Chapter 30
CHAPTER
THIRTY
LUKE
I deliberately continued my ascent, making sure to always have a steady finger over the trigger. I purposely moved my gun back and forth over her breasts, letting the end of the barrel linger over her heart that I knew was rapidly beating.
“Did you think I wouldn’t find out? At least answer that fuckin’ question.”
I couldn’t breathe.
The walls were caving in on me.
“What do you think?” she bit, not backing down.
Grabbing another chair, I threw it across the room, and she jolted. I failed miserably at keeping my shit together. I came at her in one quick stride. The rage coursing its way through my body made it apparent how badly I wanted to hurt her. I stared deep into her eyes, but I could still feel her stabbing gaze on every inch of my skin. She didn’t move or make a sound, only increasing my turmoil.
Her eyes dilated as I sprang forward, gripping her hair by the nape of her neck, yanking her head as far back as it would go. Inflicting immediate pain on her scalp.
She yelped, and I got right in her face, snarling through a clenched jaw, “Do you have any idea who you’re fuckin’ with? You’re nothing but a lyin’ whore.”
The next thing I knew I released her hair and shoved her backward against the wall with my hand over her throat, causing her body to hit it with a loud, hard thud.
She gasped as both our chests heaved up and down, almost in sync with one another before we locked eyes. She opened her mouth to reply to my malicious words, but they were swallowed by my tongue when my mouth slammed into hers with so much abandonment, with so much desire…
I lost myself in that kiss.
Just as quickly as it started, I was done, over. I pulled my face away from hers. Only my hold around her windpipe tightened, pushing her further into the wall.
“How could you do this to me? After everythin’…” I squeezed harder. “How the fuck could you play me so easily? Did I mean nothin’ to you?”
“Luke...”
“What, baby?”
“I… can’t… breathe…” she choked out.
I was confused and torn about how I should feel about it, and by the time I realized what I was doing and what I had already done, it was too late. I immediately let go, and her body fell forward against the ropes, sucking in the air I was viciously taking away from her.
An unbearable amount of weight was on my chest from the betrayal she knew I felt.
I couldn’t hurt her.
It felt wrong.
When she was my enemy.
“Fuck! Motherfucker!” I roared, pulling my hair away from my face, wanting to tear it out.
My mind finally caught up with my feelings. I couldn’t process it fast enough, and I started to wreak havoc around the room. Leaving a path of nothing but destruction in my wake.
Swiping the contents off my desk, I tore a large frame off the wall next, chucking it at the door. It shattered to the floor, marring our faces with glass and debris. Item after item flew through the air, breaking into pieces just like my soul.
“Stop!” she shouted.
“How could you do this to me?! I trusted you! And you betrayed me!”
I went after anything I could find.
Knocking over the nightstand.
The table.
The chairs.
The television across the room.
Nothing but fury blurred my eyes, and my body twisted with the desire to fall apart.
I abruptly turned at the last second as another painting shattered to the ground. Nothing could have prepared me for this.
Not even me.
The room was spinning faster and faster, around and around, over and over with no end in sight. My whole world was tilting and on the verge of plummeting. She finally gazed up at me with pleading eyes and a devastated expression, but I backed away with caution. I didn’t know if it was for my protection or hers. I couldn’t do this any longer.
I cut the ropes around her body and ordered, “Get up! Get the fuck up!” I snarled, placing my gun at her chest.
She nodded, standing on unsteady legs and fuck-me heels as she surrendered her hands out in the air in front of her.
“Good girl,” I praised in an eerie tone.
“Luke…”
Cocking my head to the side, I took in her pathetic pleas that meant nothing to me when they really meant everything. Leaning into her, I softly moved my lips against her bruised cheek.
“Answer me,” I repeated. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
“I…”
“Choose your words wisely, Sloan. I already know you’re a fuckin’ liar. And you know more than anyone, what happens to people who fuckin’ cross me.”
I couldn’t catch my breath.
For the life of me, I just couldn’t catch my breath.
“Do you know what I do to traitors?” I mocked, placing my gun on her forehead. “Now, I’m gonna ask you one last fuckin’ time, did you think I wouldn’t have found out?”
With trembling lips, she muttered, “I don’t know what I thought. I just did what I had to do to please him.”
“By pleasin’ me?”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then make me understand.”
“I have no choice…”
“There’s always a choice.”
“What do you want me to say to you, huh? You want me to apologize? Because that won’t make anything any better. And if you kill me?—”
“There is no if , sweetheart. You did what you had to do, and now I have to do the same.”
“He’ll destroy you if you kill me, and I don’t mean through you, Luke.”
Pressing the barrel into her forehead, I warned, “Don’t you fuckin’ threaten me.”
She quickly let out, “It’s not a threat. It’s the truth.”
“And I’m supposed to suddenly believe you?”
“I have nothing to lose anymore.”
“What did you have to lose before?”
She shut her eyes, murmuring, “ You.”
“No, no, no,” I refuted, pressing the gun harder against her forehead. “You don’t get to close your eyes and hide behind your words.”
She slowly opened them.
And I couldn’t resist, I confessed, “I spent the last five days lookin’ for you, raisin’ hell and high water to fuckin’ find you. I lost… fuck…” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I thought it was my fault. I thought you were taken ’cause of me, but come to find out, you’re nothing but his whore that he lends out to his associates.”
She bowed her head in shame, and I lifted it with the end of the barrel under her chin.
“I fuckin’ loved you, Sloan,” I expressed for the first time, needing to say it. “Did you hear me? I’d fallin’ for you. Was that part of the plan too?”
Her eyes watered. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t get to say you’re sorry that easily and think it makes everything between us okay. Do you understand me?” Stepping back, I ordered just to be cruel, “Why don’t you get on your knees for me like you do for your husband?”
She jerked back, flinching.
Life had a funny way of knocking you on your ass. Just when you thought you had it all figured out, it laughed in your fucking face.
I would remember the next words that came out of her mouth for the rest of my life…“He’s not my husband, Jameson. He’s my father. ”