Betrayal's Shadow Read Free

wasn’t the right word. Happy didn’t cover it, either. And obviously, committed didn’t fit.
    If she’d bothered to pay attention, she would have recognized the signs of Alex’s infidelity sooner.
    That wasn’t what bothered her. Okay, the infidelity bothered her a lot, but it was the glaring lack of loss, the lack of emptiness inside of her. Anger, yes, she had plenty, but no loneliness. No ghosts lingered in the house, no echo of sweet words, no treasured smile missed each day. That the lack felt like her failure only served to fuel her anger more.
    With a heavy sigh, she turned back to erasing Alex’s presence from her home.
    Several hours later, brown boxes trailed from the center of the room to the doorway, a miniature city skyline outlined against the bedroom’s white walls.
    Shoulder muscles tight with fatigue and a tiny drum of pain nagging behind her eyes, Mia sank onto the bed and leaned against the headboard to take stock.
    Closet empty. Drawers empty. Boxes sealed and ready to go. She glanced at the clock—two in the morning blinked back in pale green. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and listened.
    Pre-dawn stillness hung in the room. No sounds from the birds, no ticks as the house settled, no clicks from the thermostat, not even the sound of her breath. Just a hush of silence.
    She rode the rhythm and kept a clear image in her mind. Miles and miles of endless blue unraveled and forced her thoughts to calm. Weariness fought her hold on the image. She curled her fingernails into her palm to focus against the distraction.
    Behind her eyelids the blue diminished. Darkness wavered in its place, wisps of black interwoven with gray. Smoke and shadows veiled her from any view. She fought to reestablish the blue sky. It eluded her. The effort drained her until she gave up and swirled farther with the currents that pulled her toward the darkness. Smoke dispersed, replaced by a cold, moist chill that shocked her skin as a damp stench assaulted her nose.
    She blinked. Fuzziness receded but not the dark.
    A dream? No, the cold was too vivid. She searched for the source of the numbness in her legs. Her toes peeked from the bottom of her robe. Her lower body was shaded in gray against a frigid black stone floor. Not home. Not her bed.
    “Don’t cower in the dark.” A deep voice growled from the shadows. Mia’s body rippled with an involuntary shudder.
    Dim light from slats at the top of a closed door to her left framed a large male body across from her. Coils of chain looped around the floor by his legs and snaked off into the darkness. Dark streaks crusted the visibly mauled, naked flesh of his abdomen above the waistband of his ragged pants. The shadows hid the remainder of him.
    Mia released her breath and realized she’d been holding it so tight her chest ached.
    Keep still and silent. Blend with darkness. Distance seemed smart too. She scooted backward until a hard wall pressed against her tailbone. The veil of black had reached its limit. No way to put more distance between herself and the only other occupant of the claustrophobic room.
    Too real. Time to wake up. Mia gripped her knees and squeezed for control, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away from the man across from her.
    Long legs extended across the floor and morphed into thick thighs that stretched the seams of his pants. Hard, corded muscle wrapped beneath the flesh of his wounds and torso.
    He was a lot bigger than she was. She glanced between them, comparing the length of her legs to his—taller too.
    A surge of sympathy for his condition intruded on her thoughts, dampened immediately by the threat of being stuck here. Or could she leave? She sidled to the door to give it a tentative push. Solid. Yep, stuck.
    “You’ll gain nothing in the shadows, whatever your master’s plan.” The chains rattled in concert with his momentary outburst and then silenced.
    Mia cringed. The gravel of his voice spoke volumes of his treatment. It wasn’t a