Page 2

C hapter 2

Naya

The smell of nicotine fills my nostrils, making me scrunch my nose. I flick my eyes open and glance to my side where Grey is taking a puff of a cigarette, exhaling the smoke through the open window as we drive along a small road. No other cars are nearby, yet his jaw is set, eyes focused intently on the world around us.

With a yawn, I blink to rid myself of the sleep that inevitably overtook me. The abandoned forest and gravelly road give way to asphalt as we approach civilization, and a sense of unease settles in.

“How long have we been going?” I ask, my voice hoarse as I break the tense silence that’s been set over the car for what must be hours.

Daxton meets my gaze in the rearview mirror, offering a weak smile. The corners of his eyes are tinged with a faint red that betrays the strain he endures while attempting to stay awake, and his once-vibrant gaze carries a weariness that seems to seep into his soul.

We’re all holding on to the last string of energy, fighting to stay awake and survive.

“Around eight hours now.”

The sun begins to rise on the horizon, shoving away the eerie darkness, and instead of focusing on his words, I shift my attention to the sun’s rays appearing far away. Golden petals stretch outward into the rich blue, a sight so uncommon for me to behold.

There’s a somber atmosphere in the vehicle I cannot quite make out, and I glance at Grey, who takes another puff of a cigarette he must have found in Daxton’s glove box.

“Where are we going?”

The distinct, raspy sound is audible as Grey inhales the cigarette, exhaling with a puff before glancing my way. “Millvale.”

His jaw seems to harden even more, as if he forces out those words like spiteful venom. The mere mention of the town I’ve never heard of seems to tear at his last bit of patience, leaving another bout of tension in its wake. Curiosity has me shifting in my seat, leaning in slightly in the hope for him to reveal more. But he remains unbearably quiet.

Without even realizing it, I dig my fingernails into the fragile skin on my heel, ripping it away as a nervous habit while no one pays me any mind. The skin is already bruised and battered, though not more so than the fresh scars around my wrists. Suppressing the silent hiss that wants to escape me, I concentrate on the motion. I can’t stop, and frankly, I don’t want to stop hurting myself because it gives me a semblance of control I lost long ago.

“Where are we staying?” It feels as if I’m playing a twenty-question game.

Both Daxton and Grey fall so silent that you could hear a pin drop.

“We don’t know yet.”

My eyebrows knit together in confusion. “What do you mean, you don’t know? Don’t you have a home?” I turn to Daxton.

Agitation surfaces as I stare at Daxton in the front seat, but he only has his eyes on the abandoned road. Grey’s uneasy glance at Daxton only heightens my suspicion that something is up. They’re not telling me the entire truth, and I’m determined to uncover what it is.

Before I have the chance to ask, Daxton clears his throat.

“When Arthur hired me, I was forced to leave the home I had. There was no other choice.”

His words are strained, giving way to no other emotions, which only deepens my curiosity. The stiffness in his shoulders tempts me to pry more, but I know better than to poke the beast. Especially not when we’re all desperate for escape and weighed down by the exhaustion of the past twenty-four hours.

“Don’t you have any relatives?” I ask Daxton, knowing I’m pushing too hard and grasping for the last straws, but I don’t know what else to do.

“Our parents were our only relatives,” he grimly states, locking eyes with me in the rearview mirror.

They’re narrowed, as if warning me, and it sends something cold shuddering through my veins. I avert my gaze to the trees outside instead. Most are lush and green, fully awakened by summer’s touch, though a few still carry traces of late spring, their blossoms hanging in the fading light. The vegetation becomes more scarce the closer we come to civilization.

“I have some money from my time working at the dollhouse that I hid from Arthur in a secret bank account. I never got the chance to use it for something, and now it’s enough to last for a while until the supplies die out.” He clears his throat, looking uncomfortable as he drives. “I will drop you two off at a motel on the outskirt of town.”

His words feel like a knife twisting inside me, its only purpose is to bleed me dry of the worry and panic that takes over. All oxygen has been knocked out of my lungs, leaving me gasping for the last thread of breath.

“You’re not coming with us?” I ask hoarsely, and I hate how vulnerable I sound when I’d promised myself never to show weakness in front of anyone again.

My nails dig so hard into my palms that they leave crescent-shaped marks, the sting of pain keeping me grounded. I feel like my heart has been torn out of my chest—the last thread of sanity slipping away because the only source of comfort for months living in the dollhouse was him.

And now, he’s abandoning me.

He sighs, a loud and resigned exhale that slices deeper than I want to admit. He doesn’t answer, doesn’t even meet my gaze in the rearview mirror, and I fall silent shortly after.

I can’t bear to lose him.

“What date is it?” I ask, fearing the answer. Do I even want to know how long we were in captivity?

“June 17th,” Daxton replies, voice a low whisper.

“Year?”

“2023.”

