After the Storm (KGI #8)(114)

“You don’t learn,” he said softly. “But you will, Eve. You’ll learn that you will pay for defying me. I can be a patient man. You will agree to what I want.”

“Never!”

He smiled then, and it chilled Eve’s blood. “We’ll see how quickly you change your mind when I make a vegetable out of you. Perhaps after a few days in the institution you’ll see the error of your ways. It’s an honor I’m bestowing on you. You’re a fool to continue with this resistance. You won’t win. I’ll have you, Eve. And I’ll have Travis and Cammie.”

“You’ll never get near them,” she hissed. “He’ll never allow it. He’ll kill you.”

Walt’s eyebrows went up. “The lover who f**ked you over? Your faith in him surprises me.”

“Go to hell.”

His eyes narrowed as fury reddened his face. “No, Eve, but you will. You’re going right to hell. Before I’m finished with you, you’ll welcome my attentions. You’ll beg to get in my bed.”

“Never.”

The quiet vow fell between them. She lifted her head, staring at him through painful, swollen eyes.

His lips thinned and tightened, and then he lifted his hand, motioning for someone beyond her.

Fear and panic exploded through her veins as another man advanced on her, a syringe in his hand. She whirled, looking for an escape. Some way out of her circumstances.

Walt wrapped his hand in her hair and yanked her up short. His breath blew harshly over her face. His eyes glittered with sick arousal. The bastard was getting off on what he planned to do to her.

Realization settled over her like a suffocating fog. Once drugged, she had no power. He could do anything he wanted, even rape her, and she would be helpless to prevent it.

She fought back wildly, surprising him with her strength. Desperation lent her more than she possessed. She broke away and ran for the doorway. She was nearly there when she hit the floor, pain blistering through her.

Walt’s heavy body pinned her, his chest rising and falling with exertion. And then he laughed.

“I like a good fight,” he murmured. “Your mother never fought. She was too weak, too spineless. But you, Eve? Ah, I look forward to having you in my bed. I have a feeling it will always be a fight with you.”

She felt the prick of a needle. Felt the surge of medication forced into her body. Tears burned her eyelids. There was no escape. He could do anything he wanted with her.

“Get her up and get her out of here,” Walt bit out, the words seemingly coming from a mile away. “She’ll learn soon enough that she’ll do exactly as I want or suffer the consequences.”

CHAPTER 40

TRAVIS paced the floor of his father’s cabin, wondering for the hundredth time if he’d been wrong. What if his father didn’t come here? What if he was hundreds of miles away? What if he’d been so arrogant and so sure of himself that he had taken Eve back to California?

His father didn’t even know that Travis knew of this place. Or that he had the security codes to access the gate and to disarm the security system. No, his father thought him an inept idiot. At one time Travis had been bitter over that fact. Devastated at first and then bitter. And then finally resigned. He realized he no longer cared. He’d stopped craving his father’s approval when he was old enough to understand what a monster he was.

He saw how his father treated Eve, who was the sweetest person Travis knew. Eve had more integrity in her little finger than Walt could ever dream of. And it appeared Donovan as well.

Grief welled in his heart, spreading until his entire chest ached. How could he have been so wrong about Donovan? How could he have done what he did to Eve? How could he have lied, said he wanted them to be family when all along he never had any intention of loving and caring for Eve? No matter that he cared for him and Cammie. How could Travis ever be happy in a family that didn’t include the one person who loved him more than anyone did or ever would? Who’d sacrificed so much for him and Cammie?

The accusations Rusty had hurled at Donovan still rang in Travis’s ears. He winced, hearing them over and over, the shock of them still paralyzing him. He drew in a deep breath, pushing aside his grief.

He wouldn’t let Eve down. Not when she’d risked everything for him time and time again.

He froze when he heard the sound of a door opening. His grip tightened on the gun he carried and he rested it against his thigh, prepared to do whatever was necessary to defend himself but more importantly to get Eve out of his father’s grasp.

His father strode into the room and blinked in surprise when he saw Travis standing there. Then his eyes gleamed and Travis could see him calculating. Coming up with an excuse, a story. Bullshit was his specialty. Travis had learned that at a very young age and he could spot it a mile away.

“Well, well, well,” his father said in a dragged-out fashion. “What a surprise. I’d ask how you got here, how you even knew to get here, but it doesn’t matter. It merely saves me the trouble of getting both you and Cammie back.”

“What did you do with Eve?” Travis demanded. “Where is she? Did you hurt her? Did you kill her like you killed my mother?”

His father’s eyebrow rose. No, he wasn’t his father. He couldn’t refer to him as his father. He was Walt Breckenridge. And he was a bastard of the first order.