Page 5 of Violent Reign (Violent Kingdom)

That was a mistake, leaving him alive.

And now I’m forced to face my mistake, and his smug fucking smirk.

“Oh, good,” he says, and stands up. There’s no wire keeping him pinned to the wall, and an icy dread grips my stomach. If there was anything left in there I’d hurl it all over the ground.

I want to die.

I want to kill him with my bare hands.

“You’re awake.”

Chapter Three

AVERY

“Stop. Eliza. Come out of there.”

I lie frozen on the bed, not even daring to breathe, not daring to open my eyes. I wish they’d narrate the scene, so at least I’d know for sure what was going on. Now I have to rely on my imagination. My imagination, by the way, is a terrible thing—horrible and twisted. Can you blame me? My body’s been violated enough, and my mind...

Jesus.

“What have you done to this poor girl?”

“I told you not to go in there,” Nathan snaps, every trace of their weird incest talk gone, replaced by cruelty and barely-contained irritation.

“I thought I raised you better than this,” Eliza says sadly. But it’s not real sadness. It’s pretend. Everything is pretend. I’m so fucking confused.

Nathan huffs. “Bold of you to claim you raised me at all.”

Bold of you to claim you raised me at all.What does that mean? Eliza says something low and soft, a wisp of sadness in her voice. I can’t hear the individual words. Whatever she says must lead to Nathan escorting her to the door and seeing her out. He lets out a huge sigh, loud enough for me to hear, and then he stalks back across the apartment toward the bedroom.

I start blinking before he gets there. Best to begin the performance a few moments early so he doesn’t get the idea that I’ve heard everything.

The bedroom door opens.

An easy smile spreads across Nathan’s face. It’s a smile I’ve seen a hundred times—a thousand. It’s the same smile he wears when I tell him a joke in the mirror of my walk-in closet. The same smile he has just for me, always for me. “There you are, sleepy head.”

But it’s not the same smile, is it? Because every other smile has been a lie. Every moment I’ve spent with Nathan has been a cruel joke. Now it’s a real smile. No mask. No pretense. The monster has come out from underneath my bed, and he looks positively fucking delighted in the cold light of day. And those thousand other smiles he’s ever dazzled me with? They’re like a thousand tiny cuts, enough to bleed me dry of every bit of love I ever had for Nathaniel fucking Capulet.

He saunters into the bedroom and leans over the end of the bed, grinning. I lurch off the mattress and kick out—hard. Fast. He’s only tied me up by my wrists and the movement is on instinct, but it connects. I get him in the nose. Nathan’s head snaps back. It should hurt him. It should lay him out.

Nathan tips his head forward again.

Slowly.

Blood pours down his nose and onto his lips, over his perfect white teeth. The smile is even wider now.Oh, God. An enormous shiver of fear almost takes me off the bed. I might not be wearing shoes, but I kicked him with enough force to do some damage. And all it’s done is make him laugh. All it’s done is slip the mask off entirely. Now, before me, stands my villain in all his glory. He darts his tongue out, tasting the blood on his lip, shaking his head as if I’ve just told him a hilarious joke. He’s not hurt by me. He’s positively fucking enthralled.

I seethe inwardly as Nathan lifts a hand to his nose and swipes at the blood pouring down his face. He probably likes the sight of it. He sure liked the sight of mine down in that fucking basement. He shakes his head again, droplets of blood flying onto the duvet and my clothes. Nothing about him suggests that he’s even remotely bothered - and I kicked him in the nose hard enough tobreakit.

“Okay, Aves. Now that you’ve gotten that out of your system, I have to warn you—calm down, or I’ll have to tie you downrealtight.” Then he reaches forward, casually, and rips the duct tape off my mouth with a stinging motion. Goddamn, that hurts. It feels like he’s taken half my lips along with the tape. I run my tongue over them to make sure they’re still at least partially intact.Say something, Avery. Quick.

“I’m already tied down.” He might be a psychopath, he might be beyond fucked up, but Nathan is still my cousin. Familiar, familial anger wars with a deep, crushing fear.Who is this person?

“I’ll have to tie you down more,” he clarifies.

“I heard your mother in here.” My heart leaps up into my throat. “What was she doing in here? And where’s Jennifer?”

He looks up at the ceiling, that terrifying grin disappearing with the mention ofMommy Dearest. “Eliza was being her usual annoying cunt self.”

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