Page 48 of Trapped to Tame
She didn’t want to tell him, but she couldn’t help it. How could she have been so foolish as to trust him even for a moment?
‘The Bull,’ she said, a fat tear rolling down her cheek.
He watched it fall and his face softened for a moment. She saw remorse, but it was gone as soon as she knew it.
‘Who is the Bull?’ he asked, his voice cold.
‘Another fighter. Talik’s enforcer.’
‘Why do you fear him so? Did you lose your little fights to him?’
‘When I was told to.’
‘Ah, of course. Did he humiliate you badly in the ring? Make it look good for the crowd?’
‘Yes,’ she said, closing her mouth to try and stop the words.
He chuckled. ‘If you try to fight it, you’ll just hurt yourself. What did he do? What’s made you so scared of him?’
‘He would strip me, touch me in front of the crowd. Tell them what he was going to do to me later.’ The words burst out of her, and she hung her head, trying to stop the tears. ‘I had to take it, or Jays wouldn’t bring me food … for days.’
‘What else?’ Priest’s voice was sharp.
‘Whenever I lost to him, he would come for his payment the same night.’
‘And the payment?’
‘Me.’
‘Go on.’
‘I would be shackled. Jays would let him in and leave him with me. He’d laugh at me, grab the chain, and pull me to him. Sometimes he did it quickly, other nights he would take his time. He liked to hurt me. He knew I’d heal before my next fight anyway so Talik wouldn’t care what he did so long as I wasn’t dead.’
Priest’s voice was tight with the next question. ‘What did he do, Eve?’
‘Everything. Broke my bones, crushed them sometimes. Burned me, cut me. He liked to make me cry, liked to see how long it would take before I begged him to stop.’
‘And did he take your body as well?’
‘Always.’
Priest didn’t ask her anything for a long time. She closed her eyes next to him.
‘One more thing and then I promise you I’ll let you sleep.’
She nodded, not bothering to open her eyes.
‘Tell me about the first time you were bedded.’
Eve didn’t even try to fight the compulsion to tell him. He already knew the things she’d been too ashamed of anyone knowing.
‘I’d just lost my first fight to the Bull as Talik had told me to. He came to my room. I didn’t know why he was there until he wound my tether around my neck. He choked me while he did it.’
‘When I woke, it was the next morning. I was bloodied and hurt and … he told me all the things he did to me while I’d been unconscious the next time he had me.’
He was silent again and she thought perhaps she should open her eyes but didn’t want to face him.
‘Sleep, Eve,’ he said very softly, ‘You won’t remember any of this when you wake. I promise.’
