“Over there?” she asks with her finger pointed. Colin and I look toward a cot with a pillow and chains hanging from the concrete walls.

“That’s perfect,” Colin gleams. “And the camera is set up?”

Annie huffs. “Why do you want to tape this? It will be really bad if we ever get caught.”

Colin shakes his head furiously. “No way. I want my first time with Luca West on video.”

Annie looks pained as she picks up the bucket and takes it to the sink on the other side of the basement.

“Why does she look so sad?” I ask, my voice is steel. I could give two fucks about how sad she is. If Lucia were here instead of Luca, I might enjoy screwing this man right in front of her, if only for the satisfaction of seeing her squirm while the man she loves take another. Stupid. Stupid girl.

Colin pulls me over to the bed and as he starts to chain me to the wall, he rolls his eyes. “She thinks I want to fuck her.” He laughs and looks back at Annie. “She didn’t know she was just a stepping stone to you. She isn’t all that bad in bed and I’ll probably do her again. She likes it rough and up the ass.” He looks her way, his eyes landing on her behind.

I blanch at his disgusting, vulgar words. Annie’s snickering sounds forced and yet, I imagine that she listens to this type of talk from Colin all the time. I look to find her setting up a tripod and a video camera directed toward me. I am still so damn cold, but don’t know what type of treatment I will receive from Colin if I say so. It is definitely warmer than the barn… where Heath is still tied up and dying. My heart sinks and I remind myself that all those times I took advantage of the men and their jewels were wrong. I should’ve listened to the angel on the right shoulder when it said to be the good girl my parents expected from me.

I can’t help but start to cry. My parents have absolutely no idea the fucking mess I am in. I hiccup when I think of what they will say at my funeral. Will they be so disgusted when they hear about the life I’ve led for all of these years that they decide against a funeral? Who the hell would go after everything I’ve done to hurt my friends, my business, and my family?

“She’s crying, Colin,” Annie laughs out. “I think it’s time we give her a little something to really cry about.” She sounds so damn pleased with herself. Doesn’t she know she is committing crime after crime? She never would have gotten a job at Divider with a record, so either she didn’t tell us who she really is or she is changing everything she is for this joker. For a moment, I feel badly for her. She is a promising woman who is mixed up with the wrong type of people.

The wrong type of person.

Me.

I am the key ingredient to all of this. I did this with my lifestyle. I never thought any harm could come to me, and yet, here it was all along.

Colin looks taken back from the tears streaming down my face. It looks like he is struggling between wanting to reach out and brush the tears away and well…something else. Something much different. I notice the minute his face turns resolute and he’s made his decision.

Leaning up against the wall with my hands chained taught, I watch as Colin puts his forearms underneath my ass. He pulls down my yoga pants and stares at the tiny white lace thong I have left on. His breathing becomes hard as he pulls out a knife.

I gasp and scream at the same time, knowing that he wants to cut me. He wants to fucking cut me, all over my body, so I am ugly to all the other men out there. For the first time in my life, I don’t care about how any other man will look at me. I care about Camden, and if by some miracle I do survive this, I know without a doubt he will love me no matter what I look like.

“Spread your legs,” he growls out. He shucks off his shoes and tosses them to the wall far away from my cot. Turning around, he sees that I haven’t complied with his demands and he grows agitated.

“Spread those fucking legs, Luca,” he lividly yells, shoving the knife closer to my pussy to make a point.

“What…what are you going to do?” I struggle to get out. Annie laughs and I throw a look at her to see that she is already recording whatever it is he is going to do.

“Well, first, I’m going to have some fun with that beautiful pussy of yours. Then, I’m going to cut you in ways that will make you bleed all over, so you’ll remember who was here. You will beg for me to lick your wounds, then I plan to take that ass of yours forever.” He pauses, before saying, “Should I continue with what I’m going to do with you after I eat dinner?”

I shake my head vigorously. Panic encompasses my whole being. I am filled with such panic that I think I am going to fucking pass out. This is just like my dream I had about Heath, but, fuck, it was Colin all along.

“Why?” I draw out the word through my gritted teeth.

Colin pushes my legs apart for me as he slowly rubs his hands up and down the insides of my thighs.

“So beautiful,” he states, mesmerized.

A grunt comes from Annie behind him. He whips his head around with a foul look on his face. “Get the fuck out of here, Annie. Your services are no longer needed at this time.”

She pales as I watch them stand off in a stare down. What the fuck did she think was going to happen?

“You said you were going to torture her, not make her feel good. You said…” Annie starts.

“I changed my fucking mind. I’ve wanted Luca since I first met her. She was always meant to be mine, and if there is a tiny chance she will agree to be mine, I plan to have a long, happy life with her. She was always supposed to be mine.” His? I will never be his. I would rather him kill me, cut me until there is nothing left. Never will I be his.

Annie looks as if she was just punched in the face. “But you said you loved me,” she whimpers to Colin. I want to snort, but I am so damn cold and terrified, I can’t find it in me to sympathize with the fucking bitch.

“Get the fuck out of here, Annie!” Colin screams out at her.

Annie scrambles to move toward the stairs. With one look over her shoulder, I see the contempt and hatred she has for me. How can she seriously be in love with this fucker? He is certifiably psychotic and she wants him? Like this? She threatened to kill me, so I couldn’t have him. Why is she walking away? I want to scream at her to come back, to make good on her promise to let me die by her hands. My tortured soul to float away into the red and black depths of hell.

Turning my head back to Colin, his sinister smile makes me want to throw up. He takes the knife down to the edge of one side of my thong and with a snap, he cuts it off. He slowly moves to the other side with the tip of the knife grazing my stomach. Another snap and my thong is off. His deep inhale tells me he is happy. The erection he grinds against my leg tells me he is about to do things to me that I never imagined.

“Please, not like this. I don’t want to get pregnant. I don’t want you to…” I try to think of anything that will get him to stop. He has to stop and I have no control over how to get this done.

Colin begins to chuckle as his tongues starts to lick the line above my pussy where the knife had just skimmed.

“Please, I don’t feel so good. I think I’m going to be sick. I…I…” Tears are flowing down my face and I feel so damn helpless. He is going to rape me and there is nothing I can do about it.

“Will you just shut up for a little while? I’m not going to take you on a basement cot. We have lots of time to be with each other. This is the beginning of us, Luca. Don’t you see? We were always meant to be together. When I have you, it will be in a bed, surrounded by candles and you won’t be tied up against your will. You will want me just as much as I want to be with you.”

Loud stomping and yelling comes from above and I twist out of Colin’s hold on my stomach, only to feel the burning of the blade cut into my skin. Even the cold strumming its way through my body doesn’t stop the sharp pain where he glides his knife through my flesh. He fucking did it. He cut me. But when I look up to his face, he is scowling at the ceiling of the basement, not realizing that he cut me. I look down to see it is about an inch long and it probably wasn’t premeditated. When I moved, he cut me. I shouldn’t have moved. What am I thinking?