Page 105 of Unspoken Promises

I hold my breath.

The thud on a hollow step, followed by another, as the men who think they own me come up the stairs to strikeagain. Every step they take closes like the twist of a vise around my lungs.

The first man appears at the top of the stairs, back to the only light source. His face is muted, but I know instantly I’ve never seen him before.

When Anton joins him on the platform, his gaze lands on me and his eyes blast open as if moved by my tearstained face. Even now he hasn’t given up the charade. The pain in his gaze fools me still. He actually appears upset to see me like this. Maybe I’m mistaken; when the other man with the accent turns to glance at him, a stone-cold glaze fills Anton’s eyes.

He’s one ofthem.

“Lucy… Lucy… Lucy…” The other man takes one small step every time he says my name until he crouches in front of me. He brushes the back of a finger along my cheek.

I turn my face as far away from his dirty touch as I can.

I’m met with a wicked, sardonic laugh, and he tilts my chin up with two fingers as if admiring me. I snatch my face from him and curl my lip.

“Finally, after so many years, my little prize reached her true potential.”

My potential? I flick my gaze back and forth between this man and Anton, back and forth. What the hell is he talking about? Me being tied up in this dusty barn, half drugged, losing it all, is reaching my true potential? What kind of sick person is this?

He offers a sinister smile and puts two hands on my knees, sending fury up my spine. I want to kick him. Punch him. The only thing I could do is spit, but my mouth is so dry I can’t conjure any up.

Wickedness pours from his clenched jaw. “So beautiful.So many options with you, but you’ve achieved the highest purpose.”

“Who the fuck are you?”

He lets out an exaggerated sigh. “Please don’t stoop. You can crack puzzles far more complicated than this one. You really don’t know who I am? Not even a hunch?”

He talks about my purpose, about my life like he knows anything about me. Only the man standing next to him knows anything about me. And then, like a punch to the gut, I slowly come to a realization.It can’t be.I’ve never seen this man, and yet, the way he speaks, his connection to Anton…It must be him.

“Go on. Say it,” he hisses.

It’s barely a whisper, nothing inside me wants to believe it. “Father…”

“Well, notyoursexactly. But I branded myself as one. I took on the title when I realized I have such a flair for nurturing.” He releases a sickening laugh. “And I’m just so very good atwringingout the very best in people.”

I heave with a pain so deep I can hardly contain the chest-splitting cry building up inside. My mother left me with this vile man, and he wasn’t even my actual father? How could she have done that to me? I used to wonder if she didn’t love me. Now I wonder, did she hate me? Was I so easy to discard, so useless…

My soul fractures into so many pieces, I’ll never put it back together again.

He stands, allowing the space to cool between us. Anger. It’s all that’s left inside me. I breathe in deeply, and it refreshes my fury.

My voice is more like a growl. “You use people for your own sordid, twisted gain…”

“I bring people into my world. I take care of them as myown, examine their talents. An innocent face can be a great thief. A strong man, an enforcer, nice tits… well, I’m sure you can see where this is going. Why slaughter people when they can be useful? I’ve always thought my contemporaries just don’t have finesse.”

How many more people did he keep on that property in Oregon? How many more are there now? Maybe children? Other women… This man is a psychopath.

He walks around the back of me. “Some people take a lifetime to serve their purpose.”

He wraps his arm around my chest, hugging me from behind, and I want to vomit under his touch.

“But you turned out to be a real treasure, Lucy. When you came to me, a girl too thin to be cute and hair cut savagely by a pair of kitchen scissors, I never could have guessed you’d be so brilliant. I thought you would have ended up where most of the girls do. But your mother, my God.” He laughs again, and it’s the most repulsive sound in the world. “She thought I was actually going to return you once she finished paying off her debt. But once you’re in the family”—he comes around to the front of me again, and his evil gaze is heavy on mine—“there’s no way out.”

I struggle against my ropes, eager for a chance to dig my fingers into his eye sockets. “What debt?”

Father allows me to yank at the ropes until they rub my wrists raw. I finally give up. He paces to the edge of the hayloft and gazes out of the hole in the siding.

“I’m afraid your mother was just a lowly drug addict, Lucy. Truly lost. Filthy.”

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