“Veronica?” I called as I walked into her apartment. Silence greeted me. She was still out with her new boy toy.

Relief washed over me. I needed time to think about what had happened in that alley. I dropped my bag on her entry table and walked into the kitchen, flipping lights on as I went. Leaning against the counter, I laughed and covered my face.

“You’re insane. That was insane.” My giggles turned into a smile. “And now I’m talking to myself. Perfect.” I opened the fridge and grabbed a water.

Drinking it slowly, I replayed everything that had transpired, the feel of his skin on mine, the way he’d said my name. And most of all, his profession of love. Butterflies swooped and spun in my stomach. I’d been in control, and for a moment in that alley, I realized that I was the one pulling his strings. He was the captive, the one tied to me. Not with a golden monitor, but by an invisible link that only we could feel. I couldn’t put words to it, not yet. But I knew it, just as sure as I knew he’d never stop his pursuit—I loved Sebastian. It was wrong and sick, yet so, so right.

I ran my hands down my throat and closed my eyes, imagining his mouth against me, the delicious feeling of being possessed by him. My freedom was sweet. His kiss was sweeter.

“Snap out of it, weirdo.” I finished my water, then switched off the lights in the kitchen and walked into the living room.

“Have a good time?”

I jumped and squeaked. “Link?”

He sat in a side chair, his back to the small window. His face in shadow, he sat unmoving, but I could feel his gaze on me.

“What are you doing here?”

He didn’t respond. I flipped the light switch. Nothing happened.

My skin crawled as I stared at his dark profile. “Link?”

“All this time I’ve been waiting.” Something snapped in his hand. “Giving you space. Letting you tell me when you were ready for more.” Creak, snap. “I respected your need for time. Held you while you cried about your parents, then went home with balls bluer than the fucking Hudson.” Creak, snap.

I edged backward toward the hall.

“Stop. Don’t bother.” He held his hand out, the light catching the ring box in his palm. “This should have been yours. You don’t deserve it.” He pulled it back into the shadows. Creak, snap. “I was the good guy, waiting for you. But you didn’t want a good guy, did you?”

“Link, you should go.” I took another step back.

The shadow moved, and Link launched at me. I darted down the hallway, but he caught me around the waist and slapped a hand over my mouth. “You wanted a bad guy. You gave what was mine to that fucking maniac.” Rage coated his words. “You let him fuck you up against a dirty wall like the piece of trash you truly are.” He walked me forward toward Veronica’s bedroom. “My mistake was treating you like you were special, like you were the one. What you really wanted was to be treated like a whore. Just like all the other whores.”

I fought, scratching at his arms and trying to kick. This wasn’t happening. I wouldn’t let it happen.

He squeezed my face and my waist until I thought he might break me in half. “Shh. Don’t worry. I’m going to give you what you want. I saw how you like it. Rough, filthy. That’s just what you’ll get. No more good guy for you.”

He pushed me onto the bed and pinned me, one hand still on my mouth. “Do you want to explain all this to me?”

I nodded.

“If you scream, I’ll choke you out, and then I’ll do what I want with your body. Understand?”

I nodded again.

He peeled his hand away and grabbed a handful of my hair. “Talk.”

This wasn’t the Link I knew. His eyes were crazed, his face twisted into a mask of fury. He’d snapped. “Please, don’t.”

“Shh.” He slapped his hand back over my mouth. “I thought you were going to explain to me why I saw that piece of shit Sebastian fucking my pussy. That’s what I want to know. Can you tell me that, or should I just get down to business?” He slid one hand under my skirt, hiking it up.

I nodded, my thoughts racing.

“Okay.” He dug his fingers into my thigh. “Last chance.” He freed my mouth.

“What Mint suspected was true. I never made it to the Amazon. Sebastian had me the entire time.”

He shook his head. “What?”

“It’s true. He kept me at his house. I couldn’t escape.”

His fingers dug harder into my thigh. “So are you telling me you gave it to him before tonight?”

“Link, please.” I grabbed his wrist. “He kept me captive.”

He adopted a thoughtful expression. “Okay, so let’s say that’s true, and he held you prisoner.” His eyes seared into mine. “Were you a prisoner tonight up against that wall?”

My voice broke. “This isn’t you.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” He hooked his fingers into my panties at my hip. “This has always been me. I tried to change for you. To be better. To be your white knight.” He yanked, the fabric tearing and scraping my skin. “But that’s not what you wanted, not really.”

“Don’t.” A tear slipped down my temple.

“Do you love him?” He gripped my hip. “Don’t lie to me.”

My voice caught in my throat, and I couldn’t answer. But the truth was in my eyes, because he tensed and bared his teeth.

He closed his eyes, his jaw tight. “That’s what I thought.” When he opened his eyes again, he was gone. Only wrath remained.

“Link.”

“Shut up.” He gripped my throat. “Not another word. You’re going to give me what you owe me. Then I’m going to walk away. If you go to the police, I’ll tell them all about Sebastian, how he held you against your will—all of it. Your psycho lover boy will go to prison where he fucking belongs.”

I struggled, trying to buck him off, fighting and kicking. He was too strong. His body pinned me, and he squeezed my throat, stopping my air. I scratched his face.

“Fuck!” He grabbed a handful of my hair with his other hand and yanked until I thought he’d tear it out.

I still fought, refusing to give in.

“Stop it, you fucking bitch.” He ground his cock into my thigh. “You’re getting all of this whether you’re conscious or not. Doesn’t matter to me. Keep this up, and it’s lights out.”

