Page 59 of Monster
Vincent
Present
“We’re gonna play a little game,”I inform Essa as I cut the rope I tied her up with. Her right arm falls to the floor, and I move to her left and work my knife through the rope, quickly fraying it.
Essa doesn’t say a word as I free her, but I don’t let it deter me. “As I was saying,” I stand and pocket my knife. “We are gonna play a game. For every shot you make, I will answer a question of yours and be completely honest. And vice versa.” I glance over at her as I move to the end of the billiards table. She stands and rubs her wrists—probably trying to bring some life back into them.
That makes me smile as I begin racking the balls. “But…” Her head snaps over in my direction.
“‘But’?” she questions, one of her eyebrows arching.
“But, for every ball missed, I get to hurt you.” I smile as I finish racking the balls, not looking up to see her reaction. I remove the wooden triangle from around them and put it back in its spot on the side of the table.
“Hurt me how?” she asks as she moves to stand on the opposite side of the table. Her hands are in front of her as she twists her fingers together in her nervous habit.
“Does that matter? One, you don’t have a choice. And two, even if you did, don’t you want answers? I’m sure you have a lot of questions. Besides, the Essa I remember wouldn’t shy away from a little pain.” I smirk at her before moving to grab two cue sticks. I move to hand one to her and she yanks it out of my hand.
I step up to her until we are chest to chest. She takes a step back, attempting to move away from me, but I advance on her until her ass bumps into the table behind her. She freezes when she realizes she’s stuck, and I smirk as I wrap my hand around her throat. I squeeze—hard.
I lean forward until the tips of our noses brush one another. “Better watch yourself, baby. Your throat is feeling pretty fucking great in my hand right now and if I squeeze just a little harder…” I constrict my hand, cutting off all flow of oxygen and her eyes widen when she can’t suck in a breath.
“I can crush your fucking throat without even taking a breath. Just play along like a good little girl.” I release my grip on her, disgusted with myself for being tempted to touch her—especially after she touchedhim.She’s fucking tainted now, and I hate I still fucking want her as bad as I do. But just because I want her doesn’t mean I have to touch her.
I can control it. Ihaveto.
But my monster has other ideas, apparently, because as pissed as I am at Essa, I can’t fucking resist her.
She’s too fucking tempting.
Essa sucks in a deep breath of air, pulling me out of my head and I spin away from her. I need to put as much distance between us as I can manage and right now, with the game I decided to play, I can do exactly that.
This game is fucking brilliant, and I would pat myself on the back for thinking of it if it wouldn’t make me look like a fucking dipshit. I need to know more about Essa, and I need to hear it from her—but I also have to play the fucking game and let her think she has the upper hand.
“You know what to do?” I ask her as I lean my hip against the side of the table.
“You hit the ball into the pocket. It’s not rocket science,” she mutters as she walks to the front of the table. She lines up her cue and hits the cue ball hard. It smacks into the other balls and they all scatter across the table. Luckily for her, the solid blue 2 makes it into the pocket.
“Well, would you look at—”
“Where are Holley’s ashes?” she blurts out her questions before I can even finish speaking.
“Don’t fucking interrupt me,” I growl. She needs to learn her fucking place.
“You didn’t say anything about not interrupting you. You only said I had to make a shot and ask a question so that’s what I did. Next time you should specify in detail everything you fucking want, Vincent.”
“Fucking feisty today, I see. But you’re right. I’ll have to put you in your fucking place—but I’ll be patient and wait until this little game is over.” I spin my cue around in my hands as I ponder my question. I want to be as vague as possible while telling her the truth, but at the same time, she asked about her sister, and I don’t want to push her too fucking hard to where she will shut down.
“Her ashes are here along with the rest of your stuff I found. Her ashes are safe, and you’ll get them back when you’ve earned it.”
“You’re keeping my sister’s fucking ashes from me?” she screeches. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Her face turns red, and her hands shake as she grips her cue stick tighter.
“No, baby, what the fuck is wrong withyou?Aren’t you the reason she’s fucking dead?”Fuck, I really shouldn’t have said that.
Essa instantly breaks out in tears, and she begins to sob. She drops to the floor and her cue stick clatters to the ground. She hunches over as her sobs wrack her body ruthlessly.
Goddamnit, Vincent. A little too fucking far.
“Essa, baby doll,” I purr as I lean down in front of her. I pull her into my arms as my ass plops to the ground. She doesn’t fight me off as I tighten my grip on her and rub her back soothingly.
