Betrayed (The Worshipped Series Book 2) (2 page)

Yeah fat chance of that. 

I hear Josh walk further away from my hiding spot and I take my hands off my mouth. I breathe deep, trying to slow my heart rate down. I slowly open my eyes, and I peek my head around the tree. Even though I cannot see, I do it again for the other side. But as I start to turn, I hear Josh behind me. I grab onto the tree, feeling my nails sink in the bark. I tense not wanting to turn around. 

“We have to leave. Now.” His voice sends chills down my spine, but not in fear. For whatever reason, my body refuses to believe Josh would hurt me. My brain however, is screaming for me to run again. I do what any sane person would, and I run as fast as I can. I only get a few feet away from him, when he grabs me by the arm. He pulls me to him, making me crash into his hard chest. I’m waiting for him to argue with me, but he just tosses me over his shoulders. I, on the other hand, thrash and punch his back with my fists while screaming at the top of my lungs. 

He has the nerve to slap my ass, and say, “Scream all you want. No one will hear you.”

Josh carries me back through the woods. Despite his manhandling, he holds me tight. One hand holds the back of my thigh as he walks back to the car. He ignores everything I say, all the names I call him, and my obviously futile attempt at kicking his ass. It’s pointless. He is stronger, and much larger than I am. But, I had to try something. I am a fighter. 

“Let me go you son of a bitch!” I scream at him as I see we are back at his car. He doesn’t say a word and he brings me down his hard body. The moment my feet hit the ground, I try to run again. He grabs me by both arms, holding on tightly. The street light hits his face in such a way that stops me in my tracks. His jaw is clenched shut, making his features look harsh. He takes in deep breaths as if trying to calm himself. He leans me against the car, and starts to open the door. I know if I don’t do something right now, he will put me in the car and take me to God knows where.

“I swear to God, I will kick you in the nuts so hard if you don’t let me go!” I scream at him as he slowly backs way. Josh has the nerve to smile at me! He is being a fucking asshole! I try once more to get past him. Against my efforts, I am pushed back against the car. He whips the door open and puts me inside.  He locks me in, and walks around to the driver’s side of the car. He unlocks the door only long enough for him to get behind the wheel and to slam the door shut. The click of the locks sounds like a gunshot. He stills for a moment trying to regain his composure. I can see how tense he is as he grips the stirring wheel until his knuckles turn white. His breathing is coming out in pants and he closes his eyes almost as if he is looking for some sort of inner calm. I on the other hand, can’t seem to calm down. All I want is to get out of the car and run like hell. I pull on the door handle like it will suddenly open for me. Every time I try and unlock the door, Josh locks it. He is holding down the lock button now so I know my chances for escaping is slim to none. 

I know Josh is different from any other man I have been with before. He is more dominant and to put it nicely, sometimes he scares the shit out of me. I would only get a glance and at times I thought I was imagining it. I want to think he is fighting his own demons, and I wonder if he has done some bad shit before he met me. Of course I have to rely solely on my instincts. Josh never would open up to me about anything from his past. I don’t know if that is a good thing or not. Even though we have been together for months, he refuses to open up to me about anything. 

Josh turns to me and I can tell whatever is going on is really bad. I have never seen that look before. He looks desperate. For what I don’t have a clue. “I’m so sorry Karen. This isn’t the way it is supposed to go. I’m sorry”, he tells me and sounds genuine.

“Josh, what the fuck are you talking about? Now is not the time for secrets and for you to be vague. Tell me what’s going on.”

