Page 28 of Tempting Fate

I can do it again.

“Should I end his futile existence in front of you, angel?” Alex asks as he advances on me. “Would the sight of life leaving his eyes be enough for you to understand how serious I am about you? I love you… once he’s gone, you’ll learn to love me.”

And so it begins…

The verbal warfare that precedes Alex’s sadism.

He prefers to strip me of my mental defences before he comes after me physically.

“Please.” I push up onto my knees. Every movement hurts. Further drains my aching body of energy. Makes my head spin. Tunnels my vision to a pinpoint. Sends tremors down my spine. Even so, I persist, shuffling closer to Alex and grabbing his wrist. “Don’t hurt him. Just let him leave.”

“Leave?”

“Yes. If your men make him believe that I’m not here, he’ll leave.”

Alex shakes free of my grip. “He knows you’re here.”

Hope blooms in my chest, warming me, soothing me. I push it down because it’s dangerous. Alex is too unpredictable. Too confident. Too sure in his pronouncement of Zeke as a “dead man walking” for Hugh and the other men still at the house to not have the upper hand.

“If you let him go, I’ll do anything you want.”

As much as my mind and body rebels, I know that offering my submission is the only way to save Zeke. Deference is my sole bargaining chip. I know what Alex wants from me—what he’s always wanted from me. He craves control. Over me. Over my body. Over the power he thinks being with me will bring.

Over five years ago, I used him for my own childish reasons and it blew up in my face.

I didn’t know then that Alex lives to hunt.

I didn’t know this until after I’d become his prey.

My refusal to be his girlfriend drove him mad. My manipulations goaded his malevolence. My fight fed his obsession. My overconfidence almost cost me my life. The night he snapped and attempted to take what I’d denied him, I stabbed him. Shot him when he still wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I made Alex bleed to avoid the fate I’m now offering to him.

I’m going to give him what he thinks he wants.

Compliance.

I’ll lull him into a false sense of security.

Save Zeke.

Then end this craziness between us once and for all.

Alex bends down to roughly scoop me from the mattress. His jerky movements and harsh handling make me whimper in pain, and he shushes me as he sits in the rocking chair and holds me on his lap. He tries to disguise his rage, pushing my hair off my face as he croons, “You’re nowhere near as smart as I think you are if you believe that I’m going to allow you to set the terms. I’m in charge—he’s going to die and you’re staying with me.”

“Alex, you need to listen?—”

As usual, I get nowhere with him. He doesn’t want to hear what I have to say. His irrational hatred for Zeke is in control, and that never bodes well for me.

Alex has always had zero tolerance for my affection for Zeke.

It was never his right to feel that way since I’d made it clear from the beginning that I wasn’t in the market for a boyfriend. That didn’t stop Alex from making demands anyway… and for my guilt to talk me into cutting him slack that he didn’t deserve.

Because, back when I was seventeen, I did a horrible thing.

I allowed my best friend to talk me into using Alex to make Zeke jealous. It was a stupid plan, a callous offence, a naïve scheme. It was wrong and I shouldn’t have done it. But I wanted the man I fell in love with as a fourteen-year-old to look at me like a woman.

And I thought jealousy was the way to make Zeke see me…

Except I underestimated Alex.

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