: Chapter 19
KING: Alliance Series Book Two
My chest hurts.
Is this what a heart attack feels like?
My ribcage feels tight.
Maybe Iâm dying.
I try to breathe.
If I just died right now, would King let it all go?
Part of my brain hears a chime echo through the house. And part of my brain recognizes Kingâs footsteps as he walks out of the room. But I canât move.
I should run, but I canât move.
The screens are all black. Showing nothing but my own distraught reflection. That doesnât matter though. I canât get the images out of my mind.
Iâll never get those images out of my mind.
I donât really have a relationship with my family. My parents probably wouldnât know until Christmas if I went missing. And itâd take months before the one cousin I like would notice that I stopped liking her kidâs pictures online.
Her kids.
My stomach rolls. The feeling of fear-nausea becoming familiar.
Even if no one would truly miss me, I canât be responsible for the death ofâ¦anyone. It doesnât matter how estranged or ignored I am by someone, it doesnât mean I want them killed.
I couldnât live with that.
I press my hands against my belly.
I donât want to be sick again, but it would serve this bastard right if I puked all over his fancy desk.
It doesnât make senseâ¦
King doesnât make sense.
Heâs soâ¦up and down. Hot and cold.
He kept his sister from attacking me at Mandiâs house.
He killed Lee. His own brother-in-law.
He kidnapped me.
He helped to calm me down when I had a panic attack.
He locked me in his bedroom but he fed me. And he didnât touch me. Not like that.
He hurt himself to catch me on the stairs, rather than just let me fall.
But then heâ¦
A tear drips off my chin.
There were so many photos.
Anyone whoâs ever meant anything to me.
I donât know how he even found anyone. He has pictures of people I barely remember. And he didnât even need to say anything.
Because the final imagesâ¦
I suck in another breath.
It wasnât the ones of my personal information. Wasnât the screen that showed the results from my last abnormal pap, and how I had to go back in. How much those tests hurt, just to tell me that everything was fine.
No, it was the images of the burned down houses. The remnants of explosions. Theâ¦blood.
The evidence that Lee wasnât the first victim of Kingâs violence.
Youâll marry me.
Another tear.
Iâll do it. Iâll say the right things. Sign the right papers. But I wonât stay. Iâll never just accept this fate and stay.