 I think for just a second he is going to spill for once. Then I feel the sting from the needle going into my arm. I look at him hoping he sees my confusion and anger for what he’s done to me. I have no idea what he injected me with. When he starts to look blurry, my guess is he used some sort of sleeping drug. As I fade out, I can hear him say, “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

I wake up later feeling groggy and I feel like my mouth is jammed full of cotton balls. My muscles ache, and my head is pounding. My thoughts are foggy and I have no idea why I cannot remember anything before this moment. I groan and I feel a hand touch my face. I immediately jump away, not knowing who the fuck is touching me. I slowly open my eyes and I see Josh sitting beside me looking worried. At first I don’t understand why he looks so worried and…sad maybe? He quickly masks his emotions from me. I quickly glance around the room and none of it seems familiar. I don’t know where I am.  Like a flood, it all comes back to me. Josh throwing me over his shoulder and making me leave Riley’s house; him dragging me into the car and my personal favorite, him stabbing me with that fucking needle and drugging me. I sit up, and instantly regret that. I want to yell and hit him for doing this to me. I can’t understand why he is doing this? 

I give him the evil eye as I ask, “Can I at least have a glass of water?” He nods and leaves to go get the glass for me. While he is gone, I look around to try and get a hint of where the fuck I am. It is so hot and humid inside this cheap motel. At least I think it’s a cheap motel. It smells like dirty feet and the walls seriously need to be repainted. The TV looks like the one my grandparents had. It still has bunny ears on the top. Thankfully there are two beds. Not that I want to sleep in them. The bedding looks worn, feels scratchy, and needs to be bleached. I don’t even want to see what the bathroom looks like. God I need to get out of here. 

Josh soon returns with my glass of water and I take it from him without a word. He doesn’t deserve a thank you. I watch him as I drink the entire glass. He stares right back at me, almost taunting me. What is he thinking? I can never tell. His moods change faster than I can think sometimes. Like right now. He watches as I finish the water and I swear he looks proud. These drugs are having a weird effect on me. I set the glass down and sit up straighter. I have a feeling we are about to have a huge fight, but I am not backing down. 

“I need you to tell me what the hell is going on. I need answers and you will tell me,” I say with the most demanding voice I can muster. Yes I am blunt and straight to the point, but I am always a coward when push comes to shove. Josh thinks my demanding questions are funny. He chuckles that damn sexy husky kind of chuckle, and he moves right in front of me.

Our noses are almost touching as he says, “You are to never demand anything of me again. I will tell you when I am good and damn ready to. You will do as you’re told. We wouldn’t want anything happening to that pretty little ass now would we?”

Shit. I can’t help it. I relinquish my stare and back away from him. I’ve seen him like this only a handful of times, and when I did, he scared me. Scared he wouldn’t see reason, or lose control and actually hurt me. I don’t know if I can get through to him like this. There has to be some way for me to get him to talk. 

He is still inches away from my face, and I can smell his musky male scent. His breath is hot, and smells like cinnamon. He needs to step out of my personal space, but I don’t want to be the first to move any more than I already have. I feel this is some sort of test. Is he waiting to see if I will move away first? I can’t help myself, I move first and dammit, he looks pleased with that. I lower my head, not wanting to meet his intense gaze. My face flushes and I know it is red. Fuck me, I don’t understand why I am embarrassed, but I am. I don’t like the way he makes me feel. My body, on the other hand, loves this side of him. We’ve had sex before, but he always seemed to keep his dominant side in check. It was never like this before. He is being more intimidating, and the way my body is reacting to him, scares the shit out of me. 

Josh puts his hand on my chin, making me look at him. His dark brown eyes gaze into mine, and I can feel his need for me. I know he is trying not to lose control, and I try not to look away. Using his thumb, he rubs my chin, sending chills all over my body. I know he cares for me, at least I think he does, but I still don’t understand why he took me away from everything. I want him to confide in me, but I don’t want to push him. 

Josh trails his hand down my face a few times before going to the back of my neck. He grabs me, hard enough to get my full attention, and pulls me forcefully to him. He is breathing hard, as he says, “I am the one keeping you safe. Do as I ask and do not push me again. Next time I will not be so nice about putting you in your place. Now, I want you to take a shower and we will eat. Then I will decide to tell you what you are doing here.” He lets me go with a little shove, and I rush into the bathroom. I shut the door, and thank the heavens there’s a lock. 

