Page 192 of Filthy Savage

Oh my God, Fia.

What have they done to her?

I start to fight my binds again, but she gives me a disapproving look.

“What did I say?” she scolds me like a parent would scold a child.

All I do is cry, panic pounding in my chest. Why is she doing this? Why is he? How do they know each other?

I’m gonna throw up.

“I’m going to give you one chance. If you fuck this up and decide to scream, I can’t promise he won’t kill you.” She kneels, a grin stretching as she whispers, “He has a gun.”

Her grimace makes every hair on the back of my neck stand up. How have I never realized she’s insane? Though there was never any indication.

I want to ask her why. What have I ever done to deserve this? What has Fia done?

She slowly rips the tape off, and I groan from the pain.

“Where is my daughter?” I whimper, emotions clogging my throat.

“She’s safe,” Julius grumbles. “My girlfriend has her. Once we’re done here, she’ll be returned.”

“Done here?” I look from him to her. “What does that mean? Do you really plan to kill me? Why?! What have I done to either one of you?”

He hits me with another glare, refusing to answer.

“Please, Lilith, why are you doing this to me? To Fia!” My sobbing grows. “She loves you.Ilove you. Why?”

Something dark passes in her features. “Oh, Amara, I really did like you. I just couldn’t handle them anymore, always going on and on about you.” She rolls her eyes. “I wanted to punish them, you know. I wanted to hurt them the way they’ve been hurting me.”

“Who?” My pulse skips every second beat, the pressure on my chest intensifying.

“Enough of this already!” Julius shouts, and in a split second, everything changes.

One moment, he’s holding a gun out to my head. The next, she whips out hers, shooting him right in the chest.

“Oh God!” I gasp as he falls to the ground, blood pooling around him while his chest rises and falls.

She marches up to him, a wide grin on her face. “I told you to be patient, didn’t I?” She shakes her head. “Silly boy. If you’d behaved long enough, I would’ve told you she wasn’t even your sister.”

“Wh-what?” I choke out, just barely. “What is happening?”

“Oh.” She grins, pivoting toward me. “Don’t worry about him. He wanted you dead. I helped you.”

She’s insane. I need to get to my daughter!

“Please, you have to get Fia! That’s all I care about.”

“Of course we will.” Her brows furrow, and she comes over to me, placing a hand on my forearm. “But now that he’s gone, we can finally have the chat I’ve been dying to have since the moment we met. Because, you see, I’ve waited so long for this.”

I blink past my tears, every inch of me buzzing with confusion and terror. “For what? Please tell me what’s going on.”

She plops down in front of me, crossing her legs. “I couldn’t believe it when I found you. All those years of hearing how special you were. How I was overshadowed by your disappearance, but there you were. I knew I had to know you. I had to hurt them for everything they had done.”

“Who, Lilith?” My question sticks in my throat, croaky and heavy. “Who hurt you?”

“Our parents, silly.”