Chapter 3

Alana Casey POV:

In the car, he held my hand, his thumb stroking my knuckles in a gesture that was once comforting but now felt like the caress of a snake.

"I' m so sorry, Alana," he murmured, his voice laced with expertly feigned guilt. "I should have been paying more attention. I' ve been so distracted with... everything. I swear to you, it will never happen again."

He leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. "You must be terrified. Don' t worry. I' ll make it right."

I closed my eyes, unable to look at his handsome, lying face any longer. Every word was a calculated move in his twisted game. He wanted me broken, dependent, and grateful for his salvation. He wanted me to believe he was my protector, while he was the one who had thrown me to the wolves.

The drive seemed to last an eternity. We pulled up to a familiar, derelict factory on the outskirts of the city, a place we used for... interrogations. My stomach twisted.

Inside, a man was tied to a chair. He was beaten so badly his own mother wouldn' t have recognized him. He was barely conscious, his breathing shallow and ragged.

He wasn' t one of the men who had jumped me. I had never seen him before in my life. He was just a prop for Conrad' s stage.

The man' s one good eye fluttered open and landed on me. There was no recognition in it, only a dazed confusion. Then his gaze shifted to Conrad, and a spark of raw hatred ignited in their depths.

"You son of a bitch," the man spat, a trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth. "You set me up."

Conrad ignored him, his attention solely on me. He crouched down, forcing me to look at the broken man. "This is one of them, Alana. The scum who hurt you."

He then turned back to the man, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper. "You put your hands on my woman. You made her bleed. Now, I' m going to make you scream."

Conrad pulled out a gleaming hunting knife from his jacket. The man on the chair started to struggle, his eyes wide with terror. "Wait! Tell her the truth, Jensen! Tell her you paid me to-"

The man' s words were cut off with a choked gurgle as Conrad plunged the knife into his throat. He twisted it, his movements efficient and brutal.

Blood sprayed across the floor. Conrad pulled the knife out and turned to me, a sickeningly gentle smile on his face. Blood was spattered across his cheek, a stark contrast to his perfect features.

"He can' t hurt you anymore," he said softly, as if he had just presented me with a gift. He wiped the bloody knife on his pants and then held it out to me, handle first.

"Finish it," he said, his voice a calm command. "Make him pay for what he did to you. To us."

My hand trembled as I took the knife. My mind was screaming. This was insane. This was a performance, a sick, bloody pageant designed to bind me to him again through shared violence.

He placed his hand over mine, his grip firm and unyielding. Together, he guided my hand, forcing the blade deep into the dying man' s chest. Once. Twice. The sickening thud of the knife hitting bone echoed in the cavernous room.

The man' s body went limp.

Conrad pulled me into his arms, holding me tight against his chest as the sun began to set, casting long, bloody shadows across the factory floor.

"See, baby?" he whispered into my hair, his lips brushing against my temple. "We' re better when we' re together. Don' t ever try to leave me again. Don' t make me do things I don' t want to do."

He pulled back slightly, his hands cupping my face. His thumbs gently wiped away tears I hadn' t even realized I was crying.

"You are mine, Alana. You' re different from everyone else. As long as you' re a good girl and stay by my side, I will always protect you. I will always be here for you."

The words hit me with the force of a physical blow. Good girl. Protect you. It was the language one uses with a pet, not a partner. The eight years we' d spent building an empire together meant nothing. In his eyes, I was just a possession to be managed and controlled.

He smiled, a tender, loving smile that was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen. He let one hand drift down from my face to rest possessively on my still-sore abdomen.

"How' s our baby?" he asked, his voice soft. "I hope they weren' t too scared."

The question was so jarring, so utterly disconnected from the bloody reality of the past hour, that I physically recoiled. I stumbled back, out of his arms, my eyes wide with a fresh wave of horror.

He knew about the baby.

But he didn' t know it was gone. He thought this... this grotesque display of violence... was for all three of us.

"The... the baby' s fine," I stammered, my voice barely a whisper. "It' s still too early to feel anything."

