I wince as I hear the pounding on the door. I’ve been sitting in my bedroom in the dark almost all day. Crying all night gave me a migraine. I got up early to go into work, but I couldn’t kick the headache. Then, I went outside and Ryan and Noah were getting into their truck. Ryan waved at me and I was a total bitch, but I couldn’t bring myself to wave back at him. I didn’t want Noah to use it as an excuse to rip me open again. I’m barely hanging on here as it is. If he started on me in front of Ryan… I don’t think I could handle it.

So, I pretended I didn’t see Ryan and I turned the other way. Guilt has been eating me alive all day. Ryan’s not to blame for the mess between Noah and I. He’s innocent. I shouldn’t have allowed it to affect how I interact with Ryan. I may have been—maybe still am—in love with Noah, but I love Ryan too. I’ll have to seek him out and apologize… If I can work around Noah…

I jerk, my stomach revolting as I do, when the pounding starts again. I look at the clock and notice it’s about an hour before time for Noah to go get Ryan. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out it’s him knocking on my front door. No one else ever comes by. I swallow, not really wanting to deal with this right now, but not exactly having a choice—because again, Noah’s not giving me one. I’m so tired of him deciding everything and just telling me how it’s going to be.

I walk to the door slowly, cursing my nausea as I do. It would serve Noah right if I throw up all over his shoes.

“I think we’ve said all there is to say to each other,” I growl opening the door.

“I think, we have a world of things to say to each other, little sister.”

My blood turns instantly cold. I stupidly thought I was safe here. Looking up at the evil in front of me… I know better now.

“King…” I whisper.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” he asks. My eyes travel over him. He hasn’t changed. If anything, he looks colder. I bite down my fear though; my brother can smell fear at the first scent of it… he attacks.

“Do I have any choice?” I ask him, silently congratulating myself when I manage to keep the fear out of my voice.

“None whatsoever,” he says and I back away from the door, making room for his entourage and him. My living room, which I once thought was huge, feels so small I can’t catch my breath.

I sit down in a chair by the door. I don’t really want to sit, but remaining standing is not an option. My legs feel like jelly and my knees are threatening to buckle. Sitting keeps me from looking weaker in front of King.

Timothy King has worked hard to make my life miserable. Until I finally broke free from his grasp, it was his favorite pastime. When he took over the family business, he had everyone call him King. In his head, he thought being called King made him sound invincible. I thought it just made him sound like a giant douchebag.

Whatever.

My brother is my complete opposite—in every way possible. Where I got my mother’s dark auburn hair and green eyes, my brother has hair of golden, dusty brown. He keeps it shorn on the sides, and only slightly longer on top. His eyes are brown, chocolate even and if they weren’t so cold they might be his best feature. He’s tall, but muscular and broad. He’s wearing a tailored suit and looks impeccable right down to the shiny diamond encrusted Rolex he’s wearing and the shiny cufflinks in the shape of the initial K. Those cufflinks probably cost more than my yearly grocery budget.

“What are you doing here, Timothy?” I ask, not that I’m expecting an answer.

I expected me using his name might have thawed out a little of his cold mask—or at least made it slip. That didn’t happen. Instead, King laughs—surprising me. Too bad that his laughter sounds chillingly evil.

“Awe, Rory. Always testing me. Have you not learned your lesson yet?” he asks, and by reflex my hand comes up to my jawline—which is King’s favorite place to hit when he is at his limit with me. Sadly, this is something that happens often… or used to… before I broke free.

“You’ve become just like our father,” I tell him, something he knows, but I feel needs to be repeated.

“He was a great man,” King shrugs.

“Until you killed him?” I ask plainly.

“He became complacent. He forgot to look behind his back. I think in the end that he was proud of me. I did no less than he did when it came his time to take over the family empire.”

“So, you come from a long line of murderers. Congratulations for upholding the family name,” I mutter.

“If I were you, Rory, I’d watch my tongue. You’re in a tenuous position here and I have no patience for your mouth today. Today has a greater purpose.”

