by Lana Grayson
Faking my bravery only exhausted me. Fear would kill me before it he did, if not from a strike too hard against my temple, then the asthma would do it for him.
I wasn’t going to live a life cowering from my shadow waiting for a demon to emerge from my own hell. Darius changed the game. It wasn’t just me getting hurt anymore.
Another step toward the bed. I stared at the monster. My hesitation was every mercy he refused his own son.
He’d hurt Reed in an effort to find me. But Reed proved to be as much my brother as Josiah or Mike. It didn’t matter though. How long until Darius’s blade slipped and the steel punctured his heart instead of the scars on his cheek?
How long until Darius blamed Max for my misbehavior and flayed him for my escape?
How long until he learned that it was Nicholas who gave me strength?
I loved Nicholas, but I hated myself for never trusting him. If I had, maybe a knife wouldn’t have trembled between my fingers, clutched white-knuckled in my hand.
I snuck from Nicholas arms, torn between nightmare and hallucination, only to stand before the origin of my every fear.
And I froze.
The spine-rending terror paralyzed me within the shadows of his lair. No surging forward. No retreat.
Just stillness.
Waiting.
Clutching a knife.
My brothers’ screams tore through my mind.
Hours. I endured it for hours. At least it was quick for them.
They died once in a flash and it was done.
I died with them thousands of times.
My heart stopped with theirs. My breathing staggered in their panic. I didn’t share their pain, but that was nothing. I’d suffered enough of Darius Bennett.
He was a demon for forcing me to watch the footage, but he was a fool for not realizing how much it would enrage me.
The knife twisted in my hand.
Darius Bennett slept soundly in his bed.
My brothers slept soundly in the ground.
That injustice would be righted.
“Well, go on then, my dear.”
Darius hadn’t shifted. The leeching darkness of his room blinded us, but his skulking stare tore over my skin. My heart shuddered, twisting from my chest as though I aimed the blade for me instead of Darius.
“I assume you’re here to kill me.” Darius’s voice crackled. “Unless you wish to warm my bed?”
My stomach heaved.
No doubt that’s what he wanted.
But why hadn’t he done it yet? The violent and lust-crazed Darius Bennett fostered a cunning and calmer monster—one who bided his time, punished with a caress, and preferred madness to blood.
He had me alone in his house, helpless against his strength, and he didn’t strike. He didn’t hurt.
He hadn’t touched me.
I didn’t understand. Darius acted as though I wasn’t a threat. He treated me like a child.
Or like he thought I was carrying a child.
The bastard infected my mind. He took pride in how every minute of his torment, of his indifference, silenced like a slap to the mouth.
“You’re a monster,” I whispered. “Do you know how cruel you are?”
“I have my limits,” he said. “I didn’t show the video to your mother.”
“But you could.”
“Why should I? I don’t need to break her.”
I swallowed. The lie thickened my tongue. “You haven’t broken me.”
“Yes, I have.”
“No.” I touched the knife with both hands, if only to reassure myself that the weapon was in my palm and not his words. “Never. I won’t let you.”
“Because you’ll kill me?”
“Yes.”
“Then do it.”
My eyes adjusted to the dim light. Darius slept without a shirt. Greying chest hair curled over his heart. He crossed his arms behind his head. I ignored the bulge between his legs.
“Come, my dear. Climb into bed. Stab me. Hurt me. Kill me.”
Do it.
I silently repeated the words, filling my mind with something other than the constant screaming of my brothers.
Do it.
End it.
Stop him.
Save yourself.
Save them.
Do it.
“Sarah.” He called. “Come now. You disappoint me.”
“I’m glad.”
“I always meant to claim you as my daughter. But this weakness shows me the truth. You are not my blood.”
“I never was.”
Darius sighed. “I had such hopes for my little whore. Fuck your brothers. Endure your breeding with a modicum of grace. Birth us a son.”
“Screw you.”
“I hoped my little girl would be happy, healthy, and fucked until she couldn’t stand under her own power. Isn’t that what every father wants for his daughter?”
“You aren’t my father.”
“And what a time to remember it.”
Hatred and disgust seized my mind. Pure insanity. My brothers’ terrified cries.
The knife trembled in my hand, but I was still strong enough to imbed it in his worthless flesh.
I dove at Darius’s chest, slashing and kicking and cursing. The blade caught him. Tugged. I laughed as it slid within his skin and dragged down, down, down.
He bled.
And I loved it.
But the slice only enraged him. Darius roared. His fist slammed me in the gut.
The knife snapped from my hold.
I fought, but the darkness trapped me as effectively as Darius. I fell against the bed, screaming until the cold bite of the metal pressed into my neck.
Darius straddled me, his laugh a serpent’s hiss.
“You think you can walk into my bedroom in the middle of the night, threaten my life, and not suffer the consequences?” The knife drew blood. “Have I taught you nothing, my dear?”
He didn’t move.
Neither did I.
I fought the cough that might have driven the blade through my neck.
“So why don’t you kill me then?” I stared where his eyes might have been, if the evil polluting his soul hadn’t eroded everything human and left only twin pits of hell. “Do it. Kill me.”
