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I couldn’t have been more wrong.
She was as much of a victim of his crimes as I was.
With the back of my fingers, I lightly skimmed the bruise on her cheek, and she looked up at me through her thick, long lashes. She reminded me of a kitten dying for attention.
For some reason I couldn’t place, my attention shifted to her Roman numeral tattoo.
She must have caught my stare since she once again willingly shared, “It’s the date he murdered her. She was only trying to protect me, and it ended up getting her killed.”
“Sloan—”
“It doesn’t matter which way you try to spin this, Luke. It doesn’t change the cold, hard fact that the only reason she is dead is because of me.”
I stared into her sorrowful eyes that were silently pleading for my forgiveness. Our connection was brought on by the darkness living inside us. Which was an understanding only we could comprehend.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
LUKE
I told her the only truth I had. “That wasn’t ’cause of you, baby. That much I do know.”
“I can’t escape him.” She tensed with a tearstained face. “The first time I ran away was after…”
She didn’t have to say the words. I knew what she meant.
“He found me in less than two hours, and from then on out, I had guards on me at all hours of the day and night. They never left my side. The only refuge I had was my music. Once he learned of my skills, he exploited that, too. In the past sixteen years, I’ve tried to escape him several times, but he always finds me, and when he does, he makes me pay. No scars, of course—it wouldn’t be good to damage the merchandise—but trust me, he’s found ways to make me suffer. Bruises heal, Jameson.” She paused for a second, struggling to get the words out. “His favorite kind of torture was never physical pain. No… he loved to fuck with my mind and emotions. That’s what he got off on.”
“The cages,” I remembered from what he threatened her with earlier.
“Yeah…” she breathed out, reliving it through her gaze in mine.
I could see it clear as day as if I were the one it was happening to.
“His favorite game has always been to leave me in a cage for days at a time with the other slaves. I get to hear them cry. To beg for their lives over and over again. How hard they get whipped or burn or whatever the fuck else they do to them for their own sick pleasure. He reminds me every time that it could be me at the snap of his fingers.”
My heart hammered against my chest while my stomach churned.
“I’ve tried to fight him before, but I never get far. He’s broken my ribs, my arm, my wrist, and several fingers. One time, he fractured my jaw. I’ve had so many black eyes I don’t know how I can still see straight. There is no beating him. I’ve tried. We’ve all tried. Now, he has an arsenal of guards around him at all times, and he’s never not strapped. It’s just the way it is.”
“Sloan—”
“I can’t hide from him, Luke. He’s going to find me, and when he does, he’ll make you pay. You have no idea what you started by taking me. He’s not going to stop whether you kill me or not. I promise you, he’s going to murder your family in front of you while you beg for their lives and watch. I’ve seen him do that too.”
“What about your brothers?”
“Navarro and Xaviar hate him as much as I do.”
“They’ve never?—”
“Of course, they have.”
At least she had someone trying to protect her.
“He’s put them on their deathbeds because of it. They can’t do anything. They’ve tried, and he’s untouchable. The only thing they can do is play his game like I have to. I don’t know what else to say about it. I don’t begrudge them because it’s been harder on me. They know. They’ve apologized many times for how much they failed me. How disappointed our mother would be. I love my brothers, and I know they’d die for me if they had to. We were all dealt shitty cards, and this is just the way it is.”
“Are they?—”
