He produced a pair of sharp scissors. I shrunk back but he pulled at me. I closed my eyes. If he was going to cut me, I didn't want to see the blood.

He tugged at my clothes and I heard several snips. The clothes slipped from my body, cool air a.s.sailing me. I forced my eyes open. He had cut the clothes from my body, including my underwear. I drew in a shaky, silent breath, waiting for him to rape me.

Panting as if he'd just been sprinting, he grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me away from him. With the palm of his hand on my upper back, he pushed me across the room toward the wall. He pressed me against it. He pushed the other hand between us and I heard him unzip his jeans. He thrust into me before I could brace myself, thrust so hard that I almost lost my balance. The pain was so quick and sudden I lost my breath. I placed the palms of my hand against the wall for balance while sobs shook my body. He pounded into me for what seemed like hours, grunting and panting, his sweaty forehead pressed against the back of my head.

When he was done, he pulled out and zipped up his pants. I turned around to face him, to show him the crushed look on my face. He didn't look at me, just picked up the pizza, which was now drenched in oil, and strode to the door. He flicked off the light before closing it.

Terrified, I lowered myself to the floor and hugged my knees to my body, attempting to keep warm. Gazing into the darkness, I thought back to a time that wasn't draped in misery and pain-my childhood. Dustin appeared in my thoughts. I had been happiest when I was with him. He had been my first in every way. I went one step further and tried to remember how it had felt being in his arms. Warm and safe and loved. I hung on to that thought as I laid myself back on the cold floor and closed my eyes. Outside my body, I was cold and bruised, but inside I was safe. For now. Wherever he was, Dustin was watching over me.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO.

A kick in the stomach woke me and I met the eyes of my worst nightmare. A real nightmare from which I couldn't wake.

Jude looked a mess. His stubble was scattered on his chin and cheeks, his eyes were bloodshot, and his hair was disheveled and a bit greasy. Seeing him in that condition frightened me. To let himself go like that meant I was in deep s.h.i.+t. I had caused him to step out of his usual routine, messed with not only his life but also his appearance. Fear sucked every bit of strength I possessed in my body and the pain only weakened me more.

My gaze drifted from his face to the wall behind him, the wall that had been white before. Had he covered it with something to hide what was underneath?

My good eye widened and on reflex, I squinted to focus better. Big mistake. Slivers of pain traveled to my brain, but the pain was trumped by what I was seeing. The entire wall was a tapestry of women's photos. None of the white color of the wall showed between portraits, profiles, and even pa.s.sport photos. I pushed further past the pain to try and figure out who they were. In that moment, Jude grabbed my chin and turned me to look at him.

"Why the f.u.c.k did you do it? Why did you leave me?" His voice was hoa.r.s.e and his grip around my chin was so tight I was unable to move my head.

I licked my lips and wondered what to say to him. Whatever I said would eventually end up hurting me. But not answering could cause me more harm. Why was he asking anyway? He had known all this time that I was unhappy, that he made me unhappy. Did he just choose to ignore the truth before his eyes? Was he that blinded by his obsession?

Jude's gaze bore into mine like lasers as he waited for answers he knew already.

What the h.e.l.l, I thought. He had found me. Whether I said anything or didn't say a word, he would punish me. The truth would be best. "I was," my bottom lip trembled, "I was afraid."

He laughed out loud, his reaction throwing me off guard. "Afraid?" He released my chin and raked a hand through his greasy hair. "What the f.u.c.k did you have to be afraid of?"

"Of ... of you, Jude. I was afraid of you." I dipped my head and my chin hit my chest.

His laughter died. He looked back at me, his eyes narrowed. "You have no reason to be afraid of me, Haley. Not if you do exactly as I say."

"You hurt me." A tear trickled down my cheek. Now that I was able to talk, I wanted him to know just in case it made a difference, in case it lessened my punishment even a fraction.

The photos on the wall behind him were still urging me to look at them, but I couldn't look away from Jude's face. I needed to see his reactions to my words, needed him to see the naked fear in my eyes.

He came and took my hands in his. I winced as his grip crushed my injured hands. He didn't seem to notice, or maybe he just didn't care. He yanked me closer to him, still holding my hands tight. I started to cry from pain then, both physical and emotional.

