Page 63 of Love and War

“Damn, Richard, you didn’t tell me he was a little spitfire.” The older man laughed, full on bully laughs.

I’ll kill them all, every single one of them.

“Now, here’s where we’re going to make a deal.” Leaning forward, he became serious. “You’re going to leave; you’re going to leave Aziza behind. You’re not going to contact her, and you’re going to go far away. Very far away.”

I shook my head before I knew it. No, no I won’t leave her. We’re going to leave this god-awful place, never to look back. I won’t leave her.

“Now, that’s what I thought you’d say, only if you don’t leave, she’s going to pay for it.”

My body froze.

“That’s right, now I won’t kill her. No, I’ll sell her to the highest bidder. I will sell her off to the worst men out there. I will make sure she is raped, tortured, abused. I will make sure they keep her alive just so they can drag her life out, making her bleed. I will make sure everything she feels is nothing but pain.”

I stopped breathing.

I couldn’t.

“Then she will know you were the one behind it, the reason she’s living in hell. I’ll make sure every fucking guard in that damn place take turns on her. They will rape her over and over again in every fucking hole.”

How do I breathe?

How do I do anything?

I can’t.

But I don’t have another chance to say or do anything, not before the younger one once again uses my face as a punching bag again.

***

I left her.

I didn’t want to. I watched her the first day, silently crying as I watched her head snap in every direction, waiting for me. I didn’t know how I walked away, but I did.

That night I left and found Dimitri and Zane. I begged Dimitri to take me, to let me be his hacker. To be a part of them. It was the only way I could stay away.

It killed me getting on that plane the following morning, but it was the only way I could leave her. I was in Russia and could keep an eye on the man who threatened her.

Luca.

And he was going to die now.

28

Aziza

Webarelytalkedthefirst three days. He helped me get to the bathroom, which I had to basically threaten to remove his balls if he didn’t remove himself from the bathroom. I wanted to be able to pee on my own. Sure, it hurt, everything hurt. But I refused to let him hover over me, to watch me as I tried to use the restroom. It was embarrassing.

What was more embarrassing was the sponge baths he had to give me. It shouldn’t be, Killian and I have had sex before. His face has been shoved between my legs. Yet watching him bathe me in bed, that was embarrassing. I ground my molars every time, every day. We never spoke as he cleaned me, we didn’t make eye contact. He would just stare at the bruises that covered my body.

I tried asking him a few times why we were in his cabin, and why I couldn’t have access to my phone or anything. He always refused and then I wouldn’t see him for the rest of the day. He would glance at the door when he walked by, but that was about it.

I was slowly beginning to lose my mind. So, by the first week, I’m sure it had been a week anyway, I screamed on the top of my lungs. I slammed my eyes shut and screamed.

“Wh—what’s wrong?” I heard Killian frantically looking around, searching everywhere.

Instead of answering him, I just stared. He’d finally shaved, his face no longer had that dark brown stubble. His sides were shaved down as well, the top was even shorter. Except now the bags under his eyes were darker and his eyes were more bloodshot than normal.

"Aziza, what’s wrong?” he asked. His hands fisted at his sides.

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