Page 48 of Cherry Auction

I don’t wait any longer. I yank the sheet off the bed, wrap it around my body like a toga and calmly walk towards the elevator.

I type in the same code he did, and when the elevatordoor springs open, my mouth drops at finding it empty. For a second, my foot hesitates before stepping inside.

But I’m not that far fucking gone. Yet. I leap inside the next second and slam the button for the ground floor over and over.

“Come on, comeon,” I whisper as the elevator doors take for-fucking-everto close.

Theyfinallyshut and then my belly goes queasy as the elevator begins to lift. Oh shit. I’m actually doing this.

If I don’t manage to escape and he catches me, he’s going to besopissed. There will definitely be punishment involved, and I don’t think it will be anything so nice and lovely as what he’s been doing so far. Even the impact scene. I know he’s been holding back.A lot. Oh god, oh god, what am I doing?

You’re doing what you have to.

Still, I wince, my eyes squeezing shut except for the tiniest slit as the doors open.

I breathe out in shock when I see Domhnall’s not there. It’s just an empty dark hallway.

Ha! I made it upstairs!

Now get on the move, dumbass.

I sprint out of the elevator. It’s dark in the mansion. Only a few dim nightlights plugged in to the wall here and there provide any light at all. Holy shit, did I actually time this right? It’s actually night out?

I don’t take time to celebrate. I just keep running down thehallway where there’s light, my bare feet slapping the cool tile floor as I look for an exit. I was too distracted the night I came in to have paid any attention to how we got to the heart of the house.

I reach a larger room, some sort of den, and think I see the glint of a pair of French doors that lead outside. I don’t care if they aren’t the front door. All I want isoutside.

Except the moment I step inside the room, the light flips on.

I screech and look for Domhnall. I don’t see him, though. All I can see is what was hiding in the darkness.

Dozens of photographs hang from the ceiling.

Some are small but others are blown up huge.

Stunned, I fall to my knees. I should keep running but I’m frozen as I look from one picture to the next.

Each photo depicts Donny as a young man. And beside him… beside him, holy shit, that’sme.

NINETEEN

BROOKE

The pictures…oh my god. It’s Donny and me. Together.Togethertogether.

It’s a younger version of me than the woman I’ve seen in the mirror since I woke up with amnesia. But still, me.

I’m beautiful and blonde and grinning at Donny, just as he is back at me. But not with the sinister grin I’ve seen occasionally break out on his face.

He’s… happy.

In the pictures, I’m happy, too.

I’m usually smiling at the camera, but in every shot, Donny’s gaze is firmly locked on me. The joy crinkling his eyes is because he’s lookingat me.

This is just another trick, I try to tell myself.He’s faked these.

I don’t really believe that, though.