“You bastard,” I spit. “How could you betray Micah?”
“Nothing personal. Everyone wants to climb the ladder of success. Working with the Nexxus was my only way to get a piece of that success.” His face remains passive and his back straight and daunting. “If not for you, I’d have what I want. But you’ll fix that today,Mrs. Delarosa.”
“Do not call her that,” Anton seethes, his voice filling the space between us with venom.
I turn back to face him, my heart pounding in my ears so loudly I can hardly hear my thoughts.
I look from Anton to Johhny, who can hardly look at me. He hasn’t spoken yet. Does he actually feel any shame?
This all makes sense now how Anton got to know about the Nexxus. Everything to do with them started with Johhny.
“You are dead to me,” I scoff, wishing I could kick the life from his miserable body.
“Sorry, sis. I got myself in more trouble.” He holds his gun to the guard’s head with the hammer cocked. “Anton offered me a deal I couldn’t refuse.”
Finally, I look back at Anton, and a shiver rushes down my spine. I need to get out of here. But how?
How the hell do I get out when I’m trapped?
Anton steps into the slice of light spilling from the window. It catches his dark eyes making him look more menacing.“Imagine you knew I’d come back to you, and you disrespected me by getting married.”
“You need to get the hell out of here.”
"Marriage to Micah Delarosa doesn’t look good on you, my dear little bird. But I’ll fix that when we get home."
“I will never go back to you!”
Anton rushes me and answers with a slap to my face that sends me to the floor. I cry out from the pain that shoots across my cheek.
“I’m not fucking going anywhere without you!” He grabs my hair and pulls, making me scream.
“Let me go!”
“Never again. So you can run off and fuck another man? You’re mine, Scarlett.” The demented, fucked-up look on his face tells me he wants to give me a reminder of what I’ve been missing.
The worst part isn't the fear. It's how my body remembers how to become his prey.
The victim.
Thebrokenthing.
As he squeezes my head and pulls my hair, every survival instinct screams at me to make myself small, to submit, to survive. It even drowns out the strength I’ve worked so hard to get back. It’s like the past year of rebuilding never happened and I’m back with Anton again. At his mercy.
"Now, now,little bird," he purrs, reaching out to touch my face. "Let me tell you what you’re going to do." His eyes rake over me, cold and possessive. “Micah has a blueprint in the vault downstairs. You’re going to get it for me.”
Those blueprints must have to do with the chip I stole at the hotel. He wants me to be a thief again. No way. “Fuck you, asshole,” I cough. “What makes you think I’m going to doanything for you?” I may resemble the broken woman he left behind, but I’m not going to steal from my husband.
Anton pulls out his phone and shoves it in my face. On the screen is a picture of my father that shuts me down.
Dad is bound and gagged with blood and bruises all over him. One of Anton’s men is standing beside him with a machine gun held to his head. “You bastard, you have my father!”How?
As soon as the question pops into my mind, I get the answer, and I look over at Johnny. The fucking traitor. He’s how they got to Dad.
Micah has men watching over my father. But Dad is always giving Johnny more chances.
“This is your doing, isn’t it?” Tears run down my cheeks. “You came back to town, and he went to you. But it was a trap.”
“I didn’t mean for it to happen,” Johnny replies.