Page 110 of Restitution

I shake my head. “You’re not giving up, Kade.”

He tilts his head. “I have no hope, can’t you see? I need medication to stop people talking in my head and seeing shit that isn’t real. I black out, dissociate, and I hurt you. Everything is tainted. Even sex to me is violent. I just fucking killed a man while live-streaming because I’m too impulsive. I wasn’t supposed to kill him; I just wanted the piece of shit to expose himself and his wife’s empire. And then I declared war onthousandsof people. Any idea how to get me out of that? I’m all ears.”

“People live every day with blackouts, dissociation and seizures. Your conditionismanageable.”

“According to people who’ve never experienced it. Do you have any idea what it’s like to have no control? To have your free will and consent taken away from you?”

I lower my eyes. “Yes.”

Silence – so much silence fills the bathroom as I remember Chris and everything he did to me.

Kade swears to himself. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.”

I turn away to hide my tears, the tremble in my chin, the way my chest is rising and falling. Kade pulls my back to his chest and presses a kiss to my pulse.

“You’re stronger than I am. To go through what you did and still put others before you… I envy your strength. I want a normal life with you, but that’s not on the cards for me. If I could run and guarantee your safety, I’d run.”

“I want you to run with me,” I say, sniffling. “Please.”

He kisses my shoulder gently. “I love you, Freckles.”

My teeth chatter. “I love you too.”

Silence follows, and we stay under the water until it turns cold – then we brush our teeth and don clean clothes. I’m wearing a black top of his that nearly reaches my knees, and he’s in a pair of sweats.

We sit on the balcony while he smokes. I stay in his lap, my back to his chest, as we stare at the stars. All the while, Aria is running around with Kade’s team, cleaning up the mess he left behind.

After he sighs and flicks his cigarette over the balcony, he wraps his arms around me and lifts me up. “Let’s go,” he says, kissing my cheek as he carries me to bed. “I want to sleep with my girl in my arms one last time.”

33

KADE

Afist drives into my gut, and I’m knocked to the floor, a cough spluttering from my throat.

I clench my teeth and try to push up, but someone kicks my head with steel toe cap boots, and I’m down again.

“When I tell you to do something, I expect you to do it. No questions, no refusals, no fucking cheek.”

On my hands and knees, I spit blood on the ground, my entire body shaking from the beating from her four guards. I try to stand, but a heavy boot lands on my back and shoves me back to the concrete floor of the basement. “Stay down, boy.”

Bernadette’s shoes click as she walks around me, the sound vibrating in my ears. Her husband smacks her ass as shescrapes her nails across his chest. “How do we make him compliant?”

“He’s a troublesome teenager,” Archie says, pressing his boot harder into my back. As much as I want to stand up and punch the fucking smirk off his face, they injected me with something that’s making me weak. “We could add more of an incentive. Maybe a family member?”

She clicks her tongue, and the boot vanishes from my back. I push up, falling and stumbling, until I grab hold of a pipe attached to the wall and stand tall. But with the damage to my leg, I struggle. The red-haired she-devil grins at me. “You have an order, Kade.” She points a manicured finger at the man strapped to a chair in front of me. “Kill him.”

I shake my head. I’m not going to kill someone. The fuck is wrong with these people?

One minute, I was looking at a file she’d retrieved from her office about my dad’s case, another appeal that’s due to fall through, then something sharp stabbed at my neck, and when I tried to grab Bernadette and push her off me, Archie shoved a knife in my leg. Some time after that, I woke up beside Bernadette with a condom still attached to my dick, and I’ve been trapped here ever since, hating my own skin.

They’re evil rapists.

She stresses each word as she walks towards me. “Kill. Him. Now.”

“Fuck you,” I manage, gripping the pipe to stay standing as my leg spasms. I notice the stab wound has started bleeding again.

Bernadette narrows her eyes then looks at her husband. “Archie, bring up the live footage we have of little Luciella Mitchell.”