I Faked My Death to Take His Empire

I turned to run, but he was faster.

He caught me by the hair and dragged me toward a private yacht moored not far off.

"Let go of me—help!" I kicked and clawed, but I couldn't break free of those thick arms.

He forced the mouth of a bottle between my teeth and poured something unknown down my throat.

In an instant my whole body went hot and weak.

He threw me down on the deck and bore down on me with a leer.

I pushed at him with everything I had, but my limbs had gone soft, every ounce of strength drained out of me.

Despair and helplessness swallowed me whole.

In that razor's edge of a moment, an SUV smashed through the guardrail and screeched to a stop at the water's edge.

It was Val James.

He saw the scene on the deck, and his eyes flooded red.

He charged onto the yacht and kicked Calvin clear across the deck.

Fist after fist landed in flesh. He was going to beat Calvin to death.

I lay curled on the deck.

Limbs limp, face burning, I couldn't even force out a cry for help.

Seraphina Crawford strolled up the gangway, and something unsatisfied flickered through her eyes as she looked at me.

"Val, stop. You'll kill him."

She clung sweetly to Val's arm.

"Penny was probably just lonely... after all, you've been with me."

"Going to her ex-husband on her own—that's only human."

"Still, this is a little desperate, isn't it? She just lost the baby."

His fists stopped. He turned and stared at me, hard.

At my glazed eyes and the flush burning across my face.

The fury in his eyes came laced with disgust.

"Penelope, have you no shame at all?"

Before I could say a word, he bent down and swept me up into his arms.

"Since you're so eager to be in heat, let me sober you up properly today."

The words had barely left him before he carried me to the rail and jumped, no hesitation at all.

A crash, and seawater poured into my mouth and nose.

The drug's burning heat and the bite of the cold water tore my body in two.

Under the water, Val clamped his hand around my wrist and held me down, would not let me surface.

The suffocation made me thrash on instinct, but there was no fight left in me.

When the pain had almost dragged me under into unconsciousness—

he finally pulled me up.

He looked at me, broken like that, and something like reluctance, like ache, crossed his eyes.

A huge wave slammed in, and the yacht rocked hard.

Seraphina, who had been standing at the deck's edge watching the show, lost her footing and tumbled screaming into the shallows.

"Val, help! I can't swim!"

He heard her cry.

And he turned to me and ordered:

"Swim back to shore yourself and wait for me. Don't you dare run off again."

He let go of the wrist he'd been gripping.

Without a moment's hesitation he turned and swam hard toward Seraphina.

With nothing to hold me up, I dropped straight down into the sea.

No strength left to struggle, I let the water flood my mouth and nose.

Over in the shallows, Val hauled Seraphina onto the sand.

Then his eyes swept the surface of the water.

"Where's Penelope?"

He frowned.

"Hasn't she made enough of a scene?"

The waves beat against the rocks. Nothing answered him.

His face darkened. He shoved Seraphina aside and threw himself back into the sea.

"Penelope, come out!"

He searched like a man gone mad, and found nothing.

Panic took him completely. He called in a search team and they dragged the water through the night.

A whole night, and they found nothing.

From the marks on the scene and the direction of the current, the police ruled it a drowning. Penelope Henson was dead.

When Val heard the news, all at once—