Page 30 of The Aftermath

“Did they think you could stop me?” he hisses at me. Levi said he was drunk off his ass and losing it.

“No.”

“Then why are you here?” I walk closer until I’m standing in front of him. He tore his shirt off at some point, the stab wound in his shoulder still oozing slightly. I look up and see the chains attached to the ceiling before looking back at Silas.

“How the tables have turned,” I taunt, nodding toward the chains. He smirks.

“Get a good look, baby, because when they let me down, these chains?” he sneers, rattling them. “Are going around that pretty little neck of yours.” I can smell the alcohol on his breath, and I also know neither Silas nor any of the guys are big drinkers.

“I don’t know if you’re getting down after this,” I retort, nodding toward the mess he made.

“Oh, I will. And then we’ll have playtime,” he hisses in my direction. I step back and glance at the guys wondering what the fuck they thought I could do. He isn’t going to listen to me. He isn’t going to listen to shit I have to say.

“What happened?”

“That’s a Kings issue.”

“And now I’m here, making it an us issue.” He laughs, throwing his head back.

“Us? You want to make this a us issue? Then tell me, my little sick, fucked up Angel. Why did you cut your wrists?” He grins at me, and something inside of me cringes. Does he know? There’s no way he could know.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“But you want me to talk? An eye for an eye, right?” I swallow hard, but I refuse to do this with him. I turn on my heel and start back toward the others when Silas yells.

“It’s because it was you! It was fucking you, wasn’t it, Angel?” I turn to face him, unsure of what he’s talking about. I hear Rylan curse, but I keep staring at Silas.

“What was me?”

“Let’s not do this while you’re fucked up, Silas,” Rylan urges him. Ry grabs my arm and tries to pull me away while Silas jerks at the chains, causing them to rattle loudly.

“Let her fucking go, Ry! Get your fucking hands off her!” He roars louder this time. Rylan sighs and pulls his hand away. He turns and walks back to the others while I stand and face Silas.

“It was you, wasn’t it, Angel?” he asks, a little calmer this time.

“What was me?”

“The girl. The fucking little girl.”

“What little girl, Silas? What are you talking about?” His eyes are full of unshed tears, and I find myself lost in them. Silas doesn’t cry. He never has. But I can see them in his eyes right now, and it makes my stomach cramp because now I know he knows.

“It was my dad, and you knew it. You had to have seen him,” he murmurs as I shake my head slowly.

“Don’t.”

“Yeah. You saw him. There was no other way to get to you. He couldn’t just go to your mom and ask, right?”

“Stop, Silas.” My hands begin to tremble.

“You had no idea what you were in for. He just took you there and left you, didn’t he?” A tear slides down his cheek, and it feels like my heart shatters into a million little pieces that will never be whole again.

“Please, don’t do this,” I tell him as tears of my own burn the back of my eyes.

“He left you there to that piece of shit. He fucking left you there for him to do whatever the hell he wanted to you, and you didn’t know any better!” He roars this time. I hear Levi growling behind me but I can’t make myself look at him. Instead, I keep my eyes locked on Silas.

“Did you find that in my journals?” He shakes his head. If he had looked further at the old ones, he would have known what had happened to me.

“Tell me, Angel. Tell me what he did to you,” he sounds like he’s begging me, and that’s not something Silas does. He doesn’t beg. He makes me beg. And now I do.

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