Chapter 23
Corwin
She’s kicking like a wild thing in Garron’s arms, head thrashing side to side, the tape already pulling at the corner of her mouth. Her eyes keep finding me, burning through the dark like she thinks she can set me on fire. Cute.
The SUV door slams behind her, echoing through the quiet street. Garron shoves her across the seat, his arm heavy across her chest until she stops trying to bite him through the gag. She glares up at me, cheeks flushed from the fight, breath sharp through her nose.
I grin. “Settle in, Little Horror. Long drive ahead.”
Her stifled curse rattles through the tape, but I catch every ounce of rage in her eyes. It makes my cock stir and my fists itch at the same time. I like her better feral. I want to see what happens when the feral turns desperate.
Evander slides into the driver’s seat, calm as a corpse, already buckling in like we’re on a family road trip. Garron takes the far side of her. I climb in last, pinning her between us before slamming the door shut.
She jerks away. Garron shoves her back into place.
“Don’t make me hogtie you,” he mutters.
Her muffled sound is pure venom.
I chuckle low in my chest. “Let her try. I like the fight.”
Evander glances at me in the mirror. “Try not to break her before we get there.”
I lick my lips slowly, making sure she sees. “No promises.”
The SUV growls to life. Streetlights pass in long stripes, washing her face in gold, then shadow. Every flicker makes me want to grab her chin and force her to look at me. She keeps trying to look anywhere else—out the window, at the floor, at Garron—but not at me. That won’t last.
“Still sticking to the plan?” Evander asks, eyes on the road.
“Yes, it’s clear,” Garron answers.
We’re headed to the cabin. Our family’s vacation place. More woods than walls. Built for hiding, built for bleeding. If she thought she was being hunted before, she hasn’t seen shit yet.
She shifts against the seat, wrists straining against Garron’s grip. Her garbled voice strains at the tape, desperate words I almost make out. I pivot fully toward her, my shoulder pressing against hers, my face only inches from her ear.
“What was that?” I murmur. “Say it again.”
She whips her head toward me and snarls through the gag, spit dampening the tape. I laugh loud enough to make Evander sigh.
“She hates you,” Garron chuckles, holding her tighter.
“She’ll love me first,” I shoot back.
That earns me another glare from her.
“Mmmm Feisty,” I grin. “I’ll remember that later.”
The miles roll by. She stops thrashing eventually, sitting rigid between us, her chest heaving under the thin sleep shirt. Her thighs are bare and tight together, her wrists flexing like she’s counting the seconds until she can cut us open.
I can feel the thoughts clawing behind her eyes. She’s smart enough to know the gag won’t last forever. And inquisitive enough that she’ll ask the one question that matters: why her.
I decide not to wait.
“You’ve thought about us before,” I say.
Her eyes snap to me, wide, furious. She shakes her head hard.
“Yes, you have.” I lean in, my voice low. “Mason’s uncles. I saw the way you looked at us. Sex on legs, right? You ever watch us lean against the wall at pickup and wonder what it would feel like if one of us pinned you to it?”
She thrashes against Garron, hushed words spilling under the tape. Garron growls. “Shut up, Corwin.”
But I see it in her eyes. The flicker of rage and something else. She’s curious, even if she hates me for saying it out loud.
Evander’s voice is quiet, steady. “You’re trying too hard.”
“I’m trying the right amount,” I snap.
“You’re going to burn her out before we even get her where we need her.”
I bare my teeth at him in the mirror. “Better than letting her think this is a fucking picnic.”
Agatha’s head snaps between us, like she’s trying to read the war on our faces. I let her. She should know we’re not a neat little package. We’re jagged, sharp, dangerous. And she’s the one stuck in the middle.
We turn off the main road after another thirty minutes. The woods crowd closer, trees black against the night sky. Gravel crunches under the tires, the sound louder than it should be. She shifts, her body tense, eyes darting out the window as if she can track where we are.
