Page 99 of Ghost Hunted

He pauses. “Red now?”

“No.” I gulp down a rising sob. “Red in Astley. Red for the cage.”

“No.” He echoes my answer. “No, you don’t get to say red to that. Not when I’m doing it to protect you.”

He clasps my wrist, drawing me back to the couch, and this time, when I land on his lap, I’m trapped there by his hands.

“You said you wouldn’t force me, Logan.”

“No. I said I would try my hardest not to.” His voice is harsh, but I can hear the emotion behind it. “And I don’t want to force you, but what else can I do if you won’t give in to me? I know it wasn’t your fault, baby. None of it is your fault. But I’m not a rational man. And I won’t let you forget again that I own you. I will spend the rest of my life reminding you, and I’ll lock you in my cage if I want to, and I’ll feed you these disgusting raw oysters if I want to, and there isn’t a fucking thing you can do about it, because I own you, Lia.” Then his harshness gives way to pure tenderness, and I get whiplash from the way he’s turned right back into the boy who was once so hopelessly devoted to me. “I love you, Lia Colt. I will always love you. Now lie against my chest again, and let me feed you those oysters, and be a good girl, and submit.”

“I don’t want to, Logan,” I sob.

“Yeah, well… I don’t care.”

29

Logan

Ispend the rest of the flight texting. Lia fell asleep in my arms, her face drenched in tears, and while these don’t exactly make me feel hard, I don’t feel guilty either. I probably should. I realize, objectively, what an asshole I’m being, threatening to lock her in a cage after all these years of traumatic imprisonment. And it’s not an empty threat, either.

Maybe I will feel bad, when the time comes to make good on my word. I have a feeling I’ll spend half my time aching to lock her up, and the rest of the time, feeling guilty about having given into the urge.

Oh, well. Fuck it.

I’ve carried her to the bedroom in the back, laying her down gently on the bed beside me, her head falling against my cock as I settle into a sitting position, my back resting against the headboard.

Okay, I’m hard.

But I’m also very focused on the semblance of a plan that I’ve come up with.

It’s really the only plan possible. Visit the Solaros, the dead baby’s parents.

There’s no indication that they’re related in any way to my Jane. The only thing tying them to my daughter’s disappearance is the case of mixed-up identity that led to me believing that the body lying under Devil College was my daughter’s.

But nothing else I’ve come up with so far makes any sense. So I guess that’ll be my first stop, as soon as we reach the States. Or my second one, the first being the cage where I’ll be locking up my girl.

_

By the time we reach the United States, I’ve found out a whole lot about the Solaros, courtesy of Everest and Google. They’re recluses, and even their neighbors haven’t seen them in years. No one’s sure if they’re alive; the only tell-tale sign is the groceries that get delivered every Monday at eight a.m. on the dot.

And then, the house doesn’t stink. No rotting cadavers inside.

“Wake up, lazy girl,” I murmur in Lia’s ear when the pilot announces we’ll be landing in twenty minutes.

“I don’t want to,” she mutters, flipping around to her stomach. “I hate you, and I never want to get up again.”

Her words send a pang of pain through me, but I ignore it, and rub her ass. “Too bad; you’re stuck with me.”

“Just lock me in your cage and let me die.” She sniffs loudly as I kiss the curve of her neck. “I don’t want to be alive anymore.”

“Stop that.” I flip her back, staring at her face to try to decipher her emotions. But she shuts her eyes, keeping me out. “Stop fucking with me, Lia. I’ve had enough.”

She draws herself up so she’s resting on her elbow.

“I’ve had enough of wondering if you’re going to kill me or just hold me captive,” she lashes out. “I’ve had enough of your casual cruelty, Logan. I’ve had enough of you.”

I reach out to squeeze her cheeks, anger coursing through my veins, and it takes everything I have not to strike her. She can tell, too: she can tell how close I am to doing something I could never forgive myself for.