Lawless Kingdom (Reign & Ruin 1)

I pretended not to see him, going right to the dark green cube on wheels that was waiting for me to get in it. Once I did, I didn’t bother reversing. I knew he wouldn’t let me out. I went straight and circled around the house, cutting through the field. A smile pressed to my lips as I drove away from him.

When his car flew up behind me, I laughed. The laughter died as he got even closer. His front bumper nudged my rear, not hard enough to make me go coasting off the road, but hard enough that my tiny car jolted a bit.

“Freaking psycho!” I yelled, immediately pulling over. I was not about to play twisted metal with him. He’d win. His car pulled in front of mine at an angle, so that if I wanted to go anywhere, I’d have to reverse.

Then he was at my door, pulling it open just as I undid my seatbelt. He didn’t yank me out, though.

Doing the opposite of what I expected, he reached down and took hold of my hand, gently tugging me from within the car. I shook off his touch and shoved him the second I was all the way upright. Course, he didn’t go anywhere.

“Don’t overreact. You’re fine, and so is this ugly thing you call a car.” His response coupled with his calm demeanor only heightened my anger. How did someone casually attempt to drive another person off the road? Judas would know. The word psycho resounded in my head again as he regarded me clinically. As if I were the one with the problem.

“Isn’t this what you wanted? Me to chase you?”

My lips parted in shock. “No! What is wrong with you? Do you want to kill me?”

He stepped forward in one fluid motion, capturing my face on either side, forcing me backward so that I was pressed against my car. “Why would I want you to die when keeping you will be so much more fun?”

Fun. There was that word again.

I tried to push him away, but he held tight, his grip firming. “I’m not a pet. I don’t want to be kept. I can’t be,” I rasped.

He clicked his tongue at me. “I know this is hard to accept, but you don’t have a choice. We haven’t even gotten started yet. Sooner rather than later, we’ll be leaving this place behind us, and then the real games can begin.”

Feeling tears of frustration gather in the corner of my eyes, I diverted my gaze so he couldn’t see them. How did one night of freedom result in this? I should never have gone to that damn party. Either of them.

“I won’t willingly go along with whatever it is you want.”

He forced me to look up at him. “Again, you don’t have a fucking choice.”

“There’s always a choice, and if you think bullying me into submission will work, you’re wrong. You may be dangerous, but I can be too.”

He laughed, sinister and low. “You think you’re any match for me, bambina?”

“You don’t know me, Jude.”

“We already established that I did, that I do, but you’re a very stubborn girl.” His forehead lowered to mine and he stared straight into my eyes. “I’m going to tear you apart from the inside out, and you’ll still spread your legs and let me fuck you sore.”

I pulled at his hands, trying to remove them from my face. He skimmed his lips over mine, a wicked glint in his eye. “I’m going to flip your whole goddamn world upside down and make you love me as I shatter it into pieces.”

I stopped struggling and stared at him, rendered speechless. The sound of an approaching vehicle had him moving away. I stood rooted in place. Without a word to me, Judas bent down and retrieved something from my middle console.

“What are you doing?” I questioned when I saw what it was.

He wound his arm back, bringing it forward to release my key fob. The black clicker sailed through the air, landing somewhere in the surrounding field behind us.

“Why would you do that?” I yelled, spinning to scan the offending area, knowing my key fob could be anywhere. He recaptured my attention with a gentle hold of my jaw, forcing me to meet his stare.

“Consider this a small lesson. If you run from me, I’ll do whatever is necessary to bring you back to my side. Whatever is necessary.”

“I wasn’t running from you! I was trying to drive down the damn street!”

“Get in the car.”

“No.” I crossed my arms and shook my head.

“Don’t be childish. Get in the car.”

The fucking audacity! “I’m childish? That’s rich, coming from the psychopath that just ran me off the road and threw my key-fob. I can’t possibly fathom why I wouldn’t want to get in a vehicle with you.”