Page 73 of Captive Lies

His brows cinched together. “Backwhere?”

“In that dungeon.” Haunted eyes stared in the mirror. She reached out, tracing the lines of her reflection, but her eyes were unseeing. “He beat it out of me.Orlov.”

Grant’s bodystiffened.

“When Andy was shot, I’d given up, but there was that spark …. some fight left in me. Orlov … he tried to beat it out of me, but it was Stefan who buried it. Seeing Liam brought back that fight, but it died with him, Grant. It’s gone.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I can’t findit.”

How he wanted to take her into his arms but her whole body language right then screamed “handsoff.”

“You’re grieving right now,” he told her. “The pain that monster inflicted on you, we’ll get through it. We’ll get that fight back in you,baby.”

She gave a shake of her head. “No, Grant. You can’t help me.” Her eyes met his in the mirror. “Because around you, I wish I neverexisted.”

Her words sent him reeling with physical pain as if a battering ram was driven into his chest. Her once enthralling hazel eyes stared back at him as lifeless as the dead. They weren’t even sad, there was just nothing in them.Blank.

She was back in that dungeon and he wondered with growing horror and panic if his presence was only making her retreat into those darkmemories.

Still, he had to try and reach her. “Blaire,” he choked hoarsely. “Don’t do this.Please?”

She lowered her eyes and wiped a single tear from the side of hercheek.

“Come back to me, baby,” he triedagain.

“It’s over, Grant,” she said. She smiled but it was full of pain. “It’s been over since you sent meaway.”

Blaire wasn’t in the headspace to see reason, Grant realized then, but, if he let her leave, he wouldn’t have the chance to prove to her that what she was feeling was just a collective effect of what had happened to her. It was unfortunate Grant was the idiot who had started her into her downwardspiral.

“You’re not leaving,” he declared. “If I have to keep you locked in this room, so beit.”

“Then you’re no better than Orlov,” she whispered, eyes blinking indisbelief.

He inwardly flinched at being compared to that son of a bitch, but hope flared seeing a reaction other thanindifference.

“Yes, you’ve made that clear,” he jeered. “I’m one of the people who’ve started you on this self-pityingjourney.”

This time her face blanched. “Self-pitying? LIAM ISDEAD!”

“Yes, so hate me for it.” Grant threw over his shoulder as he exited the bathroom without looking back. He felt Blaire chase after him. When he got to the door, she yanked hisarm.

“You’re a heartless bastard!” she screamed athim.

“So hate me!” he roared. “Hate me,” he repeated, pounding a fist on his chest. “But you’re not fucking leaving, Blaire. You’re going to live with me, you’re going to endure my veryexistence—”

“I’m not sleeping with you,” she cut himoff.

“I’m not fucking you until you beg me,” Grant shot back. “You’re going to New York with me on Tuesday. We’ll spend the next few weeks there. We’re not living apart. Not for a single day, and you will accept that I am it foryou.”

“I want my ownbedroom.”

Grant’s chest rose and fell with difficulty. This woman tested every bit of his patience. She always had. His jaw worked convulsively as he stared at her. It was going to be torture not to have her in his arms while they slept, but it was probably a good thing, given her injuries. The temptation to be inside her was always strong. “Done.”

Her eyes widened in surprise and Grant inwardly smiled. She wasn’t expecting him to agree soquickly.

“Anything else?” he inquired with a quirk of his brow and was pleased to see that old fire in hereyes.

She shook her head and spun away fromhim.

He watched her retreat to the bathroom and heard her put stuff back on thecounter.

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