Page 101 of Merciless

Another clank.

“He wants you so bad, but he won’t let himself have you. Not while you’re lying to him.”

“‘Let himself?’ That’s assuming I’d let him.”

JD laughs darkly. “Seeking permission for anything isn’t exactly how Reid rolls, Dove. When he decides he wants something, you can bet your ass that he’ll get it, no matter what.”

“There’s always an exception to the rule,” I counter.

“Why are you doing all this, little dove?” he asks, changing tactics. “You’re married to a man who doesn’t want you. Working for a man who whores you out to whoever he wants. Why haven’t you left and started over? Why are you still here?”

For revenge.

For her.

The words are right on the tip of my tongue, but I refuse to let them free.

I can’t tell them about mine and Mav’s plans for Victor. I can’t tell anyone.

Reid’s loyalty will be to his father, and if he thinks we’re a threat, he will take both of us out.

At least you’d be together,a little voice says.

I keep my lips locked up tight.

“You’ve already confessed to protecting Mav from whatever Victor has over him. But what do you have over Mav, little dove? Why is he faithful to you?”

I shake my head.

Nothing. I have nothing over him.

I don’t tell JD that, though. He’d never understand.

Hell, most days, I don’t understand why Mav couldn’t let me go like he said he would.

Maybe I should have gone. Cut him free and left my past behind. But the thought of walking away from him after everything he’d done for me felt wrong. Shadows filled his eyes every time he so much as thought about me leaving. It would have killed me, knowing I’d put them there permanently. So when he offered a lasting solution to keep me safe while we continued to plot our revenge, I jumped at the chance.

Twisting my wedding ring around my finger, I cast my mind back to the day we said our vows.

It was selfish. I knew that at the time, and I still know it now. It’s never been enough to sever our tie, though.

“Come on, little dove. I can make life so much easier for you if you just tell me.” His teeth nip my ear, and I yelp in shock, but no words appear. I swallow every single one down.

“Okay, you asked for it,” he murmurs ominously before something hard and cold wraps around both of my wrists.

I lift them, and look up, trying to see what he’s done, but they barely move.

“JD,” I squeal as he crawls down my body and climbs to his feet. “What are you doing?”

His hands wrap around my ankles, pulling me down the bed until my arms are straight and I can’t move.

“Now, where were we?” he asks, grabbing the abandoned bottle of moisturizer and squirting more out.

He starts on my right foot, making my eyes roll back in my head and my back arch as he presses his thumbs into my arch.

“That good, little dove?”

“Oh God. More.”