Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
I really shouldn’t put her under again, but I do it once more for the fun of it.
When she comes back up, I can see the fear in her eyes, and I know if I push much further, that desperation may turn against me. She’ll accept that even though she can’t wrap her head around it, she is fighting me for her life, and I don’t want to give her a chance to fight back.
I need her surrender and then her cooperation, and nothing more.
She sobs when I let her suck enough air into her lungs to expend it that way.
“How cooperative are you feeling?” I ask, holding her suspended above the water. “Do I need to dunk you again?”
“No,” she cries, fear leaping to her gaze. “No, please, don’t.”
“Okay,” I say calmly, so she knows it can be over as long as she behaves.
She sucks in hitching little breaths, the terror of what I’ve put her through coursing through her veins as her mind struggles to wrap around it.
I’m Tor Walters. Her loyal support of my family has never wavered, no matter what we’ve been accused of—no matter what we’ve done. Why would I do this to her?
It’s amazing that she didn’t learn with Tim. Being his backup fuck never made her more valuable to him. He used her because she always showed up, but if she hadn’t, he would have just used someone else. He wouldn’t have spared her a thought. She wasn’t special to him. He didn’t value her or care about her the way she hoped he would as payment for her loyal service. Respect doesn’t work that way.
She looks hurt, not understanding that carrying water for the bad guys doesn’t make her matter to them. Meanwhile, Cassie tried to burn my family to the ground for our wrongdoing, and I’m utterly obsessed with her. If she tried to do it again—hell, if she tried to burn me down—I would hand her a match.
But Cassie has a beautiful heart and a brain, and Nina clearly has neither because somehow this little fool is still grappling with the realization that we are the bad guys.
I guess it’s up to me to tell her.
“You’ve caused a lot of trouble for me, Nina. I know that wasn’t your intention, but you did. And now you’re going to help me fix it.”
She sucks in a series of gaspy little breaths before she looks up at me. “What… what are you talking about?”
I don’t feel like waiting for her to connect the dots, so I do it for her. “I need you to tell Cassie that you were mistaken last summer. It wasn’t Tim who fucked you at that party. It was me. You were drunk, and it wasn’t planned, it just sort of happened. You were having a good time, and you fell into my lap. When you kissed me, I kissed you back. You’re not all that careful about who you fuck, and all of my hookups have been meaningless, so I didn’t bat an eye about fucking you. Who at Holbrook High hasn’t?”
The dig is unnecessary and makes her flinch, but frankly, she’s getting off easy with a not-quite drowning and a couple of insults.
“The important thing to get across is that since you and I were fucking, Tim was able to accost her in his bedroom that night.”
Her brown eyes widen with horror as she finally realizes the implication behind my words. “You…”
“Yes, me,” I say, my tone bored. “But Cassie can’t know that. I plan to live happily ever after with her, and I promise that if you make that harder instead of easier for me, I will take great pleasure in hunting you down and finishing what I have started here tonight.”
Nina isn’t like Cassie. She’s not protective of people outside of her direct circle. She doesn’t have any moral qualms about handing Cassie over to a monster.
So she asks, “What do you need me to do?”
I smile. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. The picture was my insurance policy in case she discovered a deeply buried moral responsibility to stand in my way, but I should have known I wouldn’t need it. She’s not that kind of girl.
That’s too bad.
I had a whole speech planned.
Maybe I should deliver it anyway, just in case she’s lying to me, or she changes her mind once she gets away.
“Before I tell you, I should warn you that if you cross me, I will make your life a living hell. I will turn this town on you the way you helped turn it on Cassie—and I promise that I will be able to. People will choose me over you, the same way they chose Tim over Cassie. I will strip away everything that matters to you, and at the end, when nobody cares enough to miss you, I will kill you, and then I will never think of you again.”