Page 43 of Descent
I studied his expression, searching for the truth, because surely it couldn’t be this easy. “Do you really mean that?”
“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t.”
I shook my head. “No, there’s more. Where’s the but, Rafe?”
“I’m not bringing a child into this world with Zach in the cellar. He has to go.”
“So you don’t really want a baby,” I said, gritting my teeth. “You’re only agreeing to get rid of Zach.”
“You’re wrong about the first part, partially right on the second. I love you enough to lay the goddamn world at your feet, Alex. I’ll love our child just as much.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“To make you happy.” He slid his palm along my cheek. “To keep you safe. Zach deserves a prison cell for the rest of his life, but we don’t, and keeping him alive would be the same as imprisoning us.”
I blinked the last of my tears down my cheeks, drenching his hand in the process. “If I get pregnant again, you can have his death, but I want him to know about it first.” Stubborn resolve gathered inside me, and I met his eyes. “I want to conceive this baby in front of him.”
“Are you sure about this?”
“Yes. He doesn’t get it, Rafe, and he needs to get it.”
“What doesn’t he get?”
“That I’m yours.”
“You are mine, and nothing can change that, babe.”
“Then let’s prove it to him.”
23. Something To Prove
Rafe
I felt his eyes on me, shooting daggers from the confines of the prison—Zach’s home for the rest of his life if Alex had her way.
If I didn’t give her the baby she wanted.
Part of me was still bitter over her choice to keep Zach alive, still questioning it. I also questioned what we were about to do down here, but the truth was I’d do anything to make her happy. To help her heal.
As I dragged a set of shackles into the middle of the cellar, I sensed his hatred following my every move. Ignoring the sight of his bruised face, I got to work installing the restraints.
“What the fuck is that for?” Curling his fingers around the bars, Zach watched me with a furrow between his brows.
“Nothing that concerns you.”
His answering laugh echoed through the cellar. “You must love this, having me locked up like a fucking pet.”
“My first choice was to put you in the ground.”
“Then why don’t you just get it over with already?”
I didn’t answer, and that dragged a laugh from him. “She doesn’t want me dead, does she?”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” I returned his smug smile with a lethal glare, infusing every ounce of hatred I felt for the bastard. “She thinks death is too good for you.”
“Keep telling yourself that, but you know the truth as well as I do. There’s a part of her that loves me—that will always love me—and you hate it.”
I hated him for even thinking it. As if Alex could love him. What a ridiculous idea.
No wonder she felt the need to prove to him otherwise, and God, though it was sick and demented and a hundred levels of fucked up, the idea of fucking her brains out while forcing him to watch heated my blood. My dick came to life at the thought of all the things I planned to do to her down here, now that her body had healed.
She’d made a full recovery physically. Now it was time to work on her heart.
Testing the chains, I arched a brow in his direction. “I used to think you had a good head on your shoulders.” I wandered to the bars standing between us, remaining just out of reach. “But you really believe these delusions, don’t you?”
“You’re the one buying into delusions, man.”
I couldn’t hold back a bitter laugh. “She wants to make a baby with me, and she wants you alive long enough to watch it happen.” Another step brought us face-to-face. “And as soon as she gets that positive pregnancy test, she doesn’t care if you live or die.”
“You’re a fucking liar,” he shouted.
“It’s the truth. Even she has a limit, and you reached it when you caused her to miscarry our child.”
We weren’t positive of the actual cause, but she believed it was the shock collar, and she’d never forgive him for it.
Hell, she’d never forgive me.
He scoffed. “I’m glad she lost your fucking spawn.”
Hands clenching at my sides, I fought the temptation to unlock the cell and strangle him to death. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
His eyes widened the slightest bit, but the bastard wiped the alarm from his face as fast as it had appeared. I made my way up the stairs, ignoring Zach’s running commentary, and found Alex in the kitchen where I’d left her.
She was wiping down an already clean counter, keeping herself busy with mindless work. She’d been doing that a lot since I’d plowed through the wall she’d built between us with nothing more than determination and the sting of my belt.
