Page 117 of Cruel Dominion

I took stock of my body, feeling for more than the aching muscles and the pounding in my head. I didn’t think he hurt me or touched me while I was passed out. Whatever he had planned for me, it would happen later.

I shifted, testing the bounds of my constraints. Apart from having my wrists handcuffed in front of me, they were also connected to the radiator by a long chain and padlock. The manacles didn’t feel super tight. Maybe, just maybe, I could squeeze my hands out of them.

Pressing my thumb in as tight as possible against my palm, I tried to force my hand free. For a few minutes, it felt like I was making progress, even if I was taking off a layer of skin. The right manacle was almost to the knuckle of my thumb. I pulled harder, and the metal chain rattled with movement.

Time seemed to stand still as Josh turned to look at me, and I pulled my arms in tight to my body, not letting him see the loose manacle as my heartbeat skittered behind my ribcage.

“Hello, Annie.” His voice sounded eerie and wrong. Not like himself at all. Or had I just forgotten? “You’re awake.”

“Let me go, Josh.”

I tried to put as much authority into my voice as I could, but he just laughed in my face.

He tilted his head to the side, the angle looking unnatural.

“Now why would I do that?”

Shoving to his feet, he shuffled over to me. I noticed again how huge his pupils were and gulped.

“Little Annie Taylor,” he crooned. “You didn’t tell me you had a big fancy family. You should have said. I have one, too.”

Of course. Josh was always bragging about how wealthy his family was. Maybe I could appeal to that.

“I know,” I said, my voice taking on a tone I recognized and hoped I’d never have to use again. A placating tone meant to diffuse him. “Your parents are probably so worried about you. Have you called them since you came after me?”

He blinked, confusion crossing his face. “What?”

I pushed ahead. “I know, it’s been a hard time for you. I—I shouldn’t have left like I did. I know that if we told them—I know they’d pay for rehab, probably somewhere exclusive. Like that place they sent you before that you told me about. The place with the horses. We could call them together.”

I could practically see his mind working as he opened his mouth and closed it, eyes turning down, brows drawing in.

“I—I haven’t…”

Then, the storm cloud crossed his face and I knew I lost him. The switch flicked.

His hands tightened into threatening fists. “You’re so full of shit, Annie.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Josh, look at me. I want what’s best for you. It’s like you said. We’re toxic together. Remember?”

My words were starting to tumble together in a rush and I licked my dry lips, trying to swallow past the razorblades in my throat.

“You said if it weren’t for me you wouldn’t even have started using again. Maybe if you let me go, you can get yourself better.”

In a flash, he crossed the room, his hand shooting forward, fisting the hair in the back of my head to jerk my face close to his. I sobbed as he hit the tender spot where I hit my head against Summer’s tile floor.

Summer! She would’ve noticed I was gone by now, right?

Would she have called Carter? The police?

Maybe they were coming. They had to be coming.

“Shut up!” Josh spat in my face, flecks of saliva scattering over my cheeks. “I know what you’re doing, you stupid whore. You ran away from me, and now you want to escape your punishment. And I’m gonna ruin you, like the dirty slut you are. You chose to be Annie Taylor. You’re the reason I had to treat you like that. I would have treated you better if I knew that you were a Vaughn.”

Tears welled in my eyes. The only value I had was my last name. If people cared about me at all, it was because they wanted my father, not me. Because when I was Annie Taylor, I was just another faceless girl in a sea of others no one would ever miss. A girl without family or many real friends. The perfect girl to isolate and hurt until he got tired of me.

If I disappeared from this hotel room, would anyone really care? Even my photos, the only thing I’d ever done that really mattered, were gone, turned to ash. As far as the world was concerned, I was just the vapid, unworthy heir to what Hudson Vaughn had built.

Carter’s face swam before my eyes. His sharp blue eyes looking right through me, telling me I was his.

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