"I' m tired, Conrad," I said, wrapping my arms around myself. "I want to go home."

He nodded, his loving-boyfriend mask slipping perfectly back into place. "Of course, baby. Let' s get you home to rest."

On the drive back, his phone buzzed incessantly. He kept glancing at it, a small smile playing on his lips. When we were a few blocks from our building, he pulled the car over.

"Something' s come up," he said, not quite meeting my eyes. "A mess I need to clean up. You go on up. I' ll be back later."

He leaned in to kiss me, but I turned my head so his lips landed on my cheek. He frowned slightly but didn' t push it. As he got out of the car, I caught a glimpse of his phone screen as it lit up.

A message from Eliana.

I' m scared, Conrad. I miss you. Can you come over?

He left me on the side of the road, covered in a stranger' s blood, and went running to her.

I didn' t take a cab. I walked. I walked for three hours, the cold night air doing nothing to clear my head. The city lights blurred around me. Each step was a testament to my foolishness. Each breath was a reminder of the man I had given everything to, and the man he had become.

When I finally reached the front door of our building, my legs were aching and my soul was numb. I fumbled for my keys, my hands still shaking.

Just as I found the right key, a sharp pain exploded at the back of my head.

The world went black for the third time in as many days.

This time, I woke up to the sound of a knife being sharpened. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. The rhythmic, grating sound set my teeth on edge.

I was in a different warehouse. Duller, dirtier. And I wasn' t alone.

Across the room, tied to another chair, was Eliana. Her face was pale, her big eyes wide with terror.

A man I vaguely recognized stood between us, testing the blade' s sharpness against his thumb. Jefferson Gonzalez. The head of the rival Gonzalez cartel. A man whose shipments we had been systematically intercepting for the past six months.

"Well, well," Gonzalez said, his eyes flicking between me and Eliana. "Look what my boys dragged in. Two for the price of one." He smirked, a cruel, ugly thing. "Jensen' s been a real thorn in my side. Kidnapped one of my best men last week. I think it' s time I returned the favor."

His eyes lingered on Eliana, then drifted to me. His gaze dropped to our stomachs. A slow, predatory smile spread across his face.

"And what' s this? Two pregnant bitches? Jensen' s been busy." He chuckled, a low, guttural sound. "He' s going to have a hard time choosing which one to save."

He walked over to Eliana, the knife glinting in the dim light. He cut her bonds. She scrambled back, whimpering.

"Please," she whispered, tears streaming down her perfect face. "Please don' t hurt me. I' ll do anything."

Gonzalez laughed. "Oh, I' m sure you will." He reached out and ripped the front of her dress. She shrieked, cowering away from him.

While his attention was on her, I worked silently, frantically, sawing the ropes that bound my wrists against a sharp piece of metal jutting out from my chair. The fibers were starting to give. Just a little more time.

Then Eliana spoke, her voice high and trembling, but with an undercurrent of something I hadn' t heard before. Cunning.

"Wait!" she cried out. "You have the wrong one!"

Gonzalez paused, turning to look at her.

"Her!" Eliana pointed a shaking finger at me. "She' s the one you want! I' m nobody! I' m just a student! She' s Alana Casey, Conrad' s COO! His right hand! She' s the one who plans everything! All those shipments you lost? That was her!"

My blood ran cold. The ropes on my wrists fell away, but I was frozen in place, staring at the girl who Conrad believed was too pure to even step on an ant.

"And... and your man," Eliana sobbed, her words tumbling over each other. "The one Conrad took last week? She' s the one who gave the order! I heard them talking about it! She said he was a liability and needed to be dealt with permanently!"

I stared at her, my mind reeling. The innocent, fragile art student was a viper. A liar. And she had just signed my death warrant to save her own skin.

Gonzalez' s face darkened, his eyes turning on me with a renewed, murderous fury. "Is that so?" he snarled, advancing on me.

In that moment, I finally understood. Eliana wasn' t a distraction. She was a weapon. And she had been aimed at me from the very beginning.