Page 35 of Hunted Vengeance

But he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t touch me further either. Thank God for that because once was enough to send chills of disgust down my spine. Pressing my lips together, I watch as he stands and walks over to the kitchen.

He’s moving around the cabin, opening the fridge, taking out a bottle of water, and doing all of the things a common person would do in a normal kitchen. But this isn’t a normal situation and nothing about this man is common.

When he twists the cap off the bottle of water, he turns around, and his eyes find mine. He holds my gaze as he takes a big gulp. When he swallows the liquid, he jerks his chin toward the bedroom.

“There is a chain with a collar attached soldered to the headboard,” he announces. “Put that on. You will wear it the entire time you’re here. If you take it off, well, you won’t be able to take it off because the collar has a padlock, and I’ll be locking it.”

I stare at him in silence, unmoving as I do, unsure that I’ve heard him correctly. There is no way he’s just said what he has… is there? He can’t mean what he’s said… can he? There is a moment of silence where I continue to stare at him, my lips parted in shock, awe, whatever the fuck it is.

I don’t know.

But when he takes a step forward, arching a brow, I stand up. Taking a step backward, I think about what would happen if I tried to fight him. If I try to run from him, I know I won’t make it.

He’s about a foot taller than me and has at least a hundred pounds of bulk on me. I don’t know if he’s necessarily muscular and fit, but I don’t want to find out, either. Dipping my chin, I look down at my feet in submission.

The only way I’m going to have a shot at getting out of this alive is if I submit.

So that’s what I do.

I submit to being chained up in a bedroom in the woods and send a silent prayer that Merrick will somehow decide to come and look for me. And if he does, hopefully, it won’t be too late for me.

Chapter Fifteen

MERRICK

“I’ll be backby the wedding,” Boden announces.

He’s leaving against his better judgment, something that he’s said to me more than once. But there is literally no reason for him to stay here with me, not when there is work to be done at home, and there is—plenty. We’re still running a business in North Carolina, even when we take personal time to handle shit like this.

I’m going to owe my partners big fucking time after all of this is said and done. Weeks out of commission after having taken time off to not only marry but then go back and pick up my wife later.

And here the fuck I am again. My personal life is taking control of my work. But instead of sitting around doing absolutely nothing, I decide that I have to do something productive. So I open my computer and check my email.

The entire time, I can’t help but think about Adriano and his bullshit. There’s only one person crazy enough to help me figure this shit out. She will know what is going on in his head because she’s just as unhinged.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: COLETTE STEELE

Lucille,

I need your help. I need you to dig into Adriano Bellucci. Dig into him as you would to financially ruin him. I’ll pay you under the table. This is not for Securus. This is personal. I don’t want anyone to know yet. Keep it on the hush. Whatever you find, save it because there will be a time when Securus will pay you to actually push the button and ruin him from the inside out.

Also, if there’s a way that you can find out just who he associates with and why he would have a meeting with the head of children’s services, that would be great. Boden and I haven’t been able to find much.

Merrick.

I hitSend.

I’m sure that what I’ve done is against some sort of silent code, but Lucille works with us now. She’s a contracted worker, so it’s not like I’m taking any money away from the company when I ask her to do something personal.

Leaning back, I stare at my computer for a moment, wondering what the fuck I’m going to do here for the next couple of weeks. Closing my computer, I stand and gather my shit before I head over to the Bellucci household.

I’m going to make him my main fucking focus until I figure out every little fucking thing there is to figure out about him. I want to know what color he shits in the morning by the end of this before I completely destroy and obliterate him into the goddamn ground.

Then, when he’s a useless pile of bleeding flesh, I’m going to wrap my arm around Colette and laugh in his goddamn fucking face before I spit on him and nail the coffin shut. Because fuck Adriano Bellucci for everything he’s done.

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