Page 117 of Shattered Promise

She looks at me as she turns it on, dragging it over her own wrist and then—slowly, deliberately—pressing the tip to her lips. The hum is loud in the hush of the room. She shudders, eyes rolling back in a pantomime of pleasure, and then snaps her gaze back to me.

I want to retch. I want to claw out of the chair, out of my own skin, out of this fucked-up funhouse version of my life.

Beth’s smile is thin. “You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to,” she says, but she doesn’t look away from her sister.

Beth’s sister laughs—not my laugh, but a parody, high and shrill. “You’re blushing,” she purrs. “I love that. I really do. It’s so . . .honest.”

The room tilts, nausea surging up my throat. “What do you want from me?” I rasp.

She’s suddenly inches from my face, the toy flicked off and dropped to the floor. “Everything. You stole my family, and I’ve decided I want them back now.”

A gag rises in my throat.

“Stop hovering,” Beth’s sister yells suddenly, her voice snapping through the room like a whip. She turns toward the doorway. “You said you’d help. So help or get out.”

When she faces me again, I can see the person hovering in the doorway.

Jake. My ex-boyfriend and almost-fiancée.

His arms are crossed tightly over his chest, but he doesn’t step into the room. He just watches me like this is an everyday occurrence.

I don’t move. I can’t. My body has locked down on instinct, every muscle frozen like stillness is the only defense I have left.

Beth clears her throat. “Analisa.”

“Lisa,” the woman snaps, too sharp. “God, will you get it right? I told you I’m a changed woman. I’ve beenreborn. You’re my sister, you should alreadyknowthat.”

Beth flinches, and the air in the room tightens.

Jake finally speaks, though he won’t even look in my direction. He shuffles his feet a little, dragging his hand through his hair. “This is messed up,Lisa. You said you were helping a friend get away from a bad situation. This is not what I signed up for.”

Lisa turns slowly to face him, her face held too still in a pleasant expression. It’s unnerving and I’m not even on the receiving end of the look.

“We did. She’s Bethy’s friend, and we’re helping her by taking her out of a situation,” she says, syrupy and low.

Jake shakes his head, jaw working. “When you say you’re helping someone out of a situation, it usually implies that they’re in something dangerous or abusive. I thought I was doing something good. But this? This isn’t what I signed up for. She’s my fucking ex-girlfriend, for Christ’s sake.” He’s yelling by the time he finishes.

But I can’t tell if he’s genuinely scared for me or for himself.

I look at him, and I know he can feel my gaze. “My brothers are going to kill you. That is, if Mason doesn’t get there first.”

The woman whirls on me and stalks closer, quicker than I thought she could move. She’s in my face in the span of three heartbeats. “Don’t talk about him like that. You don’t exist for him anymore.”

Beth gently moves the woman out of my face, flashing her a loaded look. “You said I get Abby, remember? You don’t get what you want if I don’t get what I want. That was the deal.”

She says it like it’s a done deal. Like I’m a gift they’re passing around, just waiting to be unwrapped.

My stomach turns, but my brain clears. If I panic, I lose. If I scream, no one hears. So I swallow it. Tuck it away somewhere I can’t reach it now, and I’ll pretend.

I’m not safe. But I’mplaying safe.

And that might be the only thing that keeps me alive.

45

MASON

The world collapses into a pinpoint,and I can’t breathe.