Page 175 of Reaper

A moment later, I’m left alone in the room with him.

Dr. Ashcroft.

As the seconds tick by, the sick and twisted gleam in his eyes gets darker until finally I can’t take it anymore. I need to know.

“Why are you doing this?”

He smirks as his gaze roams blatantly over my body. My breath come faster when his gaze locks with mine again, and my stomach sinks at the desire evident on his face before it twists into an angry snarl.

“I warned you, Lark. You were mine and you let that filthy biker touch you. You let him have his way with you.”

He pauses as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out my engagement ring. I hadn’t even realized I wasn’t wearing it anymore since my hands are practically numb.

“You even got engaged to the fucking mongrel,” he snarls and I swallow hard. “But no matter,” he says as he pockets my ring. “I’ll erase that biker scum from your memory, my Precious. Soonhe’ll just be a figment of your imagination. You’ll be mine to love.”

I scowl at him. “I’ll never be with you. I’ll never be yours. I’ll never love you. Nothing you do can make me stop loving Anthony.”

My face stings from the brutal slap he lands, and my scowl deepens as I glare up at him.

“You just proved my point. Someone who truly loves another person would never raise a hand against them in anger.”

He scoffs. “Everyone knows those bikers are brutal. There’s no way you can tell me that they’ve never raised a hand against you or took you against your will. They’re savages and murderers. They killed my cousin for fuck’s sake!”

By the end, he’s damn near yelling in rage, and I narrow my eyes at him. I know the guys have blood on their hands. Hell, after the attack in Forest Creek, I have blood on my hands. But I also know they’d never attack an innocent person, so his cousin must have done something to deserve his or her death. I also know that I need to stall. I’m not sure how long I was unconscious, but I can still feel my necklace around my neck, so I have at least one tracker on me.

“Actually, not one of them has raised a hand to me in anger or taken me against my will. They’d never force a woman to have sex with them. They aren’t rapists. As for your cousin, I don’t even know who you’re talking about.”

“Jenna Raine-Crawford. They tricked her into working for them, but they just had their way with her every chance they got. Then she mysteriously ‘disappeared’,” he sneers using air quotes, “and none of them can tell us where she went.”

I wrack my brain as to why that name sounds familiar and then I remember going through the ledgers. I had wanted to be familiar with things when I became Anthony’s Old Lady. However, I don’t remember there being a ‘Crawford’ in anyof the of the people listed. There was a ‘Jenna Raine’, but not a ‘Jenna Raine-Crawford’. However, the club knew her as Luscious. I repress a shudder at everything she put Mae and Timber through. It was true that the club took Luscious in and protected her from her father, brother, and stepbrother. Her betrayal to the club still makes me want to go on a rampage.

Wait.

Crawford?

Is she related to Zac, Khloe’s ex-boyfriend? Fuck. If that’s true, then is Dr. Ashcroft cousins with Zac, too?

I frown, playing innocent. “I don’t know that name, but if she worked for the club and was having sex with the guys, then she was a club bunny. As for the rapist comments, I will repeat that none of them haveeverforced a woman to have sex with them. The club wouldn’t allow it. They’d be beaten and kicked out. So, if she was having sex with the guys, then it was consensual.”

Actually, if any of them raped someone, they’d most definitely be taking a permanent dirt nap, but I’m not telling him that. Not when he already thinks the club killed his cousin, and I’m not going to confirm that the club actuallydidkill her because of what she did. I’d never rat the club out like that.

Another brutal slap has my head whipping to the side. Fucking hell that hurt!

Ignoring the pain, I huff. “And you just proved me right again. You don’t love me at all. Here you are spouting off that I’m yours, when all you do is slap me around while keeping me in restraints that are so tight my hands and feet have gone numb. Not to mention, I haven’t been given the chance to go to the bathroom since being kidnapped by your henchmen.”

That snaps him out of his shock and he rounds the bed, walking behind me. The snick of a switchblade opening has my muscles tensing and I pray it’s just to cut my ties and nothing more.

“Don’t move. I don’t have scissors so this will have to do,” he tells me and starts cutting through the zip ties. “Fucking imbeciles,” he mutters, “I told them to restrain you but to make sure you weren’t hurt.”

He continues muttering under his breath and when he finally cuts through the zip tie, blood and oxygen rush through my veins back into my hands. I can’t stop the whimper of pain that slips through my lips as the tingling intensifies. I shift so that I’m lying on my back and bring both hands up, rubbing them to try and coax feeling back into them. A few moments later, I whimper again as the same thing happens to my feet.

“Now, don’t get any funny ideas,” he says as he looks down at me from where he’s standing at the foot of the bed. “If you try anything, I’ll be forced to restrain you again. It’s late and the storm is still raging, so we’ll head out in the morning to the cabin. It’s fully stocked and it’s in the woods overlooking a lake. You’ll love it there.”

The picture he paints does seem nice, but I’ll never be happy there so long as I’m there with him. Biting my tongue, I give a sharp nod, knowing I can’t fight him right now. He slips his pocketknife back into his right pants pocket. I make a mental note of that.

I doubt he’ll tell me where it is, so I try a different route. “That sounds nice. How far away is it?”

His eyes narrow as he studies me. I hope he takes the bait. If Anthony can’t get here before the storm lets up, then I’d like to know how long I’ll be stuck in a car with this asshole. Just as I think he isn’t going to tell me, he seems to come to some decision.