Page 179 of Under Your Scars

Last time I didn’t listen to him, I got him shot. Now I’ve gone and gotten myself kidnapped.

I can only imagine how insane Christian is right now. I gave my tracker to Caroline to make sure he’d find her and my mother safe, but in doing so, I severed the only direct tie he has to me.

I know first-hand the kind of carnage he’s capable of when I’m threatened. He’s proved that time and time again.

The last time I was taken from him, I had only been gone for a few hours and he killed thirteen people and burnt down the Hellfire Lounge. I can only imagine what kind of hell he’s putting Meridian City through trying to look for me.

While I’m alone, I start searching the room for anything I can use as a weapon. There might be cameras in here watching me, but it doesn’t matter if there are. I’d rather slit my own throat than let Frank or any other man who isn’t my husband touch me again.

I find nothing. Not even a goddamn cord I can use as a rope to hang myself with. They’ve all been cut too short to be of any use.

With that idea out of the question, I begin to look for notepads, a map, business cards—anything that might indicate where I am.

While I’m digging through a dresser, the door opens, and I freeze. The Silencer—the imposter enters the room and shuts the door behind him with uncharacteristic gentleness. The only sound it makes is the soft clicking of the lock.

He takes a few steps towards me, and I sink to the floor in fear, because all I can imagine is that at any second, he’s going to lunge for me and rip off my clothes.

“Who are you?”

“Don’t be scared,” he coos. “I’m going to save you.”

“I don’t need saving! What do you want with me?”

He paces around the room with his hands in his pockets for a minute. The tap of his feet against the floor is unnerving.

“Nothing, sweetheart. I just want to make your husband sweat.Relax,” he prompts. “I have a gift for you, to prove that I’m on your side.”

He leaves the room for a second, and when the door opens again, my body goes rigid and tight with fear.

Frank Valenti is tied up as he’s dragged into the room by his thinning hair and shoved down a few feet from me. I make eye contact with my rapist, and for once, I see fear in his eyes.

He knows that one way or another, this is the end for him, and that feels beautiful.

To my complete shock, the man approaches me and hands me a gun with a single bullet in the chamber, and an empty mag.

It’s a message. I can kill the man who shot my husband, or I can kill the man who raped me.

Unfortunately for him, he’s forgotten that there’s a third option.

I show him his mistake by pointing the gun at my own head, staring up at him with a burning defiance that would make Christian proud.

He holds his hands up in surrender. “Don’t be stupid.”

“You’re the stupid one for handing your captive a gun.”

I’m trying to sound brave, but my voice is shaking as badly as my hand is. I don’t want to die, I just don’t want to be raped again.

Frank is bound by his wrists and ankles, and the imposter takes another set of zip ties and secures Frank to the bed frame.

Then he leaves the room, leaving us alone with a single bullet to decide our fate.

Blinded by fear and rage, I point the gun at his head. This is it. Payback. Revenge.Justice.

“I’ve imagined doing this so many times,” I whisper, tears streaming down my face. “I’ve imagined what I’d say to youhundredsof times. Now that you’re here and defenseless, the only thing I have to say to you is what I wanted to tell you the first time you raped me. That I willneverlet you have the satisfaction of thinking you broke me.”

Frank whimpers, his face screaming out in confusion and fear for what’s to come.

“Christian is the only person on this planet that’s allowed to break me, because he’s the only person on the planet who knows how to put me back together again.”