Page 58 of Cruel Knots

“Yep. They have to be,” Lilja says with a nod. “Look what happened to my brothers. They got too lax when they started living with your family and paid the price for it. How else could a weasel like your brother hurt them?”

“Damien was already a killer when I met him?”

“Yep. He made his first kill at the age of thirteen.”

Shock flickers through me. “Damien and his brothers used to be so nice to me,” I say, reminiscing those sweet, warm days. “I could never imagine them to be assassins and killers.”

“They hid it from you,” she says with a shrug. “They didn’t want to scare you.”

“Why not?” I ask.

She rolls her eyes. “They were living a safe and warm life in your house. Why would they mess with you and risk being thrown back to the streets?”

“I thought they liked me,” I say, dipping my head. Have I been stupid all along? Did they treat me nicely just for a place in my home?

“They did,” Lilja says with a nod. “They let it become their weakness. They trusted you to protect them from your brother. You betrayed them that night.”

“I didn’t!” I cry out. “My dad got into a horrible accident that night too. Callum used my distraction to hurt them. I spent the next few years trying to find them but I had no luck.”

Lilja becomes silent as I tell her my side of the story.

“Callum stopped me from going outside after that,” I say. “His guards followed me wherever I went. They reported my location to him at all times. I couldn’t meet my friends without him knowing. He threatened my closest friends to break all ties with me. Over time, I lost contact with everyone I knew at school. He turned me into a prisoner in our home.”

“You could’ve protested.”

“I tried. Trust me, I tried,” I say as bitterness washes over me. “He always held my dad or one of the staff members hostage to make me obey him. He’d hurt them to punish me. I can’t stand anyone getting hurt because of me. He even threatened to kill Dad if I left home.”

“What’s wrong with him? How can he hurt his own father?”

“Callum is obsessed with keeping me chained to him. He tries to pass it off as being protective of me but Callum simply wants to own me.”

A thoughtful expression comes over her as she curls a lock of pink hair around her finger. “Your brother is an asshole, then.”

A dry chuckle escapes me. “That’s an understatement.”

“And now, you’re a prisoner here.”

“I need to get out of here,” I say desperately. “Callum will hurt Dad to punish me. I need to get him out of that house soon.”

“How will you manage that on your own?”

“I don’t know what to do yet,” I confess. “I can figure it out later. For now, I need to find a way to escape this place. Can you help me?”

She gestures toward the doorway. “I can leave that door open. The rest is up to you.”

“Really?” A hopeful grin spreads over my lips. “You’ll do that for me?”

She nods.

“Thank you! I think I can slip out through the entrance hall. The way was confusing but I think I can figure it out.”

“My brothers won’t spare you if you get caught, though,” she says in a grim tone. “Are you ready to risk it?”

“They’ve already hurt me enough,” I say through a choked throat. “They can’t do anything worse to me.”

“They could kill you.”

Her casual tone raises the sparse hair on my arm.

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