Page 23 of Brutal Surrender

“Let me finish the treatment, and I will give you my final assessment.”

She walks to me and proceeds to remove the needles. Not knowing what Vincent will do to me if I’m awake, I pretend to be asleep. The woman feels my pulse in different parts of my wrist before returning to Vincent.

“Alas, the heart hasn’t responded in the slightest,” she says. “Has she been experiencing deep depression?”

I open my eyes to tiny slits to see Vincent bristle. “I don’t know her that well. If she has, then it’s no surprise that her heart element is weak. Why do you look so concerned?”

“I can’t say for certain, but…perhaps the poison was not an accident but an attempt at suicide?”

His features darken. “It might have been.”

The acupuncturist nods. “I get the sense she has lost the will to live.”

He frowns.

She packs up her things. “I’ll be back to check on her.”

Please don’t leave me alone with Vincent.

When she leaves, I pray he follows her out the door.

He doesn’t.

Instead, he walks to me. Though I’m strapped to the bed, I make every effort to remain as still as possible, not wanting a single hair to move.

“If you were trying to kill yourself, you forgot to get my permission, pet. You don’t get to die unless I say you can. Remember, you belong to me. Your body. Your life. All of you.”

Chapter 12

Martina

I’m not sure if it’s just me dreaming, but I feel Vincent’s presence in my room a lot. I’m afraid to open my eyes to check in case he is in my room. But since the stomach pumping, there’s only be peace and rest. Even the usual nightmares of my family getting shot up haven’t haunted me.

What does haunt me are Vincent’s words to me while I was pretending to be asleep. Did he know I wasn’t?

Remember, you belong to me. Your body. Your life. All of you.

It’s fact. My life is in his hands, and I don’t know that I’ll have an opportunity to take my own. Is this the ultimate lack of empowerment? When my own life isn’t mine to take? What awaits me now?

I worry that Brady will be discovered. He wasn’t the one who delivered my meal, but what if someone saw him pushing the pills into the muffins? I hadn’t expected Brady to come back with anything the first day in port and was surprised to find the pills when I bit into the muffins. Dear, clever Brady! I had been cautious to eat the muffins as naturally as possible with the cameras looking on. I knew the pills would be sketchy, but I didn’t think they could be lethal.

What a lost opportunity. Maybe I can get Brady to get me some more? Death by poisoning sounds sweet compared to what awaits me with Vincent.

But Vincent and his crew will be watching me more closely. There’s a security guard in my room at all times. Either Misty or Xander. They work the 2am to 10am shift for Vincent. Vincent could have used one of his other goons and fellow rapists, but I haven’t seen any of them since I was lifted from the cage. I wonder if that’s on purpose? But surely Vincent couldn’t be that considerate.

“We can get you a more comfortable chair.”

The voice sounds vaguely familiar. I think it’s Vincent’s personal assistant, Ming.

Why would I need a chair? Am I not lying in a bed?

My lashes flutter open a little, but I shut them immediately upon spotting Vincent near the window opposite me. How long has he been sitting there?

“This chair is fine,” he replies to Ming.

“Still have that headache? I can get Suyin to put some needles in you.”

“It’s not that bad.”

---