Page 16

Alora

What day of the week was it? Who knew anymore? I couldn’t even confirm how many days I’d been at Greyson’s house or his family’s house, as he kept calling it. To me, it was just another prison. Every part of my body was sore from laying on a hard surface for so long, and my brain had gone into the same protection mode it had when I was locked up. The first couple of days had been the worst. After that, it was rinse and repeat. If I thought about the fact that I was being held captive by a serial killer, then I would lose my mind. It was far safer to believe I just had an over-the-top boyfriend, and we were out for a fucked-up date night.

I couldn’t figure out what his end game was. Greyson kept me strapped to the table, playing my old songs or showing me slides of my past that I’d long been trying to forget. He poked me and my mind with a million questions or yanked on the strings of my heart as he analyzed everything. He called them therapy sessions. I called them mental manipulation. But it didn’t stop it from feeling like he was reaching into my chest and ripping out my heart.

You’d think that tying me naked on a table or being led around with a collar on or forced to shower as he watched like a fucking creeper would be the most disturbing things he could do to me. But I was wrong. He’d found ways to make me feel more exposed and stripped bare than any lack of clothing could do, and I had an awful sinking feeling that this was only the beginning. Like round one in a game, I hadn’t figured out how to play.

I kept thinking that someone would come and save me, that there had to be at least one person looking for me, but who was I kidding? All of the belongings I had in the world were in one pack, which I didn’t remember dropping. Greyson found it, and it was now in his possession. Miss Harper was selling her diner to the man who captured me. I’d already quit Molisano’s Artesian and the shelter didn’t look for anyone. No one would give a shit what happened, or even if they did, they wouldn’t look. I was nothing more than a ghost coated in flesh.

I glanced over at him in the truck and wondered where the hell we were going. He’d clothed me, ordering me to behave, or he’d find all the people I cared about. It wasn’t one of those yelling, idle threats you saw in movies. No, he whispered it in my ear and told me to be a good girl, or Rex would lose his eyes, Miss Harper her tongue, and anyone else I cared for would meet a gruesome end. I believed him. There was absolutely nothing about Greyson that screamed he was lying. In fact, what worried me more was how he managed to say so much more with just a look. I could see the edge of mania in his eyes that spoke volumes of the depraved things that frolicked in his mind. The worst part was that he knew me well enough to know that I’d sacrifice my body or life and put my neck on the guillotine for him to leave those I cared about alone.

“Where are we going,” I asked as we entered the city.

“My bar,” he said, his voice as light and blasé as if he’d said we were going out on a date.

“Are you going to unhook me? This looks kinda strange,” I said, pulling on the handcuffs that he’d secured to the holy shit handle attached to the ceiling of his truck.

His eyes glanced over. “No.”

I shook my head. “I still don’t understand what you’re doing with me. How long do you plan on keeping me?”

“As long as it takes or until I get bored.” Greyson turned his head and looked at me, causing my stomach to flip. “You don’t want me to get bored, Alora. Bad things happen when I am.”

No, I was wrong. What was worse than Greyson knowing I’d sacrifice myself was that there was some part of my depraved mind that thought he was sexy. And, wondered what he would kiss like, what his hands running along my body would feel like, and how a man like him would fuck. What I wouldn’t give for a strong drink right now.

It was still very early, and other than a few cars that paid no attention to the fact that I was cuffed inside the truck, we didn’t see anyone. Pulling down the alley that ran behind his bar, there were a handful of parking spots which was rare in the city. He backed into one and shut off the vehicle before looking at me.

“I need to prep you for tonight, and I expect you to behave, Doll. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” He hopped out, and every instinct in my body screamed to run as soon as I could, but I didn’t, and I knew I wouldn’t. He’d managed to cage me without any bars.

I watched him walk around the truck, and everything he did was predatory. I’d seen him switch it off, but his instinct was to hunt. If we were animals, he’d be a tiger or something else equally as cunning and agile. Greyson opened the door, and he lifted a brow at me. That subtle expression told me that he was very aware of my state of mind. It was really fucking strange to feel like I knew his thoughts when I hardly understood my own.

As soon as his hands encircled my wrists, my pulse went haywire, and it took far too much self-control not to moan. He didn’t take any chances. As soon as one cuff was unlocked, he clipped it to his wrist.

I held up our hands as we walked away from the truck. “You know, if you have to handcuff girls to be with you, then it’s probably something you should analyze,” I said, and the corner of his mouth turned up.

“I have no problem getting women. I could have ten tonight if I wanted.” A pang of jealousy stabbed me, and I clenched my teeth together to keep from showing it. He stopped with his hand on the back door and looked down at me. “You don’t like that, do you?”

“I didn’t say anything. Do whatever the hell you like as long as it leads to letting me go.”

