Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 101254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“Rita, baby. Go to your den.”
She snaps at him again.
“Rita, den. Now!”
She cocks her head at me, and for a moment I think she’s wondering why I’m not letting her protect me.
“Go, Rita.”
She finally walks back into her den and lies down.
“Fine,” I say to David. “Do what you want to me, but first, at least tell me what Ben did. Why you think he’s going down.”
“How about you ask him about Travis McKee?”
I furrow my brow. “Who the hell is that?”
A grin spreads over David’s face. “He never told you?”
“Aren’t you two in love?” Garrett pokes me in the chest. “Can’t believe he’d keep secrets from a conniving little cunt like you.”
I try not to react from Garret’s physical contact. “Ben would never do anything wrong.”
David takes a step toward me. “Really? He’d never, say, knock the teeth out of a corpse to keep it from being identified?”
My stomach drops to my feet. “You’re lying…”
Garrett shrugs. “To be fair, he did kill the poor fucker before he did that.”
I swallow. “Ben would never—”
“He’s a fucking murderer,” Garrett says. “Like I said, ask him about Travis McKee.”
“For Christ’s sake, who is Travis McKee?”
“The escaped con that your boyfriend dumped in the Boston Bay fifteen years ago. After he stabbed his poor ass to death while orchestrating a failed robbery.” David takes my white panties out of his pocket and holds them to his nose. “Around the same time I was getting these from you,” he says with a snakelike grin.
I grimace at David, but then the gravity of what he said hits me like a ton of bricks, and the last thing I’m thinking about is my communion panties.
Ben?
A killer?
No. No way.
“It’s not true. Ben wouldn’t—”
“Ben would,” David says. “And he did. My brother has proof. But that proof will never see the light of day, as long as you let me do what I want.”
I gulp down the nausea again. My nose has stopped bleeding, and I feel the blood drying and crusting over my chin and neck. I’m sure I look like something out of a horror flick. It no doubt turns this psycho on.
If what they’re saying is the truth—and I have a really awful gut feeling that it is—then I have no choice. I don’t want Ben to go down for this. All I have to do is let David have his way with me, and the man I love will be free from his past.
“Why you want a full-grown woman when you obviously have a thing for little girls is beyond me.”
“Shut up, bitch.” David stalks toward me and punches my jaw.
This pain isn’t like when Garrett broke my nose. This is dull and throbbing, rather than sharp and shattering.
Damn it. No. Just no. He can take what he wants from me, but he’ll have to fight for it.
If he wants my clothes off me, he can rip them off himself. I swallow, cross my arms, and glare at him.
“Oh, she wants to play hard to get, does she?” David runs his spindly fingers down my arm.
I shudder.
He grabs my wrists, forces my body to the ground, and pries them away from my chest. “Lucky for you, I like it when a girl resists. Makes the pursuit all the better.”
I dart my gaze over to Garrett.
“Don’t mind him,” David says. “I agreed to let him watch.”
My stomach flips over on itself.
Garrett’s gaze burns into me as he starts rubbing his crotch. “I always wanted to know what it looked like to see you get fucked, Tessa. I always felt like an actor who never got to watch himself on stage.”
I don’t respond, but I wriggle my wrists in an attempt to free myself from David’s grasp.
“I might need you to help just a little,” David says. “Hold her wrists down so I can unbutton her blouse the rest of the way.”
“Be glad to.” Garrett gets on his knees behind my head and holds my wrists down. I can see his erection tenting his pants.
I swallow down the gag. Puking all over these two will only make it worse.
David undoes a button. “This is a nice blouse, Tessa. Nice fabric, nice color.” He looks into my eyes. “Though I always preferred you in white.”
Oh my God. I can’t believe this demented piece of shit.
I spit in his face.
He closes his eyes in reaction, and in that split second I twist my body to maneuver my feet into the right position and kick him straight in the balls.
He keels over on his side, yelping.
“Crafty little bitch, aren’t you?” Garrett sneers. “But how are you going to take on two of us?”
I look up at him from the floor. From this angle, every feature of his face is overpronounced, bringing out the true ghoulish nature of his soul.
It’s weird, but right now I’m feeling that old Tessa spark burning brighter than it has since this asshole took it from me in the first place.