Page 28 of When Sinners Fear

Frowning, I keep going, still with my vision fixed on Reed rather than her. He’s grinning some shit eating grin and looking down at the blood and mess I’m making. Much as I hate to admit it, my dick is on fire. I don’t show it, nor do I think about it too much considering the circumstances, but the fact is I want inside her right now. Maybe it’s the blood, or the thought of this menace and violence, or the very nature of the whole room and whatever last rite might be coming my way. I don’t know. It’s a fucked curse inside me.

Elias would be proud.

That thought sends me miles away from her and what I’m doing to save my own life and straight back to the real reason for all this – Reed.

The blade gets pulled out sharply, and I throw it directly at him before I think any more about it. It goes straight at his neck, slicing hard into the side before clattering on the floor behind him. His hand goes to it in surprise at the same time as I drop her and start moving towards him. There’s no sense anymore, and no goddamn point playing whatever crap this is. I want him dead and bleeding, and nothing else is satisfying me.

He stands, knocks the chair into next week, and rushes backwards, hand on his neck and gun pointed at me.

“KNOX!!” Peyton shouts. I’m not listening to that. “OH GOD KNOX PLEASE. HELP ME!” My feet stop inexplicably, and the glower still fixed on Reed stays heavy.

“Shut the hell up,” spits out of me.

“That was a fucking mistake,” Reed says, glaring. “Kill her.”

“There was zero fucking mistake about it. I’ll kill you with my own hands when the time comes.”

“Knox, please,” she whimpers. “No. No, no, no.” And then she starts her muttering. “I’m going to die. Please, Father, forgive me my sins and–”

“I SAID KILL THE BITCH,” Reed roars.

Indecision rages again, making me need a goddamn smoke. “You could do that. I guess you’re too much of a pussy to watch the rest of the show, anyway,” I murmur. He pulls his hand away from his neck and looks at the blood. There isn’t much, and he’ll live. “It’s a mothafucking scratch.” I look back at her with blood all over her thighs, glaring at dick one with his gun all pressed into the side of her neck. “She took more pain than that. Grow a pair and use your head, Reed, because if you kill her, I’ve got nothing left to lose. She’s your only threat against me here. Your life is worth mine. I’ll take both in a fucking heartbeat if she’s dead.”

A smile spreads on his face. It’s a twisted-up smile, and one that lets me know I told him she means something. It also lets me know I bought us some more time. “You're negotiating with me?” he asks.

Snarling at the thought, I look back at her frailty in this. “Yeah, suppose I am. Give me a smoke and you get whatever you want on command.”

He flicks his head at dick one, and I listen to Peyton breathe a sigh of relief. She shouldn’t. This is far from over. “Unlock her.”

He directs dick two to bring me a smoke over, and I light and inhale deeply, as the chains clank and rattle again. I feel her body run into the side of me and stumble to the floor within seconds. She grips onto me like her life depends on it, trying to hide behind me somehow. It does at the moment, and given my actions, this show better be a good one because there’s no doubt he’ll kill her if it isn’t.

“Fuck her like she doesn’t mean anything to you,” he says, sitting his ass back down. “Make me believe it.” She claws and crawls her way around me, grasping glances at everyone but me. “We’ll take our turn after.” They won't. She’ll be near useless by the time I’m done with her. She has to be. It’s the only way to keep her to myself.

CHAPTER TWELVE

PEYTON

Iwant to stay on the floor with my legs glued shut.

My hands grip onto Knox desperately, but inside I’m yelling at him, yelling for what he did.

I’m shuddering and throbbing internally – the sting still acute and uncomfortable – as I think of what he did to me. It was so fast. The moment he pushed inside of me, the burning pain screamed through my nerves and begged me to move – to push away and fight back. I was more scared of what that would do to me, though.

The top of my thighs are damp, but I don’t want to look. It’s blood – my blood – that’s making them that way. He used a knife.

A knife! I scream inside my head.

He took something from me that nobody else has. In the most hellish way. Maybe I’m trying to block the reality out by clinging to him, but I’m still here and breathing. Although that’s hard, as I can’t get control of the in-and-out action that will deliver the much-needed oxygen to my body, but I’m still here.

Adrenalin is forcing me to be alert, but I want to crawl away and hide. I’m naked, and while I feel conflicted over Knox, my mind latches on to the few words of hope he gave me. A fleeting moment of light in the dark. They’re the lesser of two evils in the situation. I know him and thought I might like him. That's all I’ve got to get me through this.

I don’t look at the men in the room, and I don’t look at Reed. Embarrassment and mortification were where I started, but that left after Knox tore off my panties with a knife and proceeded to rape me with his hand and weapon. Instead, I lean my forehead into his thigh and try to contain my tears.

“Get on with it, Knox. Or we’ll start, and you can have what’s left.”

His body tenses under my hand, and it sends a bolt of panic through me. He turns and looks down at me, and I’m almost too frightened to look up and meet his gaze. I do, though. My head tilts up, and I see that glimmer of hope still alive flick over his features. They might look harsh and drawn, darkened by the damaged skin, but I focus on his eyes and hope.

He sees my pain. He sees my fear. He told me so in those hushed words he muttered.

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