Prologue

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“We have a witness that puts you there, Paxton, so why don't you cut out all this bullshit and just tell us the truth?”

Balling my fists on the table, my nails cut into the skin, piercing deep. I felt the warmth of the blood as it reached the surface, slowly breaking out and running down my palm. “Fuck you.”

The detective chuckled, glancing at the two-way mirror with a devilish smirk. “Now that kind of talk isn't going to get you anywhere with me.” Flipping a cigarette into his mouth, he leaned over the table and offered one to me. “We can't be friends, but that doesn't mean we have to be enemies.”

Shaking my head no, I glowered at him, ready to launch across the table and wrap my hands around his fucking neck.

Lighting the end, he took a long slow puff, exhaling the smoke in one heavy stream at my face. “Okay, so you want to stick with your story? You think that we're really going to believe you when a witness can identify you as one of the men who kidnapped that young girl?”

“I didn't kidnap her.”

That was a small lie. I didn't kidnap her in the way these assholes wanted to make it seem. It was nothing like that. I might have been a monster, but that part of me had died the moment she came into my world.

“Then what would you call it? Did you invite her over for a slumber party? Did you two roast marshmallows and tell scary stories every night?” Laughing, Detective Roland scooted his chair a little closer, tapping the ash head off his cigarette and into the small silver tray. “Because the way I see it, and honestly, the way the state sees it and everyone else in this damn county; you took her, you held her captive, that constitutes as kidnapping.” Taking another drag, he blew the smoke over my head, aiming it at the long florescent light. “Wouldn't you agree?”

Baring my teeth, I snarled. He was a fucking prick, trying to make it seem like I had planned the entire thing. I didn't, I wouldn't do that.

That was the whole reason I had even stowed myself away in that place to begin with.

I had done it to save the innocent, to keep everyone else safe when my mind began to turn and shift from sane to unstable. I saw it coming, I felt it, and I knew what I was capable of.

Yes, I had done my fair share of terrorizing people who showed up on my property uninvited, but most of them deserved it.

And yes, I had come close—so damn close—to letting my dark side take over. I was at the brink, ready to let loose and finally give in to what my whispered thoughts were begging for.

But I didn't and I could thank her for helping me get back to the other side. An angel had dropped into my arms and shown me that I wasn't the monster I painted myself to be. That there was still good buried deep inside my soul.

For that, I owed her everything.

It was wrong for me to try and pretend that she was mine, it was wrong for me to try and keep her hidden away, but that didn't make me responsible for all of it.

I felt the fire burning in my eyes as all the hate I felt right then was being cast down on the detective. “What part of 'no' don't you understand?” Flattening my hands onto the table, the metal chain from the handcuffs jingled as I moved. “Is this really necessary?” Holding my hands up, I twisted them in the cuffs.

The detective's lip curled up as a gray plume rolled out of his mouth, tumbling up over his nose and swirling around his head like a dangerous halo. “You're a disturbed, evil man, you kidnapped a defenseless girl, so yeah, I'd say it's necessary.”

Slamming my fists down, I growled. “She's not a girl, she's a woman. And I didn't fucking kidnap her!” Pointing at his face, the chain cut my arm short, jerking it to a stop. “Did you ask her? Didn't she tell you anything?”

His eyes expanded as he took in a breath. “Compared to you, she's a girl, and she can't remember anything before waking up at your place, Paxton, you know that. But her friend, yeah the one you said you never saw, she can put you at the scene, identified you as one of the men who picked them up that night. She says you and the other guy took Vera. Now why would she say that if it wasn't true?”

Throwing my hands to my skull, I squeezed my head in frustration. They had it all wrong, all of it. And none of them wanted to listen to me.

“Look, we know that Sara's car broke down a few miles away from your cabin, we know when we found Sara that she said there were two men who showed up and offered to help. And wouldn't you know. . .” Pausing, he let his eyes slowly connect with mine. “We found Vera in your home. What we don't know is who your accomplice was. . .” Taking another drag, he bounced his hand in my direction. “Or what you guys gave those girls—” Stopping himself, he let a faint smile hang off his lips. “Sorry, I mean women, what you gave the women to knock them out.”

Fucking asshole!

He was belittling me, being a pompous jackass, just trying to piss me off so I would snap. He wanted to be able to point his finger at me and say, 'See, there it is, there's the real you.'

But I didn't care, it didn't matter how ticked off I ended up getting. I didn't do what he was saying I did. And I would never give him the satisfaction of rolling over just to have a sliver of time knocked off the years they wanted to chain me to.

Lifting my head, I eyed Detective Roland. “Did Vera tell you I kidnapped her? Did she tell you I held her hostage and that I forced her to do things she didn't want to do?”

“Pax—”

Cutting him off, I screamed. “Did she?!”

Snorting a high-pitched chuckle, he smiled. “Okay, let's do this again then, take me back to the beginning.” Flipping a page in his notebook, he held the pen firmly in his hands. “Come on, Paxton, I want to hear it again, tell me your story.”