The door closes behind me with a muted thud, and the sound barely registers over the ringing in my ears. I twist the lock, needing to hear it click, needing something—anything—that belongs to me, even if it’s just the illusion of privacy.My legs feel tight beneath me, like I’ve been holding myself upright for too long. I tug off my shirt, hard, until the fabric gives, then kick off my boots. The jeans slips down my legs next—in a rush I can’t stand to feel. I step out of them like they’re contaminated, like they’re carrying all the weight and the cluster-fucks of the evening inside of them.The necklace goes next. The earrings. I rip them off one by one, ignoring the sting at my earlobes, letting the pieces scatter across the floor. They land with dull, empty clicks. I don’t bother looking. I don’t want to see anything that ties me to what just happened.My feet move on their own, dragging me toward the bathroom like I’m walking through sludge. I can feel it building inside me—that f
Hale’s jacket is yanked off my head with a brutal kind of finality. For a second, I have to blink against the sudden flood of artificial light that slams into my vision—then I feel all the air deflating from my lungs.I don’t need to see the padded bed to know where we are. My chest already knows. My spine already knows. The familiar chill crawls down the back of my neck and burrows deep into my bones before I even raise my head.No.No, no, no, no—We’re back.Back in that fucking room.Back in the dungeon with the sterile walls and shackles and restraints built into the damn furniture like it’s designed to swallow sanity whole.The second I see the bed—the one with the leather cuffs stretched taut on either side—I twist on instinct, shoving at Hale’s chest with every ounce of strength I have left, aiming for the door behind him even though I know, deep down, I’ll never reach it.My boot barely scrapes the floor before he grabs me.I thrash. I kick. I fight with every ounce of streng
“What?” I manage, but it’s barely more than a whisper.“He made me an offer,” Hale states, his voice is so maddeningly steady it makes me want to claw the air just to feel something break. A damn human reaction—even if it’s pure temper.His eyes flick toward the table across the room—the one we sat at earlier, now curling with black smoke as two members of the staff frantically toss damp towels over the remains. Someone burned the table, apparently, and it doesn’t take much for me to figure out who that someone was. “I took care of it,” he adds, like that explains anything.My head turns, slow and stiff, like it’s moving through tar. “So you turned him down?”He shrugs, one shoulder rising and falling like the whole thing bored him, like the details are beneath him. “It was a shitty offer.”My mouth opens, but no sound comes out. I have no idea what to say to that, or how to process what it means that he rejected a deal that would’ve handed me back to the devil who destroyed me.And k
Cali’s pov.The bar is dim and cold, not from lack of heating but from the kind of sterile, soulless chill that clings to places built for transactions and silence, the kind of chill that seeps into your bones when there’s too much unsaid between the walls and not enough light to burn it away. I sit hunched on a red leather stool that’s seen better days, the shine on it dull and creased, like my spine, like my thoughts—like my resolve. The burger in front of me, stacked high and absurd with garnish and grease, is a disaster I haven’t even touched, save for the single bite I took ten minutes ago just to convince the hovering bartender I wasn’t going to start sobbing into the ketchup bottle.I press my forefinger into the sesame seed bun, watching the juices pool out from the edge where the meat is beginning to gray at the edges, losing heat and appeal in equal measure. My fingers curl and uncurl around the edges of the chipped ceramic plate, just for the sake of doing something with my
