Page 284 of Vile Boys

The sight haunts me. Destroys the very core of my being and grinds it into dust.

“Still think you have any semblance of power?” his father grits.

THWACK!

He strikes Ares’s back with an actual bullwhip right in front of us.

I shriek from the sound it makes, the flick of his wrist as he so easily scars his own son.

“NO!” Kai screams, to no avail.

“Move, and I’ll put a bullet in all of you,” the guard growls. “And I’ll do it far quicker than any of you can ever pull the triggers on those measly guns you have.”

But it’s the way Ares gazes up at me with a pleading look in his eyes that breaks me as he begs, “Please … run.”

“STOP!” Caleb screams at Mr. Torres. “What the fuck is wrong with you? That’s your fucking son!”

“What is wrong with me?” Torres growls. “It’s your fault he’s behaving this way. You degenerate pieces of shit, breaking into my casino, have destroyed his mind. He’s no fucking son of mine.”

Despite the pain, Ares manages to curl up and bring his knees forward, leaning on both hands and knees, blood dripping down on both sides.

His father whips him again, causing his body to buckle under its own weight, and tears spring to my eyes. “Stay down and let these friends of yours watch you whimper like the useless animal you are!”

But Ares refuses to lie down, continuously shoving his own knees underneath his body to try to stand, even when his whole body caves in on him.

I can’t. I can’t watch this.

Not again.

Even if there’s an automatic rifle pointed at me, ready to kill me, I can’t let Ares suffer. He’s suffered enough.

Right before the third strike hits him, I bolt away from the door and wrap my arms around his body, shielding him from the impact right when it strikes. “NO!”

THWACK!

“CRYSTAL!” Blaine’s voice rips through me, but not nearly as harshly as this whip.

The sizzling pain is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced, a crackle to the spine like thunder, heat striking my skin causing a loudshriek to emanate from my lungs.

Just one strike, compared to the hundreds Ares might have received …

And I am struck in awe at how long he endured.

I thought Iknewwhat hatred was as Ares tried to instill it within me with every one of his stares, but now … now I’vefeltit enter my skin and seep into my bones, twisting my mind into furious knots until all I see is red from blinding rage.

I turn and grip the whip at the edge, holding on as tightly as I can while staring into the eyes of the real monster. “This stops. Now.”

“You … You dare to interfere?” he says, grinding his teeth. “It is myrightto punish him.”

“Your right is nothing but to feel the same pain you inflicted on him!” I scream. “How dare you? How fucking dare you?”

He yanks away the whip and pulls out a gun instead, aiming it at my head. “Move.”

“Torres, don’t you fucking dare!” Caleb yells.

“Stay out of this,” Mr. Torres grits before he focuses his attention back on me. “You … you … I recognize you. Why do I recognize you?”

“Because I look like my father … the innocent man you callously murdered without a care just because you thought you had the right,” I growl. “And I watched your son pull the knife out of his body.”

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