Page 73 of Twisted Empire

When I reached my parking space across the road, I noticed I had a text from Elias. Will you be home soon? The guy is coming to remove my ankle monitor in a few hours.

I messaged back saying I’d be about fifteen minutes. Excitement bubbled up inside me as I headed down the tree-lined streets of New Marwick to the eclectic Victorian-style home Elias and I had moved into after the incident at the Lodge.

Soon, for the first time in two years, both of us would finally be free at the same time.

The files Greer released for us online included information on every single cover-up Tobias had ever engaged in, even those unrelated to Crown and Dagger. That meant everyone was now aware of the terrible car accident Elias was in when he was driving under the influence of drugs, along with the fact that Tobias had paid off the police and the family of the dead man to keep it all under wraps.

Elias knew he’d get in trouble for it, but he didn’t mind. He said he deserved it, because he never should’ve gotten away with it in the first place. He was fined and sentenced to three years in a state prison, but due to the fact he’d helped take down Crown and Dagger and subsequently aided the task force with all their investigations, he’d been put on house arrest instead and had his sentence chopped in half too.

He’d taken it well. Instead of moping and prowling around the house like a caged lion, he’d thrown himself into work and started the charity for victims of violence.

Obviously he couldn’t do everything alone as he couldn’t leave the property, but my friend Willa had helped him out a lot. She’d been deeply affected by Crown and Dagger’s demise, given that her father was a top council member (completely unbeknownst to her and the rest of her family), and she felt a pressing need to help all the women he and his cronies had abused.

When she wasn’t helping with the charity, she was busy finishing her commerce studies at Roden. I was there too. I hadn’t gone straight back after my rescue from the Lodge, because of all the media attention, but after six months I’d finally returned to my old journalism course.

Roden itself had been affected by the scandal due to its historical ties with Crown and Dagger (the fact that the Dean was a council member didn’t help matters, either) and had dropped several places in the college rankings, but it was still a decent school, so I hadn’t wanted to change to another college. Besides, even though I didn’t live there anymore, it still felt like a lot like home to me when I wandered the leafy grounds and admired the hulking gray and brown Gothic buildings.

Pri was back at Roden, too. I saw her nearly every day. My friend Katie had suggested we co-author a book about our experiences with Crown and Dagger and Pri loved the idea, so when we weren’t at home or attending classes, we were usually holed up in our favorite library, running through chapters or new ideas.

Greer was no longer with us on campus, because she dropped out after writing and releasing the viral article. She’d immediately received a job offer from her favorite online magazine, and with her name on the byline of the biggest article to hit the world for decades, she could walk into any other writing job she might want for the rest of her life. So it wasn’t that she was afraid to be at Roden after using the student paper to help us—she simply didn’t want or need the degree anymore.

I pulled up in my pebbled driveway and stepped into the house. “Elias, I’m back!” I called out.

Silence.

“You there?” I poked my head into his home office. It was empty.

Figuring he might’ve gone upstairs to take a shower, I padded up to the second floor and headed down the hall so I could sneak in and join him. The paned window at the end of the hallway had dark gray curtains drawn over it, making the wide space dim, but a candle was burning on an accent table a few feet ahead, throwing slivers of flickering light onto the shadowy floor.

As my footsteps echoed on the floorboards, a realization dawned on me. There were two sets of echoes. Someone was following me down the hall.

Just as I turned to see who it was, a hand clamped over my mouth and a strong arm went around my hips, gripping me so tightly I could barely breathe. “Tatum Marris. I finally got you,” hissed a deep masculine voice.

I let out a muffled moan under my assailant’s hand and shook my head, trying to free myself so I could cry out for help. My hands were clenched in a rigor-mortis like grip as my heart pounded frantically, and I finally managed to wrench my head away and let out a scream.

“Get away from me!” I shrieked.

“No. You left the door unlocked when you left,” came the voice in my ear again. “You practically invited me in, little whore.”

“My… my boyfriend is here. He’ll find you any second,” I said, every inch of me trembling.

A low chuckle. “You’re wrong. We’re all alone in here. Just you and me in the dark,” the man growled. “You’re all mine now, Doll.”

Elias spun me around and pushed me up against the wall. I gasped and hid my smile, struggling like a wildcat as he held me firmly against the wood panels.

Even after everything I’d gone through in the past, my dark fantasies hadn’t changed, and I still liked an element of fear in my love life. The thought of a big strong man grabbing me, commanding me, and owning me made my knees weak and my toes curl. But only if it was Elias. I loved giving up all control to him. Loved letting him treat me like a toy. Submitting to his will was the only way I ever truly felt complete.

I still liked to challenge him and fight him, though. Keep him on his toes. That way he’d punish me for my insubordination, which I not-so-secretly wanted.

I’d always loved his punishments. Last week he made me press my naked body up against the glass of a picture window upstairs while he spanked and fucked me from behind in full view of multiple passersby on the beach below our house, one hand wrapped around my throat. The humiliation of being watched by the gaping strangers turned me on like nothing else, and by the time he was done with me, I was a hot, sopping mess.

“What are you going to do to me?” I asked, eyes wide.

“Only what you deserve,” he said huskily, tearing my long coat and dress off. His eyes narrowed. “I fucking knew it. No bra or panties.”

I shivered under his dark gaze, goosebumps peppering my skin. He shoved his pants down, freeing his erection before grabbing my arms and pinning them above my head on the wall behind me. I moaned as he kissed and bit my neck like a famished man, working me into a gasping frenzy.

Elias drew back a moment later and pulled something from his pocket. A black silk rope. He fastened my hands to the small frame of a light fixture above my head, and then he strode over to the accent table and picked up the candle.

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