Page 79 of Her Silver Fox Firefighters
“A few hours. It’ll be morning soon. You should rest.”
He seems so calm, so matter-of-fact about assaulting and kidnapping me. I’d almost forgotten that all of this is pretty much par for the course for him. It’s how he handles everything in his life. Intimidation, gaslighting, and violence. These are his preferred weapons, even with the woman he claims to love more than anything.
I take a couple of steps back. “Marcus, what are you doing here? What do you want from me?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” he laughs, but I hear the tension in his voice. “I thought you’d have it all figured out, seeing as you always were the smart one. You loved emphasizing that more than once.”
“And you loved telling me that I’d never be as smart as you,” I mutter.
“Case in point, look at us now,” Marcus shoots back, then dumps the takeout bag on the table by the window. “You might as well eat and get comfortable. I still have some thingsto take care of.”
“What happened to Carlos?”
He gives me a confused look. “Who? Oh, you mean your cop buddy? Fuck if I know. I got you out of there, that’s it.”
“He could be seriously hurt or bleeding out.”
“Or dead. I don’t care, Olivia. I have you now; nothing else matters.”
“You started all those fires.”
Marcus takes a deep breath. I can tell that part of him wants to yell and hit me, but the more reasonable side is fighting for self-control. Slowly, I inch further away from him. Frankly, I’d jump off the planet altogether if I could, if only to never have to be around this man again. The thought that he was once the center of my world makes my stomach squirm with disgust.
“Circling back to how dumb you think I am,” he says.
“I never thought you were dumb?—”
Marcus cuts me off, the irony flying right past him. “Olivia, you know I hate it when you interrupt me.”
I need to keep him calm and nonaggressive, and I need to figure out how to get out of here. But first, Marcus has to believe that I’m compliant.
“I’m sorry.”
“So circling back, did you really think you could just run out on me? Honey, I tailed you all the way here to Ember Ridge. It didn’t take long to figure out that Chloe helped you. She’s such a terrible liar. God, I hope she’s dead in a ditch somewhere.”
I’m tempted to tell him the truth, but it seems that, for all his stalking, he missed the part where Chloe found her way back to us. Breathing a deep sigh, I move farther back until I feel the corner of a nightstand poking the back of my leg.
The shadow of a smile dances across his stubbly face. He loves it when I show him fear, perhaps more than when I show him obedience. “I could’ve just rolled in and dragged you out of there, but you were already buddy-buddy with those firemen, those inconvenient pricks,” he says, anger bubbling in his tone. “I’m still the sheriff, and I have a reputation to maintain, so I figured I’d have to keep those fuckers busy.”
“One fire would’ve been enough,” I say. “All you had to do was come in while they were out on the job, fighting to save the people trapped in the fire.”
“Collateral damage, each and every one of them,” Marcus replies casually, brushing the accusation off with a flick of his hand. The smell of greasy takeout fills my nostrils, making me feel nauseous. “I saw you were getting comfortable, Olivia. It seemed like a good opportunity to make you pay for what you did to me.”
“What did I do to you, Marcus?”
“You left!” he snaps, blind fury burning in his eyes. “You left me! You had to pay for that, so I gave you the illusion of safety, of comfort. I let you think that you could stay in Ember Ridge. I know how close you got to those firemen. All three, huh? My cock wasn’t enough? You needed more? Was that the problem? ‘Cause I would’ve gladly called in a couple of my buddies from Vice back in Devon. We could’ve worked something out.”
Now I really want to puke. “It wasn’t like that, Marcus?—”
“Bullshit! I watched you through the window. I saw what you let them do to you. You fucking whore. And now you’re pregnant? Do you even know who the father is?”
Tears fill my eyes. He’s trying to shame me, but I don’t feel ashamed. The only shame I feel is for believing him, for putting up with his abuse for far too long.
“Please, Marcus, you don’t have to do any of this. It’s not right.”
“What’s not right is for you to walk away from me, Olivia. Furthermore, what’s not right is for you to walk away with evidence that could fucking bury me,” he says. “I know you, though. I know you wouldn’t risk coming after me because you understand that I’m not an easy guy to take down. But even so, I’d rather you didn’t try.”
“I didn’t?—”
