Blood Ties (Dinero de Sangre #2) - Lana Sky Page 0,19

his hands braced against the wall on either side as if he’s physically stopping himself from lunging for me.

“Why I watched you,” he clarifies. “Why I know the most intimate details of your little rendezvouses. You could assume it was because I sought to satisfy my own twisted obsession—” He laughs, proving the folly of that suspicion. Ice cold, he cuts his eyes up to mine, drilling in the fact that everything he’s about to say is the brutal, honest truth. “Or I was only doing my job. What my boss commanded of me. You see, he never trusted you. No matter how many times you fucked for him. Lied for him. It was never enough. He never saw you as anything more than a tool. You meant nothing to him.”

I don’t let myself process the hatefulness in those words. I just run, wrenching open the door and entering the hallway without another word from him. He doesn’t follow me, either. I’m allowed to tear through the house, unbothered by anyone.

For the first time, I take notice of my surroundings beyond the confines of Domino’s room. It’s later in the evening, with the sunset visible beyond the windows, painting everything in a bloody red glow. If I were to run out of the front door and take my chances in the desert, at least I could do so without running the risk of getting heatstroke. Already, the air feels cooler, aided by the fact that I’m still naked, dripping wet.

Rather than forge ahead with another escape attempt, I find myself padding down the hallway before the white room I’ve subconsciously come to think of as my own—but when I throw open the door, I realize just how foolish I’ve been.

Nothing in this house is mine. He’s already taken great pains to prove that.

By giving this room to someone else, he’s merely reinforcing my status as his captive.

“Domino?” The voice identifies the blond woman lying sprawled across the white bed, her ass up, legs kicking at the air. She’s wearing a black dress that I can tell was taken from the closet, her cleavage spilling out onto the sheets beneath her. Before her is a plate of ripe strawberries that she’s picking at with her fingers.

“Took you long enough.” She rolls over, her coy smile falling flat the second she sees me.

And I know instantly that I interrupted something. She was waiting for him.

“G-Get the fuck out,” I rasp. It’s all I can say. The thought of retreading my steps is too painful to bear. I can’t leave this room. So I stumble across it, aiming for the only sanctuary I can spy at the moment—the closet.

“You look like you’ve been having fun,” Alexi taunts, her tone just as bitchy as I remember. I can tell without having to look that she hasn’t budged. She won’t.

Not unless I give her a good enough reason to get her perky ass in motion.

“He’s all warmed up for you,” I tell her as I feel alongside the mirror for the latch to activate the door beneath. I can’t even look at my reflection. I just close my eyes to everything, this room, this reality.

Even without the aid of drugs, I’m determined to float away. Refuse to exist in this space anymore.

“What the hell is your problem?” I hear Alexi snipe, her presence clashing with my attempts to fade. Zone out. Become numb.

The two of us were never as close to each other as we both were to Pia. She was the glue holding our impromptu group together, but looking back, I can’t deny that I had fun moments with Alexi, too. She was the silly girl, always cracking jokes—the balancing force between Pia’s aloof confidence and my shyness.

In her own way, she was a decent enough friend. She taught me how to wear lipstick, and tried to teach me how to flirt.

And, after Pia disappeared, she taught me what true loneliness could feel like.

“Are you just going to stand there?” Her voice startles me back to the present, as icy as ever.

“I told you I got his cock hard enough,” I snap. “So why don’t you do what you do best and go fuck my leftovers.”

I don’t wait to see if she heeds the offer this time. I peel my eyes open long enough to lunge inside the closet and slam the door behind me. Then I make my way into the furthest corner I can and curl into a ball small enough to