Read Bind and Keep Me, Book 2 for Free Online Page A

of Horseshoe Bay. Klaus loved the sea too. Thinking of him in jail for a couple of years… This was all so ridiculous that now and again, I almost felt reality jump, like my brain had to re-engage to catch up.
    From his movement, he’d tucked his phone back into his pocket. “Well? Find anything?”
    “I can’t be certain. We need a lawyer, really. But, I’d say, possibly fifteen years jail.”
    I gulped. “Fifteen?”
    “With good behavior, I’d get that reduced. I’m guessing here, but five to ten?”
    “Holy fuck. No way! No way. Uh-uh.”
    “I agree.”
    “What’s the third option? We’re doing that aren’t we?” I strained to listen and could hear the vacuum starting up somewhere in the house. “I’m amazed you got Steph to agree to this so easily. She’s as allergic to housework as me. More so. I only had a thing about doing yours. You poor baby.” He growled at that so I hurried on. “Her room at college merited a bomb disposal crew.”
    “Yes. That’s part of why I think I might be able to work the third possibility.”
    “It’s not this?” I half turned so the side of my face was on his shirt and inhaled. “Mmm. You smell good.”
    “No, not this. This is not going to fool the cops. All this cleaning will only make them suspicious. And if they interrogate her, we’re screwed. I don’t trust her to lie well enough. I don’t trust her, full stop.”
    “No?” I tilted my neck to look up at him. “She was my friend, back then, at uni.”
    “That, you call a friend?” Now the anger showed in his voice. “She held you down so a man could strip you and god knows what else they did. Do you believe she has told us everything? I don’t.”
    “No,” I whispered.
    “He might not have physically raped you, but I’d call that sexual assault.”
    I slumped, staring at the timber slats on the floor under the chair next to us. “I know. I couldn’t understand that either. Even if she was under the influence of whatever drug he had, she never warned me he was giving me anything. I—” I looked up again, swallowed. “I don’t trust her either.”
    “Right then, moving onward. Option three, the real option three, is this. Think hard before you answer. I’m not involving you in anything illegal just because I lost my temper.”
    “But you didn’t
just
lose your temper. You thought I was dead. You don’t need to explain that to me. The man was a prick and deserved it. And I don’t care if people would judge me badly for saying that.”
    Klaus studied me. Those eyes of his were so intent, so dark, like when he was hurting me with a cane or needles, or a flogger, and he needed to watch closely to make sure he didn’t cross the line and go too far. I didn’t remember my safeword sometimes. Once only, he’d forgotten, but that was long ago, now we both knew better.
    “You get to safeword this one if you want.”
    I blinked. Had he read my mind? “Tell me. But, Klaus…” I searched for and found his hand, gripped it tightly until he fastened his hand on mine even tighter. Good man, he knew I’d needed that. “I trust
you
. I doubt I’ll say no.”
    “Just listen. Then think. The last option. If we can’t trust her. We need to silence her.”
    I waited. I knew he didn’t mean murder. He searched my eyes.
    “No comment? Good girl. You know I don’t intend to kill her. I could never do that. If it came to that, to truly harming her, I’d take option one or two.” Klaus squeezed my hand for a second. “I mean to take her to our house. To put her in the room. To keep her there, indefinitely. Until, we can trust her enough to let her go.”
    Flaws. I could see there were flaws. My heart thudded so fast it hurt my chest. “How can we ever trust her that much? This is kidnapping.”
    “Yes, it is.”
    “So how could we ever trust her enough? She’d have twice as much damaging information. Murder, as well as kidnapping. I…” My mouth stayed open. He’d said to think.
    “I