I put my back to the door, trying not to cry. This is so unlike me. I am not this person. I am stronger than this. I do not run away and cry behind closed doors. Hell, I don’t ever cry. I haven’t cried in a very long time. So why do I feel the need to do so now? Keeping me safe? From what? He’s the one drugging me. 

God help me, I don’t know what has come over Josh, or over me. He has never grabbed me like that before. No one has ever put their hands on me the way Josh has. I am shocked, but I don’t know what I am more shocked of. Is it the way he acted, or is it the fact that I liked it? I am so ashamed of myself for feeling turned on. I shouldn’t feel the need to come, or the way my nipples are begging for attention as well. I want to scream. I know if I hadn’t been with him before I wouldn’t feel this way. Or that’s what I am trying to convince myself.  I shake my head trying to clear my thoughts. I need a plan and I need it fast. I have to get out of here before either Josh seriously hurts me or I give into whatever he thinks is going to happen. I don’t trust him anymore not to hurt me. Hell, the way my body is betraying me, I barely trust myself.  

It takes me a long time to lower my guard and allow people in. It’s a soul preservation mechanism.  But deep down I knew I couldn’t, I wanted to let him in. I knew there was something different about him and I am glad I trusted myself not to give my full faith to him. I was beginning to think I loved him. Maybe I do, but now, God I don’t know how to feel. This isn’t normal. Shit like this does not happen in the real world. In my romance books yes, but this isn’t real. He is trying to break me. Little does he know, it takes a lot to break me.

I watch Karen run to the bathroom as if the room caught fire. I don’t want to scare her, but fuck me, I needed to show her who was in control. It has been to long without letting my darkness free, and now it wants Karen. I held out, doing everything I knew to do in the past few months that we’d been together, but I didn’t have that release anymore. There is only so much running a treadmill into the ground and punching the hell out of a punching bag can do for a man like me. This is all Karen’s fault. If she wasn’t so goddamn sexy and mouthwatering, I probably could have more control. I know she doesn’t realize how much her pretty little ass begs for me to have my hand print on it. Or her hot lips on my hard cock. 

I need to leave before I break down that fucking door to the bathroom and fuck her hard like I really want. I really have no idea how I managed not to hurt her already. I get up and grab the keys to my piece of shit car. I shut the door, and hope to God Karen doesn’t get any bright ideas and decides to leave. She has no clue we are in Texas and I know she will get lost in this part of town. I chose it for that very reason. No one looks twice at someone like me, or calls the cops when they hear a gunshot, let alone screaming. Plus I am running low on money and I need to grab more from Frankie soon.

 I wish it wasn’t summer time as I get into the car. It is hotter than hell right now, and the damn car AC decided to take a shit half way here. That thought makes me regret having to drug Karen. She never realized what I was doing until it was too late. I didn’t want to do it that way, but she gave me no choice. I saw in her eyes she wouldn’t leave her friend. I understood why she didn’t want to leave Riley, but I couldn’t let Dominic get to her. 

That of course, was the plan all along. 

The night I met her at that bar, I had not expected the curvy and fucking hot as hell blonde was sitting there as I walked in. My mission was to set up a way in to learn more of what Isaac and Conner were up to. As soon as I saw her, my dick went fucking crazy. I literally had a hard on for her the whole night we talked. I honestly didn’t know she was even going to show that night. Funny how fate can be a bitch at times. In a way, I think I saved Karen from a very painful death. The plans Dominic had for her, I couldn’t even start to think about that. It brings out every demon I battle daily and makes me think of Rachel. Of the times that I was with her, and how normal it all was when we were together. But even then, I knew it wouldn’t last. My past and demons won’t ever let me be normal. I shove all those thoughts away and get back to the task at hand. I need to meet Frankie to get my money, and then grab food. I have to do all this fast. I have a feeling Karen might run on me.