My brother is a bastard. He truly has become our father’s clone. Looking in his eyes now, I see nothing to remind me of the little boy I loved and played with as a child. In his place is a cold, evil businessman, who only smiles when he’s torturing someone.

I know that better than anyone.

“Where’s Tony?” I ask, as my eyes move around the room.

“I had to take care of him. He jeopardized the welfare of my child by coming to you before it was time. I meant only to teach him a lesson, but so great was my frustration…” he shrugs. “I got carried away.”

He killed Tony.

I hate to be grateful to my brother for anything, but I am for this. It’s hard enough handling one cold hearted viper, handling both of them is a challenge that I’m not up to just yet. I don’t comment on Tony’s death. I don’t really care. It probably sounds cold as hell, but I just figure karma has caught up with my ex finally. Instead, I’m more focused on what King said.

“You have a family? Did you get married while I was gone?” I ask, feeling sorry for his wife.

“So simpleminded, Rory. Stupidity is always your downfall. It’s really how I keep locating you day in and day out.” I take that and let it lie between us. If this comes down to it and I have to make a run for it, I need to be levelheaded.

“I have a child. A result of a weekend romp with a hooker trying to earn money for her next high. It was stupid, and I knew nothing of the child until a few years back. He’s been without his father too long. I need him to grow up and learn this business just as our father taught me.”

A shudder runs through me at the thought of King getting his hands on a small child. Poor thing won’t know what hit him—or maybe he will, the first time he disappoints my brother he will pay with his blood.

“Yippee. Maybe you’ll train him right and he’ll kill you and continue the family tradition,” I taunt him.

I was expecting it, but I wasn’t prepared. His hand comes out and slaps me hard along my cheekbone. My head falls back with the force of the hit and the loud smacking noise echoes around us as the fire from his hit burns my skin. I fight the urge to hold my cheek, even though it is pulsating in pain. Fighting back just excites King… I do my best to swallow the tears that spring to my eyes from the pain, not letting them fall. It’s not that hard… I’ve perfected it over the years.

“There’s that mouth again. You’ve forgotten to watch your step around me, Sister Dear.”

“Or you could just leave,” I suggest, praying silent prayer after silent prayer that he agrees—even while knowing he won’t. I expected him to hit me again, but he doesn’t. Instead he straightens his cufflinks and sleeves and smiles at me so coldly that I have to fight back the fear. This is a game to him. He hasn’t revealed all of the game to me yet, but from that smile and the look in his eyes, I brace myself. I know it’s going to be bad, my brother is too…happy.

“And have you miss out on meeting your only nephew?” he questions and my stomach rolls over and over. The thought of my brother with a child in his hands is something that chills me to the bone.

“How did you find me?” I ask, knowing at this point I’m not getting away—not this time—but maybe if I know where I went wrong… I can again. “Was it like Tony said? Because of the job application?”

“Is that what he told you? I don’t have time to monitor school board hires all across the country or to even bother checking on your references,” he says, his face telling me I wasn’t worth that much trouble. “I mean I would have, if it was necessary. I actually think Tony probably did—but then… he was a moron.”

“Finally, something we can agree on,” I whisper.

“You’re exactly where I led you to be, Rory. You always were so stupid, easily manipulated. I used that to my advantage.”

“That’s not possible,” I whisper. “I found Whitefish on my own!”

“You found Whitefish, because I left magazines about it all over the fucking house—some of those magazines I had to have specially printed. You took your time about getting there, but I knew eventually you’d turn up here. I just had to wait.”

My mind flashes back to the hiking magazines and camping ones that were delivered to the house in Virginia. I didn’t think about it before now, but they were there. Even as I traveled here there would be posters up about Montana… The last rest stop before I decided to go to Montana there was a big billboard poster on a sign by the interstate that was congratulating Whitefish on being voted most family friendly town of the year.

I didn’t actively take all of that in, but it did plant seeds in my brain. I see that now. When I looked at the map and picked a town in Montana at what I thought was random… by then I guess it was only natural I’d pick Whitefish.

