TWO

LAINEY

“Boss, we have a problem.”

Over Brendan’s shoulder, I witness a flustered Stu run into the room.

“The GPS on her mobile is active. It’s just been accessed. hey know our location.”

“Bloody hell. How did you overlook that?” Brendan barks at him. “I paid good money for you to prevent this sort of fuck-up.”

Removing his fingers from my trembling body, he lets me go. I slide to the floor. As soon as my feet touch the ground, I yank my skirt back into place and crawl away from him. He quirks an elegant eyebrow at me, smiling before he sucks on the fingers he forced into my body.

“You still taste like honey.” I flinch at his statement, and he laughs, knowing exactly what memory his words evoke. Turning his attention to Stu, he demands with nastiness, “I asked you to check for any tracking, and you said it wasn’t enabled on her phone. Are you completely useless?”

“They had it hidden well.” Stu defends himself. “I could only see that it’d been activated once they accessed it.”

Worry and fear billow from Stu. The abrupt change in his demeanour is interesting. Is he afraid of the MC or Brendan?

“Obviously, this is something he can access through his little motorcycle gang.” Brendan jeers at me. I note that he still doesn’t like to say Mik’s name. His pettiness would make me laugh if the situation wasn’t so serious. Brendan stalks over to the telescope and peers through it. “Goddamn it, he’s heading across the reserve right now. Your oversight has put a major kink in our plan.”

Brendan punches the wall near the window in anger, leaving a crack in the plastering. Blood wells on his injured knuckles. He shakes his hand in pain. I hope he's broken something. It would serve him right.

“Calm down, boss,” Stu tells Brendan. His eyes narrow and he stares intently into space. It's obvious—to me, at least—that he’s thinking on his feet. “He only knows where her phone is. If you can deal with her, I can get rid of him and the phone at the same time.”

Brendan outwardly agrees to Stu’s plan with a curt nod of his head. Deep within his eyes I can see his worry. It’s clear that he doesn’t have much faith in his henchman and I hope with every fibre in me that his concerns are warranted. 

Mentally pushing aside what Brendan just did to me, I choose to focus on the fact that Mik now knows where I am. Smiling at the thought of their plans unravelling so quickly, I decide to taunt them. If I can further shake Brendan’s confidence, maybe I can give Mik an edge?

“You’re absolutely screwed; you know that?” I state with as much conviction as I can. “Mik’s going to kill you both.”

My recently damaged spirit has risen from its temporary defeat. My lethal fiancé will tear both men limb from limb for touching me. And that’s before my father and the MC gets involved. They’re in for a world of pain.

Stu’s head whips toward me in disbelief, but Brendan ignores my barbs, taking me by the arm and dragging me out of the room. I punch him in the chest, dropping to my knees and fighting him every step of the way to slow him down.

Mik is coming. I need to be somewhere he can hear me.

“Don’t even think about it, Lainey. He’s getting nowhere near you ever again. I’m your man. Always have been. Always will be. Your first man and your only man. He won’t even breathe the same air as you again. If he does, you’re not going to like the consequences!” Brendan warns me as he grabs a handful of my hair to put a stop to my delaying tactics.

I gasp at the stinging radiating through my scalp, before attempting to let his crazy speech wash over me. He’s as delusional as ever about our previous relationship. He still thinks he can tell me how to feel and control me with nasty words and never-ending threats. I refuse to let him do it again. Brendan gives up trying to drag me by my hair, instead slapping me and then swinging me over his shoulder. He strides into his bedroom with me kicking and screaming and pummelling his back with my fists.

I’m thrown on the bed, then he kicks the door shut behind us. Curling into a ball, my eyes laser focused on Brendan so I can anticipate his next move, I ignore the jolts of pain rocketing through my body as the bed bounces from my inelegant landing. Brendan locks the door, patting his pocket after he slides the key into it. He smirks at me, knowing I won't willingly touch him to get the key. I want to slap the smugness right off his face.

Striding over to the window, he presses a button. A shiny silver electric shutter starts lowering down the outside of the window. I’m shocked to realise that it’s not quite dark outside. It feels like the middle of the night, not dusk. I’ve only been trapped here for a little over an hour. It feels like a freaking eternity. Turn to regard me with smug interest once the shutter has lowered, Brendan winks. His lewd intent is as clear as day. I know this look too well.

“Back off,” I tell him as he advances, pushing myself upright and holding my hands out to ward him off. “I’m going to scream at the top of my lungs if you touch me again. Someone will hear me.”

“Go ahead.” He smirks, moving closer to the bed despite my threat. “I had this room soundproofed just for you. We both know about your inability to keep quiet when you’re told. It was the cause of all my trouble last time.”

His reference to my screams, that brought Mik and my twin Benji running into my bedroom to bring an end to our horrific last night together, brings the buried memories to the forefront of my mind. That night was the last time I’d seen him until this afternoon. His guilty plea spared me the ordeal of testifying against him, when his case finally made it to court, nearly two years after his final attack on me.

Try as I might, I can’t stop my mind from returning to that horrible night—a night I try to never think about—and I shiver, my heart pounding as the awful memories overtake me. I don’t want to be anywhere near Brendan again. I’m much stronger than I was back then, but even the new me is going to find it hard to survive his twisted version of love.

I need to escape as soon as possible.

Brendan sits down next me. I scurry to the other side of the king-sized bed but he pulls me toward him by my ankle. Gently picking me up and placing me in his lap, he kisses me with tenderness.

Murmuring between kisses about how much he’s missed me.

Telling me that he still loves me.

Saying that he forgives me for sending him to hell.

It’s an empty checklist of emotion offered by a man incapable of truly feeling any. I drag my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around them. Brendan kisses me once more, and again I keep my lips pressed together in futile resistance of the gentle onslaught of his tongue.

His touch brings memories best forgotten to the surface. I push them away, but they persist—a cruel reminder of the first time he kissed me, long before everything turned crazy.