Page 135 of Sawyer

“Aren’t you excited?” He crouches before me, his eyes flaring with a dark glint that should terrify me, but what more can this man possibly do to me? “You get to go home tomorrow evening.”

Home. He isn’t talking about my home, and I know that. He’s talking about Sin’s father and his home, where he will expect me to become a trophy wife. He will strip everything I’ve ever worked for away from me.

“Now, Sawyer,” he says with a fake sincerity that makes me want to hurl all over him. “We can keep you here and break you down until you are the perfect mate for your alpha, but Sal wants to break you himself, so you’ll have to at least pretend to be happy, or I’ll take you down to my lab.” He grazes a thumb across my cheek. “Do you want that? Do you want to come to my lab, Sawyer?” He talks to me as though I’m a lover, as though I’m his.

Swallowing bile because I don’t know what he means by that, I jerk away and slowly sit up, my head feeling a little unsteady. “No,” I reply and observe him. He’s such a strange man, volatile only in the way he looks at me. His actions are careful and calculated.

“Shame, because I still have to bring you to my lab.” He smirks as though he’s won a game I didn’t even know we were playing.

“Why bother giving me the option?” I sneer at him. Nothing here ever involved choice.

I imagine myself burning it to the ground.

“Is it too much to ask that you want to come to see me?” He sighs, and that harsh light comes into his eyes again. “Thea always wanted to come to see me. She even asked me for help.”

Ice chills my veins, and my body shivers. He doesn’t even need to speak. Whatever he has to say isn’t something I want to know or understand.

“She loved to spread her pretty little thighs when I needed to learn about the gland that secretes slick,” he says dangerously low. “She even let me lap it up. Will you let me lap up your juices, Sawyer?”

I’m going to be sick. I’m going to vomit all over him and beg him to kill me instead of that. Anything but that. I realize now he will protect us from everyone but himself. He won’t allow another to touch us, but that doesn’t save us from him.

That isn’t entirely true either. I don’t want to leave here with Sin’s father. I want to leave here with the men I’ve grown attached to, and he’s going to force me to go.

Maybe I can do that, if only to destroy them all from the inside out. I could rip it apart at the seams, especially since I’m on my own again.

“I’ll take that as a no.” He chuckles. This crazy bastard fucking chuckles. “Come on, boys, bring her to my lab.” The doc slowly stands. “Behave for my wards. Otherwise, I might find a way to get you to say yes.” This crazy bastard smiles at me and walks out, leaving me to stare at his retreating back.

I don’t even flinch or look up when his wards enter. Their white pants are stark in the dim room, almost burning my eyes.

“Come on,” a male voice says, crouching before me. I keep my eyes downcast as I try to come up with a plan that will allow me to annihilate this entire structure.

“Man, I know you are new and all, but you just have to heft the bitches up. They don’t fight after the first day anyway.” A manic chuckle has me glancing up at the fucker. He has dark hair, dark eyes, and olive skin, and I can almost scent him over the bleach.

Beta.

“Maybe, but I’m still a gentleman,” the other male says, and this time I recognize it.

“Whatever. I’ll make sure all the doors are open for you.” The dark-haired man flutters his hands and walks off. “Fucking newbies.”

“Hey, baby girl.” It’s a hushed whisper, a voice so familiar to me now that just hearing it has me closing my eyes.

He can’t be real.

“Where’s my Sawyer?” Rumor whispers. “Where’s my girl that’s always willing to fight?”

Slowly, I open my eyes, seeing his dark-skinned hand gripping mine. In this corner, we’re hidden from the cameras and mirrors.

Is it him?

My heart rate picks up, and my breathing turns to a pant. A part of me wants to feel hope and cling to it, and another keeps lying to me that Rumor isn’t here and it’s nothing more than a hallucination.

“We have little time, baby girl, and I need to tell you my plan.” He takes a chance and turns my head toward him by pinching my chin.

His icy blue eyes gaze down at me with so much warmth.

“Why are you here?” I whisper.

“To get you.” A little wrinkle forms between his eyes, and he cocks his head. “What is it?”

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