Page 54 of Breaker

I don’t have much time.

By the time Rune comes home it’s been dark for a while, and my nerves are frayed. When the front door slams shut, my heart shifts into overdrive, pulse pounding in my ears.

As he walks into the room, I clear my throat. Rune stops in the center of his office, blue eyes landing on me, when he sees me sitting in his leather chair behind his desk. He glances over his shoulder nervously, like Clyde’s right behind him, waggingan accusatory finger at him for fucking me so many times in this office.

“What are you doing?” Rune asks features changing from shock to annoyance.

“I’m not marrying Zane,” I say. “I refuse.”

Rune’s jaw pops and now that irritation is anger.

“You really think I’m just going agree to this?” I ask, my heart pounding so hard it feels like my whole body trembles with it. “Or were you planning on forcing me to sign the marriage certificate and hand my assets over to Zane like a good little wife?”

He drops his briefcase on the wingback chair I sat in the other night and steps forward, bracing his hands on the desk as he says, “You’re going to do exactly as I say and you’re going to thank me for protecting you your entire life.”

My laugh makes him stiffen, and some remote part of my brain knows I should be scared, but I’m so sick of being taken advantage of. Being forced to do things I don’t want. I wanted to go to dance school, but no, Rune said I was going to take violin. When I wanted to go off to college in another state, I wasn’t allowed. I was sent to the same school as Delly so he could use us to hide his millions.

Now I’m supposed to marry Zane so he can gain control over my money and the shares of the corporation I inherited from my parents There’s no other reason he’d arrange this marriage. I learned long ago Rune cared about money, sex, and power. And he’s got all three of those from me.

Viper said power is created. Rune’s created his power over me using fear.

Not anymore.

“You’re going to have to find another way to steal my money and my shares, Rune,” I say standing up. “I’m not apuppet. You don’t pull a string, and I move in any and every direction you tell me.”

“Ungrateful brat,” he grates, the anger turning harder. Meaner. Making his handsome face contort cruelly. “I’ve given you everything. I took you in, cared for you. And when it’s time for you to repay me, you refuse?”

“Repay?” Somehow I manage not to scream. “For what Papa? For raising me with my parents money? For threatening lawyers so you can steal portions of my inheritance?”

“That money is mine,” he says voice deadly low. “Your parents—“

“Are traitors and dead,” I snap. When did I become so bold?

“And I took you in and raised you as my own,” he says, tapping a finger down on his desk to emphasize his statement. “I sent you to private schools, hired tutors, you had a fucking good life because of me.”

“As your own?” I sneer. “Do you bend Delly over your desk and fuck her too?”

Rune’s entire body goes so still, as if he turned to stone. “Careful, girl.”

His warning grates across my skin. My stomach lurches and my body goes rigid, waiting. Because I never know what to expect from Rune when he’s angry. He could lash out. He could walk away and save it for later. He could verbally tear me apart. Physically hurt me.

I keep my eyes pinned on his and see the change. My heart skips with fear, but I can’t seem to move. It’s like this every time. He’s trained me to fawn or freeze and right now I’m frozen in place, feet stuck to the ground as I watch Rune slowly walk around the desk and step in next to me. He grips my arm, right over the bandage and squeezes. I yelp in pain, but he slams a hand over my mouth, pulling me close so that his body molds tomine. I feel his dick, growing harder against my thigh, making my already roiling stomach sour with fear. With hatred.

When I jerk sideways, trying to get away from him, he squeezes my arm even harder and I gasp in pain.

He leans in, breathing heavily on my neck. “You’re playing with fire,” he whispers. “Don’t make your Papa teach you a lesson.”

His grasp on my arm releases, but that dangerous gleam doesn’t leave his eyes. Rune’s hand lands on my lower back. The touch feels like a punch even though it’s just a graze of a palm as his hand follows the curve of my ass and snakes lower. Lower still.

Without thinking, I bring my hand up and it lands hard on the side of his head. He must be so stunned that his hand drops and I shove him back, rushing around the desk to put something, anything solid between us as my mind screams, over and over that I’m going to pay.

Stupid girl.

When I’ve rounded the desk I turn to face him, feeling his rage clawing at my back like a tiger. He’s still standing in front of his chair, body rigid with rage, eyes boring holes through me.

He leans forward, propping his knuckles on his desk. “You’re going to marry Zane,” he says coldly.

“So, he can fuck your pretty little girl?” I ask, heart thundering so hard I can barely get the words out. It’s like I’ve tasted freedom, savored being defiant, and now I can’t stop. “I wasn’t aware you were okay with sharing.”

---