Owned By The Billionaire Devil

Chapter 13

Maisie~

The car ride was very quiet and uncomfortable, like someone else was sitting with us. I didn’t speak. He didn’t speak either. What was there to say? 'Thanks for the almost-s*x, your family announced my imprisonment, now where are we going?'

My silence already gave him the answer. I didn’t want Alistair and now he knew it. But did he think my disgust for his brother was an invitation for him? If yes, what kind of crazy, arrogant logic was that?

The bright lights of the city slowly started to disappear. Buildings got older, and darker as we entered a part of town I never went to. It was an unfamiliar area filled with closed warehouses and metal fences. A quiet, instinctive fear grew in my stomach.

I turned to him, "Where is this place?"

He didn’t answer. The car rolled to a stop in front of a huge, windowless building that looked abandoned. He got out, walked around, and opened my door. He didn’t ask if I would come, he simply held out his hand. When he grabbed my hand, his grip wasn’t painful, but it was very firm.

He led me through a heavy metal door.

Inside, the air smelled like dust, oil, and metal. Bright industrial lights hung from the ceiling.

I was about to ask where we were when I saw three men tied to metal chairs in the middle of the empty room. They weren’t just beaten, they looked completely destroyed. Their faces were swollen and bloody. One man had an eye so swollen it was shut. Another man’s lips were split so badly I could see his teeth. Their clothes were torn and covered in stains.

Standing around them were four other men dressed in dark clothes. They held tools; a short metal pipe and a knife. Instinctively, I grabbed the sleeve of Hunter’s shirt as if holding onto him could protect me. Where were we? And who were these men.

One of them spoke. "Been over an hour, Boss. They’re stubborn."

Boss?

The word I heard on the phone was real after all.

My legs threatened to buckle. Who was this man? This wasn’t the playful, dangerous twin. This wasn’t the man who kissed me moment ago. This was something else. Something I couldn’t fathom.

Hunter turned to look at me, his mismatched eyes scanning my terrified expression.

"Have you ever seen someone skinned alive?" he asked quietly.

My mouth went dry. I couldn’t breathe. I just stared, frozen.

A faint, dark smile touched his lips. He walked to a single, clean chair placed off to the side and sat down. Before I could move, his hands were on my hips, pulling me down onto his lap. I was too shocked to fight him. I sat stiffly, every muscle locked tense, still trying to figure out what the f**k was going on.

"Can’t watch?" he murmured, his lips close to my ear.

One of his men moved towards the injured men, then there was a sickening cracking sound like wood breaking, but it wasn’t wood. A loud scream followed, full of pain, so sharp it felt like it tore through the air.

I jerked, a sob catching in my throat, and squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t see that.

“Then don’t watch,” Hunter said softly behind me. “Look at me instead.”

He turned my face toward him and kissed me.

It was wrong. It was a terrible, beautiful distraction from the horror happening just feet away. And in my blind panic, I let him. For a few stolen seconds, the only thing I felt was his lips on mine, his taste and the solid feel of his chest under my hands. He was my escape from the nightmare.

He broke the kiss only when a broken, wet voice gurgled, "M-Mariano! It’s Mariano! Your rival!"

Hunter went perfectly still. Then, as if I were nothing more than a blanket, he stood up, lifting me easily in his arms. I gasped, my arms looping around his neck on instinct.

"I need more info." he announced, his voice back to that flat, business-like tone. He looked at one of the men. "Drive us."

He carried me out of that building of screams, back into the cold, clean night. He didn’t put me down until he reached his car. He placed me in the back seat, then slid in beside me, his presence immediately filling the space with a dangerous energy.

He leaned in once more, but just before he could kiss me, I shoved my hand against his chest, pushing him away. "For f**k’s sake!" I hissed, a sudden anger surging through me. "I’m an engaged woman! How many times do I have to say it?"

"Doll."

"Don’t call me that!" I snapped. "And you asked if I wanted to marry Alistair? Of course I do!" The lie burned my tongue, but I needed to say it. It was the last normal, sane thing I could cling to. "He’s your brother. Aren’t you scared of starting a war? Don’t you want a peaceful family? Or do you just enjoy creating enemies?"

He didn’t answer with words. He moved faster than I could react. One hand cradled the back of my head, holding me gently but firmly. The other tipped my chin up, and then his mouth was on mine again. This kiss was different, it felt like a claim. It was his answer to everything I’d just said, almost as if it meant: “Your words are nothing. Your engagement is nothing. This is everything.”

I bit down on his lower lip, hard enough to taste blood.

He pulled back, a single drop of blood beading on the perfect curve of his lip. He didn’t look angry, he looked… amused.

"I. Am. Engaged," I stated, forcing every ounce of strength I had left into the words.

The driver’s door opened, and a man slid behind the wheel.

"Take us to the Whitlock’s mansion," He ordered, never taking his eyes off me.

"Take me to Chloe’s place," I said, my voice leaving no room for argument. The driver glanced at Hunter, who gave a barely perceptible nod.

Hunter leaned close again, his lips nearly brushing mine. "Do I enjoy creating enemies?" He asked back. "I’m not very sure, but I'm sure I could have you on a king-sized bed in the middle of the Grimshaw mansion," he breathed, the words warm against my skin. "I could have you screaming my name in the room next to my brother’s. And not one person in that house... not even your precious fiancé would dare say a single, f*****g word to me about it."

The certainty in his voice froze me. He wasn’t bragging, it was almost like he was stating a fact.

He leaned back, studying my horrified expression. "Wanna bet?"

In that moment, I realized this wasn't a game of seduction. This was a demonstration of power. He wasn’t just revealing a dark side, he was showing me who he really was. The violence, the control… that was his true nature. And he was telling me he could use that power anywhere, even in the center of the beautiful prison his family had just subjected me into.

“Who… who are you?” I whispered, the question coming from pure fear.

He didn’t reply. He only gave that dark, beautiful, frightening smile and looked out the window, as if the conversation was over.

The rest of the drive was silent, so heavy it felt hard to breathe. My mind was racing, filled with thoughts of the bruised faces, the screams, the feel of his kiss, which had strangely felt like safety in the middle of all that horror. And his impossible, arrogant promise.

He was chaos. He was violence. He was everything I should run from.

When the car stopped at Chloe's apartment, I fumbled for the handle and practically fell onto the curb. I didn't look back.

His amused voice trailed after me. "Forgive me for not walking you in, Ms. Whitlock."

I ignored him and just ran, my heart beating so loudly I could hear nothing else. I had tried to seduce a mystery. Instead, I met a monster… and now, I had no idea how to make him go away.