“You're right. I'm sorry. It won't happenagain.”
“You're goddamn right it won’t,” he snarledand flipped me around, shoving my dress up all the way to the backof my neck.
Taking off his belt, he whipped me hardfifteen times over my back and ass until there was nothing butthick red marks left behind. As ifI wasn’t sore enough from halfway falling out of a tree. When hewas finished, my face was red as silent tears fell down my face.Darren then dragged me back into the house by my hair. And that waswhen I noticed the gardener standing at the side of the house,concern and anger clear as day across his face. Shit. Major badtiming.
My entire backside ached and burned the restof the day and well into the morning, the need between my legs longforgotten after Darren finished fucking me from behind in his bed.He didn't give a single fuck even when he tucked me against hisside that night. He said if I hadn't been so stupid and careless, Iwouldn't be in so much pain.
Of course, my punishments were always myfault, and I spent most of that night unable to sleep from tearsand pain. But I reminded myself it wasn’t all for naught. I finallyknew where I was and had a better understanding of the property Iwas a prisoner of. Tomorrow, I would start the new phase of my planof escape.
ChapterThirty-Two
Trouble
~*~
When I woke up in the morning, I looked downto find Jaden’s sleeping form and couldn’t help but smile. She hadrolled over in the night, resting her head on my shoulder as sheslept. It honestly amazed me how she could so quickly fill me withmurderous rage and then melt my black heart the next.
I had given her so much in the last month,more than I was ready to, but I had already compared Jaden to thelion in the zoo long before she ever told me about it … becausethat was exactly what I was afraid of. All I wanted was for Jadento know her place—to respect and obey me without question,surrender all of her passion to me, and laugh with me like she was happy. But I couldn’t forceher to be happy. What I could do was everything in my power to makeher happy, yet understand that it would never be enough. I justhoped she didn’t end up like the lion in the zoo.
She would never be happy with me as long asshe had something else to hold on to. I could see that she wastrying to make me happy, but it was for her own self-interests andbenefits. She knew what she needed to do to make things easier forherself, but the simple fact was shehated it. Jaden hated bowing down to me, but it wassomething she was going to have to get used to, and eventually, shewould. She’d only been with me barely a short couple of months, butalready there was so much improvement and so much potential.
I looked down at Jaden, feeling her softskin beneath my fingertips. She flinched a little in her sleep whenmy hand grazed down her back, still sore from my belt yesterday. Icouldn’t be surprised that she had climbed the tree to retrieve herkite; she’d probably done it all the time before me because she wasfearless—another trait I loved about her. It wasn’t as if I didn’tthink she was capable or coordinated enough to climb a damn tree,but the simple truth was it was still dangerous, and anything thatthreatened her safety had me raging inside.
Daniel had fallen out of one of those treesa long time ago when we were youngboys. He’d broken his arm then and our father had been furious,just as I was now. I had reprimanded the guards watching her andmade sure they knew Jaden was never to climb another fucking treeagain.
The sun started to shine through the windowsand the light poured over Jaden’s hair, igniting the beautiful redsand coppers that reminded me of fire. The fire I loved so much.
Eventually and reluctantly, I rolled out ofbed, careful not to disturb her, and headed downstairs for myworkout. After a good run and warm-up, I sparred with Scott for a while in theoctagon; he and I were too equallymatched for one of us to actually surrender. We would eventuallyjust tire each other out.
Two hours later, I went back upstairs tofind Jaden still sleeping in my bed. I took a quick shower and gotdressed, Jaden now finally waking up by the time I was done. Shestretched her naked body as I fastened my black chrome Rolex aroundmy wrist, her slight wincing hard to ignore.
“Good morning,” I said to her as I went toput on my jacket.
“Morning,” she said quietly, looking away. Ihated when I couldn’t see her eyes.
And then my phone started to ring. I pulledit from my pants pocket and answered, walking away toward my closetand out of Jaden’s earshot. I noticed she had been trying to listenin on some of my conversations lately. She thought she was sneaky,but she couldn’t hide much from me.
“Yeah?” I saidinto the phone.
“Darren, it’s Hagen.We’ve got a bit of a situation you’re going to want to handlepersonally. We’re on our way over to you now.”
I pinched thebridge of my nose. It was too early for this shitalready.
“What’s thesituation?” I asked.
“It’s about yourgirl.”
My head perked up.Well, now he had my attention.
“What’s yourETA?”
“Fiveminutes.”
I hung up thephone and headed out into my room. Jaden was still sitting on thebed, staring out the window.
“Go get dressed.”I pointed at her as I headed for the door.
She gave me astrange look but didn’t argue as I left the room, closing the doorbehind me. I didn’t have time to deal with her questions; ifsomething was up concerning her, then I needed to know rightfucking now. I gathered Scott and together,heand I and two other guards made our wayout to the front of the house. Hagen was just pulling up in hissheriff’s vehicle.
He stepped out,nodding in my direction as he began to head toward me while
