Page 14 of Brutal Empire

My ears were ringing. It was Katia’s screams that had deafened them. I hoped I went blind too. I didn’t want to watch. She was in pain, her face twisting and churning. Blood now stained her body, not just between her legs. The lights in the room began to flash, and the guy’s hands went to her neck as he thrust into her. Her body shook as if she were a rag doll. I just sat there watching because even if I wanted to, I couldn’t move.

My moans and groans would have humiliated me once upon a time, but now I would give anything for the woman to let me go.

As if she knew this, she removed the gag.

“P-p-p-please,” I hissed in a voice I didn’t recognize as my own.

It was pathetic, but it didn’t matter. Compared to everything wrong in my life right now, my dignity wasn’t one of them.

I just wanted to forget the last few years. Hell, I wanted to die and be reborn again. Life wasn’t worth living with memories like this tainting me.

“Close your eyes,” she told me, and I did. I could feel teardrops sliding down my cheeks. When had I begun to cry?

I was shaking. My body was cold, my heart beating faster than ever before. Maybe my wish was going to be granted, and I would die here. Maybe God did have mercy.

Fingers slid through my hair; it was comforting. It was the last thing I had ever expected to feel here.

“It is done.”

Three words, and I knew my life was about to change forever.

I was scared to open my eyes, but I did it slowly. The woman was right in front of me. Her piercing gray eyes shone like steel in the sunlight.

“There was nothing in the world you could have done to save Katia, but now that you’ve witnessed her death, you may find closure.”

I snorted.

Some fucking closure that was.

“I’m going to get to the bottom of this and make everyone pay,” I swore. Even as the words left my mouth, I knew they held no merit.

She had been right. It was the rich that could afford something so perverse as this.

I felt her finger dip down my cheek, and then she tipped my chin.

“Do you want to kill a monster?” Her voice was hypnotizing.

I got lost in those eyes. They made me feel stronger and not as weak.

I might have nodded. Or said yes. At that moment, I would have sold my soul to the devil to make the ones responsible pay. Maybe she was the devil. She was beautiful, the face of an angel, but perhaps that’s why her eyes were silver and icy because they leashed hell.

“Then a monster you must become.”

The rumble of an engine snapped me out of my memories—the sweet sound of a car coming. I listened to the guards, and hope bloomed when they wondered who it could be. I sat up and smiled to myself.

These bastards were all about easy money but didn’t give themselves over to the dark side. They were cowards when it came to dying.

Taking a deep breath, I unleashed my inner demon. It was hungry, and I was about to fucking feed it.

SIX

Location: Mexico

There wasan empty ache inside of me that grew stronger the more the days went by. I had a bag full of money and passports with different names, but none of them were my own.

Traveling from one side of the world to the other wasn’t as hard as it should be, but I guess that’s how it is when you have money. Very few questions get asked. I should have known that better than anyone, right? I was shipped off to another country because a man wanted me.

Life was precious, so precious that it went to the highest bidder.

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