Chapter 48
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
SERENA
I sit, staring unseeing out the window as shapeless blurs move past. I’m numb from shock and fear. I knew if Dom found us it would be bad, I just didn’t expect for it to happen so suddenly. When the car stops, we are outside of the police station. Hope springs in my chest at seeing where we are. Maybe if I make a big enough scene about Kai being innocent, someone will listen. Dom must see the plans written on my face, because he wastes no time in crushing them. Staring at me through the rearview mirror, his eyes bore into me.
“Here is what’s going to happen, Kitten. You’re going to wait right here while I go inside and let my captain know I am taking you home to rest and recover after your ordeal and that I will bring you back to the station when you’re ready to make a statement. Your friend is going to cool his heels in a holding cell while we let this little life lesson sink in. What happens next is entirely up to you.” Dominick pauses, letting his words hang in the air. “We are going to go home and have a little chat, and if you decide to be a good girl and listen, then maybe I’ll tell everyone it was a little misunderstanding, and your boy can go home.”
“And if I don’t want to go home with you?” I try to infuse my words with the venomous hate I feel coursing through my veins, but they come out meek with no real power behind them.
“Don’t forget, Serena, I’m the only person who knows where your mom is right now. Do you really want to gamble her safety for some punk who just wants to get his dick wet?”
My mouth goes dry at his threat. He planned this. He was ahead of us every step of the way. Now he’s wrapped me up in a web of his deceit and manipulation so thoroughly there is no way I can get out. Not without sacrificing one of the people most important to me.
Dom exits the vehicle, leaving me alone to break, despair finally winning out over the tumultuous riot of emotions clashing in my mind. I don’t know how long I sit there, lost in misery, before the door next to me opens and Dom reaches in, pulling me out, crushing me into his body. He wraps his arms around me in a mockery of a concerned hug, his mouth next to my ear so his words will only be for me. “Now be a good girl and kiss me like you love me. Put on a good show, then we are going to go home and come to an understanding. Got it?” Dom’s arms tighten painfully around my waist, causing me to whimper in discomfort. He doesn’t relent until he feels my head nod against his cheek.
When he pulls back, he moves his hand into my hair at the base of my neck, tightening his hold painfully, further driving home the point that I am his, and he isn’t going to let me go. “Now kiss me, Kitten. Like you mean it.” I swallow down the bile rising in my throat and lean in, tentatively pressing my lips against his. When he tries to lick his way into my closed mouth, I refuse to open to him until his hand fisting my hair threatens to pull it out by the roots. When my lips part on a cry of pain, he presses his advantage and licks into my mouth, swallowing my anguished whimpers. Our kiss is flavored by the salt from my tears. He presses me against the car, crushing me between the hard steel and his rigid body as he takes what he wants from me. My hands rest limply on his shoulders, my body refusing to respond to the demands of his.
When we part, his breath comes in heavy pants, like he’s run a marathon. There is a feral hunger in his eyes, and I know this is only the beginning of my punishment.