All Chapters of HE BROKE ME; THEN HE OWNED ME: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Raven.“Something’s off,” I muttered, dragging a hand down my jaw as I watched the estate footage again.Katherine didn’t look up from the mirror where she was applying dark lipstick. “Something’s always off with Thorne. Be more specific.”I paused the screen, an overhead drone image of Thorne’s compound, tighter security than usual. More guards. More movement. An unusual pattern in his routines.It wasn’t the kind of chaos that came from weakness. It was the kind that came from protecting something.Or someone.“He’s hiding something.” I leaned closer, zooming in on a window with tinted glass. “Ever since that warehouse explosion. He vanished for like ten days, and now his men are circling the estate like vultures guarding a feast. You think he's partying in private after avenging his beloved wife?”Katherine turned, lipstick capped, eyes gleaming with something between mischief and fear. “You t

ThorneShe was awake.I watched her from across the room, the way she refused to meet my eyes like my stare might burn through her skin. Maybe it would.I cleared my throat. “You’re quiet.”No response.The heart monitor beeped steadily. Too steadily. Like it was mocking me for caring whether it kept beating or not.I moved closer, slow, careful, like I was approaching a wounded predator. “Say something.”Her eyes shifted, finally, locking onto mine and they weren’t just angry. They were empty.Like I didn’t exist anymore. Like she’d already buried me somewhere in her mind and was just waiting for the body to follow.“You shouldn’t be here,” she whispered.I pulled a chair beside her bed and sat. “But I am.”“You ruined everything.”I leaned in, my voice a growl. “I know. You think I sleep? You think I don’t see your face every night, wondering how the hell I became

KatherineTroubled.Shhhhhhhh.The sound of the shower hissed over me like white noise smothering a scream. It was the only thing that didn’t lie to me.It didn’t ask questions. Didn’t dig. Didn’t accuse. Just poured. Rained. Cleansed.Water pounded on my skull like a warning I wasn’t ready to hear. My clothes clung to my body, soaked through, but I didn’t care.I hadn’t stripped them off because I didn’t want to feel bare. I wanted to drown in the fabric, in the pressure. It helped me pretend I still had control.I stood barefoot on the cold tiles, letting the chill climb my legs like the consequences I’d been outrunning for years.I used to be a ghost in this world. Untouchable. Untraceable. But now?Now Thorne was looking for me again.Why?Elena. She was supposed to be dead by now. The plan was airtight, leave her in his path, let her die with my name

Reid.Silence.I looked up at the towering skyscraper hotel, eyes locked on the exact room Thorne claimed to be occupying."Are you sure he's in there?" I asked, my voice low, cold.Cassius stood beside me, unmoved. "Thorne might be many things, ruthless, savage, a goddamn storm. But a liar? No. And he doesn’t fear you enough to fabricate something just to bring you to him."I frowned at that last part. He doesn’t fear me enough?Of course he doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t."My staff?" I asked, stretching out my hand.Cassius placed it into my palm with reverence.To the world, it looked like a cane, an elegant accessory, perhaps something for a limp.They didn’t know it housed mechanisms far crueler than bullets. Poisons that could melt nerves. Blades that sliced without sound. Needles that pierced arteries before a scream could be born.But today, I only needed it a

Lucia.We paused, breathless, skin flushed, tangled in the haze of what we were doing.There it was again… or maybe not.A faint sound. A cry? A scream?Dante and I froze, staring toward the passageway. But the silence that followed stretched long and undisturbed.Maybe it had been nothing. Maybe it was the creak of old pipes or a trick of the wind curling through the hidden corridors of this house.“I thought I heard something,” he muttered.“So did I…” I replied, breath still uneven, chest rising and falling as I clung to him.We hesitated. We should’ve gone to check, maybe. But we were crazed in the moment, drowning in lust, too far gone to let something vague and silent break it all apart.Still, we stepped out into the passage, naked and quiet, just to be sure. We didn’t go far. We just stood there, listening.Waiting.But no sound came.Nothing.Silenc