Rush (Breathless #1)(107)

Everything having to do with her, he’d done wrong from the very start. That f**king contract. The secrecy. The way he’d treated Mia. And now he was responsible for a huge wedge between her and Jace, and Jace and himself. One that none of them may ever recover from.

Was it any wonder that Jace had gone ballistic? He put himself in Jace’s and Ash’s shoes for a brief moment and pictured what they’d walked in on. Imagined how it must have looked to them. Jace’s baby sister tied and bound, helpless while Gabe was using a crop on her ass. There’d been red welts all over her behind.

He cringed because there was no way for them to understand how it had really been. He recognized that he was damned in their eyes. He couldn’t even blame them. And he was ashamed that he’d put Mia in a position where anyone could ever think that she was being abused and ill-treated.

She deserved so much more. Someone who would treat her like a f**king princess, like the treasure she was. Not some twisted, f**ked-up, self-absorbed bastard like him.

“How could you take advantage of her like this?” Jace raged. “You offer her a job and put her in a situation where she thinks she has to do whatever you want because you’re in a position of power over her? I could kill you for this. That you had no more respect for her, no more respect for our friendship. You aren’t the man I thought I knew, Gabe.”

Gabe closed his eyes, feeling sick to his soul. Jace was twisting the knife deeper, and the hell of it was that everything he said hit Gabe where he lived. He knew Jace was right. He had no defense. There was none.

Gabe knew he hadn’t treated her right. Hadn’t given her the respect she deserved. God, what if she had felt like she had to agree to everything because she worked for him, because his obsession with her was so heavy and intense that he gave her little choice in the matter? He’d taken over her life, her body. He’d consumed her until there was nothing left.

The very thing he’d been most afraid of—of him taking her until there was nothing left, and of him changing the very things about her that brought him the most pleasure—was happening.

She’d been deeply upset and traumatized by what had happened in Paris. And it had all been Gabe’s fault. And she’d initially agreed to it instead of calling a halt to it because she’d signed that f**king contract giving up all her rights.

She’d felt compelled to do it. She didn’t feel as though she had a choice. Yeah, he’d told her she could say no, but at what cost?

How much else had he forced on her?

“Swear to God, I’ll never forgive you for this,” Jace said hoarsely. “I’m getting her the hell out of here and then you stay the f**k away from her. Don’t you ever try to contact her again. You forget she even exists.”

Ash finished untying Mia, and then he bundled her in his arms before she could do or say anything. He ushered her into the bedroom where he wrapped one of Gabe’s bedsheets around her.

He fumbled through Gabe’s bathroom before finally coming out with a robe and then he secured it around her, tying the end in a double knot.

“Jesus, Mia, are you all right?” Ash demanded.

No, she wasn’t all right. It was a stupid question. She was appalled and humiliated that Ash and her brother had burst in unannounced to Gabe’s apartment, and seen her bound and naked. It was something out of her worst nightmares. And to make it worse, Jace was beating the crap out of Gabe and Gabe was doing nothing to fight back. Nothing to defend himself.

She forced herself to sit there and breathe deeply, to gather her composure when what she wanted to do was run to Gabe and then explain to Jace. Just like they’d planned to do when Jace returned home from his business trip. Just one more day. It was all they’d needed.

She was numb with shock. So numb that she couldn’t process the simplest thing. All she knew was that she had to get to Gabe. She had to end this. She had to fix this! God, she had to make everything right. All her fears had been realized and now two men who’d been best friends almost as long as she’d been alive were in a terrible fight.

Hot tears pricked her eyelids and she swallowed them back, fiercely determined to maintain her calm, but she was shaking violently. The last thing she wanted was for Ash and Jace to see her upset and think it was because of anything Gabe had done to her.

“Ash, I’m fine,” Mia said, her voice quavering. “I’d prefer you go to make sure they aren’t killing each other.”

Ash’s expression was dark. “I’m not stopping Jace if he wants to beat the shit out of Gabe. The bastard deserves it for what we walked in on. Jesus, Mia, are you crying? Did he hurt you? Did he force himself on you? Are you all right? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Mia hastily wiped at her face, horrified by the direction Ash was going with his questions. Did he and Jace truly believe that what was going on was nonconsensual? She supposed it could have looked that way, but surely they were familiar enough with Gabe’s preferences to know he regularly indulged in such things.

Or maybe it was because she was their baby sister and all they could see was her tied down naked to an ottoman and being flogged. She winced at the sight she must have presented. She could understand why Jace had lost his mind. Who wouldn’t if they’d walked in on what they’d witnessed?

But she had to make them understand.

She was on her feet, determined to go back into the living room, when Jace burst into the bedroom, his eyes blazing. He immediately came to her and enfolded her in his arms.