[3rd POV—Damon]It wasn’t supposed to happen, though he doesn’t regret a thing either. All of his defenses crumbled into dust when Cara kissed him. She opened up herself to him like a bottle of irresistible whiskey, pouring liquid of fire into his tongue.All he could think was to make her feel better, and now she was curled in his arms, sleeping tightly and soundly. The soft snore coming from her mouth was like a melody he couldn’t get enough of, and the way her lashes fluttered, touching her cheeks told him whatever dream she was having, it wasn’t a nightmare. Which is a good thing after everything she’s been through. He feels terrible for deceiving her, for having Cara think that he and her phantom are two different people, but he has to hide his identity until she’s ready to embrace his dark side.Damon slid off his mask, having no need for it, and stared at Cara’s sleeping countenance. He traces his thumb over the fine bridge of her nose, down to her pouty lips before a static r

[Cara]“Cara, the situation is getting direr. Mr. Torrel wished to meet with you to discuss his shares in the company. Some of our investors also tried to make an appointment regarding the same issue.”Nancy barged into my office while I was buried with other papers. Too much is happening right now for me to have a lackadaisical moment.“What the hell do they want?” I let out a groan, slammed the folder I was going through, and then shot a glare at my friend, who is, by the way, the head of the finance department.“Here, take a look at this.” She thrust a black envelope in front of me, and I stared at it full of suspicion as though, at any moment, a snake would jump out of it and bite me in the neck.The death threat I received last week wasn’t helping much with my imagination. It was stressing me out, and I know I shouldn’t take it lightly, knowing my dad had been assassinated right before me two weeks prior.Well, whatever this shit is. It’s not going to reveal itself just by starin

[3rd POV—Damon]Something’s not right.Damon immediately sensed it to his bone the moment he took a step inside Cara’s bedroom. The first thing he noticed was that all the lights hadn’t been turned on. He knew it shouldn’t be a huge concern since he came around just a little past her bedtime. Only that, right now, she wasn’t tucked in her bed like where she was supposed to be, considering he came around during late hours. Or that she would already be waiting for him to come around. The air around her room was undisturbed and cold and seemingly felt desolate with the absence of her presence. Her scent was a little faint, as though she had not come home since leaving for work this morning.Damon searches further inside the vicinity. Investigating what might have transpired if she hasn’t indeed come home tonight.Her living room was as barren as the bedroom of her presence. The dishes she used this morning were still intact inside the washer, and the glass she used before leaving remai

[Cara] I know this was all just a figment of my hellish nightmare. The one that would hunt me for a week for having it. But it was too real…too vivid.Could they be real?The pain, the electrifying agony coursing through my bones while my body writhed into an awkward bend. Blood was gushing over the cuts he had incised into my bruised skin. My eyes inflated, and I could barely see anything.I was naked.Shivering with cold and hanging on a chain bolted to the ceiling inside a white-washed room. With my knees no longer able to hold up my weight, I could feel the bones on my wrists twisting and dislocating from the joints.My hair hangs in my face in thin clusters, sleek with the mixture of blood, tears, and sweat.He had done it.My captor, he had forced his way into me in the most macabre way.I am all in pain, yet the stinging soreness centered into my vaginal wall, flesh torn and bleeding all the way down to pool around my feet.“Dreaming of me?”I was jolted awake by the sound of

[3rd POV—Damon]Never in his entire life had Damon ever felt this frustrated over the span of three days with no leads about where in this goddamned green earth Cara was. He had dispersed all of his forces around the states and even farther afield, and even he had linked his connection to his satellite to get an overview of the vicinity where he had found Cara’s abandoned car. Nevertheless, whomever accomplished this properly knows his advantage, and they have moved discretely out of his radar’s range.Her mom and her best friend were calling him incessantly for any update on where she was, but he couldn’t answer them. All he could say to them was that he was doing his best to find Cara. Damon even thought it was the Rigby’s that kidnapped her since he had just recently killed their heir and sent them his head for touching Cara. He didn’t regret killing that boy, though. But when he walked into their front door and was about to set havoc in their place, the elderly man—the father kn