“Because you need to grasp the reality of your predicament. You’re not getting out of here.” He leaned over me, and his breath hit my face. “You feel my fingers inside you? I will have my cock there.” He ran his tongue along my earlobe. I cringed, but a rough hand kept me from retreating. “Maybe I’ll keep Mason alive long enough to hear you beg for it.”

I spread my legs as wide as I could. “I have nothing left to give, so you’re gonna have to take it.” I was playing with fire by inserting that challenge into my tone, but I didn’t care. Maybe I was still in shock. Numb. Seeing red.

It didn’t matter. He was going to kill Rafe. If anything had the power to break my pieces, it was the certainty of his death busting through me like a wrecking ball. I’d rather die on our terms. Our time. I’d rather call Lucas’ bluff and die now than continue to bend.

He removed his fingers and stood. The sponge splashed into the bucket, and he reached for the button of his pants. “I’m visiting him next.” He paused, and my heart pounded out of control during those tense seconds. “You sent him to prison, Alex. Do you know what he did while he was in there?”

“No,” I whispered, barely able to get that single word out.

“Mason killed my blood, so I’m going to kill him.”

Now that he’d said the words, I wanted to bend.

Oh God.

“He’s not a killer.”

“Maybe you don’t know Rafe Mason as well as you thought.”

No, I knew Rafe. Lucas, on the other hand, I hadn’t known at all.

“If you won’t beg me to fuck you, maybe you’ll beg for his life.”

Fear seized me, choked me. I wanted to feel numb at the thought of Rafe’s death and my servitude living as Lucas’ adoring pet, leash and all, but I wasn’t strong enough. Pushing off the bed, I slid to my knees and begged in Lucas Perrone’s language—I yanked down his zipper and wrapped my lips around his shaft.

15. Bang - Rafe

15. BANG - RAFE

He’d killed her.

I kept running those three words through my mind, thinking they’d penetrate, but I still couldn’t believe it. That whole scene had been a nightmare because them dragging Nikki in didn’t make any sense.

Perrone slaughtering her didn’t make any fucking sense.

I must be delirious, drugged beyond what my body could handle. I’d hallucinated the whole thing. Tilting my head up, I pulled at the chains holding my wrists hostage. Assholes had strung me on my toes again, back in the pitch-dark room I’d shared with Alex. The echo of her name invaded my head to the bursting point.