“And ruin the opportunity to breed you like a dog and take your company? No, Ms. Atwood. You’re more useful to me alive.”
“Are you sure?” Rage faked my confidence. “What happens when I seize control of the Bennett Corporation before you get your bastard child?”
The knife stilled. I let the sneer color my voice with hatred.
“Josmik Holdings is mine. It passes to me as soon as the amendment is finalized, and I just had a very productive meeting with my last benefactor.”
Darius’s hand drifted over my chest. He groped and punished, gripping hard against a breast sore with the lash of rope. I ignored the throbbing hardness between his legs.
“It won’t work, my dear. My son and I regained the stock we needed to keep control. You are a wealthier woman because of the trust, but you are of no consequence now.”
“I have a majority.”
“How?”
I savored every word and only wished I might have seen his reaction instead of enduring his rage.
“Your sons gave it to me.”
The slap cracked against my cheek.
The first real emotion I forced from Darius in weeks.
I grinned, tasting blood.
“Nicholas? Max? Reed?” Their names offered me courage. “We made an agreement. They gave me their stock so I might get rid of you.”
“I didn’t know you could make those kinds of deals on your knees.”
“The Bennett Corporation is mine. And my first order of business?” I leaned up, whispering in utter delight. “Stealing your sons. Taking your wealth. And leaving you with absolutely nothing.”
Darius tossed the knife away, but his hands braced my wrists. He pinned me
. Savored how helpless I was beneath him.
He leaned down close, his breath hot and panting against my neck.
I shuddered as he licked the soft skin.
“You are an Atwood, through and through, aren’t you?” He shifted against me, his hardness growing despite the threats I whispered. “Always preoccupied with your own gain, how to take your vengeance, what is best for you.” His hand pulled at my thighs, trying to force them apart. I twisted and fought. “You never stop to think what might benefit the family.”
“How does slicing Reed’s face benefit the family?”
“How does sneaking in my bedroom in the middle of the night with a fertile womb secure our assets?” Darius slapped me again. “You think only of yourself. You’re a selfish, entitled little whore. I don’t know how you ensnared my sons, but it doesn’t matter.”
He gripped the waistband of my pajamas. I shouted, kicking at his arms.
“This ends now. Take my company. Bewitch my sons. Once you are fucked and bred, none of your wealth will matter. Stealing that cunt will be worth all the stock, power, and billions to my name. Do you know why, my dear?”
His hand pressed low, gripping a part of me he so often stole in my nightmares. I stilled.
“Because every torturous second you carry my son, you will suffer. You will bear the destruction of everything that is yours and the creation of everything that is mine.”
I batted his hands away. He hit me again. My breath lost as he punched hard against my belly, where he planned to inject every foul and horrible poison from his body.
“I will ruin you, and I will enjoy every minute of it.”
I screamed as he ripped at my pajamas.
The sudden flood of light stilled us both. Darius roared, curling his fist for a punch. The choked, rasping grunt of his breath stilled his fight.
Nicholas hauled him from the bed, trapping his father in a headlock meant more to break his neck than keep him still.
Max pulled me from the blankets only to toss me into Reed’s waiting arms. He faced his father, but Nicholas held him firm.
It wasn’t Max’s responsibility to protect me.
Now, it was Nicholas’s turn.
“You will not touch her.” Nicholas’s voice tainted with a rage I didn’t recognize. The spiced smoothness twisted, splintering into the dagger sharp threat of glass. “Not now. Not ever again.”
Reed hid my face in his chest. Sweet and naive Reed. He thought I’d be frightened.
I’d eagerly watch Nicholas break his father’s neck and kick his lifeless corpse into his own blood.
“Let me go.” Darius didn’t struggle, as though he didn’t believe the thinly veiled madness trembling Nicholas’s once-eternally still hands. “Release me, son. Now.”
“Don’t you fucking look at her.”
Darius’s choked gasp didn’t beg for his life or plea for mercy. He laughed, again and again, each demonic chuckle slicing my courage. My step-brothers circled me, protecting me from Darius’s touch, and yet, somehow, despite their rescue, my world still tore apart piece by corrupted piece.
“You idiots.” Darius grunted against the arm in his throat. “I told you to fuck her, not indulge her. This was why I wanted her gagged and bound.”
“Don’t give me more of a reason to hurt you,” Nicholas warned. The thick muscles of his arms twitched with untapped strength, straining for the moment to snap both his sanity and his father’s neck.
“She convinced you to betray me?” Darius sneered. “She told you to sell your stock?”
Max scowled at me. “He’s right. You should have been gagged.”
“And you think…what? She’ll return it when she’s done?” Darius cackled. “Christ, sons. Are you that blind? For a minute, I didn’t know if I held Sarah or Mark Atwood against that knife.”
It wasn’t a compliment. My stomach twisted as Darius spoke too reasonably for a man whose life threatened in the curl of his son’s bicep.
“You can’t trust the little slut. I taught you better than this. You know the Atwoods have made it their life goal to destroy us.”
“And you haven’t tried to destroy us?” Nicholas grunted. “Kidnapping? Rape? Selling this secret out to the board? You beat us into submission as children, threatened us as grown men, and forced us into violence to preserve our power. No more.”
