Takeover: A Step-Brother Romance (The Legacy Series Book 1) by Lana Grayson Read Free Book Online Page B

inside and out.
    This wasn’t a hospital.
    The hands rolled over my stomach. They tested the few bruises on my skin. My vision blurred and the dark splotches blended into the hazy darkness surrounding me.
    The fingers moved to my belly.
    Then lower.
    Far, far too low.
    What was happening?
    And why...
    It was too hard to think. Hard to see. I didn’t want those fingers. I squirmed from another needle.
    I groaned. They didn’t care. I stayed at enough hospitals to expect a greeting or kind word or even a brisk order from the doctor to stay still while they finished their examination.
    Something was wrong. My pulse leapt, though the sheer exhaustion of waking up layered my body in a strange weight. My mind screamed. Nothing escaped my trembling lips.
    A doctor moved over me. The white coat fluttered as he reached for a pair of purple latex gloves.
    I closed my eyes.
    A chilled invasion sliced through me. I whimpered, but I didn’t have the strength to scream or to shift away.
    I still cried.
    The doctor’s fingers prodded inside me.
    Oh, God.
    I struggled. It didn’t bother him. He pressed hard on my navel and withdrew after a moment, passing beyond the cold, artificial light aimed between my legs.
    Exposed.
    So exposed.
    A metal tool jingled on a tray next to the bed. The doctor rubbed where the needle prickled. He checked his watch and nodded.
    And pushed my legs open.
    “N—no.”
    “Hush.”
    My vision darkened again. My head fell against the pillow. I couldn’t yell. Worse, my body refused to fall asleep again.
    The tool forced inside me. I tensed, but he worked fast.
    “Virgin,” he said. “She’s healthy.”
    “St— stop .”
    They ignored me. A shiver of sickness bound in my stomach. He scraped the tool inside. I lost myself in terrified shivers, but the exam was done.
    The shock faded after my first gasp. I could breathe .
    One. Two. Three amazing breaths.
    Each breath chased the tears of shame with a rush of relief.
    The doctor spoke in a hushed tone, but I listened only to my inhalations. No wheezing shadowed my lungs. He hadn’t treated the attack. Did I survive on my own?
    Where was I ?
    The fatigue blinded me, and it decimated my patience. I couldn’t speak. I kicked instead. The doctor frowned.
    “—You have two weeks.” He answered questions I hadn’t heard asked. “Give her folic acid.”
    Another needle punctured my arm. I yelped, but the liquid slurped through my veins like syrup, deadening everywhere it touched. I fought, but the doctor patted my arm.
    He shifted my pants over my hips.
    The button remained unfastened. It disgraced me more than anything.
    A voice spoke from the shadows. “That’s a good girl, my dear.”
    No .
    I tried to rise. The drugs hardened my muscles into stone.
    Not him . Darius Bennett’s words barbed my mind with a living nightmare that followed me into the darkness.
    “Rest now. We need you healthy, Sarah. You have a very important job to do.”
     
    ***
     
    It wasn’t my room.
    The tall ceiling with delicate moldings wasn’t my own. The bay window overlooked a vast wilderness, not my familiar cornfields. The poster bed stuffed with down comforters. I hated down. I kicked it away before it triggered the asthma.
    The motion dizzied me. Moving was bad. Whatever drugs sloshed through my system hadn’t fully cleared. I flexed my arm. Someone replaced my blood with molasses, but I was alive.
    And whoever dared to imprison me would regret leaving me whole.
    I shivered. I had been kidnapped. Of all the idiotic crimes.
    Did they expect me to write a check in exchange for my safety? Did they expect me to beg for mercy? Cower and promise never to tell a soul what happened?
    Fuck that.
    I was Sarah Atwood.
    Atwoods didn’t surrender.
    We rose at dawn to start working and didn’t sleep until the job finished. My ancestors made our millions tilling, hoeing, planting, and harvesting from sunup till sundown, breaking our backs and sweating our lives away in the