Page 86 of Cruel Riches

I swallowed hard. “I just meant… it was probably the chocolates. They made me have crazy nightmares whenever I slept, and they made me hallucinate while I was awake. So they probably made me sleepwalk too. I swear, I have no memory of it at all.”

Nate sneered and carved another straight line into my thigh, making me howl again. “You’ve really lost your mind, haven’t you?” he said. “Fucking chocolate? What the hell are you even talking about?”

“You gave the box to me,” I choked out. “They were drugged. You… you wanted me to think I was going crazy so I’d leave the island.”

He narrowed his eyes and cocked his head. “I didn’t give you any chocolate.”

I stared at him through blurry, tear-filled eyes. “You did. With the bouquet.”

He shook his head. “I only gave you those flowers. I put them next to a box of chocolates that was already at your door that day,” he said. “They were from your mother, according to the note. I figured you’d think the flowers were just part of the gift.”

Confusion whirled in my mind. “But my mom didn’t give them to me. I asked her.”

“Then you probably sent the chocolates to yourself in one of your crazy-bitch sleepwalking episodes,” he said with a mocking sneer. “Anyway, is that still your answer? You were sleepwalking that night when my camera caught you covered in blood?”

“Yes. I swear, I don’t remember anything.” I cried out as he started digging into my leg with the knife again. “Stop! Stop! Stop!”

He didn’t stop. Not until the letters K, I and L were carved deeply into my pale flesh. “Halfway there,” he muttered. “You know, I thought about branding this onto you, but then I decided that would be too fast. I want to stretch this out. Really make you feel it.”

“Please,” I begged, even though I knew it wouldn’t get me anywhere. “Stop.”

He started carving another letter, and I screamed until my throat felt as if it had been scraped raw with a razor blade.

“Did the girls beg you like this?” Nate asked. “Scream? Cry? Promise you anything you wanted if you just stopped hurting them for five minutes?”

“I didn’t hurt them!” I shrieked as the knife came down again and again.

“I bet Emilie begged your dad,” he said, face twisting in a hateful expression. “Like all his other victims. Bet you fucking love the thought of that, don’t you?”

“It wasn’t… he didn’t…” My words trailed away into nothing as my eyes drifted shut. I was on the verge of passing out. That was good, though. It meant the pain would end, at least for a while.

“I wish I knew who killed that fucking bastard,” Nate said, jaw clenched. “Just so I could ask if they made it slow and painful for him, the same way I’m going to do for you.”

Tears leaked out of my eyelids and streamed down my cheeks. I didn’t bother thrashing around or trying to beg anymore. All I could do was wait.

Nate kept talking, but I didn’t register anything he said. I was in another place now, drifting far, far away in my mind.

The battery finally went off, and Nate untied my hands and pulled them back down to my sides. “Looks like you’ve already had enough. Weak little bitch.”

I mumbled something unintelligible as he pulled the clips off my chest. Sharp pain shot through me again, and my eyes flew open as a strangled gasp slipped out of my mouth.

Nate grinned at the sight of my agonized face. “That’s the blood-flow returning to your nipples.”

I winced and held my breasts in my hands, willing the pain to disappear. It felt like a million red-hot needles were sticking into my flesh.

“Stay still,” Nate said, picking up some of the antiseptic wipes that he left on the table earlier. He wiped them over my bloody leg, revealing the word he’d sliced into me. KILLER.

When the wound was cleaned up, he grabbed a large bandage and covered it. Then he started tending to the grazes on my shins and knees with more antiseptic wipes, cleaning them slowly and carefully.

“Why are you doing this?” I whispered, confused by the sudden tenderness of his actions.

Nate glanced up at me. “You know I want to keep you for a long time,” he said. “I can’t have you dying from an infection within a week, can I?”

I slumped back down on the table. Of course.

I couldn’t let myself build up any hope. When he was touching me like this, so gently and sweetly, it was easy to forget he was a bad guy. A monster. But he wasn’t really being kind to me right now. He wasn’t even capable of kindness. Everything he did served his wicked endgame.

“Time to go,” he finally said, pulling me to my feet. “I’ll let you walk this time. But only if you thank me for it.”

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