He released myhair with a shove, and my mind officially went numb. I was inshock, yet I was in denial of what he actually said. I felt myheart race as my breathing pattern increased, panic rising in myblood while tears pooled at the corner of myeyes.
Darren was goingto kill my entire family.
My horror mixedwith the screams of my rescue victim was enough to completely send me over the edge.I felt my lips curl up in a snarl, exposing my teeth as I thoughtabout Darren murdering my family. I shook with rage, the screams ofthe gardener ringing through my ears, and finally, I just … lostit.
I lunged at Darrenfrom the floor, screaming like an absolute animal as the force ofmy advance caused the chair he sat in to flip backward. Darren andI crashed on the floor while I rained fists and elbows down on hisface.
“I’ll fucking killyou!” I screamed in total fury. “I swear to God, Iwill!”
I only got in afew hits before Darren threw me off him, but he didn’t throw mefar. He kept a strong grip on my dress before quickly rightinghimself, gripping the collar of my dress with both hands, andyanked me under himwith such force the fabric ripped. Terror filled me, but Icontinued to fight. I wasn’t backing down. Not after a threat likethat.
I managed to getone more good elbow jab across his face, but it didn’t even fazehim. Instead, the growl that manifested itself accompanied by theintense glare of Darren’s eyes made me feel like my entire worldwas about to end. He didn’t even hold back this time. He straightup close-fist punched me right in the face and that was it. Lightsout.
~*~
I stood overJaden’s unconscious body, my chest heaving up and down with rage asI fought to control myself. I had lost it, completely fucking lostit, and silenced Jaden’s defiance in a way I never thought I would.I knew I would probably regret it in the morning, but I was toopissed to give a shit at the moment.
The buzz of thedrill silenced while the pleas and cries of the stupid fuckinggardener continued and I couldn’t stand the pathetic sound of itanymore. I grabbed one of the throwing knives I kept in my jacket,turned, and swiftly threw it right into the gardener’s jugular. Iwould have shot him, but the sound of the gun without a silencerwould have shattered everyone’s ears. His screams instantly turnedto gurgling as he began to choke on his own blood. I watched as thelight faded from his eyes, satisfaction filling my soul knowing themeddling piece of shit was dead.
“Clean him up,” Iordered my men as I reached down and liftedJaden.
I threw her overmy shoulder and headed out of the basement shed. I took her backinto the house and down to the black room where she would remainfor the rest of the day. Placing her in her cage, I made sure theside of her now bruising face laidonthe cold floor of the cage in hopes ofbringing down the swelling by the time she woke up. Locking thedoor of the cage, I stepped back to admire my beautiful girl as sheslept away her pain.
Now that I hadcalmed down, I felt like an asshole for hitting her like that. Ihad warned her so long ago that if she didn’t listen to me, I couldsnap and then I’d really hurt her. Today was exactly what I meant.I guess I couldn’t really blame her for attacking me like that; Ihad just told her I was going to kill her entire family. I probablywould have done the same thing. The problem was she should haveknown better. She should have known she wasn’t going to win againstme, yet she went after me anyway like the stubborn little girl shewas.
My poor littleJaden. So much fury in such a tiny body. She probably wouldn’tspeak to me after this for a while, which was probably a goodthing. Nothing good ever came out of her mouth anyway, unless itwas my dick.
I pulled out myphone and dialed Scott, whom I had left with my guards to helpclean up the gardener and ensure my orders for the miserable fuck’spathetic little family were carried out.
“Yeah,” heanswered on the first ring.
“Meet me in myoffice,” I said, heading for the stairs and hungup.
Time to startmaking preparations for Jaden’s family.
ChapterThirty-Four
Deal
I woke upshivering with a massive headache and a dull pain throbbing in mycheek. I opened my swollen eyelids to find myself surrounded bydarkness, but I knew where I was. I was back in mycage.
I curled intomyself, wrapping my arms around my legs as I began to shed thenecessary tears over today’s events. That was the most gruesome andtraumatic thing I had ever witnessed. I wasn’t completely sensitiveto blood and gore. After working at a personal injury law firm forso long, I had seen some pretty disgusting autopsy photos andinjuries, but nothing compared to this. I could still hear thegardener’s screams echoing in my ears. It was as if I was backthere, in the basement, watching him suffer because of me. I criedharder then, my body shaking with grief and guilt as I blamedmyself for the horror of that poor man’s final moments of life. Ididn’t even know how it ended.
In a way, I wasglad Darren had knocked me out. It meant I didn’t have to continuewatching the torture show that I would never forget. But now, I hada new horror to panic for. Darren had revealed he really wasplanning on killing my entire family. It had been a month since helast revealed the idea to me, and I thought maybe he had dropped itsince then, but apparently I was wrong. The thought of him forcingme to watch them die as I had watched the gardener had me panickingall over. Time was of the essence now. I had to warn them. I had toget a message out, but I didn’t know how.
I certainlycouldn’t use another person as my messenger. Darren would just
