“Eyes forward,” he barked.

She slowly lifted her head to see severalpeople pointing in her direction with appalled looks on theirfaces. Victor had stated he never repeated a punishment twice, butwasn’t this humiliation again?

Another person walked by, an older, well-puttogether woman who stood frozen as her eyes roamed over Elsa’s nudebody. Both of their cheeks flushed simultaneously and Elsa felt thesudden urge to cry. She swallowed hard and held her ground. Thewoman promptly dug into her handbag and retrieved a cell phone.

This wasn’t good. Elsa’s legs suddenly feltweak. The woman talked feverishly to someone as two other peopleapproached. Would this never end? She clenched her fists when hermortification turned to anger. God, she hated Mr. Black.

The group of three people finally dispersedand Elsa let out a sigh of relief. How much longer was she going tobe put through this? Just as she was feeling better, she saw apolice cruiser pull into the driveway.

Horrified at what was about to play out, sheturned her head to see Victor gone. But she knew he wasn’t reallygone. The cameras were rolling. The loud knock on the door made herjump but she stood steadfast. Victor’s words came back to her:this isn’t going to end well.

A louder bang on the door echoed through theentryway that was followed by a man’s voice.

“Open the door, Ma’am.”

When she didn’t respond, she heard the doorknob jiggle and her mouth became unbearably dry. There were nowseveral onlookers, some of whom were smiling stupidly at her. Fuckthis. Just as she reached down for her robe, the door swung openand a tall, built Hispanic police offer came into the livingroom.

“Cover yourself and step away from thatwindow, please,” he stated sternly.

Her body stilled. Do not speak. Do notmove. Not even if someone comes to the door. She straightenedherself and kept her eyes lowered. She truly had lost all commonsense and the words ‘sanity’ and ‘dignity’ had been ripped from hervocabulary.

“Ma’am, did you hear me?” he said louder whenshe didn’t move.

Elsa’s bottom lip trembled and her body beganto shake when the officer approached her and reached down to placethe robe around her shoulders.

“Are you the owner of this residence?” heasked.

She shook her head.

“Where is he?”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“Listen to me, Ma’am. If you don’t step awayfrom this window, I’m going to have to haul you in. Do you reallywant that?”

She shook her head and her eyes welled upwith tears. But she remained exactly where Mr. Black had told herto stay and she pulled the robe off.

“This is ridiculous. If you don’t put thatrobe on right now and step away from the window, I’m taking you in.This is your last warning. I got a shit ton of paperwork to do andI don’t have time for this. Do you understand?” he said even louderthan before.

She nodded. Yes, she understood what he wassaying, but she also understood that Mr. Black’s punishment wouldbe far worse. She pushed her chin out, ready to prove herinvestment when the man grabbed her robe once again, wrapped itaround her shoulders and dragged her to the car. She no sooner gotplaced into the back seat when her body began to tremble. Shehadn’t been to jail as an adult and she promised herself after thelast time she was in juvie that she would change her ways. She hadeven promised her mother. Oh, God… her mom. Elsa hid herface in her hands, but held her tears.

Where the hell was Victor? Why hadn’t he cometo her rescue? Because he was no knight in shining armor, shereminded herself. He was a soulless, lightless sadist… No. That’swhat he wanted her to believe and this was all part of his game. Hewanted this. He wanted her to doubt her judgment about him, but shewould prove to him that she still believed in him…

When they arrived at the station all hermemories of her time being booked when she was a teenager werebrought back. It was all the same. The same paperwork, the sameassholes asking the same questions. She tried twice to callVictor’s cell phone only to be sent to voice mail. This wasinsane.

Dressed in an awful, blue jumper that was atleast two sizes too big, she was placed into a cell all by herself.Thankfully. She couldn’t bear the thought of having to be next toreal criminals.

Where was Victor? Why the hell wasn’t he hereto explain everything and get her out? Didn’t he realize she couldlose her job over something like this? Is that what he wanted?

Three hours passed and she was losing hopethat he would show up. Several times she was asked if she wanted tocall anyone, but who would she call? She had no one near who couldhelp. She considered calling Vivien, but she was too embarrassedand didn’t want to try and justify her actions of why she had beenstanding nude in front of a window for all of Richmond to see her.She didn’t want to explain that she had signed some stupid, fakecontract that wasn’t even legal and that she was being held toridiculous standards. And she sure as hell didn’t want to try andrationalize herself by saying it was all because she thought shecould break through some sadistic asshole’s walls.

Finally after four hours, she was releasedand simply given an indecent exposure ticket and warned to keep hernaked ass under wraps. They gave her some second-hand clothes towear and she caught a bus with a voucher back to Grace Street. Whenshe arrived, it was almost 10:00 p.m. She found the door unlockedand Victor waiting at the table eating as if nothing had happenedand she hadn’t just spent the worst four hours of her adult life ina jail cell.

Too irate and hurt to speak because of hiscasualness, she went straight to the master suite to shower andwash the filth of the jail cell off her body. She felt miserableand alone and for the first time, she regretted having moved toRichmond. This wasn’t the life she had planned for herself. Thiswasn’t what she wanted. She just wanted to be cared for, cherished,and loved. All she wanted was a fresh start. But Mr. Black hadstripped all that away. She crawled under her comforter and rolledonto her side and closed her eyes. She just wanted to sleep andforget about the fucking her investment.

She heard Victor walk in but she kept hereyes closed, pretending to sleep. The bed dipped next to her andhis hand push the hair from her eyes, but she remainedmotionless.

“I have some food for you downstairs. Comeand eat.”

She remained still.

“I know you’re not sleeping, Elsa. Comedownstairs and let’s talk.”

Her eyes flew open and she glared at him.What the hell was there to talk about? He stood and tugged herhand, but she resisted. When she did, he reached down and broughther up into his arms and carried her down the stairs. She hid herface in his neck, not wanting to look into his beautifullydeceiving and pitiless eyes. His smell was so intoxicating and hiswarm, strong body was so firm... Why hadn’t he come to that jailcell and taken her into his arms then?

He seated her at the table and pushed a plateof warm food in front of her. She didn’t want to give in but shewas so hungry. Picking up her flatware, she brought a forkful ofpotatoes to her mouth. When she finally had the nerve to look up,Victor was watching her keenly and waiting for her response. Shecould only guess that he was expecting her to lash out like she hadbefore, but she just didn’t have it in her.

She shot him a withering glance. “How couldyou leave me there knowing what I’ve been through?”

Silence.

“That was harsh, Victor.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “You werelate.”

Elsa sighed and shook her head in disgustwith his coldness. “You should know that the reason I was late wasbecause I was in a car accident,” she whispered. His eyes squintedcritically. “You don’t believe me? Go outside and look at my rearbumper,” she answered before he spoke.