“You bet it is.” Jax flexed his hands, eyes raking over me, and not in a lascivious way, but in an I’m gonna make you pay way.

“Rafe, what are you gonna—”

He placed two fingers over my lips. “You don’t talk. You follow orders. If you need to cry or scream, I’m fine with that. But not a word until I say so.” He removed his fingers and leaned down, close enough that his breath fanned over my trembling lips. “When we’re done, I’ll give you your three questions.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if he was pissed because I’d disobeyed him, or because I’d talked him into giving me the fucking truth after he finished taking his pleasure from my pain and humiliation. I wanted to ask, wanted to beg him to tell me what they planned to do, but he wasn’t messing around now. He meant every word. Somehow, I knew he was going to hurt me beyond anything I’d ever experienced. This punishment would transcend all others.

I bit my lip to keep from opening my damn mouth. He was being gentle with me, but an undercurrent of anger flowed into the room, coming off him and Jax.

I’d made a colossal mistake by running.

“Go into the bedroom and bend over the end of the bed. Don’t move, no matter how much time passes.”

Swallowing hard with a loud gulp, I rose and dragged my reluctant feet into the bedroom. I bent over the mattress and winced from the deep ache in my shoulders. And I waited.

Eventually, they made their presence known. Rafe set the bag Jax had given him on the dresser, then he moved behind me and kicked my feet apart. He released my hands from the metal cuffs and bound them together with rope. Lifting my arms behind me, he tethered my wrists to the anchor in the ceiling. I let out a screech of pain through gritted teeth.

Jax removed my shoes and tied down my ankles to the rings in the floor. I couldn’t close my legs. I couldn’t lift my shoulders off the bed because doing so hurt too much. They had me spread and helpless. Just like they wanted me. My pulse skittered at my throat, increasing until it blasted my chest with pain.

No way out.

“You’re fucking stubborn and reckless,” Rafe said, lifting my skirt, trailing his hands up my exposed bare bottom. He tucked the material around my hips and under my belly. I shivered as he gripped my ass with unforgiving fingers. “I won’t stand for it.” He returned to the dresser and picked up a bowl. “What if Zach had been waiting?”

A rhetorical question since I wasn’t allowed to speak, but hell if I didn’t want to ask what was in that bowl.