Good luck with that.
The cabin looms soon after, a hulking shadow with windows that glow faintly from the solar lights we had Dad leave on.
Two stories, wraparound porch, lake out back, no neighbors for miles.
I’ve loved this place since I was a kid because it feels like it belongs to no one.
Like the woods could swallow it whole and no one would remember.
Perfect for her.
Evander kills the engine. Silence floods the SUV, broken only by the sound of her breath through the gag.
Garron nudges her. “Out.”
She shakes her head, eyes wide.
“Out,” he repeats, harder.
She shakes again.
I laugh, sharp and mean. “Guess it’s the hard way.”
We drag her out together, her heels digging into the gravel, her smothered screams tearing at the tape. She twists, nearly slips from my grip, but Garron jerks her back and lifts her straight into his arms.
“You carry her like a bride,” I snarl, spitting the word like an insult, because he should know better than to treat her gently.
“Better than you dropping her on her head.”
I roll my eyes and grab her legs. She kicks, but I tuck them under my arm and keep walking. Evander follows behind with the bag he packed from her room.
The porch creaks under our boots. The cabin door groans when Garron shoulders it open. The smell hits instantly: cedar, dust, faint ash from the last fire Dad left in the hearth.
We haul her upstairs to the bedroom at the end of the hall. Big bed, heavy frame, and the leather cuffs and chains bolted into the wall. She thrashes again when she sees it, muffled shouts breaking through.
I grin down at her. “Don’t worry, Little Horror. We’re not going to kill you. Not yet.”
Her eyes blaze. If her mouth was free, she’d spit in my face.
Garron sets her down on the bed and holds her there while I close the first cuff around her wrist.
She jerks, her muffled scream shaking with fury, but I catch the second wrist and snap the cuff shut before she can thrash free. Evander sets her bag down in the corner, then leans against the wall, arms crossed, calm as a saint in a church burning down.
“Untape her,” he says.
I pause. “Why?”
“She’ll choke if she keeps thrashing. Besides, I want to hear what she says.”
I peel the tape off slowly just to hear her hiss. She spits the panties onto the floor, her voice ragged when it finally breaks free.
“You think this is going to make me beg?” she growls.
“No,” I murmur, leaning close enough to smell her sweat. “It’s going to make you ours.”
Her laugh is sharp, bitter. “Keep dreaming.”
I smirk. “Oh, I do. Every night.”
She yanks against the restraints, leather creaking. “You don’t own me. You never will.”
Garron pulls the strap tighter, his voice a low growl. “That’s what they all say until they realize they already gave themselves up.”
“Not me,” she spits, chest heaving. “You think tying me down changes anything? I’ve lived through worse. You don’t scare me.”
Evander shifts at the foot of the bed, eyes calm, too calm, and it needles under my skin. “You’re scared,” he mumbles. “But you’re curious too. That’s why you don’t close your eyes.”
Her gaze snaps to him, blazing. “Curious isn’t consent.”
I laugh then, low and mean, dragging my thumb along the edge of her thigh just to watch her muscles jump. “Funny thing about curiosity. It’s what keeps you from screaming when you should. It’s why you keep letting us in.”
She jerks hard against me; the cuffs rattling. “Letting? You don’t even know the meaning of that word.”
“Oh, we know,” I say, dipping closer, lips at her ear. “We know because you still fight with your mouth even when you could’ve stayed silent. You keep feeding us fire. And I want to see how hot you’ll burn before you beg.”
Her eyes cut to mine, furious, defiant. “You’ll be waiting forever.”
Garron chuckles from her other side. “Forever’s nothing, Little Horror. We’ve got all the time in the world.”
I sit at the edge of the bed, watching her writhe, watching her bare her teeth instead of tears. And it makes something dark curl through me, hot and heavy. She’s everything I wanted her to be.
And I can’t wait to see how much further she’ll burn.