Page 117 of The Devil's Heir

My eyes widen when I see him saturating a cloth with chloroform. I shake my head vigorously and try to bury my face into the dingy pillow on the bed, but it's two against one. His friend holds my head while Heath presses the cloth to my face. Darkness shrouds me, and then nothing.

I wake up in a dark, cool place. It smells musty like I'm in a basement. I'm lying on a cold cement floor, and all I can do is pray that no bugs are crawling around here.

My wrists are still secured, and I can't move my legs, which means they're secured as well. My head still throbs; I'm sure it's the after-effects of the chloroform. I worry for the baby I'm carrying.Will it harm him at all?

I'm not sure how long I lie here for, but after what seems like hours, a door opens at the top of a set of stairs, and light filters down on me. I blink as my eyes try to adjust to the light. Once they do, I see Heath carrying a tray down to me.

I slink back against the wall as I glare at him, but he only grins. He's amused. Heath squats, placing the tray on the floor beside me, and then reaches up and rips the tape off my mouth. I bite back the curse I want to cry out when it feels as though he's torn the skin off my face.

"Welcome home, Lily. Well, for now, anyway. I don't know what their plans are for you, but I'm sure it won't be pretty." Heath chuckles.

"Fuck you," I growl in a croaky voice.

He's fast, gripping my jaw and squeezing it hard. My teeth bite into the soft flesh inside my mouth, but I don't give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry.

"You shouldn't have run, Lily. We could have made so much money together," Heath states.

"I wasn't going to be some whore for you to rent out," I murmur through his grip.

An amused grin appears on his lips. "Yeah, I figured you found out about that. Don't take it the wrong way, Lily. I cared about you but also saw a way to make money. You would have gotten used to it…"

I try to wrench my face free, but Heath holds firm.

"I've missed you, Lily." His mouth crashes against mine, and I struggle to break free, but it's no use.

His other hand comes up, groping my breast, squeezing it in his hand roughly. I'm going to have bruises from him, marks reminding me of his violation.

I do the only thing I can do and bite down hard.

"Agh!You fucking bitch!" Heath lifts his arm and backhands me across the face.

I can taste copper instantly from the cut on my lip, but it's not as much as the blood that's running down Heath's chin. He may need stitches for that. I smile smugly and dart my tongue out to lick the blood from my own cut.

Heath grabs my hair and yanks it back. "You're fucking lucky that they're paying me a shit ton of money, or else I'd fuck you right here and now. I'd love for Falcon's brat to feel another man's cock battering it and get a taste of my cum." Spittle flies at my face as he snarls at me.

"I'd rather die than let you inside of me," I sneer, screwing up my face. "Jarek Falcon is ten times the man you will ever be, Heath. No amount of money will ever raise your status above his."

Heath's hand comes at my face again and again. "I may not be able to fuck you, but I will beat you into submission if I have to," he states through clenched teeth before he backhands me one last time.

My head is swimming at this point, but I won't let him see my weakness. I see double when I look at him. My lips tilt up, and I smile.

In a low, unnaturally flat voice, I state, "I can't wait for Jarek to come. I'm going to enjoy watching him kill you very slowly."

"He's not going to find you here. He has no idea who is involved, and by the time he does find you, I'll be long gone." Heath stands, kicks my thigh hard, then turns and walks back upstairs.

I'm left in the dark once again. I have no appetite for the food Heath has left me, not that I trust him enough to eat it, anyway. However, I groan in pain for the first time. I can feel my left eye swelling up already.

Please, Jarek. You need to find me…

FIFTY-FOUR

Jarek

The whole estate is in an uproar over Liliana's disappearance, but none are as distraught as I am. My office looks as if thieves have come in and ransacked it—broken glass and furniture litter almost every corner.

Every time we get a lead that doesn't pan out, another bout of destruction occurs. I don't know how much more of this I can take before I start hurting people. Lily's friends have steered clear of me, not that I care. The old bat doesn't like me as it is, so I really don't want to keep seeing her glare at me the way she did when she heard about what happened.

"What the fuck do you mean Lily was taken? She was with you!"she squawked."Leave it to a Falcon to fuck shit up! You better pray that my friend and that babe is found safe…"