Ignoring Tony’s protests, Rider pulled me onto his lap. My legs screamed with pain at the change in position. I had no clue how long I’d been folded up in the corner on the hard concrete. Rider’s breath hit my neck from behind, and I couldn’t stop the whimper that escaped me.

His laugh forced even more air to touch my neck and ears. At least his breath didn’t smell like dirty ass like Tony’s. “Scared, princess? Don’t worry. I’m not the boogieman here. The real monster is your dear husband.”

He wrapped his arms around my body, bringing his hands in front of me and attaching something to his phone. Pointing it at the wall I’d previously been leaned against, he pressed a button.

A video began playing, and all the men eagerly leaned forward, giggles escaping as they watched my face with undisguised glee.

“Be prepared, princess,” Rider whispered. “This is about to get rough on ya.”

Though I flinched away, my arms were still tied behind me and smashed against his stomach. There wasn’t much I could do to push him away.

On the video, laughter rang out, even though the screen was black. Suddenly, an image appeared. Though the kid on the film was much younger, there was no mistaking his identity. It was Damian.

“So, Prince Pussy,” came the voice behind the camera, a younger-sounding Rider. “Ya gonna do this or chicken out?”

Damian sneered, a petulant look on his face that I had never seen before. “Just watch me. I’m so sick of my family. I’ll join yours tonight.”

A chuckle sounded further away from the camera and a voice I’d never heard spoke. “You want to stick some old lady, a dude, or find a sweet-ass pussy to stab?”

Damian rolled his eyes. “You pick. I don’t give a shit. I’ll kill whoever you want me to.”

A gasp escaped me at Damian’s attitude, even though I had wanted to keep silent and not give the watching gang members the ‘entertaining’ reactions they wanted. He’d been this eager to kill someone?

“Wait,” the unknown voice said on the video. “Look over there. That girl has a bank bag, and she’s all alone.”

“Oh, yeah,” Rider said. “Jackpot. You can kill her and get us some cash. I need a burger, and I’m fresh out of funds.”

Damian shrugged, looking out his window. “Sure. She looks like too easy of a target, but I’ll kill her if that’s who you’ve picked.”

The camera stopped filming Damian’s face, pointing out the car window. As the vehicle came to a stop, I saw my younger self walking on the dimly-lit street, still about a block from the bank I had been headed to.

“Enough,” I whispered, closing my eyes as I struggled to hold back tears. “I don’t need to see the rest.”

“Open your eyes, bitch,” Rider hissed behind me. “Either watch your sweet lover trying to kill you or die right now. Choice is yours.”

While I didn’t have a clue whether I’d get out of this situation alive or not, I didn’t want to piss Rider off and lower my chances. The shock and hurt that rolled through me was too much to deal with. I couldn’t think of a plan. I couldn’t come up with something snappy to say that could save myself.

All I could think about was Damian. All this time, he’d lied to me. He knew all along I was the girl he targeted that night. He had to know. When I’d told him my story and he hadn’t made me continue when I got to the part about being stabbed, I’d thought he stopped pressing for details out of concern for me having to relive that night. Instead, he hadn’t needed me to go on. He already knew what happened. He’d been there, front and center.

On the screen, the men had exited the car, approaching my unsuspecting form with masks pulled over their features. I couldn’t help remembering how stupid I’d been, thinking I was perfectly safe since the bank had been so close. Never in a million years would I have thought someone was following me, plotting to kill me and take the money.

The camera stayed focused on Damian the entire time, never showing the other men clearly. What had felt like an eternity while I’d lived through it actually only took seconds to play out in real time. Damian pulled down his mask, came up behind me, and grabbed my arm.

“Give me the money, bitch.”

I’d struggled. In the video, I shouted at him. “Let me go, your jerk! I’ll call the cops!”

Younger Damian laughed, pulling my younger self close. The flash of his knife glinted on screen. It was the only thing I could focus on while tears blurred my vision. I couldn’t block out the memory of how it had felt against my neck, of how long it had taken my brain to realize I was in real trouble.

“How about now, bitch?” he asked. “Want to give me the money now?”

“No.” My voice was shaky through the recording. Personally, I couldn’t believe I used to be brave enough to tell someone with a knife to my throat that I wouldn’t do what they asked.

“Do it, now, Prince Pussy.” Young Rider’s voice taunted from his spot behind the camera. “Get her!”

Before the me in the video even had a chance to fight back, Damian’s knife slid across my throat in a quick motion. He released me, stepping back. I fell, clutching at my throat, the money bag dropping to the ground beside me.

“Shit!” Even behind his mask, Damian’s eyes were wide as he stared at me. “No, I didn’t want this.”

“Kill her,” urged the gruff voice that I didn’t recognize. Must have been their leader, Snake.

Damian shook his head. “I-I c-c-can’t.”

“Yep, he’s definitely Prince Pussy,” Rider said, disdain in his voice. “Told you he wasn’t cut out for our crew, Boss. Rich boys don’t belong here.”

“Grab the money,” Snake ordered.

One of the kids who hadn’t spoken but must be one of the men now sitting in this room grabbed the money bag from the ground, not even sparing a glance for me as I struggled, my small cries the only sounds on the empty street. I remembered how scared I’d been, how sure I was that I’d die. When that man had first came to grab the money bag, I remember that I’d hoped he would help me. I’d tried to call out to him, but my consciousness had already been fading and the pain was too intense for me to form coherent words.

“We should call 9-1-1,” Damian said, still staring at my fallen form. He fumbled in his pocket, pulling out a phone.

“Are you stupid!” Snake practically roared the words, and a hand grabbed Damian by the shoulder, jerking him back to the car. “Let’s get out of here. Now! We’ll deal with you later.”