My brother is right… I am stupid.

“I see you’re finally putting it all together. Incidentally? That look on your face right now? That’s more than worth the price that gigantic billboard cost me. Do you remember the one, Rory?” he asks, his voice low like he’s whispering a secret, his face full of joy… a sick, twisted, perverted joy… that of a hunter who has caught its prey…. that prey being human…. That prey being me. If my brother hadn’t inherited our father’s business, he most assuredly would have become a serial killer.

“You’re sick,” I whisper.

“Now was that nice? It’s been a fun game and you haven’t even had all of it revealed yet. That comes next.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask, still numb for realizing that all this time I’ve never been free… I’ll never be free when it comes to King.

“Oh, I can’t tell you now. That would ruin the show you’re about to witness. Cuff her, Wolf,” he says and this big man, older than me, kind of cute if he didn’t look so mean, comes toward me with a set of handcuffs hanging off his finger. His hand and what I can see of his wrist is heavily tattooed, and he reminds me of one of those men who would be more at home in jeans and a t-shirt, but he’s still wearing the dark black suit that my brother requires of all of his men. He’s new. I haven’t seen him before. He probably took Tony’s place. If I wasn’t so sick to my stomach I’d smile. Tony always thought he was so irreplaceable. I warned him my brother thought everyone was. He really should have listened.

Wolf barely looks at me, he doesn’t care that he’s bringing me back to my death. Then again, none of my brother’s men ever did.

“Sorry about the restraints, Rory. Can’t have you trying to get away before you see your nephew, now can I?” King smiles.

“King, let me go. I am of no use to you,” I tell him, fear starting to choke me. I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to live—

“This time you have great value, Rory. More than you know.”

“I do?” I ask, doubting those words, it’s all part of his game. He’s created this grand game and for King there always has to be a huge payoff. I should have remembered his fondness for chess before I left. Maybe if I had, the Whitefish signs would have been a red flag for me. I doubt it… my brain can’t fathom a man who would even begin to do that…

“You’re going to take care of my child until he’s old enough to train.”

Another wave of nausea threatens to overcome me and if Wolf hadn’t had my hands behind my back and secured with the handcuffs, I would have been stupid enough to hold my own stomach. Until this point, I hadn’t even thought of my own child. Being a mother is still new to me. The thought of being in my brother’s clutches when he finds out I’m pregnant is so terrifying that bile rises up in my throat and I have to swallow it down. I get dizzy, the fear is that strong.

“Let’s load up boys. We have a rabbit to catch,” King orders.

The man he called Wolf, puts pressure on my cuffs, yanking me up so forcefully that the metal bites into my skin. I stumble to my feet as he practically drags me behind my brother. We get outside and I look at Noah’s house partially in panic, because I don’t want Noah to see me like this. Even with the way things are, I know in my heart Noah would try to save me and I don’t want him to get hurt.

I needn’t have worried, because his truck is gone. Perversely, I’m instantly deflated because there was a small part of me hoping that Noah would save me. I’m ushered around a large black Suburban, a truck and a red Jeep. The Jeep seems out of place in my brother’s convoy. He’s not a flashy color kind of guy… and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him near a Jeep… but whatever. Having realized he planned my move to Whitefish—for God only knows what reason—I think it’s pretty clear I don’t know my brother as well as I thought.

That and the fact I underestimated him…

I’m placed in the back of a black limo all by myself. My brother leans down to smile at me through the door. Something about that smile tells me that whatever happens next—I’m really not going to like.

“I’ll see you soon, Rory. I need an up-close view of what’s about to happen. But, don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten you. You’ll be close enough to see everything,” he says right before slamming the door. I turn away from him, because my tears are really close now. I hold my head down and stare at my still flat stomach.

“We’ll make it through this, baby. We’ll make it through and I’ll get us free…Somehow…”

I make the vow… and I really hope that I can keep my promise.

I really do.