Page 56 of Cherry Auction

That motherfucking bastard. If he wasn’t already dead, I’d find him and cut off his balls while he was still alive to fucking watch.

He sent her out when she was just a kid in mid-drifts and booty shorts to do his dirty work. She was just a fuckingkid.

And I was dumb enough to fecking fall for it. What thefuck else did he make her do? He was an evil, viciously sadistic motherfucker and she lived with him.

I was so caught up in my own fucking pain, I never truly considered it. A year with the man manipulating me, four months of which he destroyed me both body and soul, and it shredded me in a way I’ve never recovered from.

But Brooke, Madison—whatever her real name is, she was Rachel to Alfie, and Emma to Romaine—she spent thirteen or fourteen years with the monster by the time she’d met me. Who knows how her father had twisted her mind and soul by then.

Her father loved inflicting pain. He probablyarrangedfor her to see what he was doing to me and then yanked us apart when it would inflict maximum damage.

He enjoyed destroying a person’s soul and watching while it happened. I knew he always loved using Madison against me, but what if he was usingmeagainstherat the same time? Playing evil fucking games on both of us? God, he must’ve enjoyed watching us destroy each other far more than he ever could.

And afterwards… how many years was she with him? What the fuck did hedoto her? I’ve seen her body, and it doesn’t have any marks on it. But I knew her father well enough to know he loved to lash a mind as much as he did the body.

Holy fuck.

She’s an innocent. The amnesia’s real and?—

She’s been an innocent all along.

“Fuck this.” We’ve left her alone for too long.

I shove through the door to get back to her.

Brooke’s there shivering on the couch, naked; the blanket I covered her with before the doctor came has fallen heedlessly to the floor. She looks so pathetic and uncared for, and I want to go whip my back until I’m bleeding, on my knees, and unable to walk for a month.

Bad dogs deserve to be whipped, don’t they, boy?

I hurry over to her and wrap her in the soft cable-knit blanket again, lifting her back into my arms. “You’ve been such a good girl waiting here for me.”

Her eyes lift to meet mine and she smiles at me like I’m the sun just lifted over the horizon.

“Such a good, good girl,” I whisper, my voice breaking.

She beams and nuzzles her face against my chest.

“Fuck me.” I look up at Professor Roberts standing just inside the door, eyes locked on us. Then she glares, first at me, then Caleb.

“Unfortunately, it looks like he’s the only one she’s bonded to right now,” she says to him. “I’m supposed to be teaching class in two hours but I’m not comfortable leaving her alone with some drunk asshole who doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. You better stay with them.”

“I promise, I’ve sobered up,” I growl. “And here, take my phone. You can monitor us whenever you aren’t in class.”

I carry Brooke in my arms with me as I walk towards theProfessor. I can’t bear not to be touching her when she’s in such a vulnerable state. She might have been just a kid back then, but she’s a woman now. And she’s mine. I won’t let anything bad happen to her ever again.

I can fix this. Ican. I just have to get back in control. I’ll fuckingfix it.

“Take my phone,” I repeat.

Professor Roberts levels me with her eyes, but it’s easy to shift Brooke in my arms so I can reach in one pocket and pull out my phone. I hand it over to the Professor.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” she asks suspiciously.

I tell her the passcode. “Every room in this house is wired with cameras. You can watch my every move. Cut my balls off if I do something you don’t approve of.”

She narrows her eyes but takes the phone, if only so I can grasp Brooke with two hands again.

She shakes her head at us, eyes cutting between me and Caleb. “I should call the cops.”

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