I dropped to my knees and sobbed. Yet I didn’t weep for freedom, or for courage. I didn’t cry for Anderson, or for Dave, or Trudy. I cried for me, for what I knew I was going to have to confess to if I was to ever breathe fresh air again.
For twenty years I had buried so much of me in the past that I knew dragging that part of me into the present would be more painful than anything Anderson, or James, or the motherfucker who was trying to kill me could accomplish. My own soul and the truth of what lived in it would be the very thing that tore me apart from the inside out.
HESITANTLY I TOOK THE BOTTLE of water and sandwich from Anderson. He watched me closely when I ripped the film from the cheese sandwich and scoffed it down like my life depended on the plain, flavourless product.
“You do know that my workplace and the police will be looking for me?” I told him around a large mouthful.
Still observing my eating, he frowned. “I doubt it. You forget someone is after you. They will most likely believe he’s at fault. Also, they know nothing about me.”
Musing over his words I sighed when I realised he was right. I hadn’t told them about Anderson and I doubted if anyone had seen him come and go.
“I still don’t understand why you’re doing this.”
He sank into a chair that had appeared that morning when I’d woken. I had the strangest feeling that Anderson had been sitting in it all night, watching me sleep. “You don’t need to understand.”
Anger rippled and I glared at him. “So what are we going to do? Talk?”
He nodded. “Amongst other things, yes, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
“Well surely we could have done that in the comfort of my own home. There’s no need to lock me up just to talk!”
Leaning back into his chair he crossed his arms over his wide chest, the action pulling the soft fabric of his grey t-shirt flat to his skin. “Trust is a gift that comes from loyalty, Kloe.”
I stared at him, his stupid words making the anger simmering in my gut begin to bubble.
“And so far, you haven’t given me anything remotely resembling loyalty,” he added with that smug smirk of his.
“What the…?” He aggravated me so much that I was struggling to form words. “There hasn’t been enough time spent together to gain any sort of loyalty or trust with one another.”
He grinned widely. “Hence…” he opened his hands, gesturing to our surroundings and his imprisonment.
“You can’t do this,” I repeated, lost for any other words.
“And yet here we are.”
The arrogant fuck!
Taking a huge gulp of the cool water I regarded him over the rim of the bottle. “So you want to talk, then talk,” I snapped after swallowing.
“I said amongst other things.”
I paused when I caught the hint of amusement in his tone, his cool eyes studying me for a reaction. “What other things?”
“I told you that you would learn all about me in the coming months. And you will.” He stood up and turned to face the rack of whips and floggers lined up on the wall. Reaching for a crop, he took it from the hook and slid it through his fingers. A faint shiver tore through his body when he turned back to look at me and I moved back on the bed, burying my back into the bricks as far as I could possibly go.
“Tell me about your ex-husband, Kloe.”
My bones creaked with fear and I blinked in confusion. “What does he have to do with this?”
“Nothing… yet.”
“There’s nothing to tell. Ben was always good to me.” Images of James flashed through my mind and my lungs constricted with worry. “You don’t need to hurt him.”
“Yet he was fucking his secretary behind your back.”
I shook my head hard. “We all make mistakes. He doesn’t deserve…”
“Deserve?” he probed, urging me to finish my sentence. “Deserve what, Kloe?”
Licking my lips, I swallowed hard. “What you did to James.”
“You think I did that to James because he hurt you?”
Frowning, I stared up at him when he came closer and peered down at me, the hardness in his eyes making me recoil further. “Didn’t you?”
Pursing his lips, he chuckled. “I’ll let you figure that one out for yourself.”
Another blaze of anger scorched my belly and I blew out an exasperated breath. He was impossible. The stark contrast in him from who he had been when he’d been in my care four years ago to now was astounding, like Jekyll and Hyde, two different people in the same body. In fact, even his body was different, much the same as his temperament. Harder, firmer and a heck of a lot more intimidating. The spreading out of his physique had made room for another personality to take root inside him and it wasn’t a charming persona. Far from it.
A thought filtered in and I reared back a little. “How did you know about Ben’s affair?”
Anderson lowered onto the bed beside me. The scent of him washed over me and I turned my face away when the memory of the closeness we had once shared mocked the situation I now found myself in.
“There’s a lot about you that I know, Kloe Grant.” His lips twisted and he leaned into me, the cruel, cold sneer making me catch a breath. “Or would that be Samantha Rowan?” he taunted with a low whisper.
I scrambled back, the beat of my heart fighting with the force of the shock and turning my blood to ice. He surveyed the fear on my face with a curious stare, meticulously watching the blood drain from my face.
His sad smile came with the softest touch of his hand on my face. I swear he could feel the ice racing through me, chilling his skin through the touch. “It seems we have so much more in common than I initially thought.”
“We have nothing in common!”
Dropping his hand from my face he sighed and nodded. “Ahh, yes. I didn’t have the luxury of relocation and a change of name. Plus,” he continued with another deep sigh, “I wasn’t lucky enough to be saved after only two years.”
“Lucky?” I scoffed. “You think I was lucky?”
“Well, let’s face it. Your step-father was just as cruel and evil as the Dawsons, but after such a short amount of time, rehabilitation was easy.”
My teeth cracked with the strength with which I clenched my jaw together. I wouldn’t consider myself lucky, far from it. “You have no idea, Anderson. So don’t pretend to understand what I went through.” I glared at him, at the humour staring back at me. He was exasperating but I knew I was only playing up to the game he was forcing on me.
Instead of giving him what he was after I inhaled slowly and smiled sweetly. “I thought we were going to focus on you before it was my turn?”
His lips twitched and then a huge grin transformed his usual stern features. Something inside my chest shifted at the sight of it but I pushed it away and made sure to concentrate on the cruelty that ran through his blood.
“You’re correct, of course. We can save your sins for another time.”
My sins?
“How gracious of you.”
He laughed harder, his eyes sparkling with amusement. Abruptly, he stood up, the sudden action leaving me reeling. But no sooner had I caught my breath than it was stolen from me. Anderson crushed his lips to mine, his kiss hard and punishing. I couldn’t move when surprise blindsided me, shocking my body and rendering me motionless. His hands slid into my hair and his fingers fisted cruelly, the pain that formed in my scalp making me gasp beneath his mouth.