of a filthy chapel.
I buck my hips, trying my best to dislodge him even as my neck protests at the force of his hand against the back of my head.
