[COMPLETED] When down on her luck, Abby Redding lands a position as the personal assistant for wealthy businessman Alex Carter, her first assignment is to fix up his new cabin in a remote town.
Things don't go as planned when an unsolved murder and...
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"Eggs aren't supposed to be this greasy. Dammit, didn't anyone ever teach you to cook? I can't eat this crap!"
Abby turned towards his voice just in time to see the uneaten plate of eggs come flying at her. She ducked and saw an angry Bryce scrounging through the fridge for something else.
She picked up the discarded food from the floor along with the pieces of glass that were once part of a dish set given to her by her now-deceased grandmother. A mental note to buy paper plates skirted through her mind as she watched Bryce, the man who claimed to love her, chewing on some leftover takeout. She hissed in pain as a shard of glass pricked her hand, a tiny drop of blood escaping.
"Don't look at me like that," Bryce growled. "It's your fault. You know how I get when I'm hungry. Next time you should cook something I can actually eat."
A splinter of glass embedded itself in Abby's finger. She watched a thick drop of blood ooze out of her broken skin.
"Are you bleeding?" a now worried Bryce asked, coming towards her. "I'm sorry, babe. This is my fault. You know I never want to see you hurt, right? You're the most important thing in the world to me."
The most important thing? Abby bit back her remark about being a person, not a thing. She didn't want to start another argument so early in the morning.
Abby felt his strong arms envelop her as he walked her towards the kitchen sink. Cool water ran over her finger as his lips pressed against her neck, a precursor to him marking her skin. "You need to take better care of yourself, babe."
It was always like this. A beating before the healing. A cut before the care. It was a merry-go-round of emotions that stopped being fun long ago. Now the ride made Abby queasy. It had to stop.
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Abby groaned as memories of her and Bryce pressed against her mind. The last she remembered, she was being in the pink room.
"Are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?"
Abby slowly opened her eyes to see three fingers wiggling in front of her face.
"Where am I? What happened?" she asked, still not completely aware of her surroundings. The fingers were removed and she felt something damp on her forehead. It was a compress. She slowly sat up and found herself staring into the very irritated eyes of her employer, Alex Carter.
