Chapter 4
Chapter Four
SUMMER
If this is what dying feels like, it's not as bad as I thought it'd be.
It feels almost peaceful, in a way. More peaceful than my life has ever felt, at the very least. There's no forcing a smile for the sake of my family or pretending I'm fine when I'm really not.
I'm not standing on the edge of a breakdown and trying desperately to grasp at the broken pieces of myself.
Instead, I'm floating.
There's no yelling. No cussing. No worrying that your serial killer sister is going to snap. Or that the rest of your siblings might be serial killers, though you don't have a definitive number on how many people any of them have killed.
Dying feels like a peace I've long been robbed of.
Until I open my eyes.
I'm not dead.
It should be relieving to know that I'm still alive, but instead, it fills me with a sense of dread.
I don't recognize the room I'm in. The walls are painted black, and though there's a window on the far side of the room, it doesn't look quite right. The sunlight streaming through it is a little grainy.
Is that the window, or is that due to the drugs still pumping through my system?
I can remember being injected and everything getting dark and heavy, but I don't remember anything after that. There's nothing but a gap in my memory.
With my heart slamming against my ribs, I try to lift my ankles.
They move.
I lift my wrists.
They move too.
As I try to sit up, the entire world starts spinning, and my stomach rolls like it does right before I'm about to throw up.
I swallow down the bile and force myself to look up, bending over for a moment to put my head between my knees and try to get my shit together.
Getting out of wherever the hell I am isn't going to be possible if I can't even get to my feet.
What would your siblings do in this situation?
Skyla would probably kill everyone in sight. Aiden and Royce would be feral. Jade would likely wait to outsmart whoever kidnapped her. Ellie wouldn't need to do anything. Sean would torch the earth for her, and he'd do it without a second thought.
Which means I'm the only one without any sort of skills for this kind of situation.
I get to my feet, standing tall and taking a deep breath.
There's a dim light shining overhead and a door on the wall opposite the window.
I take one slow step at a time, feeling like I'm standing on top of a ball and trying to keep my balance.
As soon as I make it to the door, I try the knob, only to find out that it's locked.
"Fuck."
I turn and cross the room to the window, more of my balance coming back.
The haziness in my vision is starting to fade.
The bed in the middle of the room is bolted to the ground, but I might be able to use the bolts to stab out an eye if they're not properly attached to the ground.
The hope is enough to have me testing the window multiple times, even though I know the thing is locked. No matter how hard I try to force it up, it doesn't budge.
"Fucking hell."
Aiden is going to tell me that he told me so. I can see it coming right now. I'm going to get home one day—hopefully alive, but more likely in a body bag—and then he's going to stand over me with that annoying arrogance of his.
If I survive this, I'm never going to be able to go anywhere without a bodyguard again.
If I survive this, I'm not sure that's a bad thing.
I make my way back to the bed, kneeling on the ground in the damn bikini. At least that's still on, but it doesn't give me much hope for anything else that's going to happen.
My hands are shaking as I try to loosen the bolts, but they don't budge, even a little bit.
Tears burn in the corners of my eyes.
I sit back on my heels, rubbing my eyes with my fists.
This is such bullshit. I should be getting fucked by the cute guy from the beach right now or going out dancing with Téa. I shouldn't be trapped in some room with no way out and no way to defend myself.
"Now, now, there's no point in crying about this," a smooth voice says as the door opens.
I look up, spine stiffening, heart seizing when Noah steps into the room.
He rolls up the sleeves of his navy-blue dress shirt, showing off tattoos that cover his arms. The smirk he wears has me pissed off and ready to claw his eyes out.
Getting to my feet, I know without a doubt that this is going to be a death sentence. It scares the hell out of me.
He's known for being brutal and drawing out the pain as much as possible. After all the things my family has done to his, I know this is going to be nothing but pain.
I'm going to be screaming for mercy, and it's only once I can't scream anymore that I know he'll kill me.
After all, what's the point of pain if he's not getting pleasure from it?
He draws closer to me. "Nothing to say? I thought you'd have a lot to say. Your family always has. Can't seem to hold back from running your mouths ever."
I lunge at him. It's stupid and a move he likely saw coming from a mile away, but I throw my entire weight at him, hands reaching for his eyes.
My nails rake down his face, and he lets out a hiss, grabbing my arms before I have time to do much more.
I slam my knee into his balls as hard as I can, and he drops.
