Page 140 of The Devil Can Be Kind

That’s when I felt it. A tugging sensation.

I froze, not sure what the source of the tugging was. I quickly cast my eyes downward, and adrenaline crashed into my system, ripping me away from what I saw: Ricardo.

Ricardo was on top of me.

No.

I screamed.

My arms thrashed wildly as my legs reared up, trying to push myself away from him or at the very least hurt him. He reacted quickly, dodging my sluggish limbs with ease before trapping them at my sides. He pushed his knees against the inside of my thighs, immobilizing them painfully with his full weight.

I let out another scream, but it immediately died away as a fist struck my jaw, throwing my head to the side violently. I spat blood onto the sand, feeling my skin split open against my teeth and a radiating pain consume my face.

“You’re supposed to be out cold, my love,” Ricardo muttered, the edge in his voice sending a chill of fear racing up my spine. “No matter.”

I felt him shift as hands latched around my throat and after a second of fighting it, desperately searching for air, the world fell into darkness.

Luckily or unluckily,the tranquility of oblivion didn’t last long.

Searing pain and the incessant muffling of voices roused me, echoing amongst the shadows. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but as the seconds wore on the voices grew clearer until?—

“Fucking calm down man!”Hisvoice made my stomach churn violently.

“Calm down? Fucking calm down!” It was Leon’s voice I was hearing next, and it brought me some hollow form of comfort. “You fucking rapist!”

Everything apart from the voices remained shrouded in disorientating darkness.

Sand.

I could feel sand beneath me, my numb hands buried in the grains.

A second more and I could detect the smell of salt in the air, just as I had before. I couldn’t taste it this time though.

No—I could only taste something metallic. Bitter.Blood.

Flashes of Ricardo’s menacing face. The roughness of his hands.

My senses snapped back with ferocious clarity and I gasped, throwing myself upright. My eyes flicked open but only one of them complied, the other seemingly swollen shut. Something hot and sticky ran down my face and black spots once again danced across my vision.

I need to RUN!

“Adalyn, it’s okay.You’reokay,” A voice murmured somewhere close by, before shouting, “I need a medic!”

I recognized it as one of my cousins.

The relief was instant, and I collapsed back into the sand, unable to hold myself upright any longer. I was in so much pain I couldn’t tell where it hurt worse. My face or my neck or m-my?—

I turned my head to the side just as bile spewed violently from my throat.

I once again succumbed to oblivion.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SIX

PRESENT DAY

“When I woke up in the hospital, my father told me what had happened. They beat him for what he did to me but left him alive… I was in a private hospital in Cancun for a week before we flew home. He’d fractured my cheekbone, damaged my vocal cords and left me with some minor internal bleeding.” I wiped away a stray tear.

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