Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
She shakes her head, bottom lip quivering defiantly as she whispers, “You need to help me get away from him.”
“Why would I help you get away from my client? He’s the one who paid for you to come here and be trained.”
“Because he’s a horrible man,” she whispers.
I chuckle.
“Lots of terrible men in this world. So fucking what?”
“He hurts me.”
So I was right. All those scars and bruises over her body come from my uncle. The sick fucking bastard marked her up. When he couldn’t dominate her mind, he painted her body blue and black instead.
“How is that my problem?” I force myself to ask, even though I want to smash my fist into my uncle’s jaw at the sound of her words. “I’m not here to save you. I’m just here to teach you some fucking manners.”
“I sucked your cock,” she spits out. “Is that not proof enough of my manners? Of my obedience to my husband? It shows I’ll do anything to please him. But that man cannot be satisfied.”
“Says you,” I mutter. “By the time I’m done with you, you’ll learn differently. Once you return to your husband, you’ll be the sweet-mannered, well-trained kitten he’s always wanted licking up his cream.”
“You don’t know him.”
I want to correct her but force myself to shut up. A part of me is eager for more, to find out what my uncle is like now. And she’s encouraged by my silence, the words falling from her lips in another desperate plea for me to help her escape.
“He’ll kill me if I go back there,” she says. “Eventually, I’ll die because of him. I already know it.”
I take a step back as her hands desperately reach through the bars.
“He’s a monster. He makes me do terrible things. Please. Help me.”
Her words strike a chord with me and yet there’s nothing I can do to help her. I’m not ready to face my uncle again, much less his wrath.
“Just be a good girl,” I get out through gritted teeth. “And you’ll be out of here before you know it, and back with him.”
“I’d rather die than go back there,” she whispers brokenly.
“You say that now, but you may change your mind.”
I reach into my pocket and pour the contents of a small plastic bag on my tongue. The sweet powder dissolves. I need this. I’m being too soft around this captive and I can’t afford to feel any compassion for somebody who is just a prisoner.
The mercy I felt for her drips away, leaving only cruelty in its wake. I feel sorry for her now, because she doesn’t even know what I’m capable of yet.
“Are you going to hurt me?” she asks, her bottom lip quivering.
My jaw sets with determination as I mutter, “Without a doubt.”
Chapter 5
RAIN
3 days ago
Once Xavier thrusts me back into my bedroom, Adelina arrives. I am huddled into a ball on the bed, refusing to pick myself up when she enters. But then a guard follows her inside my bedroom, cruelly pulling me to my feet and forcing me into the bathroom where a bath is running.
Adelina follows suit, holding a box in her trembling fingers.
“What are you going to do to me?” I whisper. “Please, don’t hurt me.”
I wouldn’t put it past Xavier to turn my maid against me. After all, he doesn’t know how close we’ve gotten in the last few years.
“He wants... he wants me to dye your hair,” Adelina mutters once the guard leaves.
“Why?”
“Because he doesn’t want people to see it in its natural state. He says it will draw too much attention.”
I touch my mass of golden locks and feel the hot tears burning my eyes. But I will not cry. Xavier can try to take everything away from me, but he won’t break me, ever.
“It was dying it or cutting it all off,” Adelina whispers. “I barely convinced him to let me use the color instead.”
I nod numbly, watching as she prepares the dark dye for my hair. Everything is about to change. The last shred I had left of myself before all this happened was about to disappear.
Closing my eyes shut, I block out everything that’s happening, once again going to my safe place where nothing can hurt me.
Present time
“I’m going to take you out of the cage now.”
My heart beats into overdrive as the mysterious voice tells me his intentions. The door unlocks and I eagerly crawl forward, trying to feel where I’m going with my fingers. Fear takes over me as fingers wrap around my chin. There’s a tension in the room I hadn’t expected. I feel a strange sense of kinship with my abductor, and I’m convinced if I beg hard enough, he’ll feel sorry for me and perhaps even let me go.
Determined to escape this place and then Xavier, I kneel patiently in front of the figure I can’t make out. I feel his presence, heavy and intimidating in the middle of the room.