“Now, now, what did I tell you about lying to me?”
I pause, giving him a confused look. “I don’t understand.”
“You think I didn’t hear about an IA crew coming together to look into my work for the sheriff’s office? You really do think I’m dumb.”
“Where is this going?” I say and exhale sharply.
He clearly knows more than I expected him to. I no longer hold the edge I thought I had against him. Now, I’m his prisoner. My life is in his hands. I’m at his mercy. And this bastard is as merciless as they come. I used to confuse that with strength and stoicism. God, I was such a fool, such a child.
“I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with you yet. I doknow you’re not going to have some fireman’s kid; that’s for sure.”
“Marcus, hold on.”
“The only children you’re ever going to have, if I allow it, are mine! And you’re coming back to Devon with me, whether you like it or not. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
“Marcus, I don’t want to go back with you.”
He stills, giving me a most offended look. “Pardon me?”
“I left, remember? You hurt me, you threatened me, and I left. I don’t know what wasn’t clear about that. I am not coming back.”
“Pretty bold, considering the position you’re in right now,” he says with a dry chuckle. “We’re going to be married, Olivia. We’re going to have babies of our own. We’re going to build a family. And we’re going to be the king and queen of this fucking world. Devon is just the beginning. I’m close to locking in new, bigger deals. They might even consider me for a state senate run because I’m a former sheriff and so well respected within the community. Campaign funding won’t be a problem.
“Stick with me, honey, and we’re gonna rule the world. You’ll be by my side,” he adds with what I can only describe as a delusional man’s grin. “My wife, the mother of my children, my partner in crime. You’re already my partner in crime, remember?”
“I don’t care if I end up in jail for what I did to support you in the past. I’m never doing any of that again.”
“Let me put it in simpler terms that you can understand,” he replies. “Eat, drink, get comfortable. I need to settle a fewscores before I take you back home to Devon, where we both belong. You are mine, Olivia. You’ve had your fun, maybe a little too much of it, but you’ll spend the next few years paying for your transgressions, I assure you. Now, it’s time to get back to business as usual.”
“Marcus, please, what are you going to do?”
He scoffs and opens the door. “Get used to your new reality. It’s for your own good.”
As soon as he leaves and I hear the key turn in the lock, I collapse on the edge of the bed and burst into what seems like an endless stream of tears. Understanding that he’s been playing the long game this whole time, that he deliberately let me believe that happiness was just within my reach, only makes Marcus an even bigger monster than I thought.
It also adds fuel to my inner fire, the kind of fuel I didn’t think I had. He’s hell-bent on destroying my life, ending my pregnancy. And if I keep fighting him on it, he will kill me.
Because if Marcus Bennett can’t have me, nobody can.
Thoughts of Dax, Leo, and Beck flash before my eyes: our greatest hits, the love, laughter, and pillow talks that went into the wee hours of the morning. I think of our moments with Luke, with Melinda and the diner, with Carlos. My heart breaks because there is a real possibility that I may never see them again.
Unless I fight like hell.
25
BECK
With one eye on my phone, checking for updates from Leo and Dax, I sit beside Carlos as he fades in and out of consciousness over the course of a few hours. The warrant for Marcus’s arrest has just gone nationwide, making it twice as hard for him to move around without getting picked up somewhere along the way.
I listen to the steady beeping of the heart monitor, watching Carlos’s chest rise and fall beneath a pale blue hospital gown.
There’s a nasty-looking black and blue bruise stretching along the left side of his face. Small, white bandage strips cover his nose—the airbag did a number on his septum, by the looks of it. His lip is split and slightly swollen, though healing. It’s the subdural hematoma on his brain that has the doctors concerned.
Finally, he comes around.
“Hey, buddy,” I say with a gentle smile. “Take it easy. Slow breaths.”
“I woke up before, didn’t I?” he manages to say, his voice raspy.
