Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 108721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
How the fuck is that possible?
“Wait, you need to go back to the beginning and explain this to me because, after everything I did to save your ass, I deserve an explanation.” I don’t deserve shit, but I’m not telling her that. “Like, why are his initials carved into your shoulder? Why did your father agree to sell you to him?” I shouldn’t care. Shouldn’t even be asking these stupid questions, but I need to know. “I know he did something to you. I could tell by the way you shrank back from him and how he acted, like you belonged to him. Now tell me what happened, and don’t lie to me. Otherwise, I might go to your father and ask him myself.”
Her big blue eyes fill with worry, and she shakes her head. “No, please. I’ll explain.”
“Then do it,” I snap.
She sags back down into her seat, tugging her legs up to her chest so she can wrap her arms around them. Without looking at me, she speaks. “From the moment I turned fifteen, he’s had an interest in me. He begged my father to give me to him, even going out of his way to endear himself.”
“Give you to him? What, did your father owe him money, too?”
She lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “That, or a favor. I don’t know, really.”
“So how did that end with his name carved into your shoulder?”
Her gaze goes hazy, and I wonder if she’s going back in time.
“I don't know, exactly. When I was sixteen, my father threw me a birthday party, but it wasn't really a party for me. It was a party for his friends. He wanted to show his newly grown-up daughter off to his friends. Yanov didn't like this at all. Sometime during the party, he cornered me and dragged me into a back hallway. One second, I was okay, and the next, I was so sleepy I could barely stand. All I remember is falling asleep, and the following morning, when I woke up, I was in my bedroom, my shoulder aching and crusted with blood. Ever since that day, he’s considered me his property.”
Why didn’t I kill him when I had the chance? Stick my knife in his stomach and gut him like a fish?
“I don’t care what hold he had on you before. You're mine,” I snap. “My property,” I add at the last moment.
The words send her diving headfirst back into reality. The hazy look in her eyes disappears, and instead, the Elyse I’ve slowly watched her transform into reappears.
“I'm no one’s property. I belong to myself. And even if I didn’t, I’d never willingly belong to that asshole. I’d rather die than return to him or my father.”
Apparently, I haven’t made myself clear enough. “I don’t care about Yanov or whatever disgusting obsession he has with you. Until your debt is paid, the one from your father and the one you accrued all on your own in my closet, you’re mine. Every breath, whisper, tear. It’s mine. You belong to me entirely, and I’ll do whatever I want with you.”
She nods, even though the look on her face tells me she wants to fight me. “Whatever. I get it. I’m forever in your debt.”
“Exactly. We’re not equals. And don’t ever think that we are because I won’t hesitate to remind you of the truth.”
“Thanks.” She shakes her head and turns away from me. “You only care about me enough to ensure my father’s debt to you is paid. Not because I’m a human who deserves to be cared for, right?”
Wrong. I want to tell her so badly it hurts, but this can only end one of two ways, and I’m not going to lead her along. I can’t have her, not beyond the capacity of her debt being repaid.
“Right, Little Prey. My only care for you is to ensure you stay alive long enough to repay your father’s debt.”
“I hate you,” she whispers, and I almost tell her that I hate myself, too. Instead, I take a drink of the whiskey and let it burn away the guilt that’s threatening to choke me.
“Get in line, sweetheart. There’s a lot of fuckers who hate me, and you are merely a number at this point.”
15
Sebastian
Several silent hours later, I find myself staring out the window on the opposite side of the plane as we land in Oakmount. I’ve had far too much time to think about what happened between Elyse and me and what I said to her when she finally broke the silence and asked her questions.
Now I feel like an asshole, and there’s nothing I can do to fix it. I mean, I’m supposed to be an asshole, but I can’t help the pang of guilt that stabs my chest every time I cut her down. The guilt is getting harder and harder to cover up.