Hale’s pov.The second Killian Vale suggests we talk in private, I know exactly the kind of man I’m dealing with. The type who thinks they can buy anything they see. And if they can’t buy it—they steal it, or take it by force.I already know exactly what he wants, just by the way he’s been leering at my wife.“Whatever you’ve got to say,” I tell him, flat and unbothered, “you can say in front of everyone.”He doesn’t like that. His jaw tightens, smile still in place, but his eyes give him away. He expected control. A closed door where he could spin whatever power fantasy he’s been rehearsing since he crawled out of whatever grave he faked. He expected me to play along.Then I feel her again.Her hand has curled tightly around my arm, just above the elbow, fingers clutching the fabric of my jacket like it’s the only solid thing in the room. She’s shaking. Her breathing is too slow, like she’s manually forcing every inhale to match a rhythm that doesn’t exist anymore.Killian’s presence
Cali’s pov.The second Killian Vale—my supposedly dead fiance—walks in, the air is sucked out of the room.It’s like the devil returned to claim what he thinks still belongs to him, as if no time has passed, as if his death—news I learn now was nothing but a well-played lie.My lungs seize.I want nothing more than to run from this room. To escape the horrors crawling out of the crevices of my memories involving this monster.But my legs don’t work right, and my throat has closed off so tight I can barely remember how to breathe through it.I forget the conversation I was half-listening to. I forget the half-drunk glass of wine sweating on the table in front of me. I forget—for a fraction of a minute—the damned situation I was in with Hale Holt.I forget everything.Except him.He’s taller than I remember. Broader across the shoulders. His hair’s shorter, his jaw sharper, and there’s a new scar dragging across his collarbone that wasn’t there the last time I saw him, but it’s the way
Hale’s pov.The storefront is too clean. Bright lights, glossy shelves, minimalist displays. A salesgirl in heels and flawless lipstick waits by the register, pretending to care about inventory. Behind her, overpriced streetwear hangs in neat rows—to the innocent passerby, this place is an expensive boutique and not a gateway to hell.Cali walks beside me, quiet. I can feel the anger in her body, wrapped tight like a coil ready to strike. She hasn’t looked at me once since we left the mansion. Her shoulders are tense. Her mouth is a hard, silent line. But she came. That’s all I need.The girl at the register gives a tiny nod when she sees me. Trained. She reaches under the counter and presses the hidden switch. The far wall clicks. I lead Cali past shelves of clothes no one buys and stop in front of the full-length mirror near the dressing rooms. I slide it to the left. Steel hinges groan as the glass swings open, revealing a narrow stairwell leading into darkness.Cali hesitates, but
I don’t look at him.I can feel Hale’s eyes on me—burning, crawling across my skin like fire licking through dry grass—but I refuse to meet his gaze. My arms are clamped across my chest, legs squeezed so tight my thighs cramp, every shift reminding me of the slick heat between them. My skin still tingles where he touched me. Where he took. And I hate that it’s not just disgust I feel.It’s want.Goddamn it, what is wrong with me?I press my lips into a hard line and stare out the tinted window, pretending I don’t see my ruined reflection. No dress, nor any pride. Just the shivering silhouette of a girl who let the devil between her legs.My mother’s face flashes in my mind. Her smile. The way she used to hold my hand and kiss my forehead like I was something precious. My chest squeezes so tight I can’t breathe.She’s gone because of him. Because of Hale.And I… I let him—No. No more excuses. No more weakness. I got him out of my system. That’s all it was. Lust. Chemical imbalance. Ho
My lips part. “I want you to fuck me.”His brow cocks. “Louder.”“I want you to fuck me,” I moan, voice wrecked, throat raw with a need I can’t swallow down.His grin hits me like a strike to the gut—feral and unrepentant, all teeth and hunger. A predator who’s finally been given permission to devour. He rises to his full height, belt already hanging loose from his jeans, his cock gripped in his fist—thick, heavy, veined, leaking like he’s been on the edge of losing control since the moment we locked eyes tonight.He doesn’t speak. Doesn’t ask if I’m sure, nor offer mercy. He just lunges—and slams into me with a single, savage thrust.My scream cuts the air in half. My back bows clean off the hood, spine arching like I’ve been struck by lightning. He’s deep—so deep I swear I feel him splitting me apart, owning every inch from the inside out. My legs jerk, thighs shaking, already too full, too stretched, too desperate—and he hasn’t even really started yet.His hands clamp around my thi