Page 56 of Ruthless

I nodded, my heart jumping in my chest as I thought about my freedom. My gaze flickered to Trevor, but he wasn’t looking at me—and didn’t, even as they exited the room. Had I embarrassed him in front of his club? I had no idea what the rest of them knew when it came to our relationship, but…

It just can’t continue.

I had to keep reminding myself of that, and that’s exactly what I did as I gathered my things… Well, what little I had. The clothes I had been wearing when I was kidnapped were clean, folded and put up in the dresser. I just hadn’t bothered wearing them because the sweats had been much more comfortable. Grabbing them from the dresser, I headed to the bathroom and changed into my jeans.

As I stripped down, I took in the sight of my injuries, which had healed to just ugly marks. More than likely, they would keep fading…

But they would always remind me of this time—ofhim.

I shook it off and pulled on my black camisole, which had holes from the event in the woods. My white blouse still had blood stains, so I tossed it into the bathroom trash and opted to put my sweatshirt back on. I doubted Trevor needed to keep a woman’s medium-sized sweatshirt around…

Well, unless they had more women to kidnap for ransom.

My fingers drummed on the bathroom counter, the thought of another woman making me feel a mixture of things—one of those being…jealousy.How fucked up was that? I grabbed a brush and ran it through my hair before pulling it up in a high ponytail. There was no reason for me to want tostayin this situation.

And there was no fucking reason to want to pursue my kidnapper outside of here.

I was mostly sure that once I got my head cleared and back out in the real world, I would be just fine. I didn’t need him. As I stepped out of the bathroom, I was startled to see Ghost Eyes standing in the middle of the basement, his arms folded across his chest.

“Let’s go,” he instructed, his voice cold. “Time for the kingpin princess to get back to her throne.”

I glared at him. “Back to being an asshole, I see.”

He chuckled, his voice dark. “Only thing I know how to be.”

A sigh slipped from my lips as I glanced over to the stack of books, some I hadn’t ever gotten to. I don’t know why that fact made me sad. I had access to just about any book I could ever want to read outside of the basement.

“You need to watch out for Victor Sanchez,” he said to my silence, pulling my attention away from the literature.

“I always have to watch out for him,” I said in a flat tone, pursing my lips. “It’s nothing new.” That was mostly the truth, considering I still wasn’t totally convinced that Tyson hadn’t been telling the truth about Victor paying him… But then again, maybe he was just out to scare me?

“I don’t trust that your brother has control of him.”

“No one trusts my brother,” I laughed, shaking my head as he took a step toward me. There was something in his hand and took a step back as I recognized it as zip ties. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Just standard protocol, princess,” he grabbed my wrist before I could get any farther away from him. “Don’t want you trying anything.” His touch was warm against my skin, and despite him tightening down the zip ties, all I could feel was him. He tugged me into him, my back against his chest. “We both know you’re walking away from something that you’re going to regret,” he murmured in my ear.

My breath came out shakily, as I shook my head. “No,” I forced out, even though part of me knew he was right. “I don’t need your protection outside of these walls.”

He chuckled, his tone growing sarcastic. “Right, because that’s all this was. You were just using me to protect yourself in here—can’t say I buy that one.” He let go of my arm and stepped away.

I lost my balance, not even realizing that I had been leaning on him. Ignoring the embarrassment, I righted myself and spun around to face him, locking gazes. “I did what I had to do to survive.”

“Oh?” He raised his brow. “You think you’re gonna be a tough girl again? Because last I checked, you fuckingbeggedfor this cock to be deep inside of you, princess, webothknow that.”

I folded my arms across my chest, anger burning in my throat at the fact that he was right. “Stockholm Syndrome,” I shot back at him. “Look it up.”

“Iknowwhat it is,” he growled, clenching his fists at his sides. His eyes had gone dark, boring into mine in a way they hadn’t before. “And you’re gonna fucking regret that you said that to me.”

A bristle of fear replaced the anger, but I didn’t show it. “What’re you gonna do? Become my second psycho stalker?”

“You’re playing with fire, Rachel. You’re gonna wish I was there to protect you when Victor Sanchez comes knocking.”

“I don’tneedyour fucking protection,” I snapped back at him. “The only thing I need protecting from isyou.”

“What if something happens to your brother? Who’s gonna keep that sadistic fuck on his leash? You know the moment he’s loose, he’s coming for you.” His voice was nothing but a straight up warning, but he was just telling me something I already knew.

“I have protection put in place for that,” I said, though my voice lost some of its confidence.

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