Page 125 of Voracious

Archie Sawyer. Which means the woman in his arms must be Bernadette.

I step closer to get a better view, and as if they know I’m looking, the monster sits up, not bothering to hide her nakedness. She glances down at her husband, her mouth moving, but I can’t read her lips. Then she stands, grabs a robe and walks to the door.

The adjacent screen shows her walking down the hallway, then she appears on the screen beside that, knocking on a door and pushing it open.

My stomach drops when the next screen shows her lifting the duvet on someone else’s bed. And as the person turns around to see what’s happening, I gasp.

It’s Base.

What the hell is Base doing there? Kade never mentioned him working for her too.

Lu was right – there was something off about his apparent work in Russia. He was never there with his family, was he? Base left when Kade did.

When he sits up and shakes his head at her, she presses her finger to his lips and pushes him back down, and I can’t stop the way my mouth falls open in shock.

She lets her robe fall, and I cover my gaping mouth as she climbs on top of him and parts her thighs while stroking him through his boxers. A few minutes later, she’s sickeningly moving above him while he covers his face with both hands.

Chris showed me a similar image – her and Kade in bed. She’s cheating on her husband with them both? But he… said no. He shook his head. She’s raping him. That’s non-consensual.

When I turn in revulsion with the back of my hand to my mouth, I don’t even flinch when I find Chris staring at me, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe, arms crossed. “Do you ever listen?”

For a long moment, I try to control my rampant thoughts. I drop my hand to my side. “To you?” I retort. “No.”

He gestures to the screens behind me with his chin. “Kade is on screen twelve. Top-right corner.”

I turn again, and my heart slowly shatters at the sight of Kade lying on his back with Cassie Sawyer in his arms, her head on his chest.

Her blonde hair sprawls over the pillow, her skin perfect – the total opposite of his inked body. I already know she’s flawless, pretty, stunning, and she has Kade.

Jealousy burns in my gut.

“Every night, without fail, they share a bed. Sometimes he’ll go to his own room and the mother joins him, but there hasn’t been a night yet where he hasn’t been inside at least one of them. Kind of sick, if you think about it.”

I keep my gaze on the screen, and I notice Kade’s eyes are open. He’s staring at the ceiling, thinking deeply with the girl hugging into him. He doesn’t seem to be hugging her back though.

Chris keeps talking. “You should know he agreed to marry the daughter. Some sort of deal was made – no idea what it was though.”

I close my eyes, sinking my teeth into my cheek to stop my tears.

If he’s sleeping with the mother and daughter, is he being forced like Base?

I feel ill as I watch Kade. I want to jump through the screen and pull him to me, to tell him that it’s all going to be okay. He won’t need to marry that girl if he doesn’t want to.

“Did you love him?”

I snap my head to Chris. “What?”

“Kade Mitchell. Were you in love with him? Or was it a stupid crush and you accidentally fell pregnant?”

I swallow a building lump, a mixture of hatred and sadness filling me. “Why do you have access to these?”

“Answer my question and I’ll answer yours.”

I roll my eyes. “He was my boyfriend for nearly a year. He was the father of my unborn child, and we had a life ahead of us before you took it away.Of courseI loved him.”

Chris glares at me, his hands curling into fists. “And now? Watching him in this life.” He waves his hand to the screens, to Base and Bernadette, with the added audience of her husband Archie now, then to Kade on the other screen. “Do you still feel the same way?”

“Does it really matter if I still love him or not?”

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