The Life You Stole (Life Duet 2)

“In a perfect world, we could just swap.”

“Swap?”

“Spouses.”

What?

I inched my head side to side. That made no sense. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it?” Graham gave me a look.

I couldn’t decipher it, but it brought bumps to the surface of my skin. It made my spine tingle with a cold chill.

“I think I failed to mention inside those two lovely statues anchoring the books on the middle shelf are security cameras.” He clucked his tongue three times. “There’s some expensive art in here that we must protect. The cameras are motion activated. And recently … there was a lot of motion happening on this sofa that we’re sitting on.”

My heart took a nosedive into the pit of my stomach, forcing a surge of acid up my throat. I couldn’t breathe, let alone speak.

“Gotta say … I’ve never seen or imagined a guy could fuck a woman with so much vigor yet wear the most tortured expression on his face. You were sleeping, but you should have seen the look on his face when he left. In fact, I’d be happy to show it to you if you’d like to see it.”

“He didn’t fuck me,” I whispered.

“No? Huh … definitely looked like it from both camera angles. Christmas came early. I honestly thought I’d have to work harder. I thought Adrianne Craig was my best bet. But even she proved to lack what it took to bring Ronin to his knees. Joining his junkie group. Befriending him. Gifting a dog. Hell, she even had his and her tires slashed to force more time together. Ronin is such a fucking Boy Scout, or so I thought.

“But who knew? Really … all this time the bait was right in fucking front of me. So much money wasted on a professional whore when I could’ve gotten one to do the dirty work for free. Family discount. Thanks, babe.”

Adrianne …

He paid her to break up their marriage. Still … it didn’t excuse everything.

“You have a video of you and Evelyn. I saw it. You have nothing. The two of you already ruined everything on your own.”

“Evelyn …” He laughed again.

I married Satan in the flesh. How … how did that happen?

“I wanted her … I requested she look like Evelyn.” He smirked.

What? No. No, no, no!

Tremors attacked my body while a cold sweat trickled down my back. The vein along my forehead throbbed. And my racing pulse suffocated each breath.

I thought my world ended when I saw that video. I was wrong. My world ended with his revelation.

It. Wasn’t. Evelyn.

I let that happen. Revenge made me the temptress.

It. Wasn’t. Evelyn.

“Aw, baby … are those tears on your cheeks?” Graham leaned forward, reaching for my face.

I swatted his hand away. “DON’T … touch me.”

He paused, teeth clenched.

“You will never have her. Because deep down she knows what a fucked-up psychopath you really are.” The never-ending tears blurred my vision. “She will hate you.”

Whack!

Blood replaced the tears in my right eye as darkness and squiggly lines stole my vision. I think my eyeball exploded.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

His knuckles connected with my jaw.

One. Two. Three.

The force of his anger knocked me onto the floor. A metallic taste spread along my tongue while a part of my tooth fell from my partially mangled mouth.

That’s it … just kill me. I know you have it in your fucking evil soul. Just … finish it.

He didn’t.

Graham didn’t kill me.

He locked me in my room and boarded the windows. I waited to bleed to death, but that didn’t happen. Completely blind in my right eye and unable to form words from my swollen mouth, I crawled from the floor to the bed—choking as my tongue worked to swallow the blood from my wounds mingling with stomach acid.

Silent sobs racked my chest.

Please let me die. Take me to my mom and dad. Take away this pain. And forgive me. Please forgive me for what I did.

I prayed over and over, shaking, chilled, and on the verge of losing consciousness. I prayed never to awaken. It was my time. I had nothing left.

Ronin

Mrs. Humphrey’s wet tongue painted my face. I didn’t blackout, but I felt like the one on the losing end of a street fight. Blurred vision, numbness in my tongue, a debilitating pain along my jaw that made it hard to speak. The only word I tried to say was Lila.

I moved my phone in front of my face, focusing with my good eye as I brought up Lila’s number. It rang and rang.

My thumbs moved across the screen, texting her.

Ronin: Call me! What’s happened?

“L-L-Li-la,” I tried to say her name, but my mouth fucked up the word. I dropped my phone onto my chest, closed my eyes, and waited for the room to stop spinning, for the pain to subside, for my lunch to stop crawling up my throat.