Page 35 of Breaker

Clyde raises one brow, silently asking me,Why do you think?“He’d have fired me if he could.”

“He can’t fire you. You’re his closest friend.”

“Precisely,” Clyde says, “but his paranoia is through the roof.”

I lean back in my seat, looking back out the large windows. That explains why Rune was getting his own coffee this morning. He’s let his entire staff go. That also explains why I didn’t see any security detail. Rune must be so worried about everyone he’s surrounded himself with that he isn’t sure who to trust. The men he obviously has a history with walked into his club and fucked us.Afterone of the club’s security guards let us all into a VIP lounge. These men know people and it’s obvious they planned this.

Our last night with them flashes through my mind. I rake my hands through my hair, trying to stop the flood of memories. I’ve never in my life felt so possessed. So owned.

So safe.

Looking back on that night we spent with them in the club, I can’t help but think about how Reaper was with Delly. Possessive in almost a cruel, slightly unhinged way. How Viper and Breaker were with us both, so hungry, so possessive.

How Viper kissed and consumed us like he was eating a meal he’d paid a fortune for, one he’s wanted, planned for, craved for years. How Striker barely contained his need as he watched me get fucked. The way he cherished Delly.

How Breaker touched me like he already knew me. Like we’d been lovers for years.

Hindsight is 20-20 and all, but I don’t think they realized just how much they were revealing in those hours we spent with them. Now that I’m sitting alone, away from them, waiting, I wonder how long they watched us.

Delly and I never discussed it, and I think we both avoided the topic because of what it meant, but these men knew us. In ways that men know lovers. How a person obsessed has a deep understanding of every detail about the object of their desire.

And right now, staring at my eggs through a haze of angry tears, I want nothing more than to be possessed by them again.

Maybe we were away too long, and we got caught up in some twisted romantic notion that the men took us because they craved us. It’s possible we got messed up in the head because we were being held prisoner by the men we fucked. And who wouldn’t? They are consuming in every way, taking over every sense. They are sex and sensuality in a dominant male form. Caring and protective. Mysterious and so erotically potent, my cheeks heat just thinking about them.

If we’d not met them that night, Delly and I never would have come together. We’d have not fucked at all if we’d not been taken. Surely we’d not have kissed if it weren’t for that night in the club. We never would have done any of the things we’ve done if it weren’t for those four men who have seriously fucked with my head to the point I don’t know what’s up from down or what’s real.

No. That’s not true. I know what’s real.

Being in my childhood kitchen with Clyde, knowing I am expected to resume my role as Rune’s secret keeper, money launderer, and secret whore, is very real.

And I have a new role.

Wife.

That’s got to be the reason I’d be returned to Rune instead of Delly. And that’s the only reason my implant would be removed. Last night, Rune said having it removed was part of the deal, which can only mean I’m expected to conceive.

The last several years flash through my mind, like a movie. All the dinners, all the parties, every time Rune would redirect Zane away from Delly. The irritated glances at Zane. They weren’t because he feared Zane’s intentions. He knew Delly was safe from him.

He knew because he’d already planned to sell me to the devil.

I didn’t think it was possible, but my heart cracks open a little more.

Reaper, all of them, sent me back because I was promised to someone else.

Part of me fears that’s why they took me. If this was all part of the plan. To make me fall, make promises they never intended to keep. That way, when the time came, they had a bargaining chip, and I wouldn’t put up much of a fight because I truly believed them.

I was theirs, and they’d always come for me.

But here I am, being brought to slaughter like I mean nothing, presented as a whore to be used, as a womb to carry a child, a trophy to place on a shelf. Like I am nothing because they wanted Delly. I was nothing more than a bargaining chip.

I was expendable.

Because I would have to be returned, and Rune knew it. That’s why he never came for us. Everyone knew it. You can’t make this kind of deal between families, then just break it. And that silver-haired man… He knew it too.

That’s why I’m here.

Rune had no choice but to let them keep Delly in exchange for me. I don’t know what’s more fucked up. That he let his blood go, his heir to the kingdom he built, or that he was too scared to lose it all. His money. His power. His control.

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