Page 112 of Restitution

He’s not conscious anymore.He never will be again.

“Good boy – that’s it. Hold him there until he’s dead. He’ll be the first of many.” Bernadette crouches beside me and grabs my chin, making me look at her as I keep all my weight on his neck. “You are mine. You’ll always be mine. You will follow every order, and you’ll come to my bed whenever I say.”

“No,” I croak.

“You have no choice.”

She licks a tear from my cheek then takes my earlobe between her teeth. I want to vomit everywhere when she slips the strap of her dress down, her other hand sliding up my thigh as I take this man’s life.

“You can stop now. He’s dead.” Bernadette’s voice changes tosomething softer, and there’s a slight panic in her tone as she presses against my chest. “Kade. Stop.”

My hands grip tighter around the man’s slim throat.

“Kade!”

I blink, and Stacey is beneath me.

“Fuck.” I throw myself back, releasing her throat, and climb off the bed, putting as much distance between us as possible until I knock into the wall. I screw my eyes shut and slide down it. “Fuck. I’m sorry. I thought you were… Fuck. He was…”

There’s no knife wound in my leg. I’m not in the basement. Bernadette isn’t here.

Stacey coughs and holds her throat, which I had my murderous, dirty fucking hands around. “It’s okay. You were having a nightmare. It’s okay, Kade.”

My eyes fly open. “It’s not fucking okay! I just strangled you. What if I didn’t wake up?”

“You were sleeping.” She gets to her knees on the mattress and reaches a hand out to me. “Please. Come back to bed. I’m fine, I promise.”

I drop my head between my parted knees and try to calm my breathing, my heartbeat, to banish the fucking image of her struggling beneath me. If I hadn’t woken up, if I hadn’t snapped out of it, I could have really hurt her – killed her.

“Hey,” she says, lowering herself in front of me. She’s still wearing my top, and it’s so large on her small frame that it slides off her shoulder. “Look, I don’t have any new marks. You didn’t doit hard enough for that.”

I open my eyes. She’s pulling her hair over her shoulder to show me her throat. “I promise you didn’t hurt me. Come back to bed. Please.”

She’s right, there aren’t any new marks – but the ones from earlier are there. I was gripping her so tightly…

“You’re the last person in the world I’d ever want to hurt,” I tell her, taking her hand and pulling her towards me. “But I’m scared I do. Why won’t you run from me?”

“The only way you could hurt me is if you pull away from me again.” She straddles my lap as I straighten my legs out, her arms wrapping around my shoulders. “I don’t know why we’re still here or why the police haven’t blown into the manor, but we should make the most of every minute we have.” Her forehead settles against mine. “Come back to bed.”

“There’s no doubt I’ll be arrested,” I say, glancing outside through the balcony door, which is slightly ajar. “It’s been a few hours. I probably won’t have long until they come for me.”

I snake my arms around her, and I wish I could stay here forever. With my girl in my arms. “I’ll go willingly. What will you do? I can get Barry to take you and the dogs out of the country.”

She shakes her head. “I’m staying here. We’ll wait for you.”

“I’ll be in for life, Stacey.”

“Then so am I,” she replies, chewing her lip, and I want to take it between my teeth as I palm her ass and pull her closer to me. “If you try to push me away or force me to leave you, I’ll hate you.”

“So you’d still be my girlfriend even if I’m in prison forever? That’s not a life you deserve.”

She grins, her cheeks going a lovely shade of red. “I don’tbelieve we’ve crossed that bridge.”

I pull a brown strand from between her lips. “What bridge?”

“The one where you ask me to be your girlfriend again.”

Something swells in my chest, and the tip of my nose touches hers. “Will you?”