15 Chapter 14 (2/2)

He came closer. He touched me where I bled. I watched him lick his lips unconsciously as he studied my handiwork.

It should have made me afraid of him, but what did I have to lose? I'd already lost everything.

I couldn't help myself. When he had got up to leave me, I couldn't bear the thought of being alone again with my despair. When he told me he liked my blood, and his eyes had gleamed with a hunger unlike anything I'd ever seen, I knew.

He was a dangerous man. And he liked me. Liked my blood. If I could get him on my side — maybe, just maybe, I could get myself out of this mess.

He said he liked my blood, but he left me anyway. I thought he wasn't coming back, until he returned a few moments later with a first-aid kit.

I sat on the edge of the bed and let him play doctor. It was jarring, the way he picked my hand up like it was made of gla.s.s and examined it, the skin on his fingers rough but his touch gentle. For a six-foot tall, muscled, tattooed biker in leathers, his touch was surprisingly tender.

'You've done this before,' he said, glancing at the faint lines that marred my thighs. I didn't answer him, tugging my dress down again to cover the scars.

'I'm not suicidal,' I said suddenly. And why should it matter if I was? But for some reason I wanted him to know. I needed him to understand.

'Darlin',' he said, as he dragged a sterile wipe over my b.l.o.o.d.y arm. 'n.o.body would blame you if you were suicidal. You're pretty f.u.c.ked right now.'

I diverted my eyes to the floor.

'What's going to happen to me?' I blurted out suddenly. His hands stilled, but he didn't speak. I raised my eyes to his in question, and what I saw there made my stomach lurch.

'Do you want me to lie to you,' he asked, continuing to wrap the bandage around my arm, 'or do you want me to tell the truth?'

I pondered that.

'Lie,' I said softly. I would ask him for the truth in a moment, but I was curious to see what he came up with.

'Lie,' he repeated, studying the wall behind me as he appeared deep in thought. 'Well, I'd say you're going to be taken upstairs and given a reprieve. You'll be allowed to walk out of those front gates, and go on your merry way home. And this is all just temporary.'

Temporary. Huh.

'And the truth?'

He smiled. 'I thought you'd never ask.' He finished with the bandage and let my arm drop softly in my lap. The smile left his face and that glimmer in his eyes faded.

'You'll be stuck down here until Emilio decides what he wants to do with you. And you'll do it. Or he'll put a bullet in that pretty little head of yours, and bury you where n.o.body will ever find you.'

'Oh,' I said, that sinking feeling in my stomach coming back.

'What do you think he'll want me to do?' I asked.

He paused and my heart leapt into my throat as I antic.i.p.ated what he might say. You'll have to f.u.c.k strange men. You'll have to suck their d.i.c.ks. You'll have to let them hurt you. You'll be punished if you do, and punished more if you don't. Or even the simple, Welcome to h.e.l.l.

But he didn't say any of that. Instead, he picked up the first-aid kit and stood, gazing down at me.

'Come on,' he said. 'You know what's going to happen. You're a smart girl. You don't need me to spell it out for you.'

My heart broke. He was right. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I was going to be used and abused, until there was nothing left.

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