Provoke

Chapter Ten

Mace

She knows.

It all added up. She had to know. She was at my house, my computer had been used, she didn’t want to see me . . . and then when I’d turned up, she couldn’t stand to be touched by me. It all added up to one thing.

She fucking knew. She had to have seen the videos. I hit the steering wheel in frustration. Christ, why hadn’t I deleted them?

This was a nightmare.

A fucking mess.

There was no way to put a positive spin on this. No matter which way you swung it, what I was involved in was unforgivable. Of course, what she was thinking was a thousand times worse than the actual reality, but the reality was still pretty bad. I wanted to tell her, but what would I say?

Hey, it’s okay. I wasn’t raping them. I was just fucking them.

I laughed. I was a stupid idiot for getting involved with her in the first place. The smart thing to do would’ve been to build a friendship until all this blew over. But friendship with Leet was never going to work. How could I be friends with someone I couldn’t stop thinking about?

I felt bad for betraying her, but I couldn’t feel bad about what I was doing. This was so much bigger than her and me, and I wasn’t going to apologize for that. The thought of hurting her in any way tore me up inside, but I wasn’t going to back down on this.

I couldn’t.

There was only one way to resolve this: I had to stop her talking. I had to make her calm down and listen to me, however long that took.

I revved the engine and took off.

#

Four in the morning, and I was back out the front of her unit. I scanned the dark street, looking for signs of life, but there were none. It was dead quiet. My heart pounded as I reached for the gloves, sliding them over my shaking hands. I took a deep breath and grabbed the bag. This was the only way.

I walked up the three steps to the front door of her flat, clutching the key in my hand. Slowly, I inserted it into the lock and turned it. It wasn’t breaking and entering if I had a key, right? Somehow, I wasn’t sure the cops would agree.

I turned the handle, well aware that she was probably on full alert. The slightest noise was bound to wake her up. What if she wasn’t even asleep? Hell, if I were in her shoes, I’d be fucking wired.

I swiftly pushed open the door, praying it wouldn’t creak. Once I was safely inside, I let myself relax. I was doing the right thing. If I was right about all this, then I could only imagine what was going through her head.

She must hate me right now. No, hate would be too weak a word for what she’d be feeling. Hate didn’t run deep enough. That was why I was doing this: if she wanted to hate me once she knew everything, then fine; but I was fucked if I was going to let her base her opinion of me on the little she thought she knew.

With each step I took down her hallway, my determination wavered.

Think about Anna. I was doing this for her. I hoped Leeta would forgive me for this eventually, but everything I was doing was for my sister, and for every other woman those fuckers had violated.

I walked into her bedroom. Leet lay sprawled out on her stomach on the bed. I sighed, my cock twitching as I took in her bare legs and perky ass. She wore only a thin white tank and a tiny pair of pyjama shorts that were riding halfway up her ass. For half a second I forgot I was there to kidnap her, and wanted to climb in next to her and squeeze those plump little cheeks until they glowed nice and red. God, I was hard as fuck just thinking about that.

Fuck, Mace, think with your head and not your dick.

That was always going to be a hard task. When it came to Leet, I always thought with my cock. It wasn’t my fault she was so irresistible.

I took a breath and reached into my bag for the bottle and rag. Unscrewing the top, I poured enough of the clear liquid onto the rag until it was soaked through. Approaching the bed, I winced, thinking about how pissed off she was going to be when she came to. I’d seen Leet angry, but something told me I hadn’t seen anything compared to what was coming.

Kneeling down in front of her, I pressed the rag over her mouth and nose. Her eyes flew open. She gasped, breathing in as her hands flew up to fight the pressure of my hand over her mouth.

“I’m sorry, baby, just relax. I’m not going to hurt you,” I whispered softly in her ear. Her resistance began to weaken as the chloroform took effect. Within a minute, she was limp in my arms. Carefully, I wrapped her in a blanket and carried her outside, laying her down on the back seat. I was so high on adrenaline I felt like my veins were going to explode.

Honestly? I had no fucking idea what I was doing. I mean, kidnapping? I groaned and started the car. Leeta could do so much better than me. All I had to offer her was my love, and I’d managed to screw that up with all of this.

Did I expect her to forgive me? No, but if I could do over the past few months, I couldn’t see another way. I’d do it all over again, for Anna.

If that made me an asshole, then I’d live with it. Yet I still hoped like hell she would somehow find a way to understand that there was no choice here.

I’d had to do this.