Chapter 22
An hour. Perfect.
Enough time to ruin Shiloh in ways no one else could, so he could handle whatever fucking evil his father was going to dish out today.
When the door shut behind us, leaving us in a darkened area of smaller empty cells, I smiled. Shiloh was staring apprehensively around us, trying to let his eyes adjust to the dimness. It was colder, and there was a silence here that made my ears ring.
Shiloh was stiff at my side, his cleanshaven jaw clenched, while his baby blue eyes darted between the cells and me.
“Carrington…” His voice was low and tight. “What the fuck is this?”
I didn’t answer, not yet. I just kept walking, looking up to see the skylight blurred by the weight of the constant downpour outside.
The stench of mildew and rust grew stronger the farther we walked. The hollow sound of an empty corridor stretching into darkness that neither of us could actually see. Ronny could have at least left on a damn light for us, considering the benjis I dropped for this.
Shiloh froze when he realized the guard hadn’t followed us in. His polished brows furrowed together. “Where the fuck does this go? What is going on?”
“I dunno,” I shrugged. “Probably some old cell block. I do know the cameras don’t run here anymore. You and I are ghosts for an hour, Baby Boy.”
Ghosts. Exactly what I wanted. Invisibility, to claim what’s fucking mine once and for all.
Shiloh took a half-step back, suspicion flashing across his face. “Why…why are we going down there? Carrington, what the fuck is this?”
I grabbed his wrist before he could retreat, and my grip tightened until his pulse fluttered against my palm. “Keep moving, Sunshine. You don’t want to spoil the surprise, do you?”
He yanked his arm, trying to free himself, his big, beautiful eyes going even wider as he looked at me, then back at the door behind us. “You paid him off, didn’t you? What the fuck for, Care Bear?”
Bingo.
Earlier, while Shiloh was having a full-on panic attack, I pulled Billy Bob Muscle Dick to the side and told him I needed a place for some private time, unseen and unheard.
The meathead had seen enough men barter with their souls to know when to shut up, especially when a grand worth of bills was shoved into his hand.
Easy and transactional. Like others.
I leaned into Shiloh’s ear, close enough he felt the heat of my breath as I whispered in a soft, playful growl. “So eager. Be a good boy for me and keep walking. You’ll find out soon enough.”
Another big ass door was at the end of the rainbow, followed by stairs that led deeper into the dank-smelling mildew of unused cells. I stepped through the door, my hand still wrapped around Shiloh’s, yanking him through with me.
The sound of the ironclad door slamming shut behind us was final, like a judge’s gavel. The air had a sound as we went further down the stairs. The shuffle of our shoes, the crack of old pipes, the draft that must have been from the lake beside the prison.
Everything echoed too loudly. The corridor at the bottom of the stairs was much wider, lined with cells that gaped open like blackened mouths, used once upon a time, and left forgotten.
Shiloh jerked his wrist again, finally tearing free with my permission. He spun to face me, his chest heaving, his bright eyes burning with questions he didn’t want answered.
“Why here?” His voice was sharp, cracking at the edges. “Why the fuck would you bring me here? Now?”
I stepped closer, slow and deliberate. Mirroring that of all the men here. A predator’s stride. And I was as much of a monster as everyone in here.
“Because I’m done letting you hide from me. Done watching you choke on fear every time your father’s shadow crosses your thoughts. Done with letting you pretend you aren’t mine. I intend to fuck you into submission. I’ll bring all that fear and anger to the surface, so you are ready for your Dad.”
Shiloh’s breath caught. A flicker of panic and maybe desire lit his eyes.
He backed up one step.
I followed.
He backed up another step.
Again, I followed, like a cadence we both knew the beat too.
We were in sync from the beginning.
Step after step, I followed him until his shoulders hit cold steel bars. He turned around, his palms flattening against them like maybe he could press through them entirely. His head whipped back toward me as his words broke free.
“Don’t you fucking dare. I’ll—”
But it was too late.
The hunt had already started.
He turned again, his shoulders hitting the bars with a metallic thud, his palms grasping like he thought the steel could save him. His chest rose and fell, but his eyes flashed with something dark and hot. Those baby blues bounced between me and the dark corridor stretching behind me.
“Carrington…” His voice was thin and strained. “What the fuck do you want from me?”
