Page 52 of Ever Dark

She tilts her head up until our noses almost touch, our lips are close enough to kiss. “First, you think you can steal my land, and now me? All you care about is that poison. And you don’t even own that. So don’t treat me like shit and then expect me to obey your every command.”

This fucking woman is wrecking me. I can’t eat or sleep or even fuck random strangers in bathrooms anymore. And she has the fucking audacity to try and remove herself from any blame?

I tighten my grip around her throat as I press my hips into hers. “I own you. I. Own. Everything. You hear me, Mia? And I’ll decide what I want to do with thethingsI own.” My cock stiffens, tenting my pants. Threatening her is my new fucking foreplay. “I think you love being treated like shit. It’s the only language you know… the only thing that makes you cum.”

Her throat bobs as she attempts to swallow with my hand still around it. “Shut up. You don’t know me. I might be depressed and sleep-deprived,andI may have made some questionable choices in the last few weeks, but that doesn’t give you the right to assume that I have a fetish for your toxicity.”

I want to kiss her so I can taste the ache on her tongue. “There’s a saying, ‘When someone shows you who they are, believe them…’ Ithink I’m only beginning to learn the extensive list of fetishes you have. I eat toxicity for breakfast.” I brush my lips across her cheek and whisper in her ear, “You like it when it hurts because pain is the only thing that lets you know you’re still alive.”

She whimpers as I nuzzle my nose against her temple. “Stay away from me, Draven. Stay away from Harker Mansion. You have no idea the depths of its darkness.”

A sinister memory threatens to resurface, but I push it down and grit my teeth. “This whole town is cursed, Trouble. Every wretched inch of it…I know about your nightmare.”

Her body stiffens as she gazes up at me, her eyes wide and full of fear. “What do you mean?”

Oh, no, you don’t get to act like a brat and then get answers out of me.

I let go of her neck and step back. “Exactly what I said. Now you really need to get home, Mia. I still have to take care of something outside.”

She shakes her head. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what you know.”

I let out a deep sigh, masking my amusement. “Fine. But you’re going to have to watch me murder your new friends first.”

Her gaze remains fixated on my face as I drive. It’s unnerving. I keep my eyes on the road, my jaw clenched, only glancing in the rearview mirror every few feet to make sure Aries and Bones are still following close behind.

“How far are you going to take this?” The venom in her voice falters between the ache.

I light up a cigarette and roll down the window. The icy wind whips through my SUV like a slap in the face. “There is no line with me. You’re going to learn that tonight.”

She huffs and looks away. “You know kidnapping is illegal, right?”

“There are no kids here.This”—I wave my finger in a circle between us—“is what I call consequences.”

She folds her goose-pebbled arms over her chest. “And what about the guys from the bar? They did nothing wrong.”

The audacity astounds me. She still doesn’t get it. “Nothing wrong? I’m guessing you didn’t see the toxin they slipped into those tequila shots, then. I gave them a chance to walk away, and they refused. You’re lucky I showed up when I did. Fuck. I should’ve left you there to learn your lesson.”

She gasps. “What the fuck? How in the hell did you see them slip something into our drinks? You were on the other side of the room.”

I loosen my tie and take a deep breath. “You forget, I drink poison, Mia. I can spot a toxic chemical in liquid from a mile away. You’re welcome.”

I still don’t look in her direction. Her beauty is villainous. I’m already suffocating as it is. I’ll never get the scent of jasmine out of my SUV now. Or the taste of her cherry fucking lip balm off my lips. Fuck. I can see her clenching her thighs together in my periphery, and it’s driving me wild with need. The ache that lives in her body fills the space between us, begging to be satiated.

All I want is to keep my family’s company from falling apart. And the only thing standing in my way is that fucking baneberry. The only one preventing me from having it all is her. So as much as I want to bury my cock inside every single one of her crevices, I can’t. It feels too fucking good.

The best scenario is for her to see us for who we are. Monsters. Villains. Fucking depraved psychos who show no mercy to anyone who crosses us. It’s the quickest way to get her to sign over the deed and run her out of town. The sooner I get this woman out ofEver Graves, the sooner I can get her out of my system. And then I’ll burn every single jasmine bush to the ground.

As I drive through the rusted iron gates, she rests her head against the window, defeated. “The graveyard? How morbidly poetic.”

“They’re going to end up here anyway,” I grumble as I park and kill the engine.

There’s a part of her that still thinks this is a game. That I won’t go through with it. I can see it in her eyes.

“Then what? You drive me home and walk me to my door like a gentleman after a first date?” She snickers.

Oh, poor, little lamb. She really has no idea.

“Something like that.” I exit the vehicle, stalk around to the passenger side, and open her door. She moves to get out, but I box her in. “Don’t you dare scream for them. Or I will do things so unspeakable, it will give you a real reason to scream over.”

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