Page 67 of Deviant

Steady and determined and speaking the cold, hard truth.

“Rafe is alive. If you calm down, he’ll stay that way.”

“Where is he? What did you do to him?” My voice was not my own—it was much too panicked. Too on the verge of hysteria.

Zach growled. “I don’t want to hear about him anymore. It’s just you and me now, Lex. Do you understand me?”

I didn’t answer, and he shook me, his fingers unforgiving on my biceps. “I understand.” My mouth spoke the words he wanted to hear, but my mind was blazing ahead, studying every angle, searching the house for an escape route.

Windows in front of me and to the left. The front door behind me, also to the left…if I remembered correctly. Rafe hadn’t just had the cabin rebuilt—he’d gone for a full remodel. A new beginning.

My head swam with disorientation, and I gulped in air, fighting to fill my lungs as reality cinched around my neck. The island was in complete solitude.

Except for Jax.

Hope bloomed inside me until I remembered he and Angel wouldn’t be back for days.

I was on my own.

Panic threatened to take me hostage again, but I had to keep my head. I refused to let Zach unhinge me this time. I wasn’t the girl he remembered—the weak, scared, pathetic plaything he could easily bend.

Only one man could bend me, and this fucker had taken him from me.

Again.

I snuck a peek at Zach from the corner of my eye, expecting to fight the usual feelings of shame that always accompanied his presence. The sense that he was my brother, so I owed him something, because he was family.

All of that was gone. I’d found my real family, and I’d fight to get him back.

Even if the fight ended with Zach dead.

“You won’t get away with this.” Cliché or not, I meant it to the bottom of my soul.

He whirled me around to face him, and like an idiot, he let go of my arms. “I already have. Rafe left here last night willingly.”

“You’re a fucking liar,” I seethed.

“Okay, so he might have been coerced a little.”

Oh God.

That look on his face; the smug tilt of his mouth, the narrow shape of his cold, hazel eyes, the severity of his dark brows. His features were bathed in pure triumph. Undiluted evil. I wanted to shield my eyes from the frightening sight, to find a corner and cower in it until Rafe or Jax found me, but I hardened myself against the thought.

Never again.

Praying my false bravado wouldn’t slip, I returned his bold stare. “What did you do, Zach?”

“What I had to do.”

“What the fuck do you think you’re going to accomplish here? You think because he’s not here to protect me that I’m yours now? Is that it?”

“You are mine.”

“No, I’m not.” I raised my left hand and flashed my wedding ring in his face. “I’m his, and maybe you don’t remember, but I promised to kill you if you ever came back. Do you remember that part, Zach?” Though my voice came out steady and harsh around the edges, on the inside, I was shaking.

“I’d think twice before issuing death threats. Did you know Rafe has a son?”

I swear time seemed to freeze. Zach arched a brow at my reaction; he hadn’t known that I knew about William.

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