Page 96 of Westin

White hot rage floods me. I wriggle hard, the terry cloth robe slipping to the floor. I’m in just my slip, nothing underneath.

His hand moves up under my clothes, though not on purpose, and I lose it. Maybe it’s how tense my body is from being shut in the bathroom with Avery, but I’m primed for a touch that isn’t his, and his skin on mine triggers my survival instinct.

I lash out, hitting him with my nails and leaving bright red scratch marks down his face.

He rears back, shocked.

“Jesus, Diane,” he breathes.

My face crumples. “Get away from me,” I beg.

We both hear footsteps in the hall. Westin snaps into action, but he doesn’t take hold of me again. Instead, he takes his belt off and carries me to the chair, using it to lash me down. I’m too stunned to fight when he forces the tie of the terrycloth robe into my mouth and knots it around my neck.

The same way he did in his bed, with the ball gag.

My heart hurts. My body aches.

This reckoning, right here in the same kitchen Thomas beat me in, is the oncoming train. It’s derailed. The impact is shredding my remaining sanity. I don’t know how I can come back from tonight.

I feel like I’m drowning.

Distantly, I see Sovereign walk Thomas and Avery into the kitchen and tie them to the remaining chairs. He and the man with green eyes have their guns out. Their voices sound garbled, like I’m listening through water. Avery is running his mouth. Thomas is quiet. I can hear that much.

They’re not going to make it through tonight.

Which means, when morning comes, I lose everything.

Everything is hazy, but suddenly, I hear words I understand. Sovereign is talking to me, looking at me. I fix my eyes on him, still so angry, I can hardly breathe.

He circles the table and crouches beside me. He’s a lot more frightening up close than I realized—pale eyes cold, lip curled like he tasted blood and he’s starving for more.

He pulls the gag from my mouth.

“Diane,” he says, his voice a soft rumble, “have you ever fucked another man while married to Thomas?”

I don’t know how, but I feel every fiber in Westin’s body go tense. He’s not even touching my chair, but he crackles like a live wire.

“Come on, Diane,” he says, looking up at Thomas. “You can tell Thomas all the dirty things you did. He won’t live long enough for it to matter.”

The room is so quiet, the little sob that escapes me echoes. Thomas shakes, like this pours salt right into his open wound, theone he thinks I gave him, the one that Avery likes to work away at so it’s always oozing blood.

Hurt people hurt people, and Thomas has hurt me deeply. I'd still want him dead if it wasn’t for the farm.

I can’t look at him. My eyes drop.

“No,” Sovereign says, his voice splitting the room. “You look at Thomas and tell him that Westin fucks you so hard, I can hear you scream all the way from the gatehouse.”

My breath catches. This time, I glance over my shoulder, and Westin is staring at Thomas and Avery. His neck is flushed, like he’s having trouble holding himself back. The veins on his forehead stand out.

Thomas loses his shit. “Just shut the fuck up!” he screams.

“I thought you were interested in the topic of infidelity,” Sovereign snaps, rising and circling the table.

My eyes are watering so badly, I have tears etching down my face. My breath comes in short, wheezing gasps. The rope around my body cuts into my breasts.

“Tell me who you paid Jack to kill?” Sovereign orders.

He’s talking to Avery and Thomas, but I don’t know what the fuck he means. All I know is if I don’t get out of these ropes and out of this room, I’m going to die. My chest is so tight, the world spins, my head aches. My vision flickers.

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