“It’s like you said … you’re pretty to look at,” she retorted. “Doesn’t mean I want you to touch me.”

  “This isn’t about what you want, princess.” He had to admit he liked her feistiness. He removed his hand from her stomach, but he could have sworn he saw a flicker of disappointment when he did so. “This is about what I want!”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “I want you to bleed,” he began, watching as her face once again contorted in fear, “I want you to hurt,” he continued as more tears stained her once again pale cheeks, “and most of all, I want Carter to see every moment of it.”

  “Louis?” His name came out as a whisper on her lips, but after she had said it, all traces of fear were wiped away, replaced by sheer disgust and hatred. And then she spat in his face.

  He wrapped his hand around her throat, but she continued to stare at him with disgust instead of fear.

  “Do that again, and your boyfriend won’t get you back in one piece.”

  He removed his hand from her throat, wiped the spit from his face, and turned from her without a second glance. It was time to go check in with Stephen anyway. They had about forty-five minutes before the next video and things were going to get rougher for Miss Renard. He turned off the light again on his way up, plunging her back into darkness. He knew all too well how someone’s own thoughts could be an enemy.

  Chapter Four

  It all made sense now. Two years and still she could not shake Louis. He may not have been the one to take her, but she was being used for ransom it seemed. She wondered if Shadow could be a rival drug lord and somehow learned of Louis’s obsession for her. Payback, he had said. He wanted to use her, hurt her, make her bleed, as he had put it, and then after all of that, if she made it through alive, he was just going to hand her over. Louis would never let her go then. He’d convince himself she needed his protection, satisfying his pride, and she’d never be free of him. Maybe she’d be better off if Shadow ended up killing her after all.

  And damn her Shadow for being right. Her body had responded to him from the moment he touched her. What’s wrong with me? She felt a tightening in her belly from his touch, a touch so gentle and in complete contrast to his harshly spoken words and knife wielding ways.

  The worst part of all of this was that she had no one to blame but herself. Out of pettiness she allowed Louis to pursue her, knowing full well that he had been heavily involved with something illegal. She just hadn’t known how high up in the ranks he placed or that after a few months of being charming, he’d turn into a possessive control freak with an unhealthy obsession for her. He had hit her when she misbehaved, meaning when she had threatened to leave him. He had used up his last straw when he bent her over a table, hiked up her skirt, ripped of her panties, and forcibly took her in front of some of his men. All in the name of discipline, he had said.

  She got help. She got out. Shadow, the bastard, had just dragged her back in.

  Emily heard footsteps coming down the stairs. The other one, Cal, had let slip that they were going to be making a video every hour, so she deduced that roughly an hour must have passed. She immediately squinted her eyes when Shadow turned on the light and braced herself for another round of his sick game.

  Emily did not have to wait too long to find out what would happen next. Wordlessly, he set up the small digital camera, like the other one had done, and came to sit beside her on the bed again. Her only consolation was that the short, strung-out-looking one with greasy hair and fish breath wasn’t there with him this time. She still felt his cold slimy fingers inside of her anatomy and remembered tasting bile when he first shoved them inside of her.

  “Let’s test my theory, shall we?” Shadow asked cruelly. Once again, with only a feather light touch, he trailed his fingertips up and down her exposed flesh. Involuntarily, her hips lifted off the bed to receive more of his touch. She shivered and he laughed smugly.

  His hands roamed further down until they reached the waistband of her dark blue slacks. He toyed with her, slipping his fingers inside her pants to just the very tip of her pubic hair and then back up, until finally, on his next pass, he spread her pussy lips with his ring and index finger and shoved his middle finger inside her core. He gave her another smug smile. “You’re very wet, princess.”

  She was. She could sense it and she felt ashamed.

  As if her Shadow became aware of her shame, his smile fell away and he removed his fingers and stopped touching her completely. He looked angry. He got up wordlessly and left the room again, taking the camera with him.

  The next time he came downstairs, he resumed her pleasurable torture, and the next, and the next, each time playing her body more boldly and bringing her to the brink before leaving her unsatisfied. He massaged her bra-clad breasts in turn while his other hand flitted around her pussy, picking up quickly on all of her sweet spots. Two fingers massaged the front wall while his thumb drew small circles around her clit. His movements were masterful, relentless, like a good lover about to deliver an earth-shattering orgasm to his woman. It seemed he could sense when she was just moments away from achieving ecstasy despite Emily trying to stubbornly hold back and she would have come hard for him had he not immediately ceased his actions. After giving her a few minutes to cool off, he resumed the same torment. Over and over, impossibly bringing her to the brink each time, and then stopping right before she could climax.

  “Stop it!” she cried out. “Please just stop it.” The last plea was only a whisper, followed by more tears and whimpering. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure if she was begging him to stop touching her, or to finally let her come.

  Despite her outburst, Shadow, however, seemed less angry … more satisfied with what he had caught on camera this time she assumed. She had remained obstinate, giving no emotion away the last few rounds, so her breakdown would no doubt entice Louis to come rescue her.

