Figure Eight (Celtic Knot Book 2) by Cassy Roop

I were you, or I will take the privilege of talking away from that pretty little mouth of yours,” Asher said sardonically. He grasped me by the upper arm and began to drag me toward the hallway. Flashbacks to the night at the club when he forced me into the Rapture Room at The Celtic Knot and tied me to the bed against my will flashed into my mind. Bile began to rise into my throat and my heart beat wildly in my chest as panic began to set in. Was history about to repeat itself?
    “You don’t have to manhandle me, Asher. Fucking let me go. I will follow you willingly,” I growled at him as I tried to yank my arm away from him. He tightened his grip painfully into my arm to the point I could feel his nails biting into my flesh.
    “I have no doubt, Ashley. There will be other things that you will be doing willingly soon,” he said as he spun me around and slammed my back against the wall knocking the breath out of me. I tried to remain unphased by his brutal tactics, but I was barely hanging on by a thread. He lifted his hand to stroke my cheek and I flinched from the disgust of even a mere touch from him.
    “You are exquisite, Ashley. Mmm. I cannot wait to make you my pet.” He said in a husky voice while leaning in to smell the curve of my neck and I shivered with repugnance. I summoned all the strength I could find and shoved him as hard as I could, sending him stumbling backward.
    “You will never own me. You will never have me. You may think you have won, but mark my words, Asher, I will find a way out of this. I won’t let you harm my friends or Dominic.”
    “Watch your fucking mouth, Ashley. I would hate to see something happen to your friends. Oh look, here is one now,” he said as he showed me a picture of Kelly on his phone. I noticed that everything around her was purple. The walls, the couches, and I gasped when I realized she was in the club.
    “You better not harm a fucking bone in her body. I have done everything you have asked me to do. I have given up everything you sadistic son-of-a-bitch!” I yelled with fierce anger. A few people that lingered in the hall turned their heads in our direction at my heated outburst.
    I narrowed my eyes at him in warning. I was tired of being pushed around, but I needed to play along while I developed a plan. I needed to find help, but I couldn’t allow anyone close to me to intervene for fear that they would face a threat from Asher as well.
    “I’m warning you, Ashley,” he said as he jabbed his hard, bony finger into my chest, “don’t fucking play games with me. This is bigger than you know and if one wrong thing happens, not only will your friends suffer, but I’ll take you down with me.”
    “Fine, whatever,” I said as I tried to walk away.
    “Oh, and Ashley?” he said grabbing my attention as I finally broke free of him and the sickening smell of his cologne that unwillingly invaded my nostrils. I reluctantly glanced over my shoulder in mock interest.
    “You are going to have to testify in court.”
    What!?!
    And with that, he walked away leaving my heart at my feet and my stomach turning.
    I wasn’t in a party mood anymore, so I left the hallway to go find Rownan to ask him to take me home. Just as I rounded the corner, I felt a hand grasp around my arm in the same place that Asher had moments before. I spun around quickly to confront him yet again.
    “I said let me go you fucking…”
    I didn’t finish my sentence. No sound protruded from my mouth as I stood there in stunned silence looking at the searing eyes of Dominic.
     

 
     
    The tumbler in my hand slipped to the floor sending liquor, ice and shards of glass scattering to the floor. Heat rose in my face and my body began to tremble as I looked down on the dance floor to see Ashley grinding on Rownan. Rage, violence and pure unadulterated madness didn’t begin to even touch the feelings I was experiencing at the sight of her in the arms of another man only a few days after she