Page 121 of Captive Souls

Though I knew it was a mistake, I looked at Knox again.

His face was blank.

Completely blank. Not even like it had been when he first took me, devoid of human emotion. This was something else. I couldn’t explain it. It was as if he’d left, the shape of his face changed, and I swore, something inhuman and feral lurked beneath his eyes. His wrath was that deep.

“You’ll forgive me, my darling, if I don’t believe you at face value,” Stone’s voice was deep, warm. “It is partly on account of youwhoringyourself out to the first of my men you encountered.” I had to swallow a whimper of pain when he held me rougher. The grip promised more violence. “I’ll be taking measures to ensure your … loyalty to me.” I forced my limbs to remain where they were when he leaned down to lay his lips on my neck. “I could make you bend over for me, right here, in front of Knox to show him what you’re giving to me,” he whispered., but not quietly enough for Knox and his men not to hear.

My stomach lurched at the threat. Not quite a threat either. He was actually considering it. Weighing his options. If he did order me to do that, it meant I was dead. I understood that if he truly wanted me to be his wife, he wouldn’t expose me that way. He held a fucked-up version of honor. He wouldn’t let his men see me like that.

I didn’t have a plan if he did do that. Other than fighting like hell and hope I won. Hope Knox won.

Stone kept me there, in the purgatory of his indecision for a full minute. I counted the seconds. It was all I could do to keep sane. It took him fifty-seven seconds to act.

Keeping a firm grip on my ribs, he pulled back, his fingers again brushing below my breast. The sound that came out of his throat sounded like a laugh, but it scraped down the sides of my soul.

“I had planned on disposing of you.” Stone tucked a loose curl behind my ear. “Not before tasting what has bewitched the most ruthless of my men.” His eyes flit to Knox for a split secondbefore returning to me. “But you have changed my mind. I’ll have you. Knox, you did me the great favor of disposing those of my men who had knowledge of you fucking her.” A pause, Stone’s gaze never leaving mine. “Well,almostall of them…”

In one swift movement, Stone had removed something from his jacket, two loud pops sending the men at Knox’s side tumbling to the ground with heavy, wet thumps.

There was a ringing in my ears.

I gaped down. To where Stone had shot his own men. In cold blood.

Blood trickled from their heads. Warmth dripping down my cheek told me it coated my skin.

Knox was immobile in front of me. I struggled to do the same, but my knees trembled, and I was glad that I didn’t have much to eat today or it might’ve been all over Elizabeth’s designer shoes.

Suddenly, the room was smaller, shrinking so it squeezed against my ribs harder than Stone’s hand. It was incredibly intimate—and not in a good way—to have the only living men in the room be Stone and Knox.

My savior and my captor.

Stone was still holding me. Armed. His dangerous energy strangled me.

“Now, I’m sure you’re still filled with all sorts of intentions,” Stone addressed Knox. “Revenge being the most pressing of them. Even if my fiancée has made it clear that she finds you … lacking.” He sighed. “I know it’s hard to let go. Bear in mind, if I so much as catch a glimpse of you...”

My breath caught as I felt a warm barrel on my temple. The gun that had just ended two lives.

“I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in my pretty wife’s skull,” Stone explained pleasantly.

He kept the barrel there as my eyes locked with Knox’s, drowning in the waters I’d so willingly jumped into, thinking I could swim.

The gun stayed at my head, my heart hammering in terror. Not for me dying, but for Stone pulling the trigger and having Knox watch me die. He’d never come back from that. Never stop punishing himself.

“Have I made myself clear, Knox?”

Knox looked as if he might grind his teeth to dust, not taking his eyes off me. He was furious. He was also making promises. About coming for me. Saving me. Not out loud. He said it all with his eyes. Even if we both understood that couldn’t happen. Not anymore.

He nodded once, brutally.

“I’ll give you ten seconds to get out of this room,” Stone’s voice was feather soft, gun still at my temple.

Knox used only five of them before he took measured, unhurried steps to the door. When it closed behind him, I got the distinct feeling that I was never going to see him again.

My plan hadn’t been overly complex. Get close enough to Stone to kill him. Simple was good, it couldn’t go wrong. How hard was it to get close to the man who wanted to rape and kill me at best and marry me at worst? Like Lukyan said, Stone was conditioned to underestimate me, and that would be when I’d strike.

I hadn’t accounted for Knox. On Stone killing two of his men in cold blood and then hurriedly having me taken from the room and put into a car, en route to his home.

Which was where I’d ended up. An hour outside New York, on a sprawling estate, grand with vast gardens. It was picturesque, like it had been plucked out of an English countryside. Made of stone with large, stained glass windows and exquisite marble statues in the entryway.

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