"Haley," he said. I could smell a mixture of alcohol and coffee on his breath. "It's your fault. You make me hurt you. I love you so d.a.m.n much, but you drive me crazy sometimes." The final word was spoken through gritted teeth. "You left me." He dropped my hands and wrapped a hand around the back of my head, squeezing so tight I felt the pressure inside my head. He pressed his forehead to mine and closed his eyes. I kept mine open, still aware of the pen knife in his free hand. What if he stabbed me right now? No one would ever know because he had done an awesome job with keeping me isolated. No one would come looking for me. Not even Diana because she probably thought I was somewhere safe by now.

"Why did you do it?" he whispered. "Why did you make me hurt you? Why did you make me hurt you enough to make you want to leave me?"

"I ... I don't know." I sobbed. I had no idea who I was when I was with him, didn't know what had triggered his outbursts, didn't know how to protect myself from his blows. I didn't know anything anymore.

He unglued his forehead from mine and shoved me back so hard I fell back to the floor on my b.u.t.t. "You f.u.c.kin' wh.o.r.e," he barked, flames of anger exploding in his eyes. "You good-for-nothing f.u.c.kin' c.u.n.t. You wanted to sleep with other men, didn't you? What's his name?"

"I ... No. Who?" I covered my face with my hands, catching the tears. My mind drifted to our anniversary lunch. Had he seen Dustin? Even if there was nothing between us, Jude would have seen what he wanted to see.

"The man you were running off to be with?" He closed the pen knife and shoved it back into his pocket.

I looked up at him, vigorously shaking my head. "Honest to G.o.d, Jude. I didn't have ... I would never cheat on you."

"Liar, you stupid, stupid liar." His face grew puce with anger and his eyes bulged out of his head. "Tell me his name or I'll cut your throat right now. Then I'll hunt him down and kill him as well. Maybe I'll bury you both in a ditch somewhere so you can rot together." He paused. "When you try to turn your back on me, Haley, people get hurt. Remember that."

I swallowed hard as tears poured down my cheeks and mixed with some of the snot coming out of my nose. "Jude. Really. I never. I'll never ..."

He stopped pacing and came to tower over me again. "Want to see what I do to lying, cheating wh.o.r.es?" He grabbed me by the hair again. Would I even have any hair left after his torture? I scrambled to my feet quickly. He released his grip and shoved me toward the wall I had seen from where I had been sitting. I felt dizzy for a moment, but I begged my body not to crumble. Not yet.

"Look long and hard, b.i.t.c.h." He pushed my head into the wall, my sore forehead pressed hard again the glossy photos of the women. The images were so close that my vision blurred. He let me go and I backed away from the wall to a distance that allowed me to see. I was heaving and panting by now, and s.h.i.+vering all over.

"Who?" I managed to let out.

"Thought you'd never ask." He stood behind me, too close.

One woman? A whole wall for just one woman? The longer I looked at the individual photos of a beautiful brunette with what seemed to be waist-length hair and a spattering of freckles on her nose, the bright blue eyes. In all the photos she wore a silver necklace with what looked to be a diamond infinity pendant.

She looked familiar. And her presence was so strong she could have been in the room. Then it clicked. In a way, she was.

"That's the b.i.t.c.h that left me first."

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE.

I used the back of my hand to wipe the blurring from my eyes. "Your ... your mother." She had to be. Jude had inherited so many of her almost exotic features.

"That's right. The wh.o.r.e ran off with her pimp. Didn't care where I ended up, whether I went to bed hungry or slept in rat-infested beds. She never gave a f.u.c.k what anyone did to me."

"I'm sorry." A vision of Jude as a scared small boy appeared in my mind. I now understood where his obsession that drove him to hold on to someone he loved came from. "Did you see her again?" I wanted to know. Jude had never talked about his family before. Ever. And he had never shown me photos of them, saying they were all dead and he didn't feel the need to talk about them.

He stepped closer to my back and whispered into my ear. "When the little coward boy finally grew up and lifted himself out of poverty, he went on the search for her."

