Lethal Captivation: You Can Never Escape

x finger, staining the white plastic cutting board. She shoved the injured finger into her mouth, b

nt. She stood in the narrow kitchen, her breathing shallow and erratic. A cold sweat broke out

The cheap curtains were half-open. Down on the street, under t

our. Chloe squinted through the rain-streaked

va

wo years. For two years she had run, burrowed deep in this forgettable apartment like a wounded animal, praying he would never find her. Two years since she had faked her death and clawed back a sliver of a life, always looking over her shoulder for the monster she knew would come. She had nearly died escaping him. The memory of that night-the blood, the darkness, the cold bite of Lake Como's waters closing over her head-still woke her screaming. She had believed, foolishly, desperately, that a man like

grip the cold metal of the first security chai

bolt and shoved it home. I

ther shoes stepping deliberately on the old, creaking wooden

topped right ou

und together, making a high-pitched scraping noise

ll next to the door, slapping both hands over

hl

al empire stretching across continents yet had spent two years hunting a single woman who dared to vanish from his bed. She had bolted from his estate on Lake Como with nothing but the clothes on her back, leaving behind a li

Her fingers brushed against a dusty wooden baseball bat leaning in the corner. Sh

e entire apartment. Dust r

first security chain snapped under the sheer, bru

ckward until her spine hit t

frame. The heavy wooden door flew open, s

d over the ruined threshold, bringing

d, even standing amid the splintered wreckage of a rundown Vegas apartment, he radiated the absolute authority of a man who had never bee

im light of the apartment, locking instantl

r trembling legs to hold her weight. She ra

r voice cracking. "Get out

el's lips. He looked at her the way

oves, tossing them casually onto the cabinet.

assive frame seemed to suck all

eball bat with every ounce of strength

t the thick end of the swinging bat with his bare palm. The

rce ripped the wood from Chloe's grip. S

ifting her off her feet and slamming her back against the wall. The air rushed out of her l

ooking for you. I hunted through Sicily, through Como, through cities you have never even heard of." His grip on her hip tighten