Page 29 of Innocence
“Tell me, Pet,” Enzo crawled over me and breathed in my ear, “Is it the pain you crave?”
My heart stopped cold when he grabbed my arms and began winding the belt around my wrist. “W-what are you doing?”
“I’m giving you what you want.” He flexed his hips, pressing the steel rod in his pants against my butt. “And in return, you’ll give me what I want.”
My arm flew back, trying to pull out of the leather twisting around my wrist. He was faster than I was, winding the belt around my hand before my struggle began.
“You won’t get away with this.” I wasn’t sure which one of us I was trying to convince. “People will be looking for me.”
“I’m sure your stepfather is drowning his sorrows as we speak.”
Did he know Ralph? Was this all happening because of him? I wouldn’t be surprised if he did.
“How much was I worth?”
Enzo paused and glanced down at me with an arched brow. “Pardon me?”
“How much did you pay him for me?” I didn’t need to say whohewas. We both knew who I was talking about. Besides, I didn’t want to think about Ralph right now.
“I don’t buy women, Pet,” he said, while binding my hands to the leg of the red chair. “I sell them.”
But he wasn’t going to sell me? Or so he claimed. What did he do with the ones he didn’t sell? I highly doubted I’d be released when he was done with me. Not exactly a comforting thought. Would the rest of my life–however long that might be–be spent in misery?
“Does it bother you that she sleeps beside him?”
My brows furrowed back at him. “What?”
“Your mother,” he clarified. “Does it bother you that she sleeps in the same bed as the man that tries to sneak into your room at night.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I muttered, dropping my face back down on the ground.
“Come now, Pet, it’s got to hurt, knowing that the woman who gave birth to you, is curled up next to the man that makes your life miserable. That she would rather hold him, than protect her child. You must hate her.”
Forcing down the hollow hole in my chest, I blinked back my tears and whispered, “I don’t hate her.”
My mother might be a little misguided, but who wouldn’t be after what my father did? He left without a word. Disappeared into the night, leaving her alone to raise two kids. No one wanted to be alone. That’s why she was still with Ralph. I couldn’t fault her for that.
“You can lie to yourself all you want, Pet, but you can’t lie to me.”
I didn’t have this conversation with Angie, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to have it with him. Who was he? A kidnapper, rapist, who sold people like they were objects. What did he know about family?
“Can we just get this over with?”
Apparently, the man straddling me had other ideas.
“What kind of mother would choose that waste of skin over her own child?”
Why were we still talking about this?
“Mother’s are supposed to protect their children,” his voice purred over me as he dragged his hand down my back. “So precious and innocent.”
“What do you know!?”
I just wanted him to stop talking. The hole in my heart grew with each word he spoke. I’d rather take whatever he had planned than listen to this.
“I know I treat my slaves better.”
That made me scoff out a snicker.
