Page 32 of Trained In Sin

The calculated nature of it, the way he's thought this through, planned for contingencies, terrifies me more than his violence. This isn't a moment of passion or anger. This is premeditated.

"Please," I try one more time. "Please just let me go. I won't tell anyone about this. I'll…."

"You'll what? Disappear quietly? Go back to your criminal boyfriend and pretend this never happened?" He shakes his head. "No, Saphy. That's not how this works anymore."

He starts dragging me toward the car, and I dig my heels in, fighting every step. But he's stronger, and I'm already hurt from the fall. Panic makes me clumsy, desperate.

"Damon, please…."

"It's going to be okay," he says in that soothing voice that makes my skin crawl. "You'll see. Once we're away from all this, once you remember what we had together, you'll thank me."

We're almost to the car when I hear the sound of another engine, tires squealing against tarmac. A black Range Rover rounds the corner at dangerous speed, coming to an abrupt stop directly in front of Damon's vehicle .

Sebastian emerges from the passenger side like something out of a nightmare, all controlled violence and deadly purpose. Behind him, Matthew climbs out of the driver's seat, his expression coldly professional.

"Let her go." Sebastian's voice cuts through the night air like a blade.

Damon's grip on me tightens. "This doesn't concern you."

"Everything concerning her concerns me." Sebastian takes a step forward, and I can see the barely leashed violence in every line of his body. "Last chance. Let. Her. Go."

"She's coming with me. She needs help, protection from people like you."

"People like me?" Sebastian's laugh is sharp, dangerous. "You mean people who respect her? Who don't plan kidnappings? Who don’t prey on the fucking vulnerable like filth?"

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I know exactly what I'm talking about." Sebastian's eyes find mine, and I see something fierce and protective burning there. "Are you hurt, princess?"

The endearment, so gentle in the middle of this violence, nearly breaks me. "He hit me. He was going to…."

"I know." Sebastian's voice goes deadly quiet. "I know exactly what he was going to do."

Damon's arm tightens around my waist, pulling me against him like a human shield. "You stay back. You stay the fuck back or I'll…. "

"You'll what? Hit her again? Drag her to your car? Continue with your little kidnapping plan?"

Something in Sebastian's tone makes Damon hesitate. "How did you…."

"Know about the car? The 'safe place' you've arranged?

The fact that you've been planning this for days?

" Sebastian's smile is sharp as a knife.

"I make it my business to know things, Phillips.

Especially when they concern threats to what's mine. My men watched your little show back there and called me. Knew it was time I dealt with your bullshit personally.”

"She's not yours!" Damon's control finally snaps completely. "She's mine! I found her first, I loved her first, I was good to her when she didn't know what she wanted!"

"And yet she chose me." Sebastian takes another step forward. "Repeatedly. Enthusiastically. With complete knowledge of what I am and what I offer."

"Because you confused her! Manipulated her! Made her think she wanted things…."

"Made her think she wanted passion instead of control? Made her think she wanted honesty? Made her think she wanted a man instead of a boy?"

Each word hits like a physical blow, stripping away Damon's self-delusions with surgical precision.

"Shut up," Damon snarls. "Just shut up. You don't know anything about us, about what we had."

"I know she left you. I know she came to me. I know she's never looked back." Sebastian's voice drops to a whisper that somehow carries perfectly in the night air. "I know you've lost, and you can't accept it."

That's when Damon snaps.

He shoves me away with enough force to send me stumbling toward the pavement again, but this time Sebastian is there to catch me, his arms coming around me protectively.

"Stay behind me," he murmurs against my ear, positioning himself between me and Damon.

"This isn't over," Damon pants, his face flushed with rage and desperation. "You think you can take everything from me? You think you can ruin my life and just walk away?"

"I didn't ruin your life. You did that yourself."

"By loving her? By trying to protect her from a monster like you?"

"By refusing to accept her choice. By stalking her. By planning to kidnap her." Sebastian's voice is eerily calm. "By hitting her. By being the disgusting animal you are.”