The video faded out. The only sound in the empty factory room was my soft sobs.

“So, you see, princess, your Prince Charming really is the bastard who caused all your problems.”

Damian’s words since we had married kept flashing in my mind. How many times had he claimed to owe it to me whenever he gave me anything. He even said he owed my parents. I hadn’t been able to imagine what he meant at the time. Had he thought his money could fix what he’d broken in my family?

My brothers hated me for leaving, I’d suffered so much through the years, and my parents... My mom might die! All because of mistakes that Damian had made. To top it off, he’d claimed what he needed to cover up were simple childhood indiscretions. Mere rebellion against a too-strict father. This was so far beyond childhood mischief.

He’d ruined my life!

“Why did you show me this?” I demanded, rubbing my cheek against my shoulder to erase the tears. “Did you think this would make me more cooperative?”

Tony shrugged from his position on the other side of the room, standing up and approaching me. He gently took me from Rider’s lap, pulling me into his arms. Even though I struggled, there was no way for me to get free. Honestly, I felt like I needed his support to stay on my feet. Everything I thought I knew about my life and my husband had just been upended.

Tony’s smelly breath came closer as he pressed a kiss on my cheek. “Maybe, now that you know the truth about him, you’ll be more serious about being my girl. You could be part of our gang. Like a mascot.”

“Really, idiot?” Rider snorted. He looked at the other two men. “Why do we let this guy keep his tongue?”

They both laughed. “Her reaction to the video was a bit disappointing. Cutting out his tongue might be more fun.”

Tony pulled me closer, but I had the feeling he was actually hiding behind me. “Don’t kid around like that, assholes!”

“Who’s kidding?” one of the unnamed asked.

“Shut up!” My scream surprised everyone, including me. “Shut up, shut up, shut up!”

I stomped on Tony’s foot, forcing him to let me go. All the rage hit me at once, and if my hands had been free, I’d probably have gone for Tony’s eyes. Instead, I kicked him as hard as I could in the groin.

He dropped down, and the men surrounding us let out huge guffaws of laughter. “Here’s what we wanted,” one of them said.

“You bastards all ruined my life!” I screamed, whirling around to glare at them. “Why me? Why did you pick me that night? My family never did anything to you. My parents work hard. I was supposed to continue taking care of my brothers, and I had to leave after that. I was too afraid to even be outside at night! Why would you do that? Why would you push my mom off the bus now? We never did anything to you!”

Rider stepped forward, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me until my teeth rattled. “Shut up, bitch. You don’t get to ask why. You’re only in this situation because you married the wrong asshole. I personally find it hilarious that you ended up married to the man who tried to kill you. How stupid do you have to be that you didn’t recognize him right away?”

All the fight left me at once, and I dropped to my knees, hardly noticing the way the rough cement floor bit into my legs and tore my nylons. “Why?” I moaned, wishing there was some way to make sense of what they’d shown me.

“You got a second chance at life,” Rider said, standing over me without an ounce of compassion in his voice or on his face. “You should have died that night, but Prince Pussy couldn’t complete the job. We beat his ass for that and kicked him out of the group. Now, if you were too stupid to make the most of your second chance, that’s not my problem. You’d better hope that stupid asshole feels sorry enough for what he did before. If he feels as guilty as he did that night, I don’t think he’ll let you down. He’ll meet my demands for a chance to rescue you, even if your marriage is only a contract and not for love.”

Love. What did that word even mean? Damian had continued to claim he loved me, but all along, he knew I was the girl he’d nearly killed. Was his love actually guilt for what he’d done? He owed me and my family in his mind. Did he convince himself he had to love me because of our past?

I had always wondered how he could love me so fast, why he would love me when I’d been so horrible to him after the fight with my family. This explained everything. I guess I should take some comfort in the fact that Damian obviously wanted to take care of me and make amends for his past.

He’d been trying to tell me something earlier last night. My mom’s accident had interrupted us, but now I thought about it again. He had said he was the bad guy and I shouldn’t feel bad about the last month. I could tell there was something more he’d wanted to say. Had he been planning to tell me all of this? If so, why? A part of me could only think that it might be because he had real feelings for me, not just guilt, but I knew that was likely stupid.

Just because I’d let my guard down and decided I could trust him, that didn’t make any of it true. But still... if he really loved me...

No. No. No.

Thinking of that would only end in hurt and heartache. If Damian somehow found a way to save me from this, we could talk about it later and figure out where our future headed from there.

That was if he could save me. These men just showed me proof about the crime Damian committed. However, it also proved that they were involved. Sure, their faces had never been on the film, but I recognized Rider’s voice. He had been the cameraman. I couldn’t tell in the video if Damian had known he was being filmed, but all the men had been careful to never show their faces. The only time they’d appeared on film, they’d had masks on. Still, I could tell the police they were involved. The police could use voice recognition to implicate Rider and their absent leader.

On top of that, giving me no reason to be true to Damian meant if they let me out of here once Damian met their demands, there was now no reason for me not to go to the cops and turn the whole lot of them in, Damian included. They’d just handed me everything I needed to leave Damian and let the cops take care of all of them.

Tony might be stupid enough not to realize that, thinking it was fun to torment me with the video of my attack, but I knew Rider understood what would likely go on in my mind. If he knew I’d go to the cops as soon as I got out of here, there was no way he intended to release me.

Once he got the money from Damian and his leader was let out of jail, I knew what would happen. I’d felt the long knife sheath along Rider’s side when he put me on his lap. When I looked up now, I could see the hilt of a large knife peeking from the top of it.

He’d shown me the video for his entertainment because it didn’t matter. There was no way he intended to let me out of the factory alive.