Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Elliot Bennett had spent six years avoiding Adrian Sinclair. He never imagined they would meet again in a place like this.
The instant he met those cold, merciless eyes, his body tensed instinctively.
“Elliot Bennett!”
“Six years, and you still haven’t managed to die? You really are hard to get rid of.”
The low voice exploded beside Elliot’s ear like a nightmare, carrying a sinister edge that made his blood run cold.
For one suspended moment, the noise of the airport seemed to be sealed away behind an invisible veil.
His neck stiff, Elliot turned around slowly, shock written across his face.
When he saw the face he had carved so deeply into his memory that it felt etched into his bones, Elliot blinked once. A glimmer of emotion flickered in the depths of his eyes, followed by something far more complicated, before both disappeared.
He drew in a nearly imperceptible breath. His lips trembled as they parted and closed again, but in the end, he could not force out a single word.
Six years ago, desperate to escape, he had been reckless enough to join forces with other members of the Sinclair family and strike Adrian a devastating blow at the most critical moment of his life.
Over the years, Elliot had replayed that bloodless war in his dreams countless times, including the pair of eyes filled with hatred and fury, eyes that had wanted nothing more than to tear him apart.
He had wounded Adrian Sinclair, and he had wounded himself.
Yet even after six years, Adrian still refused to let him go.
“What do you want?” Elliot asked, glancing at the bodyguards surrounding him before turning his gaze back to Adrian.
“What do I want?” Adrian’s lips curved faintly as he began walking toward Elliot. The violence in his eyes was impossible to conceal. “I told you back then. I told you not to regret it.”
“I don’t regret it.” Elliot drew a deep breath, forcing his voice to remain steady.
“What a fine declaration.” Adrian’s voice rose. He suddenly reached out and seized Elliot’s chin. “Then you can enjoy the price of those six years of freedom.”
“You have no right to treat me like this!” Elliot shoved Adrian away, but Adrian’s bodyguards immediately seized both his arms. No matter how fiercely he struggled, he could not break free.
“Adrian Sinclair, let me go!” Elliot shouted. “You’re really going to abduct someone in front of all these people?”
“Let him go. Otherwise, he’ll accuse us of ganging up on him.” Adrian’s mouth lifted in a mocking smile. He raised a hand, and one of the men behind him passed over a surveillance laptop.
The screen displayed a recording from a surveillance camera.
Chapter 2
In the footage, a man opened a car door, paused as if lost in thought, and then walked toward the office building across the street.
Elliot’s eyes widened. His voice carried a mixture of disbelief and panic. “You’ve been watching him?”
“You ran away with him back then, didn’t you?” Adrian emphasized the words ran away together with cruel precision. “So which will it be? You come with me now, or should I have my people bring him to me?”
“What happened back then had nothing to do with him.” Elliot lowered his head and clenched his hanging hands tightly. “I’ll go with you. Don’t make trouble for him.”
The more Elliot protected the man named Nathan Carter, the more Adrian felt his anger surge through him.
His grim gaze shifted coldly to the man beside him. “Bind his hands. Take him away.”
“Adrian Sinclair, don’t push this too far!”
“You’re free to leave.” Adrian ordered his men to bring out a length of rope. “If you’re not leaving, then hold out your hands yourself. Beg me to take you away. Elliot Bennett, a whore shouldn’t pretend to be virtuous. It only makes you more disgusting.”
Every word Adrian spoke landed on Elliot’s heart like a falling stone. He bit down hard on his lip, then slowly extended his hands.
His slender wrists trembled faintly as the bodyguards roughly bound them. They dragged him through the crowd and forced him into Adrian’s car.
The moment Elliot got into the car, Adrian leaned over him.
The icy chill rolling off Adrian washed over Elliot’s face, and his heart went cold. For one terrible instant, it felt as though he had fallen back into the hell of his nightmares. He barely had time to be afraid before he scrambled backward.
“What? You finally know how to be scared?” Adrian sneered. “Too late.”
He seized Elliot by the chin. His gaze, cold as a blade, moved slowly across Elliot’s face, every word dripping with contempt.
The hatred and fury in Adrian’s eyes made Elliot’s heart tremble. His resistance faltered for a moment.
Adrian gave a cold snort. Taking advantage of the hesitation, he roughly grabbed Elliot by the hair, yanked him upright, then threw him back against the seat. Both hands clamped down on him, pinning him in place.
“What are you going to do? Don’t—ah!”
Pain exploded without warning. The veins stood out along Elliot’s temples, and his whitened fingers dug desperately into the seat.
“Adrian Sinclair, just kill me.”
His lips had gone pale from the pain, but his body was held so tightly that he couldn’t move.
This wasn’t the first time Adrian had forced such intimacy on him. Six years ago, when Elliot had first tried to escape Adrian, Adrian had punished him just as brutally.
That night had become a nightmare Elliot could never escape. It was the night his love and admiration for Adrian had slowly been crushed, leaving behind nothing but resentment and pain.
Now Adrian had finally taken him back.
This time, no one would be able to take Elliot away from him.
No one.
Chapter 3
When Elliot woke again, he was lying on Adrian’s bed.
He stared at the surroundings—familiar, yet horrifyingly strange—and wave after wave of fear rose in his chest.
This was the small Sinclair property in the center of the city, one of the houses where Adrian had imprisoned him before.
He had once been chained inside this room like an animal. The bodyguards and house staff had looked at him with contempt. Whenever Adrian wasn’t there, they had beaten him, drugged him, and mocked him.
At the memory, Elliot curled into a trembling ball.
Even if it meant dying, he never wanted to live through those days again.
Then his gaze fell on the window.
It hadn’t been closed.
A faint glimmer returned to his dull eyes. Without giving himself time to think, Elliot swung his legs over the sill and prepared to jump.
“You woke up quickly.”
Adrian’s cold voice made Elliot’s entire body jolt.
“You’ve had your fun. Are you still not satisfied?” Elliot pressed himself against the window, keeping as much distance between them as possible. “Let me go!”
Every part of his body seemed to cry out over what Adrian had done to him the day before.
Elliot was terrified of Adrian coming near him.
Even more terrifying was the thought of being forced to live beside him again and again.
“Satisfied?” Adrian’s voice was laced with disdain. “You think what you owe me can be paid off that easily? This…” He began walking toward him. “This is only the beginning.”
“I don’t owe you anything!”
The injustice of it tore through Elliot. Adrian had already taken his body and his heart and ravaged them until there was almost nothing left. How could Adrian still claim that Elliot owed him?
“You have no right to keep me here!”
“So you’re trying to run again?”
Adrian smiled as though the idea didn’t concern him.
“Fine. This is the only way out.” He glanced toward the open window. “Jump, and I won’t stop you.”
He started toward Elliot at an unhurried pace.
The window was on the second floor. Adrian didn’t believe Elliot would truly throw his life away.
Elliot gripped the frame with both hands, his fingers locked so tightly around it that they began to ache.
“Don’t say I never gave you a chance,” Adrian said. “Go on. Jump. Since you won’t, then we—”
Before he could finish, Elliot suddenly turned and threw himself over the sill.
His entire body vanished into the open air.
“Elliot!”
The color drained from Adrian’s face.
He spun around and charged downstairs.
Elliot Bennett’s consciousness slowly returned through waves of tearing pain.
When he opened his eyes to a sea of white, he felt disoriented. The sharp scent of hospital disinfectant drowned out every trace of the things that frightened him, and despite himself, he felt a little safer.