Page 34 of Fear Me, Love Me

He steps closer until he’s looming over me. His height and strength always made me feel safe. Excited. Turned on. There’s a threatening aura about him tonight, and I realize how easily he could destroy me without breaking a sweat.

“How dare you run from me,” he seethes.

“I was frightened. I still am.” I take a steadying breath and decide for the first time in my life to ask for what I want.

Demandit.

“I want you to leave me alone. Forever. I don’t want to see you anymore.”

“Vivienne, you’re only making me angrier.”

His brutal expression makes my knees tremble. There’s so much violence in his heart, and he’s going to unleash it all on me. “Tyrant, please just let me go. I need some space to think.”

His hands curl slowly around my elbows, and he jerks me toward him.

“I’ll give you one last chance to come willingly. Don’t forget that I love you, Vivienne. I’ve never loved any woman before. If you throw that back in my face, I’ll be very fucking angry.” He caresses my cheek with the backs of his knuckles and his eyes are narrowed in fury.

One last chance? That sounds ominous. That soundsdeadly.

It might get me killed, but I have to speak the truth. “I’m not real to you. I’m just an obsession.”

Tyrant seizes my upper arms so tightly that I can feel myself bruising. “You’re choosing them over me?”

The ultimate betrayal. Siding with my family over him.

I shake my head. “No, Tyrant. I’m not choosing them. I’m choosing Barlow. He has to stay with his family. He’s innocent in all of this, and I want what’s best for him.”

“They don’t love you,” he snarls. “They despise you.”

I dig my nails into my palms and will myself not to sob. “Iknowthat.”

“Then I don’t understand why you’re being so stubborn, unless you want to suffer.”

“I don’t want to suffer. I just don’t want anyone to die.”

“We can’t always get what we want. Or rather, you can’t. I’m taking what’s mine.”

He glances past my shoulder and nods at someone I can’t see. From behind me, a bag comes down over my head and pulls tight. I’m lifted by strong arms and slung over a shoulder. Tyrant’s shoulder. I can feel his expensive suit beneath my fingers. I’m about to scream when he takes a few steps and pushes me onto a broad leather seat. Someone gets in beside me and the door slams. A moment later, my hands and feet are bound with zip ties. I didn’t even have time to reach inside my sleeve to grab my knife.

I lay sprawled across the leather, the same place where Tyrant held me down and screwed me. I’ve been so stupid, and now it’s too late. I danced with the devil, and now he’s never going to let me go.

“What do you want from me?” I whimper, my voice muffled by the bag.

“You owe me,” he seethes.

“I’ve never taken anything from you. The only thing you ever bought me was one pregnancy test.”

Tyrant laughs as the car moves off, and the sound is cruel and cold. “I bled for you, angel. That’s a bigger debt than money, and I will be repaid in full for every last drop.”

PARTII

THEN

11

Vivienne

Ten months earlier

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