Page 30 of Bad Blood

I move out of the magnetic force keeping me rooted to the ground and glare at him.

“What are you going to do? Tell everyone what you saw me do?”

He laughs, cruel and slow, sending shivers tingling down my spine.

When he takes out his phone, presses the button on the home screen, and a video of me starts playing of me lying on the bed and touching myself, I feel like I want to die.

My hand flies up to my mouth and the walls of my insides start to crumble as if someone is using a sledgehammer to attack me from the inside out.

He recorded it. The fucking bastard recorded it.

Not just that but the whole conversation we had too. I can’t even raise the issue with the agency because clients are allowed to record. They’re just not allowed to break the confidentiality of the workers.

But such rules don’t apply to people like ChadVolchkov.

“As it stands, baby girl, I get to do whatever I want,” he taunts.

“How could you be so cruel?” I choke back tears, willing myself not to cry in front of him.

“Cruel is just the beginning of who I am. Cruelty flows through my veins and guides me to do whatever the fuck I want to do.” He comes forward and takes a lock of my hair.

The trepidation that seizes my heart at his touch freezes me in place and I can barely breathe.

“Now just imagine what I could do with this video and all those topless pictures of you I downloaded from the site.”

“You fucking bastard!”

“Shhhhh, remember what I said about being nice to me?”

I need to calm down and think. There’s no point losing my head when I don’t know what his game is.

“Imagine what people would think if they ever found out what you did.” He brushes a wayward strand from my face but keeps his fingers on my cheek. “What would they think of your mother?” His smile brightens, and my eyes widen.

Mom.

This could ruin her.

“After what your father did, too,” he adds in a sing-song voice. “And you… you want to go to college and work withchildren. Imagine how this would look. While you might get into college with the sob story that you needed the money—which I don’t think they’d buy given how filthy rich your mother is—there’s not a child on this planet you’d be allowed to work with if people knew about this.”

My mind freezes along with the rest of my body and my chest tightens like a vice is clamped around it, squeezing it so hard I’ll never be able to breathe again.

My one mistake could take my dreams from me.

How do I stop it?

“One click of a button and the press would have a field day with this.”

“Please, don’t do that.” I’m begging. I’m actually begging him.

I hate the weakness in my voice and the frailty in my soul. Both feel foreign to me because neither is who I am.

“Please? Is that you asking me for a favor?” He blinks rapidly.

“What do you want, Chad? How do I stop you from exposing my filthy secrets to the world? What the fuck do you want?”

His hand slides to my chin and he lifts it slightly so I can’t look away.

“I want you.”

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