AllFreeNovel
Share Us
PROLOGUE
“I will end it. I will end. I will end. I will end. I will…” —Rachel Van Dyken
Katya
“Don’t!” Blood trickled down my chin, landing in angry slaps against the dirty concrete, my knees stung from crawling toward my twin brother. “If you fight, they just hit you harder.”
He spit out a tooth. “We must fight, Katya. It is all we have left!”
Tears mixed with more blood as the urge to vomit overtook me. His left eye was completely sealed shut, two of his front teeth were missing, and he was trying to smile at me and make me feel better.
He always was the strong one.
The fighter, even when our foster parents got angry at him and took away meals and video games.
He was unnaturally muscular and could easily take a hit even though he was only nineteen.
Pace squeezed his eyes shut as footsteps neared. “They’re coming back, Kat.”
I whimpered. “Okay, just get behind me, and I’ll try to take the brunt of it. Maybe I’ll pass out.”
“No!” he roared, moving to his knees. With hands bound behind our backs, we’d been in that dark cell for two weeks without any clue why we’d been captured.
All we knew was that the men had Italian accents except for one who sounded Russian.
They came in every day for an hour and tried to get information on things Pace didn’t know. When they turned to me, Pace tried to take the punishment, but I wouldn’t let him.
We were survivors, after all, thrown into a fucking dumpster half-dead when we were little kids. A police officer had heard us crying and saved us.
If putting us in years of foster care with two parents who didn’t know how to deal with all of our… problems was saving us.
Our prints weren’t in any database.
We knew at least our names.
And we each had a stuffed animal, as though whatever loser parent hadn’t wanted us at least gave us that kindness—something from home.
I shivered; I hated whoever they were.
I hated my blood.
Would set fire to it if I could.
“Katya…” Pace clenched his teeth. “Focus on my voice.”
I nodded. “I can do this. Your leg’s twisted funny, Pace. I’ll go first this time, all right?”
“No.” I couldn’t tell if he was crying or if his eyes were wet with unshed tears. There was so much blood on his face I couldn’t even make out his handsome features anymore.
We both knew.
We would die there.
After all, we didn’t have what they wanted.
We were nobodies.
Worthless.
