Rook POV **Warning this chapter includes Dub-Con**His eyes widen, his breath hitching for just a fraction of a second. But then, just as quickly, he shakes it off, snapping right back into his anger, shoving the reaction away like it never existed.“You can’t just claim someone,” he bites out. “You can’t just say I’m yours when you have nothing from me! You kissed me, that doesn’t mean shit! That doesn’t make me yours!”I sigh, already bored of his little outburst.Then he makes a mistake. “Paul fucked me,” he sneers, his voice dripping with venom. “He owns more of me than you ever could.”My grip tightens on the wheel, my pulse slowing to something dangerous.He laughs, mocking, taunting, enjoying the reaction he thinks he’s getting. “Hell, even Darren owns more of me than you do.”I slam on the brakes, the tires screeching against the road as the car jerks to a sudden stop. Kade barely has a second to react before I’m out of my seat, yanking open his door and grabbing him by the co
Rook POVHe’s a fucking mess. I thought he was stronger than this, more resilient, more stubborn, more mine. I’ve spent years pushing him, chipping away at him, watching him almost break and rebuild himself over and over again, just to knock him down again. He’s taken my shit for so long that I thought he could withstand anything. But my father? Fuck. My father shattered him in a week. A week.That’s impressive, I can’t deny it, but it also pisses me off. I had a plan. A long, drawn-out, torturous plan. I was going to take my time with him, make him fight me every step of the way until there was nothing left to fight with. I wanted to watch him crack slowly, wanted to see him resist and resist until he finally begged for me to fuck him.Instead, my father sped up the process, ripped through him like it was nothing, and now Kade is already at the edge.It’s almost disappointing. I wanted to make him desperate, make him crave it, make him ask for it. I wanted to stretch him out on the h
Rook POVMy father watches me for a moment, his fingers tapping against the glass in his hand before he sighs, setting it down with a dull thud. “Enough about Mercer. There’s business to take care of,” he mutters, rubbing a hand over his jaw before pushing himself up from the chair.I arch a brow, stretching out lazily but already knowing where this is going. “Business?” I echo, amused. “That your way of saying you need me for something?”His lips twitch, but it isn’t a smile, just that knowing look that tells me whatever he’s about to say isn’t up for negotiation. “A shipment came in late. Someone’s been fucking around with my routes, and I need to send a message,” he says, cracking his neck before grabbing his coat from the back of the chair. “And since you’re so damn unbothered about Mercer, you can come along.”I sigh but stand anyway, shoving my hands into my pockets as I follow him out the back door of the villa. The air is crisp, the sky dark and quiet, but the silence doesn’t
Kade POVThe pounding in my skull is relentless, a deep, stabbing ache that makes it hard to focus. My body feels too heavy, my limbs sluggish, weighed down by something I can’t place. The air around me is cold, pressing against my bare skin in a way that feels wrong, and when I try to shift, to lower my arms so that I can push myself up, something jerks me back, stopping me mid-motion.A sharp clank of metal rings out, the sound slicing through my haze like a gunshot. I blink, my breath catching as I force myself to register what just happened. My arms are stuck. My wrists are secured. Slowly, I lift my head, the dull weight of exhaustion dragging against me as I follow the pull of resistance, eyes locking onto the handcuffs wrapped tight around my wrists.Thick, heavy-duty steel glints under the dim light, the chain stretched taut, looped around the top bar of the bed behind me. The second I process what I’m seeing, my body reacts. My pulse kicks up, my muscles tensing as I yank, tr
Kade POVHe watches me carefully, waiting for something, waiting for a reaction that I refuse to give him.“You still think this is a game,” he finally says, his voice quieter now, lower, like he’s talking more to himself than to me. “That’s fine. You’ll catch up soon enough.”I scoff, shifting my shoulders, rolling the tension out as much as I can with the limited movement I have. “You keep telling yourself that,” I mutter.His smirk flickers, just for a second, and I know I’ve hit something. He doesn’t like that I’m still pushing, that I haven’t given him the satisfaction of backing down.Good.I settle in, relaxing into the position like I have all the time in the world. “What now?” I ask, voice dry, unimpressed. “You gonna keep me locked up here like some kind of pet? Gonna drag me around, tell everyone you finally broke me?”He leans in closer, so close I can feel his breath against my skin, so close that for a second, the air between us tightens, like the tension is about to sna
