Page 84 of Mine, Forever

Ebony didn’t say anything?

She didn’t beg for him to stop torturing her?

Dear God, could I be any more fucking proud and turned on right now?

“So you continued your torture to have her break for you?”

“There was a time…” he began, taking a deep breath before continuing, “… that she would have done anything I asked of her.”

“She’s a Queen, my Queen, why would she ever bow down to you?”

“Don’t get so comfortable with her, boy. Once you let your guard down, that’s when they flay you from the inside out. She’ll do the same, it’s in her genes.”

I hated hearing him speak about Ebony, but for him to discuss her as if he knew her, that was the worst part of all. I pulled my arm back and slammed the whip down over him again. He cried out as his arm twisted out at an awkward angle.

“Just finish me,” he breathed out in agony.

“Why? Aren’t you having fun?”

He tried to move away from me using his one good arm. I pulled the whip back again and whipped his hand. Blood spat out everywhere as two fingers snapped. His arm shook from the shock. He just looked down at the damage I’d done, and from what I gathered, it was partial disbelief and partial horror.

“There is one thing I’d like to know,” I said.

“What?”

“Why did you kill my mother?”

He laughed, I was surprised he had the energy to do it. “You haven’t worked it out yet?”

“What am I meant to work out?”

“She was just a whore that I didn’t need anymore. After she had you, she ruined her body. I didn’t want to play with that slut again, she knew it and was trying to take you away from me. Whether you like to admit it or not, you are my son, and you belong by my side.”

I played with the bloodied lashes of the whip considering his words. I did remember some memories of conversations my parents had, that hadn’t made sense at the time, but if I really delved into it now, I knew I’d get the answer I didn’t want to know.

My mother was an angel, and she had tried to save me. Whether she was a slut or not didn’t matter to me. She didn’t deserve what he did to her that night or at her funeral which I’d never gotten over. She had deserved to be paid respect, not have her very nature ripped apart by doubt caused by my father. No one spoke her name again, she’d been ostracized for the final time.

“And if you’d given me the time, I could have turned Ebony into a slave.”

The words filtered through my mind, and although I knew what he was doing, I couldn’t stop how I reacted. I let my arm pull back, and the whip landed down on his body again, and again, and again. Soon, he was a bloodied pulp, almost decapitated. I hovered over him, dropping the whip to the ground with a wet thud.

“This city isn’t big enough for both of us.”

I pulled the gun from my belt and shot him in between the eyes. He fell back, his head hitting the ground hard.

After pouring some accelerant, I pulled out a cigarette and lit it, taking in a deep breath before flicking it onto the body of my father and walking away.

Chapter Twelve

EBONY

I woke in pain. My memory was fuzzy, as was my eyesight, but I was no longer being held up by chains. I had feeling in my arms and legs like I was laying down.

What new torture was John going to put me through now?

I groaned as I tried to move. A sharp pain shot down my back making it impossible to move.

“Easy, love,” I heard a woman say from somewhere behind me. “How do you expect to heal if you keep reopening the wounds?”

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