  Shadow took the camera and left the room again wordlessly. This time he left the light on for her. Whether by accident or on purpose, she could not be certain, though she concluded that he never did anything by accident. He had given her a small reward.

  She finally took in her surroundings. It looked like a small studio apartment in a basement, minus a kitchen and it definitely had a hint of a feminine touch, particularly the design of the bed. She lay on a queen-sized bed with a metal head and foot board with some flowery design. The bedding was a dark plum with slightly lighter stripes going across it. To the left of her, she saw a small brown sofa and coffee table facing an entertainment unit with a large flat-screen television. A few nick knacks, books, and DVDs were haphazardly placed on it. She also noticed a video game console on the floor.

  Emily wondered at which of the men, if either of them, had lived there and she couldn’t help the sudden flash of jealousy that overtook her when the image of her Shadow shacking up with some woman entered her mind. She quashed that thought immediately. Is there no end to my insanity?

  Another hour must have passed. The now familiar sound of Shadow’s footsteps came barreling down the stairs. Oh shit! He was fuming this time. She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that this wasn’t going to be like the last few times.

  “He wants to fucking test me!” Shadow roared. “No more fucking games.”

  He set the camera up quickly. When he came over to the bed, he didn’t sit this time. Instead, he loosened the bindings around her wrists, placed his large hand at the nape of her neck and lifted her into an almost seated position. He held the knife at her throat and pushed the tip in a little further than the last time, causing her to cry out in pain.

  “Please, please.”

  “Please what, princess? Suddenly you’re not a fan of knives?”

  She didn’t understand. “I don’t … this is between you and Louis … I have nothing—” She cried out louder as he pushed the tip even further. It may have still only been a superficial wound, but it fucking hurt. She felt her blood trickling down her neck to her chest.

  He shoved her down hard on the mattress and tightened her bindings. “The next time I leave scars.”

  He left the room, plunging her back into darkness, his threat lingering in her ears.

  Chapter Five

  The next time I leave scars. She changed her mind. He was as beautiful as he was cruel. He wanted payback for something, that part he made clear, but he wanted to hurt her too. And he got angry at himself whenever he showed signs of remorse about it. Why did he hate her so much? She may have partially gotten herself into this mess by being completely naïve and stupid, but whatever Louis had been guilty of doing to Shadow, she was innocent of.

  “Oh God,” she whispered when she heard Shadow’s footsteps again. She braced herself for more pain.

  “Time to go, princess.”

  Again, she felt confused. “Go?” He was letting her go?

  He quickly undid the knots on her ankles and then freed her from the headboard, pulling her up to a seated position. The buttons of her shirt were haphazardly scattered around the room, making Emily wonder if her Shadow would take her out of there looking like that. Surprisingly, he undid the bindings around her wrists long enough to put on her coat. He even zipped it up before tying her wrists again, this time with her hands in front of her.

  “Your boyfriend it seems has wised up. I am taking you back to him, only a little bit worse for wear, which is far better than you deserve.”

  “No!” she yelled in his face. Better than she deserved? “You cruel son of a bitch! What the fuck did I ever do to you?”

  Now he seemed confused and then the anger returned. “That little miss innocent act may work on some, but it sure as fuck doesn’t work on me. Sheila was my sister.”

  “I don’t know your sister. I have nothing to do with—”

  She flinched when it looked as if he was about to backhand her across the face. “I’d shut up now if I were you and count your blessings.”

  “Blessings?” Emily laughed sarcastically. “If you call Louis a blessing, I wonder what you would deem a curse.”

  She only had a few seconds to see confusion mar his features once again before he blindfolded her. And just like he had done before, Shadow threw her over his shoulder and carried her up the stairs and out of the house. This time when he put her in the back seat of what she assumed was the same SUV, he let her sit upright.

  She had lost concept of time yet again. The Shadow commanded Cal to drive without telling him where to go. He also gave some clipped instructions to someone named Nowicki over the phone, none of which she could make sense of. None of it made any difference anyway. Wherever they were taking her, Louis would be at the destination waiting.

  When the car finally pulled to a stop, Emily considered the possibility that her heart might beat out of her chest with how wildly it was thumping. Tears spilled out from underneath her blindfold. Shadow removed it suddenly and looked into her eyes. Wordlessly, he turned from her, opened the car door, and stepped outside, going around to let her out on the other side.

  “Let’s go,” he ordered, his voice not as harsh as it had been in the basement.

  Shadow tugged the ropes on her wrists, urging her out of the car. She complied and he expertly undid the ropes around her writs in a matter of seconds. When he finished, they remained standing a breath away from each other. She looked up at him and whispered, “It would have been kinder if you had just killed me.”

  For the first time since they had arrived, Emily took in their surroundings. She knew exactly where she was, one of Louis’s warehouses in Downtown Brooklyn. He had made her wait in the car several times while they were dating whenever he needed to pop in to conduct some quick business.

  She turned away from Shadow, not being able to stand the sight of his beautiful, cruel face any longer and began to walk toward the building, but he tugged her gently back. She turned to face him. “What? It’s this way isn’t it?”

  “You would rather I killed you than delivered you to your boyfriend?”

