Tears spilled from my eyes as I broke. Everything was a lie. Robbie was paid to hurt me. Tanner knew what Robbie was doing to me. It was all a lie in order to get me to break. To trust Kai and join them for what … so Connor was easier to coerce into working for them because I was in their grasp? To keep me close?
“They have your brother, you know. He’s alive and well.” He chuckled. “Well, I don’t know about well, but he’s alive.”
I faked a gasp of shock and hoped like hell he believed it. I didn’t need him knowing I had already been told about Connor.
Tanner shrugged. “Don’t know why they risked taking him. Deck would’ve been a better choice. No family. No ties.” He sighed and his grip around my neck loosened. “But now … now, Georgie, things are all screwed up because of you. You told Deck about Kai and I, didn’t you?”
“No,” I lied. “Tanner, that’s ridiculous. You know I’d never do that.” I kept my eyes directly on him, knowing he’d be able to tell I was lying if I looked away.
He paused and I felt his hands tightening on my neck as he thought about it. “I saw you kiss Deck in the car, Georgie.”
Double-fudge-fuck.
“If you told him, they’ll kill him, you know.” I nodded. “I know you’d never want that to happen to him.” Okay, he was going to believe me. “Kai doesn’t agree, but you’re weakening. I saw it when you were drinking after the purge. Do you know how many times you called out for Deck?” Shit, I couldn’t remember anything. “You need to be brought in now, Georgie. It’s too risky, you being on the outside.” I thought of London; Deck said she’d be tortured until she broke.
“Tanner. No. It will ruin everything. If I disappear, Deck will start a war.”
He laughed, throwing his head back. “War has already started.”
It was my moment. I grabbed his wrist with my opposite hand, the other above his elbow and I hooked my foot around his, raised my opposite hip at the same time as I pulled on his elbow.
It was one solid movement and it knocked him forward and off-balance. We rolled, so I was on top of him, and I didn’t stop as I jabbed my fingers into his eyes. He screamed and writhed beneath me, hands going to his eyes. I scrambled to my feet and at the same time reached into my back pocket and pulled out my cell while I dove for the front door.
I heard him yelling as his footsteps thudded after me.
My hand was on the doorknob and turning when his body slammed into me, the momentum pushed me hard against it, knocking the wind out of me. My cheek pressed to the door, I pulled my arm out enough to glance at my cell still clutched in my hand. I hit redial then dropped it to the floor before he realized I’d placed a call.
“You fucked him. Didn’t you?”
I felt his cock hard against my ass and he held me trapped between him and the door. “Tanner. Let me go,” I shouted. I needed whoever I’d redialed to hear me. “You’re hurting me. Get out of my house.” I hoped like hell someone had already picked up the phone and was listening.
Tanner knew exactly what I’d done and yanked me back, with his arm hooked around my neck then smashed his foot into my cell, the plastic shattering. “Who did you call?”
“I don’t know.” I was trying to think of the last person I talked to, but my mind was in escape mode and not on thinking things through.
His fist barreled toward me and I shifted to the right and it smashed into my forehead. “Who did you call?”
“Fuck you, Tanner.”
He had me by both arms, his body close to mine. I didn’t have enough room to knee him in the balls, and my head was still reeling with pain from the blow to the head. “It doesn’t matter. We’re leaving and we won’t be back for a long time. When they’re done with you, you’ll be good. And Deck … ” He chuckled in my ear and cold shivers raced through me like stabbing icicles. “He won’t want you. You’ll be so damaged, no one will.” He kissed the side of my neck. “Except me. I will, Georgie. I’ll look after you like I always have.”
Rage gripped me at his words and I wanted to shout at him that he was a lying, disgusting piece of shit. Instead, I kept my voice calm and controlled. “I won’t leave you. We can do what we’ve always done. Nothing will change. Think about what you’re doing. You’ll ruin everything.” Whoever these people were, they must have had him in their grasp since he was fourteen, maybe younger. He’d been watching me for ten years. I was his assignment since Robbie.