Bile rises in my throat as I process the information. Time has twisted in my mind so thoroughly that I hadn’t realized it’s been eighteen months since we were locked inside the Dollhouse in December 2021. Grey remains silent, hands fisting his clothes.

The road transforms into a blur of cityscapes as we near town. None of us dare breathe, afraid that the police or anyone will discover what we have done, where we escaped from, and come to hunt us down. It has taken us longer than I assume it should to travel to Millvale, all because we’ve been forced to stick to the smaller roads in case anyone somehow recognized Daxton’s registration number.

Driving his car is dangerous; Arthur knew exactly which model, engine, and license plate it was, leaving us with a huge target on our back if someone from the dollhouse managed to survive.

Every time I close my eyes, I see the burning flames of the dollhouse flickering behind my eyelids, scorching my gaze and taking me to the depths of hell. Yet that’s not even all that plagues me. We left so many people—both innocent and not—behind, leaving them to their ultimate death, all in the name of fighting for our own survival. I’ve always been a selfish person, willing to do everything to live, but it should’ve been me who died in the fire. Not them.

No matter that they were as bloodthirsty as Arthur, and wanted the honor of killing each other, I have to believe he tarnished them. Just like I was tainted.

Grey has, at last, drifted off to sleep beside me, his head leaning against the car door. I cannot help but reach out my hand to hold his, seeking a semblance of comfort in its warm hold.

When I look at him, there’s a certain squeeze in my heart, but it’s not a negative one, even if it feels like it will explode. Gratitude. I’m so goddamn thankful for this man who swept into my life at Dankworth Institute, turning my life and all I knew upside down, leaving me spiraling into an abyss of emotions I couldn’t escape, yet managed to save me all the same.

A harsh swerve to the left has my body flinging to the side, and images of my head pounding against the window, glass shattering the insides and cutting my face—the breath lost from me and the absolute pain and panic—have me expecting the impact of all those emotions again. But nothing happens, and I realize I’m not in my mother’s car, and Daxton merely turns down the road.

The car pulls to a stop, the engine dying out, and I look at Daxton in confusion as he unbuckles his seatbelt.

“What’s going on?”

I watch as Daxton grabs a cap he had stored in the glove box, covering half his face, before opening the car door.

“At the gas station. We’re running out of fuel, and the extra tanks are empty as well. I will be back in fifteen minutes,” he says before leaving the car, the thud of it closing echoing in my ears.

Grey stirs awake, looking disoriented. My gaze follows Daxton as he moves to the other side and starts refueling the car, distracted, his face set in a hard clench. Come to think of it, both men have been acting so damn weird ever since they mentioned the town we’re going to. What’s going on with them?

“Are you okay?” Grey’s tired voice washes over me like a blanket of safety when he glances down at my wrists.

My stomach churns, nausea twisting my insides from the memory of being tied to a chair by Arthur’s disgusting hands, and how I fought to free myself, ultimately tearing away tissues of skin. As if triggered by the memory, the pain instantly radiates through both my arms. The painkillers Daxton found in the medical kit he used to patch me up have numbed the area, but their effect is wearing off, and I bite my tongue to stifle a groan. I observe the clean stitches tying together my skin, preventing me from bleeding to death, but the sight soon becomes too much. It makes me sick to my stomach, so I focus on my hands, trying to push away the unsettling thoughts.

“Here,” Grey says, grabbing two bandages. He wraps them around each wrist, covering the stitches so I don’t have to look at them. “These are your proof of survival. Don’t be ashamed of them.”

A lump forms in my throat, and I give him a faint nod. Outside, Daxton finishes fueling the car, putting the gas pump back in its place before he heads into the station, cap far down over his face to conceal any identity.

The moment he steps into the store, Grey is on me, kissing me with such longing and urgency that it catches me off guard. It’s a dangerous embrace, yet it steers me home all the same—the only solid ground in a world crumbling around us.

His lips possess a blend of heaven and hell, intoxicating and irresistible. He pulls me closer, his hands finding my hips, guiding me onto his lap until I straddle him, bodies intertwined in a heated connection.

“I can’t even tell you how much I’ve missed you,” he whispers. “There’s not enough time in the world where I’d be able to get all that time back, but I’ll be damned if I don’t try to regain it. Let me make it up to you.”

I’m unable to reply, my breath caught in my throat. I’m exhausted and scared all at once, but Grey has always been the only one to ground me when everything else shatters into ruins.

He begins trailing kisses over my neck. The sounds he makes are sloppy yet erotic all the same, and my stomach tingles with the need to have him close. It’s all I can think of—how he consumes my mind entirely until I’m a puddle of desire and longing.

“Daxton will be back in ten minutes,” I state through a moan as he bites down on my neck. I say it as a warning, even when I don’t want him to stop.

Grey releases an animalistic growl, his gaze piercing mine with an intensity that deepens the crimson hue of my cheeks. His hand digs into my hips possessively, as if anchoring me to him, afraid I might slip out of his hold. I feel the fabric of the dress I chose for our escape—simple and black, with long sleeves to ward off the chill, and black tights covering my legs.

