“But we’re—”
“We’re what?” Kade snapped forward, lowering his face to hers. He wanted her to say it, to say that they were together so he could take that dream and crush it, leaving it broken at her feet. Elizabeth had been Kade’s friend since he was a child, but she was just like the rest of them, like Vince. She treated everyone she thought beneath her like shit. That was the main reason Kade entered this sex-only relationship with her in the first place, to make her feel useless. Somewhere along the line, though, he grew comfortable and kept her around… but tonight, tonight was when he would end it. No more. Elizabeth said nothing as Kade straightened his posture.
“Goodnight,” he said, dismissing her as he walked away.
It was wrong to judge Elizabeth for all that she had done, considering Kade was no better. The difference was, Kade tried, he really did. He kept his distance from Unfortunates most of the time, and he’d never degraded one in public. Then Nine came along and he was forced into the proceedings that came with owning a slave. He didn’t like it… seventy percent of the time he didn’t like it. What scared him the most was the thirty percent that craved it. That thirty percent bubbled to the surface whenever Nine was around and she’d slam it back down with her smart, sarcastic mouth, bringing the seventy percent back the right way. As far as he was concerned, she was his saviour as much as she was his condemner. She was both beautiful and terrifying, promising him redemption all while forcing him to sin harder than he ever had. Kade had to remember that he was in control. That she was a pawn that he needed to checkmate his father. She was a beautiful pawn, one that danced graciously along the board, but a pawn nonetheless.
∞Nine∞
My eyes flutter open and I blink rapidly, searching the darkness. My heart races in my chest… someone is here. My fingers tighten around the fabric and suddenly I hate that I’m lying naked in Kade’s bed. Then, I feel the edge of the mattress shift and I vigorously sit up, pressing as hard as I can into the headboard. I see his silhouette first… his head is down, his back arched. The image sends dread spearing through my body.
“Kade?” I whisper. “What’s wrong?”
No answer.
I reach for the bedside lamp, my fingers brushing over the smooth marble table before I find it. When I flick it on, I gasp at the sight of Kade as he sits on the edge of the bed with random splatters of blood on his clothing. I swallow hard, but inch closer, regardless of my survival instincts.
“I killed him,” he tells me, loosening his tie with his finger. “I hit him until he started bleeding…” Kade refuses to look at me. He keeps his stare ahead on the wall as he pulls the tie free and tosses it to the floor. “And then I choked him until he stopped moving.”
Horror freezes my organs as the visual of it plays out on my head. “W-why’d you do that?” I almost whisper.
He turns his body and looks at me like it’s obvious, like I already know the answer. “Because he ruined my plan, he interfered where he shouldn’t have, and because he touched you. He put his hands on you—in you—in my possession.”
“Possession?”
He stands up and quickly fingers the buttons to his shirt, exposing a sliver of his bare chest with every single one. “Yes, you are mine. You wear my crest. I own you.”
I frown, even though I know that, why does it hurt so much to hear? I thought tonight… the way he helped me, saved me, meant I mean more to him… I thought that maybe my life actually meant something to someone. I know better, I know he’s a Fortunate, but he saved me, and as I think about it, butterflies flutter anew in my stomach.
“My brother is next,” he states dryly as he lets his shirt fall to the ground.
Tendrils of dread burrow through my chest and I shift even closer, desperately clenching the blankets to my body. “No, you can’t—”
He swallows the distance between us in the next heartbeat and harshly grabs my face, drawing it closer to his. “Vince fucked me over for the last time. I am not his brother. I am relentless. I am cold. I am bloodthirsty and he is fucking dead to me.”
I want Vince gone—I do—but murder is not the answer. “Kade… you don’t want to do—”
A rough knock on the door forces me to eat the remainder of my words. Kade looks over his shoulder and releases me. When he looks back, there’s something on his face. Panic? Fear? It lasts only a second before his calm façade returns.
“Pretend to sleep,” he orders in an urgent whisper as he lies me back down.