Page 115 of Cruel Dominion

Fuck.

He shifted forward and I blurted out the first thing that came into my head, trying to buy time.

Stall him. I needed to stall him.

“How did you get in here?”

Where was my phone? I scanned the bathroom counter. The floor.

Shit, it was still plugged in in the bedroom. Was Carter listening right now? If I screamed, would he hear me? I swallowed hard, watching Josh warily as his lips turned up in a devious smirk, like he’d been very clever.

“Actually, I got in much more easily than I anticipated. Did you know your girlfriend’s downstairs neighbor is into ketamine? Has a nice Prius, too. The trunk isn’t very big, but it’ll work.”

I was going to be sick.

He stepped forward, and I shrank back against the wet tile of the shower to try to keep distance between us.

He cocked his head.

“I’ve been looking for you, you know,” he said in a low tone, reaching out to run a finger down my arm, making me want to gag. “Since you left, actually. You should’ve told me who you were, Annie. Things could’ve been so different for us.”

“They could still be different,” I lied. “You don’t have to do this.”

His eyes narrowed and I noticed how blown his pupils were. Not good. This was not good.

“It’s already done.”

“Y-you need to leave. Summer and her boyfriend are going to be back any second.”

“You think I’m just going to leave? After all the trouble I went through to find you? Your friends in high places might’ve stopped my collection team, but not before they told me exactly where I might find you. Exactly how I might get to you. They were smart guys, Annie. You would’ve liked them.”

His expression darkened and like it always did, Josh’s mood shifted as quickly as the flick of a light switch. I readied my lungs to scream, but the sound was choked off as his hand wrapped around my throat and he pressed me hard against the tile.

I clawed at his hands, the towel dropping as dark spots danced in my vision and I struggled for air. “Josh,” I wheezed. “Josh, stop. Stop. I can’t…I can’t breathe.”

The words were nothing but barely audible wheezes but just as the world started to darken, he released me. I slumped to the wet shower floor, gasping for air, my head spinning.

He threw his head back and laughed, a deep, spine-tingling laugh.

Cruel fingers twisted into my hair, wrenching me up and out of the shower to land on my hands and knees, coughing and spluttering as I continued my fight for air.

Muscle memory kicked in and I crumpled. I survived Josh’s fury before, plenty of times. I knew how. If I folded into a ball, protecting my face and stomach, the pain wouldn’t be so bad. I could go somewhere else in my head—think about Carter, think about our beach—and deal with the pain later.

This won’t be like the other times.

A voice that sounded a lot like Carter’s floated into my head. I already knew Josh was escalating. He’d hired men to find me. To capture me. He wouldn’t settle on just leaving me battered and bruised this time. This was different.

I couldn’t afford to cower.

I had to fight back.

You have to fight back.

Gathering my strength, I shoved to my feet and took a swing at him, putting my whole weight behind my fist. I caught him in the mouth and he let out an animal cry, swaying on his feet as blood bloomed from the side of his mouth.

My knuckles and wrist ached from the impact and a strangled sound came out of me.

Carter. Carter! I had to get to the phone. I needed to scream.

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