Page 49

SEVENTEEN

FIVE ALARM

MAGNOLIA

“ A fter everything I’ve done for you, after everything your father has done for you.

” Camden’s grip on my bicep turns vise-like as he unlocks my apartment door and shoves me through before he slams it.

I hear the locks click into place as the terror I’ve been trying to hide begins to push its way to the surface but that can’t happen.

I need to keep a clear head right now. I have to be able to think on my feet.

The second he dragged me out of the office, I started preparing for the worst.

“You are an ungrateful, disgusting whore.” I stumble over the rug as Camden pushes me again, growling low in his throat when I manage to keep myself upright. “A whore, Magnolia. That’s what you are, and do you know why?”

My lip quivers but I try to hold my head high, refusing to speak or give him the satisfaction of seeing me cower in fear.

I can’t do that.

If I can keep things at this level for a while longer, he’ll be here when Eve gets home from work and she’ll get rid of him. She has no trouble throwing him out of our place and my best friend’s big brass lady balls have to be my silver lining right now.

Camden takes a few steps toward me, grinning like the goddamn devil when I flinch. “You let goddamn prisoners fuck you and didn’t even bother to cover it up.”

I fall to the floor as pain radiates on the right side of my face, the taste of blood quickly filling my mouth while I try to figure out what happened.

It doesn’t take me long, though. My face hurts, my hands sting and knees throb because this monster hit me so hard, so fast I didn’t see it coming, and I had no time to react.

I probably wouldn’t have been able to stop him if I had seen it coming.

”Murderers. The criminally fucking insane.

” Camden kicks me in the ribs, my body lifting off the ground before I go down with a thud.

He squats in front of me, grabbing a handful of the hair at the back of my head to force my eyes on him.

“You allowed the lowest form of life to walk the planet, to defile your body, to take what is rightfully mine from me. The only reason I’m not going to kill you for such an exteme level of betrayal and disrespect is because I want that fucking hospital and I can’t get it without you. ”

Yanking me up by my hair, Camden doesn’t bother setting me on my feet, instead he drags me down the hallway, my hands flying to his wrist in an attempt to keep him from ripping out a chunk. I claw at his skin, digging my nails in deep enough to draw blood but he still won’t let go.

Not until he kicks open our bathroom door then throws me into the shower stall, the fiberglass shattering as I go right through it before crashing into the wall behind the door.

“You stink like the mangy dogs you let slobber all over you, the ones you let fuck you like the stupid, nasty bitch whore you are.”

He leans in and reaches for the faucet, turning it all the way to scorching and I try to pull myself away from the water as it pelts me with droplets that feel like razor blades that are on fire.

Camden disappears from my line of sight briefly and I hear him throw open my door across the hall before he stomps into my bedroom.

My arms shake as I try to sit up, desperately trying to get out while he’s preoccupied but I can’t.

There are pieces of fiberglass embedded in my skin that start at my shoulder and go all the way to my hand, my sweater shredded from the way the door broke when I fell through.

I watch thin streams of red swirl below me, the water mixing with my blood as it continues to hit my skin in an increasingly painful way.

What’s left of my clothing is not enough to protect me from the ungodly heat, or anything else for that matter.

Camden started his punishment in the elevator of my building, tearing my sweater as he trapped me in there with him then losing his shit without any warning by choking me with the wide collar of my pullover until it ripped almost completely.

He saw my mate marks when that happened.

Not all of them but he saw Des and Korvin’s and that was more than enough to send the already unstable narcissist straight into homicidal psychopath territory.

Which is why I have to get out of here.

After a few failed attempts, I finally get myself into a seated position, holding my arm against my body as I lean away from the shower’s stream, shielding my face the best I can and that’s when I realize there’s fiberglass there, too.

Littering the side of my face and neck. It’s in my hair and god knows where else.

I’m just grateful I don’t seem to have any in my eyes.

”Fucking bitch,” Camden bellows as he comes back into the bathroom, his arms full of clothes that he drops into the sink. “How fucked up are you?”

All I can do is blink in response. Everything already hurts and I’m sure he’s only just begun delivering his punishment for my behavior.