“I made you the man you are, Nicholas.”
“You made a monster.”
“And because of it, you have the power to end this feud and protect this family. I told you to fuck and breed Sarah Atwood so that the next generation of her family’s blight would be ours. It would have ended the struggle, secured our future, and earned you a son worthy of our name.”
“That isn’t how I planned to build my empire.”
“This is the only way to seize it!” Darius stared at me. “You either breed the girl or put a bullet in her head—”
Nicholas twisted, silencing his father with a growl. “What if I kill you instead?”
“Then how does my eldest, my heir, receive his precious inheritance?” Darius laughed. “You need me, son. You need me for the company. For the estate. For the money. If my death is the least bit suspicious, our assets are frozen and my sons are given nothing. I would sooner let the company dissolve than let my traitorous son hand it to a little Atwood whore.”
“It’s worth it,” Reed held me tighter. “Kill him. We got enough money.”
Darius growled. “I should have slit your throat.”
Nicholas swore. He slammed Darius into the wall hard enough to crush his nose. Blood poured from his face, but Darius only groaned in aching disappointment. As though he expected more from Nicholas. As though he didn’t even care his life was meant for his son to end.
“Now you have a suspicious death,” Darius spat blood. “Broken noses don’t look like heart attacks.”
“You deserve to die for the hell you’ve put this family through.” Nicholas breathed heavily. He looked to his brothers, speaking through gritted teeth. “But I’m not going to do it.”
“That’s my boy,” Darius grinned. “Let’s hear your master plan.”
“We’re leaving. Tonight. And you won’t stop us.”
Darius’s nose gushed crimson. “I’m in no position to argue.”
“You resign from the Bennett Corporation, effective immediately.”
“Name you in my stead?”
“Yes.”
“And, with me gone, you think your little sister will let the trust dissolve so you can keep your company? I didn’t raise a fool.”
Nicholas didn’t look at me. “And you will not touch Sarah Atwood. You don’t look at her, talk to her, or come near her ever again.”
Darius sighed. “We’re not done with her.”
“Yes, we are.”
“Remember the opportunity that exists between her fucking legs.”
Nicholas seethed, but he didn’t end the life that still threatened us, even pinned to a wall and weakened with spilling blood. “Agree to these terms, and you’ll get a decent buy out. You get to live.”
“How can I trust your word, son?” His gaze seared through Nicholas and aimed for me. “You’ve already lied, betrayed your family, and attempted a hostile takeover.”
“You can either doubt me and die or take your chances and live.”
Reed’s hand tightened over me. Max shifted too, sheltering me from Darius’s twitching lip and resigned sneer. I didn’t hold my breath. Darius Bennett stole it in fear and lost it in the cunning twist of his brow.
I feared him more now that he was struck against the wall. I’d revealed too much. He looked inside my soul and saw the only power I possessed was a frail bond with his sons. I was nothing to him, only a womb to be filled and life to snuff out when he was through.
Nicholas demanded that I submit if I wanted to survive, and I’d pretended as long as I could. But it didn’t protect me. It only exposed a lie I now shared with the man who would
ruin us all.
Darius didn’t yield. He merely lowered his fists.
“Go then, Nicholas,” he said. “Take the whore and watch as she burns the world around you.”
“And the resignation?”
“You’ll hear from me first thing in the morning. That, I promise.”
Nicholas shoved his father away, watching as Darius choked over a freeing breath of air.
“Congratulations, Nicholas, the Bennett Corporation has never had such a judicious leader.”
Darius laughed. It curdled my stomach. Not because he showed no remorse. Not because he held a knife to my throat. Not because he’d threatened and attempted to rape me again.
But because I recognized his false surrender.
Nicholas let his father go.
It was our worst mistake.
17
Sarah
We should have run.
Out of the mansion, out of the city, just escaped and never looked back.
But Nicholas didn’t run. Bennetts never retreated, they simply relocated their battlefield. Worse yet, my step-brothers weren’t afraid. They didn’t think we had to keep moving.
They thought they’d won.
I didn’t feel much like celebrating. I also was a piss-poor example of a trophy of their victory.
I cleaned the blood from my neck, but I didn’t need a scar to remind me that attacking Darius was foolish, careless, and utterly reckless.
Nicholas took my hand as we packed a bag and left the estate. He forced me behind him on his bike in a chilled silence. Reed didn’t look at me. Max grunted when I worried for Hamlet.
But Nicholas kissed my forehead.
Reed tucked his jacket over my shoulders.
Max drove a car instead, just so we could take my dog with us. He even allowed Hamlet to sit up front on the imported leather.
I should have apologized.
We all should have apologized.
But we said nothing. Only ran.
We escaped to Max’s penthouse in San Jose, hardly past the shadow of the estate looming in the mountains. The basement housed a private elevator, and we slipped upstairs to Max’s claimed upper floor. Hamlet bounded down the hall, bouncing at the door as though we weren’t hurt, exhausted, and suffering from the horror of the night. I patted his head, but he was too excited to have us all together again, close and safe.
