Fatal Conclusions (Book 3, the Fatal Trilogy Series)

Chapter 2.

"You're not at all what I expected," he'd admitted.

"You're exactly what I expected," I replied, immediately flinching for the blow that didn't come.

"The last one was darling." He leaned over me to say close to my ear. "She begged and cried and fought."

Stacey.

I knew she's who he was talking about. Daimon's first love who had been stolen away from him and then held captive for years until I killed the man keeping her and she was able to return. I wonder absently if she's ok. She was getting help in Vermont, but that was before...did she know?

I looked away, unable to think of her brother at a time like this. Or ever really.

I knew what Pablo was talking about though. He'd taunted Daimon with the same information of the awful details of him raping her. He was trying to use her abuse to get a rise out of me for my own and it was a laughable attempt.

"I'm not her," I bit out. "I won't cry for you or beg you to stop. You're going to do what you're going to do." That was the simple truth of it, but speaking it out loud snakes away some of his power over these moments. It gave me the upper hand.

Pablo had snorted, amused. "Knocking you off of your high horse and teaching you some manners will be fun," he told me before he left that night.

Too bad for him he would never be powerful enough to do it.

Three weeks later and he no longer even tried to intimidate me or get the rise he wanted. Our interactions became quicker, sterile, uniformed, and then he'd be gone and I'd be left alone for twenty-four more hours.

Only this time as he goes, he turns back at the door to look at me. "Have you made your decision?" he asks and I tilt my head.

"Regarding?"

He sighs shaking his head. "I'm ready to play nice if you are. Your life here doesn't have to be miserable. Stresses are not conducive to procreation. It occurs to me that you're like a plant—"

"You mean pet?" I cut in and he smiles that twisted sick bastard smile.

"Yes, a pet is even more accurate." He nods. "You should be walked, given time in the sun to play, all of the other good girl stuff. If you'd rather stay locked in here, be my guest."

"How nice?" I ask, looking around my tiny confines.

"Excuse me?" My question threw him off and he runs his hand through his cropped brown hair that's going white at the temples.

"You said if I'm ready to play nice," I remind him. "How nice am I expected to play?"

Pablo smiles at me again and I look away. I don't want to be on the other end of his smiles. Not his or any other man's.

"Don't kill anyone," he lists off. "Speak to me with respect."

"Both of those may be an issue," I say. "Your men are deplorable shit heads who deserve to die and it would be hard to show respect to someone who I don't respect."

"Have it your way," Pablo snaps and begins closing the door, the light that was pouring across my floor from the hallway shrinking and leaving me in the shadows again.

Damn it all to hell. "Wait," I call out just before the door closes. As much as I hate it and myself, I know he's right a little at least. This is my life now. This is the life I'm going to be forced to bring my baby into. Do I really want to spend it locked in a room all alone? I know I need to be thinking long term. I need to gain favor. I need to put the rest aside and do what Alyssa fucking Barnes does best.