I turned to him, feigning sympathy. He must have had a c.r.a.ppy childhood, but after what he did to me, I couldn't care less. But I had to pretend to care, to understand him. "You found her?"

He grinned and his face suddenly brightened. For a flash of a second, he was the handsome man I had married again. "Yes, I found her all right." He smirked. "Then I killed the b.i.t.c.h."

Bile shot up my throat and, before I could stop it, exploded out of my mouth and splashed all over the front of the s.h.i.+rt, the wall and the floor.

I whirled around to face him, a string of fear running down my spine. "Sor ..." I retched again and this time the vomit landed on his shoes.

"f.u.c.k," he said and pushed me away and shook his feet, trying to rid them of the yellow liquid. The stench swirled around us like an unwelcome scent. "Look what you've done." For a moment, I thought he was going to strike me, but he didn't.

Instead he moved on to another wall.

"Come and see this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out something resembling a small remote control. He pointed it to another wall and what seemed to be two white sheets parted in the middle and slid open, revealing more photos of his mother. "What are you waiting for?"

My whole body was still trembling, fear swirling around in my body. I couldn't get the words he'd just said out of my mind. He had killed his mother? Was it the truth or was he just trying to scare me? I moved over to where he stood and forced myself to look.

This was another woman who looked very much like his mother. As she smiled into the camera, her blue eyes twinkled.

"This," Jude traced a finger along a photo of the woman on the beach, the wind blowing her hair across her shoulders. "This is the second wh.o.r.e that tried to leave me."

I blinked, dreaded his next words. My whole body was numb.

"This is Lorea, my first wife." He turned and was obviously pleased to see the surprise on my face. "Yes, darling, there was someone before you."

As I digested the information that my husband had been married before and didn't think it important to tell me, he spun around to the wall again and punched it, punched her straight in the face. "After five years of marriage, the b.i.t.c.h tried to run off with another man." He laughed again, shaking his head. "Her reason for running was the same lie you told me. She was afraid of me. After everything I did for her, after all the love I showered her with." He rubbed the knuckles of his hand. "Just like you."

"Oh my G.o.d." I shook my head slowly, ignoring the headache creeping up on me. "What did you do, Jude?"

He breathed in and out, his shoulders rising and falling. "I did what I had to do. No one leaves me. Anyone who tries ends up six feet under."

I crumbled then, dropped to the floor, my knees. .h.i.tting the wood. My body folded as I wept. What had I gotten myself into? Why did I have to end up in a murderer's path? He let me cry until I was exhausted and empty. Then I saw his vomit-stained feet come to stand in front of me. I looked up. A smile had softened his face.

"The night I met you was the best day of my life. I'd been following you for months and then finally, my chance came. You finally fell right into my lap. I couldn't let you go. I wanted to keep you, to own you forever. I'll never let you go." He closed his eyes, sighed, and opened them again. "I love you enough, Haley, to give you another chance. If you try to leave me again, if I even suspect that you're up to something, you'll end up right where those two are. Or I'll call the cops on you and tell them what you did."

My road had finally ended. I was headed nowhere but toward death. If I stayed with him, I would die inside. If I left, I'd end up dead too. Jude was sick and obsessed. How do you fight against a sick man, a man who was so damaged he wouldn't think twice before taking another person's life?

"How did you find me?" I asked even if it didn't matter anymore. Nothing did.

"I own this town. Almost everyone who came in contact with you is on my payroll. Even the taxi driver who drove you to your wonderful friend Diana's place. I was in Serendipity even before you, thanks to the tracker in your phone."

All warmth left my body and I closed my eyes as I dreaded asking the next question. One last question before the handcuffs clicked. "Diana?" My words tumbled out in a broken whisper.

"I paid her to be your friend. Everyone has their price. A struggling mother with mounting debts and b.a.s.t.a.r.d mouths to feed wasn't hard to buy. I paid off her debts in one day, and offered her more money than she made in two years."

"The luxury apartment." I was in so much shock I didn't even realize I'd spoken the words aloud. She had lied.

"Yes, that's right. That whole apartment building is mine." He took my hand and held it up to his lips. "Forget what happened. You're back now. Just don't try this nonsense again. I have eyes everywhere. And I don't have a conscience when it comes to punis.h.i.+ng those who betray me."