Not to mention, he’s called me stupid about fifty times already so I don’t know why he’s bothering with the questions.

It’s not like he gives a shit about the answers, anyway.

He dry heaves before he narrows his eyes, producing a lighter from his pocket while he stares daggers at me.

“This is why you doubled up on your suppressants, isn’t it?

” he growls as my heart starts thundering in my chest. “So you didn’t go into heat around those sick bastards.

” Camden gags as he holds his lighter out and clicks it, pulling a sock from the pile that he holds over the flame.

”Or was it so you didn’t go into heat around me ? ”

The cotton singes and pops at the toe before it fully ignites, the mostly white fabric quickly turning back and gray.

Camden drops it on top of the rest of the clothing, watching for a moment before he snarls, “You added their shit to your goddamn nest, Magnolia. Clothing and blankets from the fucking institution that smell like those goddamn worthless mutts.” He faces me again, the crazed alpha almost vibrating with rage.

“It doesn’t matter, I have all the info I need to make you regret the day you decided to fuck with me but I’ll review it for you since you’re too goddamn stupid to keep track yourself.

” He kicks his shoes off and whips his jacket at the wall before he begins unbuttoning his shirt.

“You intentionally delayed your heat, let a handful of Blackhurst Ridge’s worst prisoners turn you into a fuck toy and, adding insult to injury, you bonded with them. “

Camden tosses the white linen as he unbuckles his belt, and this is when I begin to cower. This man is going to assault me, most likely in every way he can think of, and I can’t stop him. I can’t even speak. Cowering is all I have right now.

There’s nothing I can do, my body is reacting in the only way that’s left since both fight and flight have been eliminated. Trying to protect myself from this monster is useless but I do it anyway. Curling into myself, shrinking in the corner while I track his every move.

“You bonded with the criminally insane, brought their shit back to your apartment so you could add it to your nest, all while making sure to postpone your heat so I didn’t get in the way of your happy little pack.”

With the fire behind him, flames flickering behind his back in some twisted dance, Camden truly looks like the devil, like a demon sent straight from the bowels of hell but he isn’t here to steal my soul.

He’s going to destroy it.

The look on his face says he’s going to destroy my soul and crush my spirit. He's going to break my heart as well as every inch of my body and when there’s next to nothing left, he’ll pick my bones clean and make an example out of me.

The heir to the Reynolds family legacy will be nothing more than a trophy on his mantle.

“You’re going to pay for what you’ve done, Magnolia.”

My eyes widen as he steps through the busted door, naked and erect despite the way he continues to wretch, and panic roars to life inside me again. “Camden, wait, what?—“

He backhands me across the mouth as he towers over me, his chest heaving as he looks down with malice in his stare. “You are going to pay for this. Every single goddamn day for the rest of your worthless little life.”

“Camden, no. Please stop,” I cry, tears now streaming down my face as I try to get away. “Camden, stop!”

With a hand on either side of the biggest hole in my sweater, he fists the wool and rips it open, my bra exposed until he tears that off, too.

I try to flip myself over onto all fours, trying to find something, anything , I can use as a weapon and when my eyes land on the rack we installed for our products, I don’t hesitate.

I reach out and grab the metal rod, yanking it off the wall and bringing it down onto Camden’s head with a crack.

It’s not going to stop him but it slows him down long enough for me to climb through the opening in the door.

My entire body aches as I push myself to stand up, grabbing onto the toilet and forcing myself to my feet.

If I can just get to the living room, I’ll be somewhere people can hear me, and I’ll scream until my throat is raw if it means I’ll come out of this with a few injuries and new trauma.

I don’t even make it to the hall.

Camden’s hands close around my ankles, pulling my legs out from under me so fast I can’t catch myself and smack my face against the tile floor.

“You have fucked with me for the last time, Magnolia,” he growls as he straddles my legs, tearing my pencil skirt in two as if it were made of paper. “I’m going to make you pay for everything you’ve done to me.”

My head is throbbing and I feel like I’m falling but when I open my mouth to try and scream, I cry out in pain instead.

I think my jaw is broken.

I don’t have time to figure it out, though.