Page 155 of Renard's Deliverance

Barney set down some bottles of water and granola bars in front of her.

Opal stared up at him blurrily. How long had they been here? She wasn’t sure. But she knew that she wasn’t feeling good. The side of her face was throbbing from where he’d hit her. She’d had to pee in a corner with her hands bound.

Not pleasant.

And Mrs. G hadn’t even bothered to attempt to make it to the corner. Not that Opal blamed her.

“Are you expecting a thank you?” she asked.

Smack!

She couldn’t help but let out a small groan of pain.

Jesus.

She’d gotten used to not getting smacked around constantly. This respite might have made her a bit soft. Or it had fucked with her pain tolerance.

Because damn, that hurt.

“What are you doing, Barney! You can’t hurt her! Stop it!” Mrs. G screamed.

“I can do what I like!” Barney yelled before his boot landed against Opal’s stomach, she fell onto her back with a cry of pain, rolling into a ball instinctively to protect her head and chest.

Slam!

His boot hit her back and she screamed in pain. Then thump! He slammed his boot down on her hands. She swore she heard a crack.

Her fingers. They had to be broken. Her middle and ring fingers of her left hand throbbed.

“Stop it, Barney!”

“Shut up, old woman.”

Smack!

Fuck. She had to protect Mrs. Gingers. Opal could take this but she couldn’t.

“What sort of a man hurts an old lady?” she asked, sitting up and ignoring the pain in her body as she dove in front of Mrs. G who was lying on the floor, sobbing. “Huh? Does it make you feel good to hurt an old woman? Your own aunt?”

“Shut the fuck up!”

Smack!

Oh God. That was her nose. Shit. It was bleeding everywhere.

Not good, Opal.

But at least his attention was off Mrs. G.

“Why are you doing this, Barney?” she asked. “Why are you doing this to her? To me?”

“Because she should have left my shit alone! I wouldn’t have brought her here if she hadn’t been such a nosy bitch!”

“Was this always your plan for me?” she asked, trying to keep his attention away from his aunt.

He swung around to loom over her. “You should have been mine! I’ve been watching you ever since you moved in, Opal! First, I would come in at night and just stare at you, then after you nearly woke up once I decided to put in a tiny camera. Couldn’t risk getting caught. But that ended up better because then I could touch myself without risk.”

Oh fuck.

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