Page 11 of Never Wed an Outlaw

“Why you gotta look so sad? We've come a long,longway, haven't we, peach?”

I nodded glumly.

“That's right, so fuckin' far. I remember the night we met after Mister Sterner's company bash. You, fresh out of the slums with a fire in your belly and little real world job experience in your cap. Me, schmoozing you like a friend of Sterner's, pretending to be your angel investor. You told me how bad you wanted to be the next whiz kid in tech, have your face on every blog and magazine. I said I could makethat happen. Shit, when I tossed you the paperwork for the loan, and told you I might want to keep some shit off the record, I never saw anybody sign so fast. Normally, they ask a lot of questions, too, and I have to make up stories. But you, peach...you were good. You trusted me, blind as a fucking bat. You were hungry, Hannah...too damned greedy for your own good.”

My stomach knotted, making me want to throw up. I hated him for reminding me how I'd trusted him, ignored all the signs that the flash investment in my idea was too good to be true. He'd stalked me like a wolf, and I'd walked into his jaws.

Why it happened, well, that wasn't a mystery. When a girl grows up dirt poor with nobody except her brother to look up to, she jumps the first time somebody offers her several million and a chance to blow up big.

Gullible? Oh yeah, and now I'd pay the price in blood and heartbreak.

“I'll do what I can.” The defeated tone in my voice sounded obvious, even to me.

“Fuck yeah, you will,” he growled, stuffing another pomegranate seed into his mouth. “Because you remember what happens if you don't? If you start to panic, take off, think you can cheat us out of our own money?”

“Yeah, Dom, I remember...I don't need another reminder.”

I can't fucking handle another one, you sick bastard,I thought to myself.Please, no reminder.

“Really, peach? Because your eyes are telling me maybeyou do. Here, let me give you one.” Growling, he slammed his knife straight into his open fruit and cut straight down it, spilling red, slippery seeds everywhere. “You fuck up, you die. That simple. But first, before we bury you alive chained up in a drum, we get every goddamned dime we're owed in flesh and blood. We'll keep you chained up and use that rockin' pussy of yours every damned day we want. Hunt down every friend and kin you've ever had. No, that damned biker patch on your brother won't save him. We'll bring you his fucking face skinned off his body and throw it in yours. I hear his new wife's knocked up, about to squeeze out a kid. Maybe we bring your little niece to say hello to auntie, one piece at a time...”

Rage, hurt, and fear churned in my intestines. How he kept such close tabs on me, I had no idea, and I was too sick to care.

My ears stopped working at some point while he droned on about the sadistic things he'd do to me. I couldn't mentally handle the list of atrocities he ran off, and so I shut down, his threats fading into my heartbeat's savage roar.

He was talking about killing Huck, my brother, and his family. The only thing I held onto after we both escaped that shitty trailer we'd grown up in. The only one who'd ever cared, who had more to live for than me.

Then he talked about sex, violating me in ways I didn't dare imagine. It shouldn't have been as revolting as the death threats, but it was, because I was still a virgin.

“And when we're all through with that, peachy pie, we'll make sure nobody ever finds your fuckin' body outside thefishes. It's a big ocean. You see that shit out there?”

I refused to follow his knife, pointed over the top of the car. He motioned out to sea, past all the cranes from the loading docks, where the depths were deep, dark, choppy.

“Damn it, bitch, I saidlook.Tony!”

Grabbing my head, his goon twisted it around, forcing me to see where I'd wind up – probably in pieces – if I didn't obey his every whim.

“We've dumped a lot of people out there, Hannah. Made more bastards and bitches disappear in so many underwater trenches it'd make Davy fuckin' Jones himself jealous. This isn't just a debt,” he growled, his ice cold face coming closer and closer to mine.

Tony's grip on me tightened. I couldn't move. My blood was officially iced over. A single livid tear slid down my cheek, tracing a fiery trail across my skin.

“None of this has to happen, Hannah. You do what you're told, pay us back with interest, we won't have any problems like figuring out how many fucks it takes to get bored before giving you to hell,” he said, extending a finger.

Everything inside me recoiled when he touched me, catching my tear on his fingertip. He brought it back to his lips with a growl, opening those dry lips just enough so he could suck my pain off his finger.

“Let her go, boys. We're done here.” He stood, slamming the heel of his perfectly polished shoe on what's left of the pomegranate. “Until next time, my Georgia Peach.”

Yeah,next time.I tried to stop shaking while I watchedthem walk slowly to their car, get in, and drive off like ordinary businessmen.

I never dared to correct them about my birthplace, Tennessee, born and raised. They knew everything else about me, and the one simple fact they'd gotten wrong wouldn't change anything.

Clenching the manila envelope, I stuffed it into my purse, and started walking briskly away from the docks, into the city.

I'd been planning to have dinner with Ty and his family tomorrow, my old billionaire boss from several years ago, but now it wasn't even a possibility. I had to find an excuse to blow him off, anything to avoid breaking down about my plight in front of the man who'd been a mentor to me.

After that, I had to catch the first flight the hell out of here.

As soon asI checked out of my room, I called my brother, asking if he had any contacts in Atlanta so I wouldn't have to rent a car for the drive home to Knoxville.

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