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Shit. We were at an impasse. I wanted her trust, and she wanted me to prove she could give it. But putting a bandaid over the problem in the form of a piece of paper wouldn’t solve anything.

I’d marry her in a heartbeat, but not like this.

We needed to work on us first. Fix the cracks in the foundation holding us up. Go back to the past in order to find our future. I’d known it for a while.

I was going to have to break her down, take her back to the one place she never wanted to see again, to the cabin where I set this monster in motion by leaving her chained to my bed, never to return.

That’s where the already crumbling foundation of our relationship had split wide open. By running away from my fears, I’d placed a huge obstacle in our path.

I’d be damned if I allowed her to make the same mistake. We were going back.

To face the chains.

The fiery destruction.

The bittersweet memory of the first time we said we loved each other.

By the time the sun set, she’d hate me.

5. Home Sweet Misery - Alex

Rafe steered the black Rubicon down a dirt road, back end packed full of what had consisted of our lives for the last few months. He’d traded in the red truck after we escaped Shelton and his thugs, opting for the SUV for its off-road capabilities, along with the tinted windows that were a shade above legal.

I gazed out the passenger side window and took in the tall pine and Douglas firs lining the backwoods road we were traveling. The last light of the sun cast the trees in a golden hue. Another day, another journey off the beaten path.

“You really won’t tell me where we’re going?” I couldn’t help the irritation in my tone. Getting cross with him was dangerous, especially after what he put me through today, not to mention the ever present ache between my thighs that he still hadn’t done anything about.

He treated me like a fucking queen. I needed for nothing, wanted for nothing, but he had rules. To the outside world, our relationship would look like a distorted, fucked up disaster.

To us it was just natural.

Naturally twisted, but it felt right.

“You’ll find out when we get there,” he said, shooting me a heated look.

We got there twenty-five minutes later. As he pulled up to a cabin, I leaned forward and squinted against the sun dipping toward the A-frame roof. Something in my chest tightened, and I darted my gaze to Rafe.

“Why are we here?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he shut off the engine and pushed the driver’s side door open. A few seconds later he stood at the passenger side, one hand curled around the edge of the door as he waited for me to get out.

Noting his resolute expression, I scurried into motion and unfolded from the vehicle before following him to the covered porch. Keys jingled, a door creaked open, and Rafe forced me past the threshold of the one place I hoped to never set foot in again.

Funny, how so much had changed since the last time I’d been here, yet the cabin looked exactly the same.

Same tiny kitchen with the breakfast bar separating the space from the living room.

Same futon and chair that had seen better days.

Same musty smell that hinted at the cabin’s infrequent use.

Rafe shut the door and locked it. We stood in the emerging shadows of dusk, neither bothering to switch on a light. Despite growing accustomed to the silence of the woods, the quiet that fell over us now unsettled me, and I couldn’t handle it a second longer.

“Is someone after us? Is that why we’re here?”

He stepped forward and took my hand in his. “We’re safe. Nothing’s wrong.”

“Thenwhyare we here, Rafe?” My voice rose, the same as my heart rate.