Page 79 of Isle of Beauty

“Her majesty is awake. Come with me.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He marches up to me and takes me by the elbow and squeezes at the tendons. I don’t wince or show any discomfort. I refuse to give him the satisfaction.

“I wasn’t asking,” he spits.

I wrench myself away and punch him in the face but he’s fast and slaps me so hard my head kicks to the side and I fall to my knees, the hard floor breaking skin. I’m weakened by the drugs still in my system and the hit disorients me.

He yanks me by the hair and murmurs in my ear, his putrid breath wafting to me and making me gag. “We have orders not to touch you but trust me, as soon as the boss turns around, I’ll take your ass and fuck you raw until you learn your place.”

He shoves me back to the floor and gets to Sally. She whimpers and starts crying but the man doesn’t care and drags her out.

“Stop!” I yell but no one listens.

“You should have just gone with him. He’s not the worst and was probably just coming to take you to the bathroom.”

“Not the worst?”

Jennies shrugs again and I come to sit back down on the dirty mattress, feeling more tired and powerless than I’ve ever had. I pull at my roots to fight the chemicals in my blood and start to plot how to get out, asking Jennie questions after questions on what’s outside of this room.

Her information isn’t useful. She recounts how meals are brought to the room twice a day and soon after she’s taken to the bathroom to relieve herself, but only in exchange for sexual favours with the guard on duty at that moment.

“At least they use condoms.”

Jesus Fucking Christ.

The path to the bathroom is short and she never saw any other girl but she did see a couple of guards. She can identify four different people but she’s been here for a week so I doubt that’s all. She just knows we’re “on sale” because of what the men say, and because she had a medical exam upon arriving.

I don’t have a good sense of time in this room so it feels like an eternity later when the guard comes back with Sally and all but dumps her in the room.

She’s bloody and falls on the floor like a leaf. Jennie and I jump to help her up and bring her limp body to the mattress. It’s not much but it’s better than nothing. Tears stain her cheeks and blood drips from her lips and between her thighs. My stomach drops, the space hollow and cold.

This is my fault.

Jennie confirms it. “She usually doesn’t come back like this. Maybe next time, shut the fuck up.”

I avoid her gaze and just watch her caress Sally’s forehead with soothing motion.

She got hurt because of me.

I provoked the guard, hit him and he took it out on her.

I sit against the opposite walls and bring my knees to my chest, hugging myself and dropping my head down in defeat.

The only hope I have now is in the hands of the man I love. For the first time in my life, I pray to be saved by a man.

THIRTY-TWO

PIERCE

KINSLAYER

My own fucking uncle took my wife and I didn’t see it coming.

I’m seething, ready to end him in the worst way imaginable to mankind. I’ve seen my beautiful wife at work. Her technique will look like child’s play when I’m done with Luc.

The sense of betrayal is invading every fucking cell of my body and I’m ready to paint his manor fucking red to get Lana’s location.

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