“Everything, Sunshine,” I said, my answer, honest and straightforward. “I want everything from you.”
His throat worked, but his chin tilted stubbornly with a touch of defiance. “You’re out of your fucking mind if you think I’ll let you fuck…”
“Out of my mind?” I stepped closer, one foot then another, making each boot strike the concrete with a heavy echo. “No, I lost that a while ago, Baby Boy. I don’t want any games anymore. No masks. Just you. Raw and fucking powerless as you scream my fucking name.”
His back pressed harder against the bars. “You can’t just—”
“I can.” I cut him off, voice flat, certain. “Because you won’t stop me. You fight me, you yell in my face, and wiggle. But you never fucking stop me. Because you know you want this too. You always have.”
Shiloh shook his head, almost desperate now, as he watched the distance shrink little by little. “This is insane. You bribed a guard, brought me down here for what? To scare me? To—”
“To make you honest. For once.”
His lips parted like I’d slapped him right in the face. “Honest?”
“You walk around acting like you’re fine, like your father hasn’t gutted you from the inside out. You hide behind all that anger and silence. But I see you. I know what you are hiding. I know why you feel like you have to hold on to the light. Why are you so damn afraid to let the darkness in?”
“Shut up.” His voice cracked.
“You’re terrified.”
“I said shut up!” His fists clenched, his knuckles going bone-white as he gripped the bars like a lifeline.
“You’re terrified of him. But you’re more terrified of what it means to want me. Because I remind you of him. I remind you of what you know you are, too. And that’s why you crave me the way I need you. You’re terrified of being your-fucking-self.”
The words landed like a blade. His face twisted. All that rage, denial, and shame tangled. Then he shoved off the bars, slamming into me with a force that rattled my ribcage and made my heart sing.
“Fuck you,” he shouted louder, the sound echoing off the walls while he shoved me harder.
I stumbled back half a step, grinning through the blood pouring down my lips. “Good. That’s it. Show me something real, Sunshine. Let me in. Let me see the darkness. C’mon. You wanted to break me so badly, Baby, well, here I am.”
He pushed me again, and this time I didn’t give ground. My hand shot out, gripping his throat, tight enough to remind him how lethal I was. He had me near the bars now, so I spun our bodies, slamming him against the open cage.
His eyes widened when I leaned down and let my tongue sweep over his busted lip. “Run, Sunshine.”
“What did you fucking say?”
“Run.” My mouth brushed the word across his cheek, a dare now.
“You want to fight me off? Stop me from fucking that tight ass? Then run. This is your final chance to stop me from fucking you. Can you make it, Baby? Or do you want to bend over now? Make this so much sweeter for when I finally make you submit, and watch you break beneath me.”
For a heartbeat, he stayed rooted in place. I could see the war in his eyes, the pride, the fear, and the want. His instincts won. He tore free from my grip and bolted down the dark corridor.
The sound of his sneakers against concrete ricocheted through the silence. The air filled with his ragged breathing and the clang of him clipping bars as he ran from me.
I laughed low in my chest, the sound chasing him. “That’s it, Shiloh. Show me how fast your fear and denials can carry you.”
I followed behind him, my boots pounding, my body thrumming with the thrill. The cells blurred as we tore past them, the shadows deepening, and the stink of rust and mildew thickening with each heavy inhale of my lungs.
He veered left, trying to lose me in a side row, but I knew every heavy footfall he made. My strides swallowed the space between us.
“I found you already, you could keep running,” I called, my voice sharp and deadly. “But you know how this ends. You’ve always known. And that’s why you made it so easy.”
He glanced back once, and that hesitation cost him. I lunged, catching the back of his shirt and dragging him toward the nearest open cell. He kicked the air, twisted his body, and tried to wrench free of my iron grip.
Too bad for you that a predator never lets go of its prey.
His chest hit the bars with a hollow clang. And he was left with no choice but to reach out and grab onto them to steady himself. I was already there, pressing in behind him from the other side of the swinging metal door, pinning him between the sets of bars and using my weight to keep him trapped.
The steel groaned as he tried to shove back, while I crushed him forward.
His breath came out in sharp, angry curses, his insults and threats muffled by his mouth shoved in his hoodie that was firmly stuck against the metal.
I smiled, my teeth bared, blood still slick on my lips. “Would you look at that? I got my pocket full of Sunshine.”