Page 139 of Wicked Dares
I give her hand a gentle squeeze.
“One day, everything completely fell apart. Including us. I found out he stole all my money and racked up all sorts of debt in my name. I left him when he went to work that day. Aunt Bess begged me to come home. But I stayed in a motel until I could get an apartment. I didn’t want him terrorizing my family. My youngest cousins were ten and fourteen at the time.”
“That was a good call.”
“I’m not so sure. Because… when he came for me, I was all by myself.” She blows out a breath. “A week after I left him, his clients went to the office demanding answers because they’d lost money. Some of them threatened lawsuits. Others wanted theirinvestments returned. Reece snapped. He pulled out a gun and held them hostage. It was on TV. I watched it on TV.”
Jesus Christ.
“What happened after?”
“He locked everyone inside the conference room and kept saying nobody was leaving until they stopped trying to destroy him.” Tears spill slowly down her cheeks now. “He held them there for hours. The police tried to negotiate with him to let the hostages go. He wouldn’t hear any of it. One of the cops got in, trying to rescue the people. And somehow, Reece managed to escape.” Her breathing turns uneven again. “That’s when he came for me.”
My body goes still and tight with the tension churning in my gut.
“I don’t know how he found me, but he did. Police had been looking for him for days, but he gave them the slip and managed to find me. He wasn’t going to let me go. Claimed I was his and he would make me stand by his side.” Her voice shakes harder. “He kept saying everybody abandoned him. Everybody betrayed him. Over his dead body would I become one of them. He hit me when I tried to escape. Hit me so hard I couldn’t move.” Her voice barely exists now. “Then he tied me up and dragged me into his truck, and away we went.”
I feel physically sick listening to this. “Piper.”
She wipes away more tears. “He took me out of the state, to this cabin deep in the woods. We were way over in Oregon. Somewhere isolated. Somewhere nobody would hear me scream.”
Fuck.
“There, he kept me tied up in the basement like an animal so I couldn’t run away.” Tears stream faster down her face now. “It was so crazy. He acted completely normal. Like we were just… living there together.” A broken laugh leaves her. “One minute,he’d tell me he loved me and he couldn’t do without me. The next, he’d be screaming at me because I looked scared of him.”
The room feels ice cold.
“I thought he was going to kill me, Levi,” she admits. “Every day, I thought that was going to be the day he finally snapped and ended me.”
My grip on her hand tightens.
“One night when I wasgood, he set my ropes free. I managed to get out while he was asleep.” Her voice trembles violently now. “I ran through the woods barefoot in the dark. I didn’t even care where I was going.”
My stomach twists. “Is that how you escaped?”
“No. It was like I was trapped in a horror movie. I fell down this hill and twisted my ankle.” She shuts her eyes tightly. “I remember trying to crawl away, but I didn’t get far. He found me and beat me senseless. It was then I knew I wasn’t getting out. But by some miracle, a couple who were lost in the woods came by asking for directions. They heard me in the basement and got the cops. That was how I escaped. Reece had me for three weeks, and if those people hadn’t come by, Lord knows what would have happened to me.”
“Three weeks?” I can barely speak the words.
“Yeah. I still remember hearing the police sirens and helicopters when the cops finally found us. With nowhere left to run, Reece didn’t have a damn leg to stand on. He took a plea deal and got twenty-five years instead of risking life in prison.”
We gaze at each other as I hold her hands. “Baby, I’m so, so sorry.”
It’s no wonder she was so cautious when we first met.
She said she had a bad experience with her ex, but I never imagined it could be this bad.
I could never imagine anyone hurting her.
“You’re with me now. And we will figure this out.”
“If it’s him—and it must be—he wants me, Levi. Me. The last thing he said to me right there in the courtroom with the lawyers, judge, and jury wassoon.”
Rage hurtles through me. I’m about to answer when there’s a knock on the door.
I turn. “Come in.”
It opens, and Dorian walks inside.
