Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
LIAM
It was an unknown number, and I still answered, pressing the receiver against my ear. “Hello?”
“Hello, little lamb.”
My breath hitched in my throat, every thought evaporating into nothingness as the realization hit, bringing nausea with it. Hand trembling, an all-too-familiar chill consumed my frame, and my lips trembled as I struggled to speak.
“H-How… Did you—”
“Didn’t I make it clear all those years ago? What’s mine I’ll find. But tell me, has any other man satisfied that darkness within you like I have?”
This wasn’t happening.
This couldn’t be happening.
Not now. Not again.
A shuddered whimper escaped, and I shook my head, every memory of him lighting an unbearable fire in my veins. “It’s been over a decade… Leave… Leave me the fuck alone.”
“What’s wrong?” Concern laced Simon’s tone, but it did nothing to penetrate the anguish he’d left behind.
“Leave what I’m owed alone?”
“I don’t owe you shit, Stefan!” Tears burned the corners of my eyes, the build-up of a panic attack threatening to rob me of my sanity.
A loud crack sounded, and I flinched. I knew it was his fury unfolding, but it still prompted an instinctive reaction, those tainted hands ramming into whatever surface or person was closest. “You don’t owe me?
After you escaped? After you ruined yourself with another cock?
” His harrowing laughter cut through, a sound that still plagued my nightmares.
“Funny. If I remember correctly, I bought you, so you’ll return home willingly or by force. ”
I swallowed, weight settling in the center of my chest. “I won’t… I won’t.”
“What is going on?” Simon reached to grab the phone, but I pulled away, his fingers missing by an inch.
“You won’t? Not even for that fucked-up man you injured?” Another chuckle. “If I were to collect you, you think he could save you? An injured ex-soldier? With one kick I could topple him to the fucking ground.”
He knew. How… How did he know?
My breathing pattern intensified as I pushed myself off the bed. Walking toward the floor-to-ceiling windows at the back of our bedroom, I ran my fingers through my hair. My entire body was shaking, and I couldn’t get it to stop. I just wanted it to stop.
“Y-You don’t know anything.” I tried to level my timbre, but I knew Stefan would be able to tell I was failing. “You don’t know shit about him, and you will leave him the fuck alone or so fucking help me, Stefan.”
“Oh?” he crooned. “You’re lying, because you sound exactly how you used to right before you came. Helpless.”
I could feel his touch, his breath on my skin. It was as if he was standing beside me, trailing his fingers along my flesh as if I’d permitted him to do so, as if he didn’t have to tie me down to partake in acts I tried to forget.
My knees crashed into the ground, a gasp of breath fleeing between my parted lips. “I said him. You don’t know shit about… about him. So leave him out of this.”
“Liam!”
Simon.
“Oh, but I know everything about you and your newfound company. I know you ate at a diner two days ago, and I sure as fuck know Simon Alexander O’Neill had his hands all over my. fucking. property.”
Lifting my hand, I shook my head at Simon, attempting to get him to back away as I kept talking. “I am not your fucking property, Stefan. You lost your hold on me. Your oversight led to my escape. So go fuck yourself.”
“Have I, when you can’t even look at yourself in the mirror without imagining my hands all over you? Tell me, do you still like it rough—”
“Shut the fuck up!” The scream tore itself from my throat as I flattened my palm against the cold tile. “Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up!”
“Mmm, and this is why you’re my favorite. Spiteful and full of useless wrath. Just wait until you’re beneath me once more. I’ll teach you everything you’ve forgotten.”
A gag racked my frame, tears rolling down my cheeks. “J-Just… leave… leave me alone.”
“You know you don’t want that. I bet you’re hard at the sound of my voice, and that somewhere, deep down, you want this.”
My sway between fear and wrath continued, the latter gaining the upper hand for my next utterance. “I want you to stay the fuck away from me. We both know you run your mouth more than you take action, so fuck off and lose my fucking number, you limp dick asshole.”
“Liam, what the fuck—”
“Sure. This game will be fun, but you know how it will end. I’ll make your sweet Simon watch me fuck you, and while you’re dripping in tears, and he’s inconsolable, I’ll put a bullet through his skull.”
My entire world inverted, a sob tumbling from me. “Please… Please… don’t… Please don’t…”
“Oh, but not anytime soon. Hold on to those sobs until you’re back in my care. I promise to release them all in front of your lover before the last thing he witnesses is me breaking you.”
“Stefan, please!” It was desperation that led the charge, every horrific assumption I had coming back to haunt me. “D-Don’t… Not him. What can I do to… to ensure he stays… stays safe?”
“Mmm, okay. Beg.”
Bile crawled up the back of my throat, but I did what he demanded because I could not lose Simon. “Please… Please, Stefan.”
“There he is.” A sharp groan cut through the line, and everything within me recoiled at the sound. “One more time.”
“Please…” I whimpered, digging my nails into my palms. “Please, Stefan…”
“Fuck,” he hissed, lust evident in his voice. “My obedient little lamb.”
Another cry peeled itself free, my chin dropping to my chest in disgusted defeat. “Please… leave him alone. Anything… I-I’ll do anything… to keep him… him safe…”
“My perfect baby boy,” he huffed, the tone slipping lower. “Mmm, then keep answering my calls, Liam, and I won’t touch your precious Simon.”
“O-Okay…”
“Oh, and if you mention this to that Thorne Graves? I’ll cut off his lover’s head and serve it to his fucking dogs.”
I gasped for air, another sob following as I nodded, the only answer I could provide because I needed Thorne. I needed his protection, his comfort, his promise that this… that this would be over with.
“Fuck this!” Simon shouted, snatching the phone from my hand.
“Simon, stop!”
“No!” Putting it on speaker, nothing but pure rage floated in his hazel irises as they darkened to a shade of brown I hadn’t witnessed. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Oh, is this Simon?”
“S-Simon… don’t,” I pleaded, my bottom lip quivering. “Please.”
“Sure the fuck is, and who the fuck are you making my boyfriend cry?”
That laughter echoed, and with it, my hopes of telling Simon my past dissipated. “I bet he still does that little lip tremble when he cries. Tell me, are his cheeks still flushed, and are his palms flat on the ground?”
Simon flicked his gaze to mine, and there was almost an understanding there, but it dimmed the moment Stefan kept talking.
“And I bet when you fuck him, he likes it rough, likes that dominance you display? Bet he even likes it when you shove his face into the ground like I used to, hands tied behind his back while he wiggled his ass as if he could ever get away from me.”
“What… Who are—”
“I’m the man who is going to put a bullet in your skull unless your boyfriend comes back to me. I bought him, and though he’s escaped me for ten years, I’ve found him.”
“Simon…” I whimpered, my body trembling as I shook my head.
Placing his hand against the wall, it did nothing to stop his descent as he crumbled to the floor. Tears instantly welled, but there wasn’t an ounce of sadness coating his features.
No.
He was seething, his jaw popping as saltwater dripped to the floor. Gripping the phone with bone-crushing force, he swiped his tongue over his canines before a deepened snarl tore through. “I’ll kill you for touching him. I’ll fucking gut you for—”
“Mmm, look forward to it. Oh, and Liam?”
“What…?” I forced out, attempting to crawl toward Simon, beyond fearful that he would never forgive me for what was unfolding.
“Hear Simon’s wrath? That anger billowing from him? That’s exactly how he’ll sound until my cock is shoved down your pretty little throat, until he realizes he can do nothing to stop what’s happening. Because you will always be mine.”
And that’s when I finally heaved, reality looping around my throat like a noose—a haunting reminder that I would never escape my past no matter how far I tried to run.