Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 129986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
“What’s going on?” Anae asks uncertainly.
“I have to fucking run home real quick. We need to do something with her. There’s a key in a bowl on the counter in the kitchen. I need you to go grab it for me.”
Anae hurries out of the room to do as he says.
Dare exhales with annoyance, cutting a dark look my way. He saunters back over to the bed, his dark eyes roaming my body before finally landing on my face.
I flinch when he leans close, thinking he might hit me, but he just grabs the plastic by my bound hands and rips a small hole in it.
“Stop fucking fighting me,” he says lowly.
My eyes widen.
I’m confused, but he turns away to watch for Anae. She comes back and gives him the key.
“Thanks, baby,” he says to her.
Hearing him call her that rips another hole in the lining of my heart.
“What’s the plan?” she asks him.
“I won’t be gone for long. Twenty minutes or so. When I get back, we’ll finish her off. We’ll do it your way.” He opens the dark closet and slips the key into his pocket, then he grabs her by the throat with his gloved hand, pulling her close like he always does to me right before he kisses me.
The pain is too much to bear. I tell myself to just close my eyes. Don’t watch. There’s no point tormenting myself. But I have to see it. I can’t look away.
She tips her face up just the way I would, the same fondness glinting in her blue eyes.
My bottom lip quivers, tears springing to mine.
He caresses her jaw like he does mine, and I hate myself for not being able to keep quiet as I draw a shuddering breath.
He smiles at her like he doesn’t even hear me crying, and she smiles back.
But then, he lets go without kissing her.
“Come on,” he says, “let’s finish this.”
My stomach twists as Dare walks over and grabs me, dragging me off the bed and helping me stand upright.
“I need you to change the plastic while I’m gone,” he tells her, glancing at the bed. “She must have ripped a hole in it while I was playing with her. Can’t risk getting fluids on the mattress when I fuck her. I’ll take this sheet with me. The one on the couch, too, just to be safe. There’s more in the garage, make sure you cover it all up while I’m gone.”
“Okay,” Anae says.
My heart beats funny, his words bouncing around my head.
The slow realization that… he just lied to her. He ripped that hole himself when she went to grab the key.
I look back at him and catch his gaze.
He holds mine steadily for just a second, but then he covers my mouth like he’s afraid I’ll say something stupid.
My heart starts to pound. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but he didn’t kiss her when he would have kissed me, and he just lied to her…
Is he on my side?
It’s hard to imagine how he could be, but hope has its claws in me now and won’t let go. Dare pushes me into the closet, Anae anxiously right on his heels.
“Why does the closet have a lock on it?” she asks.
“This is the model,” he explains, grabbing me and pushing my legs out from under me, moving me so I’m sitting on the floor with my wrists bound and my legs curled up behind me. “My dad put a lock on it so he could store important paperwork and shit like that here without having to worry about people getting into it when they tour the property.”
“Huh. That’s smart. Good for us,” she says, smiling faintly.
I look up at Dare as he takes a step back. His gaze rakes over me like it is the last time, and a wave of fear washes over me.
“When I get back, we’ll drag her back to the bed. I’m not into this necrophilia bullshit of yours, but you have been pretty accommodating of all mine.” He looks over at her. “How about a compromise?”
“What did you have in mind?” she asks.
“She needs to be alive when I start fucking her or it’s a nonstarter. But maybe when my cock is jammed inside her pussy and I’m close to finishing… I let you strangle her. If she’s dead before I’m done, I’m still gonna finish inside her, so you’ll get your wish.”
“Ooh, I like that,” she says, her eyes lit with excitement. “Will you fuck me after?”
Dare smirks. “On the same bed, next to her body.”
Anae sighs, gazing at him with such adoration, it makes me literally sick. “You really are the best boyfriend ever.”
Chapter forty-one
Aubrey
The closet is dark and quiet.
It’s the first sliver of peace I’ve had all night.
I’m not sure what’s going on. I don’t know if Dare was trying to signal me that he has something up his sleeve, or I’m clinging to clues that were never there because I need so desperately to hold onto something.