I can’t pretend I’m okay or act like I’m fine. Even if I could he can see I’m not.
“What’s the matter with you? Did you eat?”
My heartbeat speeds up and all I can think of when he asks me that is I’m like a damn toy to him. Nothing more than a fuck doll. A thing.
“I ate, thank you.”
“Good. Take your clothes off and shower with me,” he says.
I think for a moment on what I should do. Taking a shower with him is only going to lead to sex.
I can’t do it knowing what he plans to do to me.
“No,” I choke out and my answer surprises him.
“No?” His brows rise.
“I’m not going in the shower with you, Aiden.” I lift my chin a little higher. “What I want is to leave this place. I have to leave. Please let me go.”
It’s a final attempt at trying.
He grits his teeth. “I already told you I’m not letting you go.”
“If you keep me here, you’ll be the same kind of monster as Jude.”
“What if I am? It seems like you really did mistook me for a good man.”
“I didn’t, and if you are the same kind of monster as him, then you deserve everything you get.” My gaze clings to his, never wavering.
Not him, nor me.
“Do I now?”
“Yes, and you’re a hypocrite.” I don’t know where this courage is coming from but it’s coming.
It’s clear from the flash of rage in his eyes that he doesn’t like me calling him that.
“How the fuck am I a hypocrite?” he seethes.
“Look at you, looking for your son, and you can’t understand that I’m doing the same for my brother. You don’t even care that keeping me here is putting my mother’s life in danger. You wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize your son’s life.”
“Don’t you dare talk about my son,” he snarls getting up in my face and grabbing my arm. “Don’t think for one fucking second I’ve dropped my guard.”
He digs his fingers into my skin, and I wince.
“Let go of me.”
He pulls me closer and with my free arm I push against his chest to put some distance between us.
“Like fuck. You are not going anywhere. I’ll put you in a cage if I have to and you’ll never see the light of day again.”
That does it.
Those words snap me into focus, and I remember in full blown clarity what it was like to live in a cage and never see the sun.
In that split second as raw fear courses through me, my flight or fight instinct takes over and I notice two things. The first is the door is open.
The next is the desk lamp right beside us.