Page 21 of Avenging Devil: Part 2

Chapter Seven

Saffie

When Duke leaves, I sit on the bed, dropping my head into my hands and again letting the tears fall freely. As so often in the past, I catalogue my latest injuries. That I can still see out of one eye, I count as a victory. My mouth is swollen, but I’ve still got all my teeth. My legs, arms, stomach and back will be blackened with bruises, but there’s nothing broken at least.

My whole body throbs in pain, but around Duke, that’s nothing new.

I’ll heal.Just as I’ve always done in the past, only for Duke to repeat my torture all over again.

Now, though, it’s different. Now I’ve got answers as to why Duke went through all the pretence, acting so out of character five years ago. Why Duke had asked me to marry him, when it soon became obvious I meant nothing to him.

I was a means to an end.

What a stupid fool I’d been, believing what Duke had told me. But he hadn’t needed to try hard. I’d been more than ready to accept my father had washed his hands of me after I’d so stupidly married a man of whom my family did not approve. I must have been crazy. It had never crossed my mind that it had all been a ploy to get his hands on my family’s fortune.

Duke was playing the end game and reaping rewards along the way. My survival depended on my father obeying whatever demands Duke asked of him. My parents must hate me. Or still love me perhaps, doing the only thing they could to keep me safe—keeping Duke happy.

I should have run to them for help. Dad’s got money, and once out of Duke’s clutches, he’d have kept me that way. He’d have been able to protect me, wouldn’t he? I hate that I can’t be sure.

A whimper comes from inside as I realise for the first time in our marriage, Duke’s been honest with me. Which means, my father is dying. I’ll never see him again. I know Duke won’t let me.

No, I’ll be kept here like a brood mare until I give birth to a child for him. The only comfort is that this time, maybe he won’t be so free with his hands. If a pregnancy is so important to him, once pregnant, he can’t afford to hurt me. Until I give him a child.

Then, I’ll no longer be of any use to him.

Like I have so many times over the past five years, I strain my mind, wondering what I ever saw in him. How was he able to pull the wool over my eyes and convince me he was my forever? I’m so gullible, so naïve.

There must be something missing in me, some sense of self-preservation, some gene of judgement others have but I lack. I can’t overlook how Niran also had me fooled.

My lips twist cruelly. I might not have known Duke then, but I know him now. And a man like Niran has no place in the Crazy Wolves MC. He’s been thrown to the wolves, quite literally. I hope whatever they do to him hurts like hell. And only when he’s in utter agony will he meet a gory end.

Oh God, is this really me? Condoning torture and death?

But Niran only repeated what Duke had done first. Sucked me in with a persona that didn’t exist, before mockingly coming clean to me.

He deserves everything he gets.

Fuck the man. He had to have been playing me from the start. Conveniently, I discount he can’t have known who, or what I was, when he first met me. Whatever, once he found out, he betrayed me.

I never thought I’d be thankful that I terminated my pregnancy, but now I am. My child would have been used as a pawn. Born alive, he might have been kept as a vegetable living only with the aid of machines. Born dead or dying, he’d have been substituted with another child. At least my innocent baby has escaped that… for now. But what of Duke’s plan to get me pregnant again?

I shudder and shove my hand into my mouth to stifle a wail. What hope has any child of mine once he falls into Duke’s hands? What can I do to prevent conceiving again? I’m hardly going to get access to birth control pills this time. Unfortunately, without them, I seem pretty fertile.

My hand trembles as I brush back my hair, seeing no hope, no escape, only continued torture. Duke’s fucking is brutal, lacking any semblance of love or tenderness. His one purpose is to get off, and now I know the reason, it all makes sense. He didn’t even have to enjoy it. He was trying to get me pregnant.

And there’s nothing I can do about it. Glancing around the room I’ve been kept in before, I already know the windows are barred. There’s no way out except through the locked door, and that’s only when my jailer turns the key. Even if I was able to overpower whoever opened it up, I’d never get through the clubhouse.

Wailing, I fall prone, beating my hands against the meagre mattress, knowing I’ve nothing to live for, and Duke would ensure he left me no way to kill myself.

Unless I push Duke too far.Get him to hit me and not stop. But even then, with his end goal, that plan might not work.

Rhythmically, I bang my fist into my palm, searching for options, but knowing I’ve got none.

Surely people like Patsy and Mary weren’t involved in a plot to return me to my husband? I can’t believe they were. Niran and Susie, or even maybe Cyn, must have been working together unbeknownst to the rest of the Devils.

But even if the others weren’t involved, they won’t care that I’m gone. I’ll be a problem resolved. They’ll think Niran and I have disappeared together. They’re probably breathing a sigh of relief even now, thinking we’ve just pre-empted my move from San Diego.

However I look at it, I’m fucked, or will be, when Duke has his way with me.

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