It seemed before she’d even finished speaking, he was on her. His hand around her throat, his body pressing hers into the kitchen counter. She could barely breathe. The feeling of his fingers squeezing her throat all too familiar. He glared at her, unflinching. His face hardened. A vein pulsed in his temple. His blue eyes ice cold.

‘You know better than to underestimate me, Grace,’ he growled.

In that moment, she knew this man would destroy her without a second’s hesitation, even if it meant destroying their son too. She was frozen. Nineteen again, alone and at the mercy of a monster.

Nathan smiled as he climbed into his car outside Grace’s house. Checking his reflection in the rear-view mirror, he noticed the deep red scratch on his neck. He’d enjoyed putting Grace back in her place just as much as he’d thought he would. She was much feistier than she used to be – he quite liked that. He’d been worried for a while that she’d become too independent while he’d been inside. She wasn’t afraid of him like she used to be. His usual tactics didn’t have the same effect on her they once did. The incident with Jake and the gun had been like a gift from the gods. It was just the thing to ensure that Grace did exactly as she was told from now on.

Looking down at his shirt, Nathan saw tiny splatters of blood on one of the cuffs. Shit! He loved that shirt, and blood was such a pain in the arse to get out. He’d have to get cleaned up before he went home, or he’d never hear the fucking end of it from Kayleigh.

Pulling away from the kerb he felt an overwhelming sense of contentment, like a warm blanket settling over him. Grace was back where she belonged. The world felt right again. She didn’t need to know that he’d wiped that gun clean, his prints were on it too, after all. And he’d never grass on his own son. He wasn’t a fucking monster! But she didn’t need to know that either. She just had to believe he was capable of doing monstrous things.

And if she had forgotten that, he had certainly just reminded her.

Chapter Forty-One

As she half-listened to Patrick’s breakdown of the previous week’s business dealings, Grace thought about Nathan and the events of the previous night. Absent-mindedly running her fingers across her neck, she suppressed a shudder as she remembered his hands on her throat – on her body. There had to be a way to get rid of him without putting Jake, or anyone else, in danger.