“I don’t want to hear another man’s name on your lips when I make you scream.”

There’s a dangerous glint in his eyes that has me smirking, loving the primal way he has claimed me as his. Before I know it, he lowers my dirty black dress until it reaches my waist, revealing my black laced bra underneath. He leaves kisses down my collarbone, finally reaching my breasts. He removes my bra with one hand before taking one of my nipples into his mouth. I can’t help but moan as he sucks and nibbles, making me whimper.

He bites down gently, and I automatically push into his touch, seeking more. “Grey,” I stutter.

“I know, little doll,” he says with a knowing grin, looking around outside the car to make sure no one is around us. It’s too early for anyone to be awake at this hour, so we’re the only ones parked at the gas station.

I quickly fumble with the zipper of his jeans, unfastening his belt. He eases out of his jeans so they reach his ankles before he grabs the belt.

“You look so pretty tied up. Let’s have a look, shall we?”

Eyes sparkling with mischief, he gently takes my bandaged wrists and secures the belt around them, making sure not to fasten it too tightly. He looks at me as if I’m a goddess sent from the heavens. It makes me feel powerful; as if everything will be okay as long as I have him in my life.

His cock springs free from his jeans and boxers, and my mouth waters at the veins running along it, throbbing from my mere attention. If there’d been more time, I’d have sucked him off, but his brother will be here soon.

Without another word, Grey grabs the hem of my thin tights and rips them apart, causing a tearing sound to erupt in the car. I look at him with an open mouth.

“Hey! Those are the only tights I had.”

“Not anymore,” he says, an arrogant smirk splitting his lips before bringing up his finger to shush me.

He touches my lips and looks at me with a heated gaze. “Be a good girl and suck on my finger,” he purrs in pure delight.

Then, he slowly slips that finger into my mouth, commanding me to lick and suck on it. I part my lips, allowing him to ease it inside as instructed. Never once do I break eye contact with him. I feel his other hand find its way to my panties, pushing them aside to reach my clit. My body responds instinctively, bucking against him while seeking more— craving more. As he positions me over his cock, it teases my entrance before easing into me, eliciting a shared groan from both of us.

“Grey,” I stutter out as he fills me up until it feels as if I will explode from the sensation and the utter need to have him.

“That’s it, little doll. You’re doing so well for me.”

His finger has left my mouth, and I feel his warm touch on my bare ass, slapping without forewarning until I moan. Wetness drips from me as my stomach coils from the heat, and I begin rocking my hips back and forth, riding him until the tip of his cock hits that oh-so-sweet spot inside me.

“Rub your clit for me,” he demands, voice laced with darkness and something erotic. “Let me see you fall apart.”

I follow his orders—how could I not when he looks at me like I’m the sole center of his attention? He always chases away the demons plaguing my mind, making me feel more like myself than I’ve ever felt before.

I continue to rock my hips, and with his guidance, I bounce on him, seeking pleasure. Sweat beads my forehead, but I cannot care as he hits my G-spot, rubbing my clit with two expert fingers. The pure pleasure has my eyes rolling, and I throw back my head. He kisses my collarbone, gripping my hair tightly as he moves me closer to him. Capturing my lips in a bruising hold, I give in to the toxic kiss.

His breaths come out faster, harder, as I clench around his cock, on the very verge of erupting.

“What I feel for you is utter madness, and I don’t ever want it to stop.”

Then, I’m falling over that edge as I come all over him. I’m falling, down, down, down until I reach the bottom of the cliff before rising again, ecstasy washing over me in relentless waves. My moans fill the space of the car, echoing all around us as he fucks me into oblivion until I barely even know my name. All I know is that this is where I belong, in his arms, right by his side.

If my life turns upside down again, it won’t matter, because at least he’s here with me, making life bearable.

He comes with a groan, filling me up with his cum while I ride out the orgasm. When I lean my head against his neck, resting against his frame, I’m a panting mess. We sit in silence for what feels like minutes, until he gently tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear, his gaze holding mine.

“You have seduced and destroyed me,” he mumbles before kissing my lips tenderly. “I will never be the same without you, but at the same time, I will never stop loving you, my little doll.”

His words make emotions clog my mind, and I fight back the tears. Grabbing tissues from the box at the front of the car, he helps me clean up. Then he opens the car door in an attempt to rid the car of the stench of release, sweat, and the traces of us having had sex in the car.

“If another man so much as looks at you the way I do, I will slit their throats,” he growls, tone dripping with possessiveness.

“Even your brother?”

His eyes darken ever-so-slightly. “Don’t doubt what I’d do for you.”

Right at that moment, Daxton emerges from the gas station. I look at Grey with a secretive smile as Daxton sits behind the wheel, luckily not noticing anything amiss. Grey looks back at me with that lust-filled gaze.

Oh, how dangerous it is to finally have something worth losing.