But when I run for the door, trying to haul it to the side, it's still locked.
Noah laughs as he stands up, and I hate the way the smooth and smoky note of his voice has heat pooling in my core.
Now isn't the time for horniness, and yet with a man looking that good in a pair of slacks and a button-down, my pussy doesn't seem to care that the devil incarnate is standing in front of me.
He stalks toward me, backing me against the wall. Not that there's anywhere else for me to go even if I wanted to. "You didn't think I was going to leave the door unlocked, did you? I learned that little trick from your siblings."
"Pretty shitty at holding people hostage if that's when you learned to close a fucking door," I spit the words with venom in my tone.
He smirks, and I hate to admit there's something charming about the way he looks at me, those dark eyes staring through me like he can see straight to my soul.
There's just the small problem of him being a Rinaldo.
So, I attack him again, getting in another good scrape to the side of his neck, warm blood coating my fingertips.
He grabs me and spins me around, slamming me into the wall.
The black-painted stone is rough against my chest, cutting the bare skin in all the areas the bikini doesn't cover.
A rush of lust takes over my brain as he kicks my feet apart and holds my wrists in one hand, forcing them high above my head.
"You try that fucking shit again, and I'll kill you right now."
The hard lines of his body press harder into mine, trapping me between his body and the wall.
I can't help the slight whimper that escapes me, even as I start struggling to get free, not caring about the blood that starts dripping down my body.
Noah chuckles, his warm breath brushing against the shell of my ear. "You like that, don't you? You like being pinned against the wall. I bet if I slide my fingers against your pussy, it's going to be soaked, isn't it?"
"Fuck you."
His fingers trail down the curve of my breast and into the dip of my waist before tracing lower. "You want me to. I can smell your arousal."
That's when I feel it. The hard line of his cock digging into my ass.
His hand dips lower, and he backs up just enough to pull my hips back, giving himself room to snake down to the front of my bikini.
"Get your fucking hands off me." I writhe, trying to get away from him, but all I succeed in doing is grinding against the monster in his pants.
Thick fingers slip inside the thin material of my bikini.
He drags my earlobe between his teeth. "I was right.
You're loving this. You're fucking soaked.
Does the fear turn you on? Are you sitting here thinking about what it'll be like if I fuck you when I kill you?
The way my hands are going to wrap around that pretty little neck of yours while I watch the life leave you? "
With each word he says, his fingers press against my clit again and again, the touch there and gone.
And then he removes it completely, his hand in my hair. He uses his grip to throw me to the ground, the hard floor bruising my knees.
I crack my head against the base of the bed, stars dancing across my vision.
He crouches down in front of me as I sit up and grab the sides of my head. "If you want to live, you're not going to try that shit again."
I drop my hands, but I hold back from attacking him, trying to ignore the arousal slicking my thighs. I shouldn't be turned on by him. Not even a little bit. "I'm not stupid enough to think you're going to leave me alive. What do you even want with me?"
It's an obvious question, but maybe if I can get him talking, he'll let something slip that might help me in the long run.
He smirks, his fingers trailing along the inside of my thigh. Noah grabs it in a gripping bruise, his fingers digging into the flesh. "The same thing I've always wanted, but this time I'll get it."
"Trading me off to Aiden isn't going to be enough to get him to give up territory. You know it, and so do I."
"Oh, no." Noah stands, a sick smile on his face as he gives my body an appreciative glance that has flames licking at my skin. "I have much bigger plans for you."
He wants to kill my family, but he's also never been much of a liar. He tells the truth far more often than Aiden ever has.
So, if he's planning to leave me alive, slaughtering my entire family must not be his end goal anymore.
And that's worrying.
If he's changed his mind about what he wants and Aiden doesn't know, then he's going to be making all his plans with the wrong assumptions about Noah.
This war isn't ending; it's only getting worse.
Noah walks to the door, pausing and turning to look at me. "You should get used to it in here. This is all the rest of your life is ever going to be."
The door opens, and he steps out, slamming it shut behind him. There's a dull thud as a lock clicks into place.
Even with my head aching and my knees protesting, I rush to the door and slam against it, though I know it's not going to do anything.
One way or another, I have to get out of here, though. I have to warn my family that something has changed and they need to be more cautious.
They don't know the monster they're dealing with anymore, and neither do I.
But I'm going to find out, even if it means I have to become a monster too.