Kade POV“Go on,” he murmurs, voice laced with a quiet threat. “Fight me. Push back. Watch what happens when I leak that fucking video behind my father’s back. You’ll be back in that trailer before you can even beg me not to.”My stomach twists, the air between us thick and suffocating. Shit.I wanted this,I wanted to push him, to taunt him, to make him snap and lose that thin grip he had on his self-control. But I also know exactly where my limits are, and I know damn well I can’t afford to lose everything.I can’t risk losing my career. I can’t risk my mother being stuck in that fucking trailer for the rest of her life, and Rook knows that.“Now open up,” he orders, his tone leaving no room for argument.Everything in me screams to keep fighting, to resist, to keep taunting him just to prove that I’m still in control of something, but I can’t. Not this time. Because in the end, it isn’t about pride. It’s about survival.So I obey. His fingers tighten in my hair as he thrusts deep, g
Rook’s POVHe’s laughing. Laid out beneath me, wrists still cuffed to my bed, completely at my mercy, and he’s fucking laughing.I feel it, a deep pulse of something dark, something dangerous, curling inside me as I watch the smirk play across his lips. He knows what he just did, knows exactly how far he’s pushed me, knows that I’m hanging by a thread, and he loves it.My fingers tighten around his hips, my grip bruising, possessive, it's the only thing keeping me from completely losing it. He feels perfect beneath me, like he was always meant to end up right here, pinned, unable to fight, finally fucking admitting he’s mine.“You really don’t fucking learn, do you?” My voice is low, almost calm, but I feel the way he tenses, the way his body reacts despite the smirk still tugging at his lips.I lean down, my weight pressing into him, my mouth hovering just above his. His breath is warm, uneven, his chest rising and falling beneath me, his skin flushed, his body so fucking wired from
Rook POVHis smirk widens, knowing he’s landed a hit. “I’ll scream his fucking name so loud you’ll hear it for weeks,” he continues “And you’ll finally learn that you. Do. Not. Own. Me.”The last of my patience burns away, incinerated by the fucking audacity of him, by the way he’s looking at me like I don’t already own every single fucking part of him. I thrust into him, my hands gripping his hips like a vice, and his taunting words break apart instantly.He groans, a sound torn from his throat before he can stop it, his fingers clenching into the sheets beneath him. I press him into the mattress, my weight locking him in place, making sure he feels every inch of what he just asked for.“You think you can—”I slam into him again, cutting him off. His body arches, another deep sound spilling from his lips before he bites down into the sheets, trying to muffle himself.“You don’t own—”Another thrust. Another ragged, helpless fucking groan.“You can’t fuck for—” I push deeper, harder,
Kade POVPain drags me from sleep, and I move slightly, opening my eyes to see we’re on the plane. I can’t remember anything after Rook getting me. I turn, and he’s sitting beside me.He looks wrecked, he’s worried. Smirking, I nudge him, and he turns to face me. “Sorry I was late home.”Groaning, he punches my arm, and I grunt. “Shit, sorry,” he mutters.“It’s fine, that was the only part of my body that didn’t hurt. Now it feels included,” I mock, and he groans.“Like I care that you were home late. Fucked-up thinking, Kade.”I shrug slightly. “Shame, if you were angry, the sex to punish me would have been fucking epic.”“You’re totally fine, clear. Go back to sleep, nob.”Smirking, I lean my head against his shoulder and hold in the groan. At least now he’s smiling and not so worried about me. “Where&
Rook POVI tilt my head, watching him writhe. “You’re holding out for them, huh? You think they’re watching? That they’re waiting to see if you can handle a little pain before they decide you’re worth saving?”He chokes on his breath, his fingers twitching against the blood-slick table.I grip his chin, forcing him to look at me. “They don’t give a fuck about you. Every second you sit here thinking you’re being loyal, you’re just another second closer to dying for people who don’t even know your fucking name.”He sucks in a broken breath, but his lips stay pressed together.“Fine.” I grab his pinky, and before he can even brace for it, I snap it back. A sickening crack echoes through the room, his strangled scream tearing from his throat as he thrashes.I let him writhe, let the pain settle deep into his bones before I lean in close. “You've got a few fingers left. You ready to waste them all for people who wouldn’t piss on you if you were o
Rook POVI yank the knife out and slam my fist into his ribs. He chokes on a breath, curling in on himself, but I don’t give him time to recover before I drive my knee into his stomach. He crumples to the floor, coughing, blood dripping from his mouth.“You’re making this worse for yourself,” I warn, crouching in front of him. “You think you’re gonna hold out? You think you’ll last?”“I don’t—” His voice cuts off in a strangled cry as I grab his fingers, wrenching one back until it snaps.His scream rips through the room, raw and desperate.I grip his hair, forcing his head up to meet my eyes. “You’ve got nine more before I move onto something worse. Now tell me. Where. Is. He?”Tears spill down his face, his chest rising and falling rapidly. His lips tremble, but he still doesn’t fucking answer.“Stubborn,” I mutter before grabbing another finger and snapping it just as easily as the first. His body jolts, another scream tearing from