I sank to my knees and wept for a long time until I could only heave.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR.

His hands slipped underneath both my armpits and he lifted me to my feet. With no energy left, and aching all over, I couldn't stand. He didn't care. He dragged me out of the room, through his office, and up the stairs as if I were a rag doll. I felt every b.u.mp, every scratch on my naked skin, until we entered the bathroom where he lifted me and attempted to lower me into a tub filled to the brim with water.

Thinking he was about to drown me, fear surged through me and I found a hidden resource of energy and fought against him, kicking and screaming and clawing at the air. As usual, I was no match for him. He didn't even break a sweat as he managed to settle me into the suds. As the water surrounded me, I was still screaming and kicking, sending water splas.h.i.+ng everywhere.

He slapped me hard across the face, and I stilled.

"Shut up," he said through his teeth as he tightened his grip under my arms. "I'm not going to kill you. Not yet." He reached for a sponge and threw it at me. "You stink. Wash yourself and come downstairs for lunch."

Nodding, I took the sponge and noticed the burns on the top of my hand. They were not as big as I thought they would be, but my brain remembered the hot oil pouring onto my skin and the pain followed. I bit it back.

Jude left the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Finally alone, I did the one thing I desired most. I turned on the tap and drank until I could no longer squeeze a drop into my stomach. With quenched thirst, some of my strength returned. Then somehow, with a broken finger and a burnt hand, I managed to wash my face and rest of my body.

Climbing out of the deep, ma.s.sive bath was a struggle that landed me on the thick bath mat.

I pulled a gown from a rail and pulled it on. Then I looked myself in the mirror. I saw a different woman, a battered women with a fat bruise under one of the red, swollen eyes, and pale skin. How could he do this to me? How could he claim to love me and hurt me this way? I couldn't let him do this to me again. Now that I knew what he was capable of, that he was a murderer, I had to do everything he wanted. I couldn't be his next murder victim.

He was sitting on our bed when I entered the room, a white first aid box next to him.

He asked me to sit so he could treat my burns and put a splint on my finger. Then he led me downstairs to the dining room. The table was laden with all kinds of food.

"I ordered it all for you. You must be hungry." He pulled out a chair for me and I sat without a word, my eyes not leaving the pork chops. I couldn't wait to stuff my face.

He didn't eat, just watched as I piled my plate with food and ate it all. When I was too full to eat anymore, he poured me a gla.s.s of sparkling water, but since my stomach was already filled with water from the bathroom, I just cupped the gla.s.s with both my bandaged hands and gazed into his evil eyes. "What do you want me to do?"

"Good girl," he said moving his seat forward. "I like that. You finally realize who's boss."

"Yes," I said because that was what he wanted. Whatever he wanted, he would get. I was too broken to fight him, too scared to get beaten up again before I had a chance to heal, too terrified of death.

"Since you've proven to be untrustworthy, a few things are going to change around here." He poured himself a gla.s.s of wine and drank it in one swig. "I gave you the chance to live a good life, and you took it for granted. Now, you will get no more help around the house. I fired Lin and the cleaning ladies yesterday. You will take over all their tasks. You will cook, clean this house, iron my clothes, and carry out all household duties." He clasped his hands in front of him. "And you will f.u.c.k me at least twice a day. You understand?"

I nodded. I didn't mind cleaning. I had always felt inclined to a.s.sist the help, but Jude had not approved. But to clean this whole mansion all by myself would be torture. "Anything else?"

His face grew stony and he looked me square in the eyes. "You will not make contact with anyone. There are two guards outside now, making sure you won't leave this house unless it's with me."

I bit my lip. "How will I go grocery shopping when you're at work?"

"I'll be working from home at least ninety percent of the time. If I'm not able to take you, Nolan will. And he will not leave your side."

"Is that understood?"

I nodded again and swallowed my anger-anger at him, and anger at myself for getting myself into this mess. He would be keeping me as his slave now and I couldn't do a d.a.m.n thing about it.

He pushed back his chair and stood. "Another thing." He blinked. "You will no longer have a phone or a laptop. You won't be needing them. I installed new locks as well. If you need to go outside for any reason, you ask me for the key."