I couldn’t give up. Grabbing a handful of his hair, I pulled as hard as I could. He groaned and increased the pressure on my throat until black seeped into my vision. My lungs burned, and I couldn’t focus on anything except my next breath. My hands dropped to the bed and Link smiled.

“That’s it.” He let go of my hair and reached between us. The jingle of his belt buckle barely made it over the ringing in my ears.

My vision faded, Link’s cruel face hazing out. A crash. Something breaking. And then I could breathe again. I rolled over and coughed, sucking in huge gulps of air as living fire raced down my throat and into my lungs. My vision popped back, my hearing too.

Fleshy thunks and deep yells filtered through. I sputtered and felt my throat. Curling into a defensive ball on the bed, I sucked in air until my fog cleared. I sat up and intended to bolt for the door, but the way was blocked.

Sebastian straddled Link and was punching him again and again. Link’s face was bloodied, his eyes closed.

“Sebastian!” I ran up behind him and grabbed his arm. “You’ll kill him!”

“Yes.” He didn’t swing again once I put my hands on him. “I will. Stand back so I can finish the job.”

“No.”

He turned to look at me, one of his eyes red and puffy. “You want him to live?”

No. I stared down at Link, at the real man behind the mask. A monster. “I don’t want you to go to prison. If you kill him, they might take you away. To an institution or worse.”

He glanced to my throat, and his gaze darkened. “I don’t care. He deserves to die.”

“I care.” I pulled on his arm. “Please.” I wanted Link dead and gone, but I couldn’t let Sebastian do it. He’d saved me.

He reached up and caressed my cheek. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is.” I let him go.

He stood and crushed me in an embrace that soothed my hurt and fear. Scooping me into his arms, he stepped over Link and carried me to the living room.

“Wait.” I pointed to the floor. “Set me down.”

He quirked a brow but put me on my feet. I reared back and kicked Link in the ribs. He grunted and curled onto his side.

“Okay.” I reached for Sebastian.

“Have I mentioned how much I love you?” He smirked and took me in his arms again.

“A few times, but feel free to tell me again.”

“I love you more than anything else in this world.” He sat on the couch and cradled me in his arms. “Where does it hurt?”

“Just my throat.”

He tensed again. “Are you certain I can’t kill him?”

“Yes.” I ran my hand down his chest. Even with Link in the hallway, I knew I was safe in Sebastian’s arms.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to get here.”

I pulled back and stared into his eyes. “How did you know?”

He cleared his throat. “I, ah, well. Remember when I had the surveillance removed from your house?”

“Oh my god, you bugged Veronica’s place, too?” I shook my head.

“I was going to have it all undone, but Timothy hadn’t been able to handle it yet. So, as it happened, it was still here.” His eye had started to swell closed. “I wanted to check and make sure you got here safe, that was all. I wasn’t going to eavesdrop any further than that. But then I saw him lying in wait for you. I came as fast as I could.”

“You need ice for that.” I tried to climb out of his lap, but he held me in place.

“All I need is you.” He turned my chin so he could inspect my neck. “You’re going to bruise.”

“I can barely feel it.” I lay my head on his shoulder. “You’re here. That’s all I need.”

He hugged me tight. “Do you have any idea how beautiful that sounded?”

Link groaned in the hallway.

Sebastian set me next to him on the couch. “Give me a second.”

“Don’t—”

“I won’t kill him.” He strode to the hallway. More groans, and then a sliding noise. Sebastian dragged Link by the collar of his jacket, opened the front door, and shoved him out into the hallway.

“Needless to say, you’re fired. If I ever see your face again, I’ll kill you with my bare hands and bury you in the woods on my estate. Your body will never be found. And it will never be traced to me.”

Link groaned again as Sebastian slammed the door and flipped the deadbolt.

He returned to the couch and sat next to me. Laying back, he pulled me on top of him. “Are you okay?”

Link’s violence would leave a mark on me. I knew that. I could feel that slice of evil coloring a part of my soul, and it would be with me long after today. But it wouldn’t rule me.

I snuggled against Sebastian’s chest as he ran his hands up and down my back. “I think I’m going to be fine. We’re going to be fine.”

“We?” A hopeful note in his voice made me smile.

“Yes, we. After all, we’re a team. We took out the bad guy.”

“Hmph.” He smoothed a hand down my hair. “I thought I was the bad guy in your story?”

“I was wrong.” I propped my chin on his chest and stared into his eyes. “You aren’t the bad guy after all. Psycho? Yes. But you’re the hero of my story.”

“I’ve never been someone’s hero before.”

“You’re mine.”

“So I’m the good guy?”

I stretched up and kissed his chin. “Let’s not get carried away.”

He laughed, the sound rich and delicious.

“Sebastian?”

“Yes, my damsel?” His warmth infused my heart.

“I love you.”

“I know.”

“Oh, really?” I cocked my head.

“Your expression. The one I could never figure out. I’ve collected enough data to decide that it’s love.”

“You can’t robot your way into my emotions like that.”

“But I did.” He pulled me up his body and placed gentle kisses on my lips. “It was the one missing element. The part I couldn’t figure out no matter how hard I tried. Not until I realized how much I loved you. And then it all clicked, like the missing piece of the puzzle.” He smirked. “I didn’t even have to force it, though I certainly tried.”

“You did.” I cupped his face in my hands. “Psycho stalker.”

“You loved it.”

“No.” I kissed him, slow and sweet. “Just you.”