Page 55 of Sinful Embers

I knock. “Hey. You decent?”

No answer.

A different kind of fear slams into my gut.

I shove the door open, ready for anything.

But Sabrina is curled up in one of the twin beds, fast asleep.

Her hair is still damp, strands curling around her face. One arm is tucked under her pillow, the other curled up near her chest like a kitten burrowing into warmth.

The fight drains out of me.

For the first time in days, she looks small. Young. Vulnerable, even.

I tuck the blanket around her shoulders.

Then I lock the door. Twice.

For extra precaution, I drag the rickety wooden chair beneath the handle. If anyone tries to get in, they won’t do it quietly.

After a quick, scalding shower, I eat, drink a few slow sips of vodka, then stretch out on the bed.

My mind should be racing, but the exhaustion finally catches up.

As my body gives in, one thought drifts through my mind.

Tomorrow, Leigh.

We’ll find you.

And when we do—they will fucking pay.

Chapter 14

LEIGH

Two weeks.

Two weeks in this hellhole, breathing in the damp, stale air of the dungeon, listening to the slow drip of water from the cracked stone ceiling. Two weeks since I last felt sunlight on my skin or breathed air that wasn’t tainted with mildew and iron. Two weeks since my mind shattered open and my past came pouring back in, raw and unfiltered.

And in two weeks, I’ve learned one undeniable truth.

If I don’t escape I’m never leaving this place. They haven’t said it outright, but it’s been implied.

You can make this a lot easier on yourself and accept your new life. Timir’s voice echoes through my mind.

Timir and Carlos are both monsters, but in different ways. Timir is cold and calculating, his cruelty measured and precise. And Carlos… he’s just fucking unhinged. Where Timir operates with purpose, Carlos thrives on chaos, feeding on pain like it fuels him. He’s the one who gets off on making me feel powerless. The one who slams me into walls, yanks me from the shower, makes me stand there, dripping wet, naked and fullyexposed—on display to his sick roving eyes while he asks the same useless questions over and over.

What new memories do you have for us today, princess?

The way he drags out the word princess grates on my nerves and makes me want to punch his nose into his brain. Yes, I remember my self-defense training now. I’ve been getting through the drudgery of the day by exercising and training once I get bored with writing or trying to sift through my thoughts and get them in order.

It’s been like the worlds untidiest filing cabinet in my head.

So I’m not lying when Carlos tries to humiliate and terrorize me into remembering and I tell him that I remember things from my childhood vividly but not much about what they’re asking about.

That usually gets me a slamming against the wall and himself against me and rubbing his cock into me. It’s never hard. I think he might have a problem or he’s gay. He loves to tell me that while other’s find me appealing I’m just an ugly little whore with a pretty fortune he will get his hands on.

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