Page 46 of Dangerous

Torture.

Blaine was torturing that man.

Metal instruments and ropes on the wall spoke their clear language of what this place was. This shed in my backyard. It was a torture chamber.

I had run away from my family to get away from a world where rooms like this were a part of life.

Another whack of metal against flesh rung through the shed and was followed by another, muted whimper.

I don’t know why I had allowed myself to forget what he was.

As open as he had been with me last night, it didn’t change the fact that he was dangerous to the core. There might be more than ruthless violence within him. I’d seen it last night. But this… this was everything I’d feared my whole life, everything I’d fought to escape.

As quietly as I could, I crept back out of the shed and back to the window. It took a bit of climbing, but I made it back into the house.

My stomach roiled, and I made my way to the bathroom to throw up again. I wasn’t sure if it was from the pregnancy or the violence I’d witnessed.

The pregnancy.The baby.

I pressed a hand to my stomach as I curled up next to the toilet while my dry heaves calmed down.

No.I couldn’t bring a baby into this kind of world. I couldn’t doom an innocent life to live through what I had had to.

Which meant… which meant I had to save it. I had to go somewhere where the child growing inside of me would never be subjected to the violence in a family like the Steels.

Sorrow warred with determination as I walked up the stairs to pack the few necessities I could fit in my hand bag. When I was done, I found pen and paper and sat down to write a note.

Whatever else Blaine was, the moment between us last night had been real. And the emotions in my heart that had finally been let out while we made love were real too.

Perhaps it was for the best. If I stayed, I would never be able to get free from this world, because he would be there—pulling me back in. And if I didn’t get out now, I would soon be powerless to resist.

It’s funny how things become so crystal clear when we’re about to lose them. As I climbed back out of the window and found my way over the tall fence surrounding the garden, I knew I was leaving behind my one true chance at love.

But I knew all that mattered now was to protect the innocent life in my womb.

Even if it was from its own father.

Blaine,

I’m so sorry.

I can’t do this. I can’t be your pretend wife—I can’t live a life filled with violence.

I have left London and I will never be back. Please, if you ever felt anything for me, if what we shared last night was real, then don’t come after me.

Let me be free.

Mira.

Twenty-One

Mira

Mira

4 Months Later

The smell of orange blossoms and sea swept over my face as I made my way through the narrow streets of Barcelona’s Casco Viejo. I’d rented a small flat above a butcher shop not far from the café where I worked most days, brewing coffee and serving tables.

---