  He looked really taken aback by her earlier comment. “He’s not my boyfriend. He’s a drug lord, a thug, and one of the cruelest men I have ever known. Maybe second only to you.”

  “But I saw pictures of you with—”

  Cal stepped out of the car just then, interrupting their conversation. She had seen Cal take a phone call when she and Shadow first stepped out of the car. “They’re waiting. The team is in place.”

  Emily walked forward, but instead of stopping her again, Shadow kept pace beside her. When the three of them stepped inside the large open entryway of the building, only Louis and Fallow awaited them inside. She figured some of Louis’s men were lurking close by—he certainly wasn’t stupid enough to be without backup. Shadow’s team was hidden as well.

  Louis tilted his head to the side and came a little closer. When he stood only a few feet away, he clapped his hands together, threw his head back and laughed, startling Shadow and Cal in the process.

  “It is you,” Louis said after his laughter subsided. “Turning, to Shadow he added, “My apologies, Mr. Beckett. Had I known you had her, I would have made the trade immediately.”

  Then everything came out in a rush.

  “I sent you videos,” Shadow informed blandly.

  At the same time, Emily wondered if Louis had been receiving the videos made of her in the basement, otherwise how could he not have known. Unless … It couldn’t be…

  Meanwhile, Fallow had turned ghostly white. “Boss?” You said you were going to laugh in his face, tell him you didn’t want her … You were going to kill them all?”

  More men started pouring in at Fallow’s revelation, armed and dangerous men belonging to each side.

  “He’s all yours,” Louis announced cheerfully and held out his hand toward Emily. “Come here, my love.”

  She turned to Shadow—though now he at least had a last name, Beckett—and with her eyes pleading, she begged her abductor to become her savior. His confused eyes stared back at her, yet he remained unmoving.

  Fallow pleaded and cursed at the obvious betrayal. Louis’s own men had handed him over to Shadow’s men. He should have known he’d be expendable, right-hand man or not. Everyone was expendable to Louis, maybe save Emily, but then again, she was more possession than person to him. Fallow was forced down on his knees and held there by Shadow’s men. Cal had a gun drawn to the man’s temple. He was going to execute him.

  “Come to me, Emily, or I shall come to you.”

  Emily feared what Louis’s command entailed, worse still, what he would do to her in front of her Shadow if she disobeyed him. The shame she had felt the last time Louis punished her overwhelmed her now. She didn’t want him of all people to see her like that. She turned from her Shadow and walked to Louis as he had ordered. He wrapped her tightly in a hug, his very scent producing even more painful memories.

  When he released her from his suffocating embrace, he maintained a tight hold around her torso. “I will forgive the videos, Mr. Beckett as I am partially to blame for the delayed response. You have reunited me with my love, so today we shall part as friends.”

  She looked at her Shadow one last time as Louis steered her toward the front entrance, armed bodyguards in tow. “Monster.” She had only whispered the word, but by his pained expression, he had heard her loud and clear.

  “Oh, and for the record,” Louis turned his head and spoke directly to Shadow before exiting the warehouse, “I did not order a hit on Mr. Dunne’s brother or your sister, Mr. Beckett. Zeke had a personal vendetta against him and your sister was collateral damage. You have pleased me immensely today, so I’ll even throw in the other one when I find her. I have no tolerance for whores who snitch.”

  “No!” Emily yelled. He simply rolled his eyes at her and escorted her out of the building—the sun had just started to rise—to what she knew would be a far worse fate than the one she had endured for the past ten hours.

  Chapter Six

  Monster. Her one simple whisper echoed loudly in his ears, continued to reverberate through his brain. A whisper which to him became loud and accusing, forcing him to overanalyze the word. He started out fighting monsters, justified his revenge because it would still be the monsters that paid his price. Only he had become one of them in the process. And if he was being honest with himself, he hadn’t felt the slightest bit remorseful until accusing, haunting green eyes had made him examine, doubt, his own actions. Brody was about to stand idly by and watch the execution of an unarmed man. Granted, Fallow murdered Tyler, Cal’s bother, and left Brody’s sister Sheila to bleed to death, but this was not the way to dole out justice. It was cold-blooded murder.

  And Brody realized in that moment what had been nagging at him since he had kidnapped Emily Renard. In his haste for justice he had missed, or had been led to miss, a huge piece of the puzzle. I’ll even throw in the other one. Emily appeared terrified of Carter. She hadn’t looked the part of doting girlfriend in person, not like she did in the photographs Cal had brought him. Doting girlfriends did not wish for death instead of being returned to their boyfriends, in one piece no less. Nothing added up … she did not add up.

  “Wait!” Brody yelled in attempt to halt Fallow’s execution, but it was too late. Cal had pulled the trigger simultaneously.

  Fallow fell to the floor in a pool of blood and all Brody could do was stand there and stare at the dead man. His death did not bring Sheila back, nor did it make her passing any less painful. He grew a conscience way too late it seemed.

  “Emily.” Brody whispered her name while remaining frozen on the spot. How differently her name sounded now on his lips without the hatred he thought he felt for her. “Emily,” he said louder, snapping himself out of his trance.