Page 110 of Too Late

“Again.”

“I swear. I’ll never leave you.”

FIFTY-FIVE

SLOAN

There was a moment. It was a split second, almost too quick to notice. It was right when Asa looked down on me, begging me to kiss him back. It was a moment of desperation.I took advantage of it.

I tell him what he needs to hear. I touch him like he needs to be touched. I make the noises I’ve trained myself to make for him. I speak the lies to him that I’ve trained myself to speak.

I’ve been pretending to love him for two years.What’s one more day?I’m going to fight Asa with the only weapon stronger than he is.I’m going to fight him with love.

I repeat my words one more time. “I promise I’ll never leave you, Asa.” Those words seem to comfort him, but I don’t want him to get comfortable in this bedroom enough to think he can force himself on me again. I need to distract him with conversation, so I say, “What now?” I stroke his face with fingers I’ve somehow convinced to stop trembling. “How do we get out of this mess? I can’t lose you again.”

He grabs my hand and kisses it. “We get dressed and walk out the front door, Sloan. Simple as that. And then we go somewhere … anywhere. We get far away from here.”

I nod, taking in all that he just said.

Asa is dumb as shit, but somehow, he’s also one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. I’ve always had to try to stay a step ahead of him. This is no different. Every move he makes from here on out is a test. I dissect his words and flip them over in my head.

He knows we can’t go out the front door. He knows about the surveillance. That’s why he came through the window. He’s testing my loyalty.

I shake my head. “Asa, you can’t walk out the front door,” I say, forcing myself to sound worried for him. “Luke has me under surveillance. If whoever is out there sees me with you, they’ll call Luke.”

Asa grins.

It was a test.

He leans forward and kisses me on the forehead. “We’ll go out the window, then.”

“I need to pack first.” I start to get up, but he pulls me back down.

“I’ll pack for you,” he says. “Don’t get off this fucking bed.”

He stands up and looks around the room. I can see the veins in his neck bulging as he notices all of Luke’s things. I try to distract him from his own anger.

“There’s a bag in the top of the closet.” I point toward the closet, and I see his eyes as they scan the distance from the bed to the living room. He walks toward the closet and slams the bedroom door shut as he passes. His way of letting me know that I better not even try to run.

I take in my physical posture on the bed and realize that it looks like I’m poised to jump at any second. I’m not being convincing enough.

I lie back on my pillow and try to look relaxed. He walks out of the closet and scans me, smirking. He likes that I didn’t try to run. He’s letting down his own guard.

“So fucking beautiful, love,” he says, tossing the bag onto the bed. “What do you want me to pack?” He looks around the room. His eyes fall to the dresser—at the picture of me and Luke. I printed it out a week ago and framed it. I can see the roll in Asa’s throat. “Excuse me for a second,” he says, walking toward the bedroom door.

“Where are you going?” I ask, sitting up on the bed.

He opens the door and walks into the living room. “I leftJesus-on-a-sticknear the window. I need Him.”

What in the hell? He’s back before I can process what he said, and he’s holding something in his hand. “Is that a crucifix?”

What in the hell?

He smiles with his nod, and then he brings the crucifix up over his head with both hands, and then straight down again, right on top of the framed picture on the dresser. I flinch with the first blow, but he bashes the cross against the frame, over and over, until it’s in a dozen tiny pieces.

I’mabsolutelyterrified. But I force myself to laugh. I don’t know how. Every part of me wants to scream out in terror right now, but I know that’s the last thing I need to do. I’m playing a part, and that character needs to laugh for Asa, because he needs to know that I have no feelings for that picture frame.

He glances at me and enjoys the smile on my face. He grins from ear to ear, so I point at the nightstand. “There’s one over there, too.”

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