Page 20 of Savage

She shakes her head again. “I don’t… I don’t want to talk about it.”

“What did I just say about obedience?” I glower at her. “Do I need to find a punishment for you already?”

“N-no!” Stef says quickly. “I just…” She squeezes her eyes closed. “There was a… meeting. And Giulio got mad because his…” She hesitates for a moment, as though deliberating over what to say next, and it takes all the patience I have not to urge her on. “His girlfriend snuck in. And he took…” Her voice shakes. “He took it out on me. I know that’s what he was doing.”

This is the first time I’ve heard of Giulio having a girlfriend. “His girlfriend? And he keeps her at Ntimacy?” I try to imagine the kind of woman Giulio would “date,” and my mind comes up blank. He’d gone off on that strange tangent when I’d brought up flat-chested girls, but I’d chalked it up to Giulio being himself. Now I wonder if he was describing a specific person.

“I… Yes. I guess?” She swallows hard. “I don’t know what she is to him, exactly.” I can tell she’s avoiding telling me something she knows, though, and I don’t like it. “But it wasn’t… It was just Giulio being Giulio.”

“Why was she there? Giulio shared her out, then punished you when he changed his mind?” I’m tempted to call Giulio and tell him exactly what I think about his methods, but I know it’s a moot point. I also don’t want to piss Giulio off. I might not like him, but he has a certain amount of power and violent vindictiveness I don’t want to cross.

“No…” Stef trails off again. I don’t think she expected this line of questioning, but I want to know all of the answers. “She… She was trying to help. She thought if she came in as one of the girls, there’d be less pressure on the rest of us.” Her shoulders slump. “She was wrong.”

Whoever this woman is, I hate her already. “She’s stupid. What did she think would happen?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “She just… It doesn’t make any sense. Giulio’s never cared when other people fuck her. Damien and Slayer both do, and she’s had clients outside of the club. I guess he just saves her for…” Stef winces. “Special occasions?” The words sound almost apologetic, somehow, but I don’t think she has anything to sound that way over. “But Vanessa is the only person who was really nice to me,” Stef adds quickly. “Even nicer than Elena. Elena acts nice but she’d never try to help.”

I scoff at that. “She was so nice that you ended up getting passed around and used. You don’t need that kind of help.”

“It’s not… She didn’t mean it that way,” she protests. “She felt really bad.”

“She sounds like a naive idiot.” I shake my head and hold up my hand to stop her from responding. “It doesn’t matter. You never have to see her ever again. You’re here, with me.”

Stef seems about to argue again, but she looks at my raised hand with wariness. “Am I… going to be allowed to have friends? Because she’s my friend.”

“No,” I say flatly. “You don’t need other people. Especially not right now, when you’re a complete mess.”

At least this time, she looks resigned rather than like she wants to argue with me. I doubt Giulio encouraged the girls to be friends with one another; competition would be far better for his business than them getting along amicably. “Okay,” she whispers.

I continue petting her, but there’s nothing else to say. She stays with her head against my thigh until she drifts off to sleep again.

I won’t let anyone touch her again. I won’t let anyone get close to her again.

All she should be worrying about is pleasing me.

CHAPTER 6

Stef

I stare at the sliver of light coming through the curtains, and for the first time in… days, maybe even a week, it doesn’t give me a blinding headache.

I have no idea how long I’ve been chained to this bed. Savage shows up to feed me and wash me, and sometimes he just holds me through the chills.

I’m not shivering now, though. The blanket might even be a bit too warm.

Does that mean I’m cured now? Once you go cold turkey, you’re completely free of the addiction, and your body is back to normal?

That doesn’t sound right. If it’s so easy, people wouldn’t relapse all the time. I wouldn’t have relapsed, that time I tried to quit a few years ago. But Dylan was with me then, and he’d shared his party favors, and the shakes had been bad enough that I couldn’t see a good reason to keep trying when everything was easier while I was high.

We’re so high up. If I open that curtain, all I’ll see is wide open sky. Maybe we’re high enough for clouds to form here, or for birds to fly past.

I’m still contemplating that sliver of light when the door opens again. I turn toward Savage and watch as he walks in with a tray of food.

He sets it down wordlessly on the side table, then sits on the edge of the bed. Our eyes meet, and I wonder once more just what is going on inside his head. He’s so… cold. Distant.

But he doesn’t want to share me.

He’s taking care of me.

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