Damon's hand goes to his jacket, and I see the flash of metal before my mind can process what it means.

"Look out!" I scream, but Sebastian is already moving.

The knife that was meant for Sebastian's chest catches him across the ribs instead, slicing through his shirt and drawing a line of blood. But the wound doesn't slow him down, if anything, it seems to unleash something primal and terrifying.

What happens next unfolds in slow motion and lightning speed simultaneously. Sebastian catches Damon's wrist, twisting until something cracks and the knife clatters to the pavement. Damon swings wildly with his other hand, catching Sebastian across the jaw.

And then Sebastian retaliates.

The first blow doubles Damon over. The second sends him staggering backward. But Sebastian doesn't stop there. His hands find Damon's throat, and I watch in horror as my ex-boyfriend's face starts to turn purple.

"Sebastian, stop!" I grab his arm, feeling the iron tension in his muscles. "Stop, you're killing him!"

"Good," Sebastian growls, but his grip doesn't loosen.

"Please," I beg. "Please don't do this. Not for me. Not like this."

For a moment, I think he's going to listen. His grip loosens slightly, and Damon draws a gasping breath.

But then Damon, even in his weakened state, manages to speak.

"You'll never be safe," he wheezes. "Even if you kill me, you'll never be safe. There are others who know. Others who will come for you both."

The words are clearly a desperate bluff, but they have an effect I don't expect. Instead of making Sebastian angrier, they seem to calm him into something cold and calculating.

"Is that so?" Sebastian's voice is conversational now, which is somehow more terrifying than his rage. "Others who know what, exactly? "

Damon's eyes dart wildly, realizing he's said too much. "Nothing. I didn't mean…."

"Oh, but you did mean something." Sebastian's hands shift, and I realize with horror that he's no longer just restraining Damon. "You meant something very specific. Something that makes you dangerous in ways I can't allow."

"Sebastian, please…." I start, but he cuts me off with a look.

"Go wait in the car, princess."

"I'm not leaving you…."

"Go. Wait. In. The. Car."

There's something in his voice that brooks no argument, something that speaks to the killer I've always known he could be but hoped I'd never see.

I look at Matthew, silently pleading for intervention, but his expression is coldly professional. "Ms. Jenkins, it would be best if you did as he asked."

Numbly, I walk to the Range Rover, my legs shaking so badly I can barely stay upright. I don't look back, but I hear the sounds, Damon's gasps turning to gurgles, then to silence.

When it's over, when Sebastian finally joins me in the car, there's blood on his hands and something different in his eyes. Something satisfied and terrible.

"It's done," he says simply .

I stare at him, this man who has just killed someone in front of me, this man who claimed to love me enough to murder for me and feel something die inside my chest.

"You killed him."

"Yes."

"In cold blood."

"He threatened you. He threatened us. He made it clear he would never stop." Sebastian reaches for my hand, but I pull away. "He was dangerous, Saphy. More dangerous than you know."

"So, you decided to be judge, jury, and executioner?"

"I decided to protect what's mine."

The possessiveness in his voice, the casual way he speaks about taking a life, makes me sick. "I'm not yours. People aren't possessions to be protected or claimed or killed for."

"You are mine," he says with absolute certainty. "And anyone who threatens you threatens me."

I look at this man, this beautiful, dangerous, terrifying man who has just committed murder in my name and realise I don't know him at all. The passion I felt, the connection I thought we shared, it was all built on a foundation of violence I refused to see.

"Take me home," I whisper.

"Saphy…."

"Take me home. Now. And then stay away from me. "

Sebastian stares at me for a long moment, something like pain flickering in his eyes. But then Matthew clears his throat from the front seat.

"We need to move, Seb. Cleanup crew is enroute, but we should clear the area."

As we drive through the night, Damon's body disappearing behind us, I realize that I've escaped one monster only to fall into the arms of another.

The only difference is that this monster is honest about what he is.

And somehow, that makes it worse.