Page 34 of Savage

The moment the taxi leaves the center of Paris and starts traveling along the quieter streets on the other side of the city to our rental, my stomach twists with anxiety. My chest is tight, and I’m finding it difficult to breathe. My heart thuds against my ribs, the painful rhythm a reminder of what’s coming.

We soon come to a stop outside a pair of enormous gates, and before the driver can press the buzzer, they slide open. I realize Bane has been waiting for me.

The sun is just coming up on the horizon, and I wonder how today would have gone if I hadn’t woken up early and seen his message.

It would have been very different.

But I can’t dwell on that now.

“Here you are,” the driver says in a thick, French accent, and he offers me a smile. Perhaps he thinks he’s dropping me off at a safe place. If only he knew.

“Merci,” I reply despondently.

I wish I could send him back to the house with a note, something to reassure Dante and Rayne. I could tell them I’m okay and they need to move on with their lives without me. I could insist they complete the job we’ve started. But I don’t.

Instead, the door to the taxi is pulled open and a familiar hand is outstretched toward me, waiting for me to take it. When I don’t, Bane lowers his arm and stands back. I exit the vehicle, and those eyes that have burned through me so many times before greet me.

“What do you want from me?” I ask him, trying to put on a false bravado, but I know it won’t last.

Bane doesn’t like my feisty mouth. He never did. Each time I would sass him, I’d pay for it.

“Come,” he says, and turning his back on me, he walks toward the mansion.

For a moment, I watch as the taxi drives away, leaving me alone with the monster who rented me from my father.

I have no choice but to follow Bane now. The house is spectacular from the outside with glittering lights illuminating the front porch. I’m sure the inside must be just as extravagant. When I stayed with him before, he always enjoyed a life of opulence and would ensure everything shone, even if he didn’t have any guests in his home.

Bane is waiting at the entrance to his living room when I enter the house, and I follow him inside. The room is furnished with two white leather sofas, two charcoal colored wingback chairs, and a glass and steel coffee table sitting on a bright red rug.

“Sit.” It’s not a suggestion, it’s an order. I obey because I don’t want him to lose his control. Once he does, I’ll end up bleeding for this man.

“Why did you want to see me?” I ask him once we’re both seated facing each other.

He’s settled in one of the chairs with his left ankle resting on his right knee, and his hands are steepled in front of him.

“Did you think I would let you leave my city without coming to see me?” He tips his head to the side, his gaze burning through me.

“I didn’t know it was your city,” I tell him, trying to fight the urge to cry, to beg for mercy.

It’s as if I’m that young girl again, being admonished for not wanting to stay with him.

Not that I stayed upstairs with him. He lied about the nice room I would have. Instead, I was locked up in his cellar. There were a few times I was permitted to sleep in his room. When I did, it was so he could watch me. I would have to curl up on the carpet like a pet, and he would laugh if I shivered from the cold. There were no blankets or comforters. All I wore was a thin, cotton slip, and sometimes not even that.

“I don’t like my toys running away. Did you really think I wouldn’t make you pay for your betrayal?”

His words cause my stomach to somersault, and the fear I thought I’d been able to hide must be clear on my face because Bane laughs. It’s a deep, throaty chuckle, one that used to send ice racing through my veins.

Even now, as an adult, it still causes me to feel phantom aches and pains throughout my body. Every beating I took and all the nights I endured him using me, sometimes while my father watched, have been etched into my soul. Never to be forgotten.

“I thought you would have replaced me by now,” I say to him.

He’s watching me, and the intensity of his stare is like a poison seeping through my veins.

“Oh, I’ve replaced you ten times over, pet,” he informs me, and I can’t stop the involuntary shudder that racks through me. “But none of them have run from me. Not like you.”

“If you want to kill me, just do it.” I’m not strong enough to fight him mentally and definitely not physically.

I thought I could go head-to-head with Bane and walk away with my mind still intact, but even though it’s been a few years since I ran away, the vulnerable girl inside me is still there. She’s still afraid of the big bad wolf.

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