Page 69 of Torment

“Colton, I have an idea.”

He narrowed his eyes. “I’m not going to like it, am I?”

“Probably not. But right now, I think it’s the best goddamn idea I’ve had in a long time.”

He lowered his hand and gave a step back. “I’m afraid to say this, but…I’m listening.”

“Is there a way you can get me out of these chains?”

“No way, Scarlet. I’m sorry. I really wish it didn’t have to be this way, but I can’t set you free.”

“No. I don’t want you to set me free. Well, I do. But I mean, what if you get me out of these chains, I pretend to escape, and run around the backyard to the porch where Rex and Brent are? You can pretend to chase me, and that will put you right in the fucking middle of their little get-together.”

With a veiled expression, Colton stared back at her, either thinking it was a brilliant idea or that she was certifiably insane.

“Are you telling me that if I unchain you, you won’t try to make a run for it? You’ll help me?” He looked skeptical, and she didn’t blame him. After what he did, she had every right to want to fuck him over.

“Although I have every right to want to stab you in the fucking back and drop you in the shit by bolting, I won’t.” She noticed him glance away for just a second before looking back at her. “Colton, I know why you did what you did. In your case, the ends justify the means. I get that. And I’ve thought about what I would have done if I was in your shoes, and I keep getting the same damn answer.”

Colton placed his hands in his pants pockets, pulling his shoulders up. “Yeah, and what’s that?”

“That I would have done the exact same thing. If it had been my sister who got taken, I would have fucked over the pope if it meant getting even one damn step closer to finding her.”

A moment passed where they just stared at each other. Everything between them felt heavy, laden with a lot of questions and doubts. But he didn’t have another choice. If he wanted in on that conversation going down on the porch, he had to trust her.

Colton rubbed the sides of his face. “Okay, fine.” He huffed and pulled out a set of keys from his back pocket.

Scarlet’s eyes widened. “You had the keys the whole damn time?”

He shrugged. “Who do you think put you in those chains?”

“Oh my God, you are such an asshole.” She tried to kick at him when he came closer, but he reared back.

“Hey, you were drugged. Did you really want Brent to have his hands all over you while he tied you up, doing God knows what to your body while you were unconscious?”

Scarlet almost threw up in her mouth. “Good God, no.”

“That’s what I thought.” Colton stepped closer and reached up with the keys in his hands while staring her in the eye. “I know you hate me, Scarlet. And I’m sorry for that. But I’m trying to let this all work out.”

“What do you mean?” She narrowed her eyes. “Colton, what’s going on?”

“Like I said, everything isn’t as it seems.”

She cocked a brow. “Ace?”

She heard the click of the lock and felt the chains loosen around her wrists. Colton kept on looking at her. “I’m not the monster you think I am.”

“I don’t think you’re a monster,” she whispered, and then groaned as she tried to move her stiff arms.

“Easy.” Colton took her elbows and slowly helped her lower her arms. Her shoulders felt like they had been ripped from their sockets, her arms heavy with pins and needles as blood flowed freely through her veins.

He gently placed her wrists on her knees. “I’ll get some water to clean those,” he said, and gestured to the open wounds around her wrists.

Moving her neck from side to side, she loosened her aching muscles. It hurt in places she didn’t even know she had something that could hurt.

Colton returned with another can of water and helped her get off the table. Only when she tried to stand on her own two feet did she realize how weak she really was.

“I got you.” Colton steadied her, and she clutched at the blue shirt he was wearing. With hands protectively wrapped around her shoulders, holding her up, he stared down at her. For the second time since she met him she noticed how soft and calm his eyes looked. Those two swirls of chocolate brown eyes didn’t carry a trace of the hardened pain he had been carrying around inside him. They also didn’t look like the eyes of a monster.

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