Page 40 of Heartless Prince

11

Tatum

Another week passed.My brand was healing nicely. I was kept in my cell for the most part, with a few changes. I was allowed out for an hour every day to exercise in a gym on the mansion’s first floor. After that I was allowed to take a shower, brush my teeth, change the gauze padding on my brand, get into fresh clothing and, if so desired, put on some makeup.

I did not desire that. I ignored all the powders and perfumes and potions. If I was going to be kept here with Elias as my new ‘master’, whatever the hell that even meant to these people, I didn’t want to look pretty for him. I wanted to look as plain and unappealing as possible. Perhaps then he’d leave me alone and stop making threats about jamming his cock down my throat till I choked.

So far, touch wood, there had only been threats. I was beginning to wonder if this was part of the mental torture he had in mind to break me down, as if I would become so starved of human touch and affection that I might beg him to strip me naked and fuck me. After all, he had made a comment the other night about me begging for him. Soon. So obviously, he thought I would actually do that.

He was in for a nasty surprise. I would never do that. Never.

My feet were currently pounding away at the treadmill in the gym. Sweat dripped over my forehead. I ignored the dampness and took in a deep breath, relishing the stimulation and exercise. It wasn’t about making my body look fit and sexy for Elias, of course, which was supposedly the official purpose of these gym trips. I used to go jogging every day, so being allowed to do this brought back some normalcy to my life. As much as that were possible in this scenario, anyway.

The other girls at the Finishing School were allowed to train in the gym at the same time as me, but we were never allowed to speak to each other. Hulking guards in black were positioned around the room to make sure we followed this rule. However, they weren’t always able to hear the whispers and hushed murmurs between girls on adjacent exercise machines. Because of this, I was occasionally able to catch a few pieces of information about the other girls.

There were twenty of us, and it seemed most of us had been taken at various stages from various places. Most of us weren’t considered missing, according to things we’d been told upon arrival. Crown and Dagger had made sure of that.

One girl had been here for six weeks already (the society had spread a rumor around her hometown that she was involved with a drug dealer, so no one was all that surprised when she vanished) and the last girl to arrive just a week and a half ago was a tanned blonde all the way from Kansas. Because she was still so new, she spent most of her time crying hysterically.

I didn’t cry anymore. There was no point.

Using my peripheral vision, I saw a petite girl with black hair get on the treadmill next to me and start it up. It was Pri, the other Roden girl. She’d been across the gym doing some free weight exercises until now, and her caramel-brown skin glowed with a sweaty golden tinge in the morning light streaming through the window.

“Hi,” I murmured. “Pri, right?”

“Yeah,” she whispered back, beginning her jog at a steady pace. “I think I know you.”

“I’m Tatum. We were at the same college.”

“I must’ve seen you somewhere there,” she whispered. “Did you live in Bamford?”

“Yup.”

“That’s it, then. My best friend was in the same residence as you. I must’ve seen you around there.”

I nodded and wiped my brow, keeping my eyes ahead. If the guards saw us looking at each other, they might get suspicious, and I’d seen a girl get a black eye the other day for daring to say ‘good morning’ to another girl when she walked in.

“So how did you end up here?” Pri asked.

“I’m still not sure. They say my parents sold me here, but I don’t know if they’re telling the truth,” I muttered.

“Me too. Apparently I’m back in New Zealand, if anyone from Roden asks. And if anyone from New Zealand wonders where I am, my parents will tell them I’m still in the States.” She sighed dejectedly.

“I’m backpacking around Europe,” I said with a wry smile.

“Lucky you.” She let out a short, angry breath. “Do you sometimes pretend that you really are?”

I nodded briefly. “Yeah. I have to imagine all sorts of stuff to pass the time here.”

“Same.” There was a brief pause. Then she lowered her voice even further. “Do you know what they’re going to do with us?”

I hesitated. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I’d made a few educated guesses. This place was obviously a training ground for sex slaves, but I had no idea where we would be sent afterwards or when the official training would even begin.

I said as much to Pri in a low, halting whisper. Her sorrowful eyes dropped to the black conveyor belt under her feet. “That’s what I figured,” she said softly.

“Who have they assigned you to?” I asked.

Her brows knitted. “What do you mean?”

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