Page 25 of Savage Kingdom

Ignoring her, I scraped the glass off her right foot with my torn shirt. Nothing had pierced the skin, at least I didn’t think so, but it was hard to see with the dirt and blood.

Now her other foot, I knew there was glass stuck in her.

“Why didn’t you say you were in pain?” I asked before I started to remove the glass piece that had lodged in the arch of her foot.

“If I’d complained every time I was in pain, I’d have no voice,” she said casually. She wasn’t looking for pity or praise; she was just stating a fact.

Maybe I didn’t have to pull the shard of glass as hard as I did, but I was an arse, and I wanted to see her reaction.

She didn’t fucking flinch, nor did she recoil her leg. She merely looked at her foot, where blood began to trickle out.

I cut more of my shirt, cleaning up the excess blood, then wrapping another piece on her foot.

“That should hold,” I told her. Then I leaned back on my side of the van. She still stayed unmoving, just looking blankly ahead. “How long have you been in Yoro’s servitude?”

She turned to look at me but didn’t speak.

“Love,” I pressed. “I could toss you out of this car if I wanted. You say you are the thing Yoro covets the most, so how long?”

“Since I was sixteen.” Her voice was cold, with no emotion behind it. People did that as a shield, a way to mask their feelings. That right there told me a lot.

“How long has he had you?”

“If you wanted to know how old I am, all you had to do was ask,” she indicated before adding, “Six years.”

She wasn’t that much younger than me, just two years. Even though she was young, she carried herself with more confidence than women her age.

“Did he buy you from the market?” There were rings all around the United States that sold flesh. Rumor had it there was one here too, but it was still not concrete. The one in New York got shut down about a year ago.

“Is this a game of twenty-one questions? Or are we going tit for tat?”

I grinned, and she glared.

“Did you miss the part where you went from being Yoro’s whore to my captive?”

That certainly got her attention; her heated gaze landed on my face.

“I might be your captive, but there is something you want from me.” Her voice sounded raspy, and honestly kinda sexy. “You could have shot me on sight, yet you didn’t. Left me when your men picked you, but here I am. Covered my face, bound, and gagged me as soon as we landed in this van…you did none of that. So, you need me. You went to Yoro’s house looking for something, and you didn’t find it, and here I am…”

She let her words hang in the air. I didn’t get angry that she called me out; it amused me.

Gorgeous, smart, sharpshooter, and cold—she was all that, and more. There was something about her though that didn’t quite add up. I wanted to know all her secrets and figure out her lies.

“You’re more than just a pretty face, aren’t you?” I said, and if I wasn’t looking at her, I might not have noticed her flinch.

I struck a chord, and I was going to exploit it. She was a means to an end, and her hurt feelings were of no importance to me.

I cocked my head to the side. “Do you think that’s why he took you? Something so pretty and pure, he must have loved damaging you.”

She looked up at me, her eyes dead. Nothing behind that silver gaze, and it made a shiver run down my spine.

“My beauty will fade, and I was damaged way before he laid eyes on me.”

My chin lifted slightly at her admission. It made me see her in a new light. She didn’t like her beauty. Most women I had met counted on their pretty face, big rack, and tight pussy to get them places.

Before I could ask any more questions, the driver gave me a signal that our destination was near, which was good. I needed to call my superiors, figure out my next step, and what I would do with the pale bitch in front of me.

But first I needed some clothes for her, and myself.

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