Rook POVThis is impossible. There’s no footage from the back of the restaurant, the lead that Lorenzo found is a dead end. I’m beginning to think that note was planted to bait Kade, and now I wonder, did he even see it? Did he walk into this blind?Every fucking move I’ve made has led me in a circle. There’s nothing. No trail, no whispers of where he might be. I’ve had a list of names from Lorenzo, people in this country who might have had the balls to pull something like this. I went through them one by one. Each name dragged in, each one screaming in pain, but all swearing the same thing—they don’t know anything.How the fuck can none of them be involved? My eyes shift to the men in the room, the ones we brought with us. And for the first time, I wonder, are they all innocent? Something isn’t adding up.Nine hours.Nine fucking hours since Kade disappeared, and my father’s words echo in my head.Find him, or he’s dead
Kade POVDanielle watches, waiting, maybe hoping that I’ll finally break. I don’t. I inhale slowly, shaking the blood from my lips, and laugh.“How long do you think you’ve got left?” I ask, my voice rough but still steady. “Every minute you waste here? That’s more time my men have to find me. And when they do? You’ll be fucking wishing you killed me the second I walked through that door.”The guy in front of me hesitates, glancing back at her, waiting for an order.“Keep going,” she snaps, her voice sharper now.He does. Another punch to my ribs, another to my jaw, but I don’t stop grinning. The pain is sharp, burning through my body, but I don’t let it show. They want me to break. They want me to plead. That’s never going to happen.Danielle steps closer, her eyes locked onto mine. “You think you’re so fucking smart, don’t you?” she
Kade POVI hiss through my teeth, more from the annoyance than the pain. “There you go. That’s a little better.”She glares, dragging the blade in a shallow cut across my side, but she’s still holding back. Testing me. I shake my head, sighing.“See, this is why you’re not going to win,” I say, my voice steady despite the sting. “You don’t actually know how to do this.”Danielle scoffs. “Oh, I don’t?”I tilt my head. “No. If you did, you wouldn’t be wasting time with this weak shit.”She presses the knife in harder, and I grin, feeling her frustration build. “You want to break someone? You don’t start here,” I say, nodding toward my ribs. “You start small. Fingers. Knees. Maybe a little nerve damage if you want to get creative.”She stills, something flickering across her face. Disgust. Uncertainty.&ldq
Kade POVHer nostrils flare as she presses the blade harder, drawing a thin line of blood. “You don’t hold the power here.”“Don’t I?” I whisper, locking eyes with her. “Then why are you the one trying to prove something?”Her grip tightens on the knife, but she hesitates. That’s her biggest fucking problem. She doesn’t commit. She doesn’t know how to follow through.“Let me tell you how this plays out,” I continue, voice smooth despite the sting on my cheek. “You keep me here, keep trying to break me, but it doesn’t work. Eventually, you get frustrated, you get sloppy, and then my men find me. And when they do, you don’t walk away from this.”Her eyes narrow. “You sound pretty fucking confident for someone tied up right now.”“Because I know how this ends.” I smirk. “And so do you.”Danielle exhale
Kade POVLorenzo is weird. Not in a bad way, just… he’s always had that tone in his voice that says he’s not right in the head, and sitting here, talking to him, I know he’s far from right.I glance at my phone again. I know it’s disrespectful, but I want to stay on time and prove to Rook that I won’t mess up.“You keep looking at it,” Lorenzo taps the phone.“Sorry, I just want to stay on schedule.”He nods. “I understand that, which is why, as soon as the hour is up, my watch will vibrate to remind me,” he laughs, and I nod.Maybe that’s what I need to do—rather than constantly checking my phone.I go back to focusing on our conversation, making sure he knows exactly who I am and the kind of person I am. He talks a bit about Nikolai and the time they spent together when he had just started taking over here. He respects Nikolai&mdash
Rook POV“Find him!” I shout, turning back toward the others, fury and fear bleeding into every word.“We’re working on it,” Damon says quickly. “But his phone was found out the back of the restaurant. Smashed.”No. No, no, no. That phone was the only way to find him.“Track my phone,” I demand. “Whoever it is has my phone. Track it!”“We already tried when you didn’t answer my calls,” one of the men mutters. “It’s not giving off a signal.”My head shakes violently. “Nothing? You’ve had nothing? Not a single fucking thing to give you a hint of what they want?”Damon hesitates.I step toward him. “What is it?”His jaw clenches before he finally speaks. “Lorenzo dug into it and he mentioned there were three targets. Kade, you… and Harlow.”Everything inside me stills.