Page 112 of Fool Me Twice

“We can go,” he said out loud, as if through murk and mud. He glanced over to see Cane eyeing him warily, which was all wrong. All wrong. He rushed over and grabbed Cane’s arm with renewed fervor, even though he was so, so tired. “We have to go.”

“Go where?” Cane asked, looking at him with confusion and worry. “Sweetheart, you look like you can barely stand up.”

“Away! From all of them. My brothers and Nexus and the people who want to hurt you. We can just go. We only need us. Just the two of us. Don’t you see? Just Hart and Cane. That’s all you’ve ever wanted right? I’ll give you everything.”

Cane’s face contorted as Hart spoke, the expression hard to pinpoint through his manic need to explain, to make Cane see what he finally saw.

Cane grasped the back of Hart’s neck and leaned in. Hart felt his breath hitch with want, drowning him in the feeling, so magnified now he’d given in to it.

“Hart…you’re not thinking straight,” he whispered.

Hart dug his nails into Cane’s skin in punishment, the action irresistible. He began to drag them down Cane’s tattooed skin. “We need to be together forever,” he hissed.

Cane drew a pained breath between his teeth but didn’t let go of him or pull away. “Come with me then, and we can be together.”

“You’re a liar! You want to take me back. You all want me to change! There’s nothing wrong with me. It’s you all that can’t see—”

He was cut off by a hard kiss, Cane throwing Hart onto the bed and falling on top of him. Hart groaned, his brain a soup of lust and want and need. He clawed at Cane’s skin again, trying to get him closer, to drag him into the very heart of him and fuse them together. Then he could never leave.

Cane grasped his wrists and pushed them over his head.

Hart made a noise of protest into Cane’s mouth but got shushed as Cane gathered them in one hand.

“Everything’s gonna be fine, sweetheart. I’ve got you,” Cane breathed against his swollen lips.

Hart shivered at the words, gasping for air as Cane attacked his neck next. “Yes, yes. Have me. Have all of me. Use me up until there’s nothing left,” he moaned, not even recognizing his own voice.

Cane shut him up with another harsh kiss, and it took Hart a second to recognize the feeling of scratchy fabric around his wrists growing tighter. He blinked his eyes open, tearing his mouth away from Cane’s to look up.

Rope.

Cane had tied his wrists together. He looked up at Cane and saw the grim determination there.

“LIAR! YOU’RE A LIAR, YOU’RE A LIAR!” he screamed, bucking with his legs and trying to bring his tethered wrists down to hit Cane.

Cane easily controlled the movements, grabbing him and hoisting him over his shoulder with a groan.

“You’ll thank me later, sweetheart,” Cane said with a grunt of pain. “Maybe you’ll even make me my own holiday of appreciation.”

Hart continued to scream as Cane carried him out of the door.

Chapter 24

Hart

He thrashed against the rope around his wrists as Cane buckled him into Fix’s truck. He had Fix’s truck. They were in on this together. Plotting behind his back. Working against him like he was the enemy.

He hissed at Cane, feeling like a cornered animal trying to escape, like one of Wren’s creatures when Cane slammed the door shut in his face. Hart pushed at the door with his bound hands, rattling the handle fruitlessly because the lock stayed firmly in place.

He glared at Cane’s figure as he rounded the truck, turning to him when he sat in the driver’s seat.

“Let me out!” he ordered, kicking the door for emphasis.

“No.” Cane started the truck and let it rumble to life. “I get that you’re pissed—”

“PISSED?” Hart screamed into his face. “You’re taking me against my will. I don’t want to go back. LET ME GO!”

“Settle down,” Cane said, and Hart kicked out again, this time toward Cane, catching him in the hip. “Shit. Hart, calm down!”

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