Prologue

PROLOGUE

RORY

Six Months Ago . . .

“I’m sick of the attitude you keep throwing my way, Rory.”

I roll my eyes, not turning in his direction. He’s always sick of my attitude. There isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t say the same damn thing. Since I was nineteen, he took control of my life. It’s the same every freaking day.

I’ll admit there are some days that are worse than others, but mostly, he keeps his hands to himself. Mostly because he got what he wanted. He won. I haven’t left as I’ve wanted to, as I dream of doing. I just need the strength to do it.

What keeps me from doing just that is, I’m sure he’ll kill me if I attempt to. He’s threatened it more times than I can count. I’m his property, never allowed to be alone. During the day, I have a bodyguard. Someone who keeps me in line if I attempt to step out of it. Those guards are not allowed to hit me. You don’t want to hit the prize possession, it didn’t mean they didn’t have a way of doing as he commands.

I wasn’t to be bruised. I wasn’t to be slapped or beaten. This meant they got creative.

This meant for me, I learned early what my boundaries were.

“You say that every night, Roger,” I mutter, spinning on the tiny stool to face him. “Can’t you come up with something different than the same ole line?”

Roger’s eyes narrow, and he moves into my space, his fingers reaching out to grip my chin forcefully but not enough to bruise. “You best quit with the attitude before I end up punishing you as I’ve done before.”

I bite back the sarcastic remark that’s on the edge of my tongue, ready for me to let loose. There’s not much that Roger hasn’t done to me. All things that I refuse to think about. If I do, I won’t be able to stop thinking, and I can’t afford to do that. Too much is at risk if I were.

“I’ll do my best to stop,” I finally grind out while glaring at him.

The evil bastard he is knows I’ll toe the line but won’t go over it. He taught me better of doing just that within the first year of him taking over my life.

To make things worse, Roger’s my stepbrother. The sick and twisted asshole that he is didn’t care about this. He wanted what he wanted and did what he had to, to make sure he got what he wanted.

For fifteen years, he’s been making my life a living hell. From the very first day our parents married. Back then, though, he hid what he was from everyone. He still does for our parents. He makes it seem to them that I’m doing what I do willingly. What they don’t know is that I’m definitely not willing.

I don’t willingly share his bed. I don’t work my ass off for him because I want to. No, it’s because he forced my hand. And keeps my hand forced.

A grin slides into place on Roger’s face, and he dips his head down to brush his lips against mine. “You finish tonight, I’ll give you a vacation, my sweets.”

Now, that’s the last thing I want from him. Every year, he gives me a vacation. Those vacations might be at luxury hotels, but they’re with him where he does things that I refuse to think about. I cringe at the very thought of a vacation because it is surely no pleasure for me. He takes all he wants. Hurts me more than usual and doesn’t allow me to get any reprieve.

The man is a monster.

The day he showed his true colors to me was the day I’d met the one man I wanted for myself. I’d fallen for him, for Aries. He was three years older than me, technically if you want to be mathematically correct, he’s three and half years older than me. My mom let me go out with him under the stipulations that it was in groups, or my brother went with me. Aries respected my mom’s wishes, and that’s how I became best friends with his sisters, Cordelia and Tempest. We’d all go out together, along with a few other friends. I did everything I could to keep from having to have Roger around. Sometimes, though, he’d tag along to keep an eye on me , as he’d put it.

Aries and I would sneak off from the group to have time just the two of us. It’s how I lost my virginity at eighteen. With my birthday being in October, it was my senior year. His birthday already pasted, and with it he turned twenty-one. The two of us spent the night out. Considering I was now eighteen, Mom couldn’t tell me to stay in groups or whatnot. She didn’t say anything, so long as my grades didn’t suffer.

I made sure they didn’t. I kept straight A’s and got to spend every weekend with Aries. It was after I graduated that things started to turn for the worse. Aries had enlisted, and I’d been so proud of him. The two of us had plans for what would happen after he completed basic training. I couldn’t wait. I’d been looking forward to what we were going to do, where we would go. What we would do with our lives.

Then everything got all twisted.

While he was a way, that’s when my brother struck. The threats he made forced my hand. I was to do what he wanted, or else he’d make Aries pay the price. Roger had already taken the one thing I’d held onto. He ensured I’d never cross him. He also made sure that it was his and his alone.

That’s another reason I refuse to go down that rabbit hole.

I’ll do what he wants. I’ll go on stage and sing. I’ll perform like the good girl he wants me to be and hope that one day, I will finally get the courage to leave. Only I’m never alone to be able to do just this.

“Where will we be going this time?” I manage to ask.

“I’ve business in New York next week. We’ll vacation there.”

Great. Business means he’ll not only be torturing me but finding me yet another club to sing at. One he’ll own just like every other one he’s taken over up and down the East Coast. I’m nothing more than his puppet. He puts me on stage, I sing, dance, and dress in dresses that are nothing more than a scrap of fabric.

“If all goes well in New York, I might give you a year off.”

I knew what that meant. He wanted that for two years. Each time he tried, my body rejected it. I couldn’t handle it if he did make what he wanted to happen. The very thought makes me want to vomit on his expensive suit.

One day, he’ll end up finally getting what he wants. That is, if I don’t manage my escape first.

Suddenly, a thought occurs to me. He’s taking me to New York with him, saying we’ll vacation there. He has business there as well, which means he’ll most like go to Manhattan. If he does, that’s one busy city. A place where I can get lost, it could work. I could possibly manage to get away from him. If I can, I might be able to find a way to escape him forever.