“You’re so quick to ask for your freedom but name one thing out there that you are excited about. That you want to live for? That drives you to wake up in the morning and look forward to the day?”

I looked away. “I wanted to take classes to become a chef, well, a baker, really.” There was no point in hiding it from him. It wasn’t like it was ever going to happen. “I wanted to buy a small home of my own. I had plans.”

“And yet they weren’t enough to keep you from almost throwing yourself off of a bridge.” My jaw ached from clenching so hard as I glared up at him. “Don’t get angry with me for speaking the truth.”

“Whatever.”

“I’ll make you a deal, Doll, so that you can see I’m more than what you think I am.”

“You don’t know what I think you are.”

“Let’s not play games. Of course, I do, but that is not the point. The point is this…admit that you’re jealous. Admit that you would hate to see me fuck another woman in front of you and that you’d be consumed with dark and murderous thoughts. If you do, I will pay for the course you want. I will even go so far as to set up online courses so you can start right away before classes start next semester. But you must tell me the truth first.”

What I really wanted was to punch him in the face, steal the key, and run. Then keep running until everything from my past, New Orleans, and Greyson Laurent became nothing more than a distant memory.

“You’re never going to let me attend class. Do you really think I’m that stupid?” I tried to cross my arms and jerked to a halt due to the wrist on the other end of the handcuff. I pointed at the cuff. “Case in point. You have me for whatever reason in your head, and when you’re done, I’m dead. I’ll be another trophy in your case or whatever it is that you keep. I know what you are. The problem is, I died eight years ago, so there is nothing you can do to me that’s worse than the pain I’ve already caused myself.”

I yelped as Greyson pushed me up against the door. My stupid heart hammered, and not solely out of fear, as he tipped my chin up. His lips hovered over mine, his stare penetrating my mind and making me swallow hard. It didn’t matter if I scolded myself and said that I shouldn’t want anything to do with him. My body enjoyed his touch, and he was right. I would be jealous.

“You’re only partially right.”

“What part am I wrong about,” I asked, the heat of his body forcing its way under my skin and warming me. It was just as demanding as everything else about him.

“Some things you need to take a leap of faith to find out.”

“Faith? That’s a funny word coming out of your mouth,” I said, not even sure where I was getting the balls to be so bold.

“Maybe, but it’s not for me. You believe in a world beyond this one, or you wouldn’t sit at your sister’s tomb and talk to her when there is nothing but dried bones encased inside.” I narrowed my eyes into a glare. “Fuck me. You are sexy. Now, say the words you know are on the tip of your tongue, and I will give you the carrot.”

“And what if I don’t?”

He smiled before he nipped my bottom lip almost hard enough to draw blood. “Then you will feel my stick.”

My body flushed hot, and even though I didn’t think he meant that answer sexually, all I could think about was what was in his jeans. I was tempted to defy him, tempted to see what exactly he meant, but there was only so far you could push a serial killer, and as much as I’d been willing to die on that bridge…now…I wanted…I didn’t know what.

“Say the words, Doll,” Greyson whispered, his body brushing against mine, and I sucked in a shaky breath.

“Fine, you want to hear the words. Yes, it would piss me off to see you fuck someone else in front of me or to even know that you had.” Saying the insane words out loud tasted like acid on my tongue and burned in my stomach like it was trying to scorch away any last bits of sanity and virtue I had left.

“So, you wouldn’t want me to do this to them,” he asked, his voice rough as he traced my jaw with his lips and bit the side of my neck. It was hard enough to bruise, and yet my eyes fluttered closed. “Or this?” He gripped my waist and ran his hand up my side, making it hard to draw a single breath. “Or how about this?” Greyson pressed up against me, and I fought my body’s reaction to him as much as I could, but it felt like I was using a bucket to bail out a boat that had already sunk.

“No, I wouldn’t want to see that either,” I said, and Greyson gripped my chin, his thumb tracing my bottom lip. “But that doesn’t mean I want you to do it to me either,” I said stubbornly, and he smiled.

“Another lie, but we’ll deal with one at a time. You did as I asked, so on my next day off, I’ll set up the kitchen so you can attend classes.”

“Are you really going to trust me with knives and a stove?”

“I trust you to want more than death. Start considering this your second lease on life. Some reapers take your soul. I’m going to give yours back.”

He pushed away from me. My head swam with all the contradicting issues and theories that were Greyson. I’d gotten extremely good at reading people, but him…there was no reading a book with words moving on the page faster than you could make them out.

If this were Hogwarts, he would be the staircase that constantly led to different areas of the castle, leaving you breathless and confused as to how to find the front door and escape.

“Come on, I don’t have much time to get you ready before we open.”

I had no idea what the hell that meant, and I couldn’t be bothered to ask. There was some shit you just didn’t need answered.