Page 75 of Redeemed

“I’m making her sleep in a fucking cage,” I reply dryly.

“Too bad we’ll miss it,” Xander mutters, staring longingly at the crate. “God, I’d love to watch her sleep in there, all trapped and lonely. I bet she’ll cry when you put the lock on it.”

“I want you both to move in. She needs protection, and I’m not going to let that fucker hurt her. You can move into some of the spare rooms.”

Xander shrugs. “Sure. More space than our dorm, anyway.”

Lucas nods in agreement. The moment he felt he could, he moved out of his stepfather’s house. I know he felt guilty, like he was abandoning his little sister, but that place was awful for him. He had to get out.

“You can move your stuff tomorrow. For now, you know where the spare rooms are.”

“You know, for someone who hates her, you’re sure putting a lot of effort into helping her,” Lucas points out.

I raise a challenging brow. “Would you do any differently?”

Lucas clamps his mouth shut, eyes hard. He knows this is complicated. His own feelings toward Haven are a mess of attraction and hate.

“We may be offering her protection from whoever is out to get her, but don’t make the mistake of thinking she’s safe,” I say quietly yet forcefully. “Her life is about to become a living hell—one she can’t escape. And you two are going to help me.”

Xander perks up the way he always does when Lucas or I suggest some new way to get back at Haven. We’re all sadists, but sometimes I think he’s the worst out of all of us.

“It’s the same policy as before,” I tell them. “No one hurts her. No one but us.”

Lucas narrows his eyes. “But there’s more to this. You carrying her, making her brush her teeth. What the fuck is that? You don’t care.”

“I take care of what’s mine,” I say, repeating what I told Haven. “We’ll make sure her physical and mental needs are met. In exchange, she’s ours to do whatever we want to.”

Xander lets out a low whistle. “She agreed to that?”

“Agreed to what?”

I whip around to find Haven standing in the open door to the bathroom. She’s wearing the T-shirt I gave her while clutching her clothes to her chest.

“We’ll discuss it in the morning,” I say. “For now, bed.”

She scoffs when I nod to the crate. “Absolutely not.”

“You donotwant to test me,” I warn, voice low.

“Really, you don’t,” Xander adds in. “You really should’ve learned that by now.”

“I’ll sleep on the couch downstairs,” Haven says. “Hell, I’d rather sleep on thefloorthan in there.”

“My apologies if I made it sound like you had the option to say no.”

Haven’s eyes widen as I stalk toward her. I yank her clothes out of her arms and throw them to the floor before scooping her up. She has a little tummy, but she’s still tiny—short and practically weightless for someone who works out as obsessively as I do.

“Colton,” she protests. “You can’t do this. It’s sick!”

“You act like a bitch, you get treated like a bitch. Let this be a lesson for next time.”

“You can’t be serious! I’m not going in there.”

I set her in front of the crate and open the door. She tries to run, but I don’t let her take a single step.

“You will,” I tell her, my lips right by her ear, “because you don’t have any other choice, angel.”

“I hate you,” she whispers.

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