Damaged Queen (Darkness Within Duet 2)

Harper watched her father pale. She stepped away from the bars. “You knew about this place.”

Ian couldn’t lie.

He didn’t say a word, but one look and she knew. He’d known about this place, and still he worked for them, taking money, ignoring that men and women were dying. They were being tortured.

Draven laughed. “You really think your old man made his living by being a good guy? By doing the right thing? He doesn’t have a clue how to do that. He’s rotten from the inside out. Just like us.”

“I’m not rotten,” Harper said. “I know right from wrong, and what you’re doing now, it’s fucking wrong.”

“Look at you, one night here wasn’t enough to break you.”

“Is that what you’re wanting to do, Draven? Break me? Is that what Axel hoped to achieve by hurting me?” She held the collar down.

“Harper, don’t,” Ian said. “You’re finally back. Just let this pass. Okay? You can come home and I’ll take care of you.”

“Stonewall is not my home. It hasn’t been my home for a long time.” She looked at her father, and she saw how he’d aged. “You want to punish me for leaving, fine. Do it.”

She walked back to the mattress and lay down on the surface. There was no point in fighting with them.

“Harper, please, just do as they say.”

“I didn’t need you ten years ago, and I certainly don’t need you now.” She shouldn’t have called him.

She heard him sigh, and in the next second, his footsteps disappeared. Harper didn’t move.

“So, you’re still hating dear old daddy?” Draven asked.

She tilted her head down so that she stared at the cell doors. “You’re still here?”

“Why not? I own these cells.”

“A visit from you and Axel, this must be my lucky night.”

“I want to know about your fiancé.”

She gritted her teeth. He wasn’t going to find anything out about Ethan. He had no right to know anything.

“I want to know about him.”

“I’ve got nothing to tell.”

“Come on, you were going to marry the guy.”

She rubbed her finger where the ring had been. It was empty now. No ring.

“Are you going to let me go?”

“You want to stay in these cells?” he asked, instead of answering her.

“Why would I want to stay in these cells?” She sat up and looked at him. “What is it you want from me?”

“Me? I don’t want anything from you. What I want right now is for you to answer my questions. You do, and you’ll get to go to the house to wash.” He winked at her. “Come on, Harper. I know how you like to negotiate.”

“You don’t know a thing about me.”

“Do we have a deal?” he asked.

“Fine. What do you want to know?”

“Your fiancé, does he know your history?”

“No.”

“You were going to marry someone and he didn’t know who you were?”

“It’s not like I could tell him, is it? I didn’t want anything from Stonewall to come back here. Do you know what your father did?” she asked.

“I’m not here to answer your questions. You’re here to answer me.”

“Damn it, Draven, I’m not a monster here.”

“Don’t worry, I am. Does your fiancé know how to get in touch with you?”

“No. Axel broke my phone. Any means he had of getting in touch with me is long gone. He doesn’t know where I lived as a child, or what I did. I lied to him about everything so he wouldn’t come hunting, or expect me to want to go back home. I lied about absolutely everything. If you’re expecting him, don’t.”

She placed her hands on her knees, waiting, watching.

“You were going to marry a man, and he didn’t even know that you’d given yourself to four men?” Draven asked.

She couldn’t help it. She touched the base of her back.

Draven burst out laughing. “You still got the ink?”

Harper kept her lips pressed shut. This wasn’t going how she thought it would, if this ever happened. What did she expect? For Draven to welcome her home? She had no home. Draven was doing this because he felt betrayed. He believed Alan, just as she had.

“How did he fuck you seeing other names?”

“I let him believe I was going through a morbid phase and they were my dead pets.”

This dropped the smile from his lips. The anger was back.

She got a small glimpse of the old Draven, but now, he was gone, and all that stood in his place was a monster.

“I answered your questions.”

“That you did.”

He flicked the key around his finger, and finally, he opened the door.

She got off the bed and took a step toward him, and another, and another. Just as she reached out to grip the door, he locked the cuff he had on his own hand around hers.

She stopped and tried to pull away from him.

“Draven, what the hell?”

“Axel has the key. You’re stuck with me until he comes back. Let’s go.”