d satisfaction when I told h

with you,

my voice flat.

oment, I thought she would argue, but then

s lingered on the fresh scars on my abdomen, a possessive, triumphant gleam in th

dotes on hi

so l

t walking. The car she sent for me was, of course, bugged. I found the microphone and camera hid

out of here, I thought

, I knew it was a mistake. The air was thick

w your face," my father, Damon

d, and I flinched, instinctively dropping to my knees to pick up the pieces.

ing back here with your tail between your legs

king with a rage I hadn't felt in years. "I'm

rprised by my tone. "W

e limp. He had been using it to beat me since I was a child. He

oor, the pain radiat

grunted, breathing heavily. "What happe

mming. "You ruined my life," I whispered. "You s

he roared, kicking me in the ri

blood trickling from my lip. "You don't dese

punches. I didn't fight back. I just lay there, a strange sense of p

ront door burst open. Eve's security gua

out was Eve's face, her expression

d a new tactic: silence. She didn't speak to me, didn't even look at me. She just left food outside my d

en me. It was a video. Eve and Kason, in our bed, tangled togethe

w feeling in my chest. There wa

I wanted o

was drunk, her movements unsteady. Sh

er hands down on either side of my head, t

s from mine. "Why doesn't this bother you anymore

at her, my fac

ead," I said, my

ou die, Bennet, your ghost will belong to me. I'll keep y

my spine. She was insane.

to find mine. I turned my head,

ack, and she collapsed on top of

pinning me to the bed. Her words echoed in my

tand, buzzed. It was a messag

led for one week from

at the prison she had built aroun

to her study, the one place that was truly hers.

xpensive brandy and a

rything. The leather-bound books, t

the flames licking up the

Eve one last time. She was still sleeping,

Eve," I

the apartment, not looking bac