Page 39 of Brutal Empire

Her eyes sprang open, and heat crept up her neck to her cheeks. She sat up slowly and calculated what her next move would be. She had not denied it, and I was sure she was trying to come up with a good lie.

I found this amusing.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind being watched.”

She still wasn’t looking at me, and then the pretty blush left. And when she spoke, I wished I had kept my mouth shut.

“Neither did my master.”

Slowly, I made my way to where she was. When she didn’t move, I took it as a good sign. I crouched down so I could look up at her.

“What you did with him, Angel, wasn’t sex.”

Her eyes came to my face, and if I didn’t imagine it, they focused briefly on my mouth.

“Angel?” She raised a delicate eyebrow.

I didn’t realize I was reaching for her until my hands took hold of hers. She didn’t remove them, and I didn’t know if I should take it as a good sign or fuck this up because there was only one way this could end.

“Yeah, because despite everything, you are still innocent.”

She clasped her hands in mine, and my heart started to beat faster. That stupid muscle inside my chest that I thought had been frozen from all the shit I’d seen was elated from one simple action. Her nails started to dig into my skin, but I didn’t care. Maybe she was as lost as I was, and if she needed an anchor, I wanted to be it. If she were looking to inflict pain because she couldn’t take her own, I would gladly receive it. At this moment, I knew that I would take anything so she could be free of her demons.

But then that would just leave me.

A demon at her back and the one she would want to get rid of the most.

“There isn’t anything innocent about me,” she choked out. She lifted our joint hands. “These hands have seen blood.”

A soft smile spread across my lips.

“And the fact that it still chokes you up is what makes you different. Daphne, G, or myself, we don’t think about it. We do it, and that’s that. But the blood that stains your hands saved others, and you should find comfort in that.”

She looked at our clasped hands as if she was just now realizing that we were touching. Her throat bobbed, and I felt her ease her grip, but I was too selfish to let go.

“What he did to you was an act of violence.” I gritted the words out, not realizing how much it would cost me to actually say them. “He took something that was not given to him. Don’t mistake the two. What he did to you was vile, and he will pay for that. I can swear my life on it.”

She looked so fucking sad that I almost preferred to see her rage or even that stoic look on her face. I knew all about training with Daphne, and she was probably trained to turn it all off. To not feel anything at all, but we couldn’t all be like her. Sometimes feeling was the only thing that kept us beating. Feeling everything was how we got the energy to keep going and wanting to make a difference.

Pain was power.

“I was a virgin, and because of that, they gave me to him.”

I swallowed.

“They kept me in a room separated from all the other girls.”

Before I could say something to fuck it up, we both heard footsteps coming toward us. Cam and I jumped up and looked at the door as Lobo appeared.

“Julian is back.”

“We’ll be right there.”

He looked at both of us and then turned around and left. Before I spoke, I waited until I was sure he was out of earshot.

“Let me do all the talking. Don’t speak, and don’t engage with them.”

We both walked down to the living room, where Julian was already waiting for us. He looked up at us, and then his gaze lingered a little too long on Cam. I was sure he was doing it to get a rise out of me.

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