The familiar weight of desolation landed on my chest, making it difficult to breathe. I climbed onto the mattress, drew up my knees, and stifled my wailing into a pillow. Every thought and feeling raced through my being, muddying my sense of reality. I tried to latch on to something tangible, something I could form, if only mentally, but I couldn’t snatch anything in the chaotic processes of my mind.

Time continued its useless ticking. Zach returned and found me curled into a ball, eyes staring unblinkingly ahead, though I saw nothing. This room, my whole existence, blurred until only shapes and shadows emerged.

My life had shape-shifted into something distorted and sick.

So had Zach. He’d been morphing all along, I just hadn’t realized to what extent until it was too late.

He didn’t say a word as he rolled me to my back. He positioned me on the bed so my thighs draped open and the bottom of my ass nearly hung off the mattress. I tried to sit up, but he shoved me down with such little effort, I didn’t try moving again. A rip sounded and the unyielding stickiness of duct tape attached to my skin. He rendered my limbs useless by restraining me, wrist to ankle on either side.

He leaned over, fists depressing the mattress by my head, and a hint of fear scattered through me. He reeked of the whiskey he loved so much. Rage and alcohol didn’t mesh well in people, and that was especially true for Zach.

“I’m going to fuck your brains out. No drugs to numb your agony, baby girl. Just my cock ripping through you.” One hand clutched my hair as he unzipped his jeans and let them fall down his muscular thighs. He fisted his erection. I tried moving my face to the side, but his grip tightened in my hair. “Don’t you fucking take your eyes off of me.”

He pushed in with a fierce plunge, and I grunted from the grating burn. My foggy state dissolved, whisked away by the harshness of his thrusts.

“Feel that, Lex?” He ground out as he pumped, his gaze commanding mine, challenging me to break the contact. I didn’t dare. “That’s my cock in you. Not his. Mine.”

Tears leaked from my eyes as he plowed into me mercilessly. The salty drops trailed down the sides of my face and pooled at my ears.

“Apologize for being a whore, and maybe I won’t choke you with my dick.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, despising the whining plea of my tone. I wasn’t sorry at all—I was only sorry I’d let Rafe’s name slip from my lips. He plowed against my cervix, and I shrieked.

“What the fuck is my name?”

“Zach.”