Page 27 of Castle

And before I could dodge, the person seized my arm, and the next thing I knew, something like a rod or a metal bat swung at me and I went down, my body splattering against the slick floor.

I sat up, but my head was spinning in circles and I kept thinking I needed to get away from here. The sounds of thunder continued to fill the silence in the background, muffling my cries.

I wondered why I was being put through this when I hadn’t hurt a soul in my life.

All I’d done was help people with whatever little I had.

My life so far kept flashing before my eyes, the good and the bad.

“Was she trying to escape again?” I recognized Devin’s voice.

I tried to crawl, to stand again, but it was so difficult to see anything in the darkness.

“Yeah,” That sounded like Dayana. “But I’m gonna make sure she thinks a dozen times before she makes that mistake again. You’ll remember this, won’t you, Millie?”

The next swing came to my legs, followed by the continuous hits and the sounds of my bones cracking.

ELEVEN

The room wasn’tfamiliar this time.

It appeared to be the same underground area that I’d walked into earlier. A dim yellow bulb illuminated the place, and I was lying on the concrete floor with nothing but a jug of water left on the side.

My legs felt numb and fractured. I couldn’t move them an inch even if I tried, but the plaster covering my legs meant a doctor had been allowed to treat me.

Clearly, there were some people working under the Montgomery’s who chose to remain silent. Maybe they had a family doctor who took care of all the dirty work for a hefty payment.

I ran a hand through my hair and it felt greasy. My stomach growled as I realized I must have starved for a long time. It was my bad luck that the room did not even have a window, so it wasn’t possible for me to guess if it was daytime or night. Days could have passed as I lay here in this prison. Perhaps I’d slipped into a coma, I couldn’t tell.

The pain in my legs was worse than before and even though I hadn’t seen Dayana hit me, I was positive I’d heard her voice. She’d hit my legs repeatedly with the bat.

These people were monsters.

They had made sure that I couldn’t plan an escape for another few weeks. They enjoyed feeding off weakness and fear, and that’s the last thing I wanted to give them.

I could pretend to obey their orders and strategize my next move.

Just then, I heard the locks turning, so I backed up against the wall.

It was Devin who walked through the door, followed by a maid holding a tray in her hand. She didn’t even blink when she saw me on the floor, as if this was a daily occurrence and something that was not worth dwelling upon.

The scent of food wafted towards me, only intensifying my hunger. I could kill for a morsel of the food on that tray, and that’s exactly what they wanted; for me, to be starved and so desperate for food that I’d agree to do anything.

He sat down on the floor a few feet away from me, a stoic expression on his face. His apple-green eyes studied me warily.

Unlike the few times I’d seen him before, he wore casuals and he looked relatively younger like some attractive man I’d see walking down the street, and not the powerful man in control of a billion-dollar conglomerate that I’d met on the first day.

Devin waved a hand of dismissal at the maid. “You may leave now, Penelope.”

Penelope bowed and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. He held the tray of food in his hand. I sneaked a peek inside the plate and there was chicken roast indeed, with mashed potatoes and a thick piece of oozing lasagna.

You’re fucking kidding me!

This was torture, knowing he wouldn’t let me have food. He might have just brought it down here to tease me with it.

“You’re hungry, aren’t you?” Devin asked me in the same honey laced voice

I glanced away; I couldn’t stand looking at it anymore.

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