Page 61 of Their Stolen Obsession
It was okay. I had nothing to worry about because the sharp spikes stopped them from escaping. All I had to do was hold up the meat and the dogs would chomp it off the knife. I could do this.
The pit bulls wereharmless. Their bars trapped them, just as my cage had confined me. These dogs couldn’t hurt me, and I wouldn’t bring pain to them.
Suddenly, there was a growl, a loud whimper as the dog in front of me got bit. Startled, I retreated backward, away from the cage. I had waited too long, and another dog attacked the one I was going to feed.
“Hey, it’s okay…” Sin took the knife from me. “I’ll do it.”
I wasn’t ready. Although Sin was only trying to help, I remained unprepared to face the animals I once loved. These dogs were starving and made into monsters. Preston had used their hunger to his advantage, so they were thirsty for blood, but my phantom was about to change their cruel destiny.
“Here, doggy, doggy…” Sin chanted with a whistle and held the meat up to the fence. “Who’s a good boy?”
Sin sweet-talked the animals, and one yanked the steak off the blade. Loudly, the dog chomped, the tender piece ripped apart by three jaws. The others barked, wanting a bite too, and Sin threw pieces of meat over the wire. The sound stopped, and all I heard was the gnawing of teeth against meat. Some dogs even lay down to chew on the bone.
I whispered, “I guess I’m not ready.”
I was defeated.
“It’s okay, darling, healing takes time,” Saint said as he hooked an arm around my shoulders and gave me a gentle squeeze. “We’ll be right by your side to help you get there. Right, Sin?”
Saint patted Sin on the shoulder.
“Yes,” Sin replied as he fed the last piece of steak to an animal and reached his hand through the chain links.
“No, don’t do…” My warning ended when Sin petted the dog’s head.
The ferocious beast didn’t bite Sin. There was no pain, injury, or need to worry. The damn dog’s leg twitched to the itch that Sin had reached when the animal couldn’t. Another smelled his hand and licked his palm. Sin made a disgusted face that made me giggle when he turned over his hand with slobber on it. They were friendly dogs, tamed by their newmaster, and they cleaned up the last hint of raw meat on him.
“See? I’m a damn dog whisperer,” Sin joked and wiped his wet hands on his pants. “I knew these fuckers would love me.”
Zane asked, “Should we release the hounds?”
“No, not yet,” Saint answered and glanced down at me, “I don’t think Liv is ready yet.”
Saint must’ve felt me tense up when Sin reached into the dog’s prison. I tried to stop the tremor running through my bones, to push away the terrible memory haunting me, but nothing would go. I couldn’t even contain the small tremble in my lower lip, and I bit at it to hide the fear consuming me inside.
Sin peered at me. “Why don’t you go with Saint? He’ll show you how to use the controls.”
Vigorously, I nodded my head. Sin knew too. My body language must’ve given me away.Damn. I didn’t want to show weakness, but I had survived trauma, and I had to learn that I’d never be the same.
Saint winked at me. “Come on, darling. Let Daddy Saint lead the way.”
I smiled.
My phantoms tried to ease the pain. A new side to them they had revealed to me not even a handful of times. The men I had always viewed as my darkshadows twenty-four seven were now my glimmer of hope. My protectors, saviors, and the loves of my life.
With his brawny arm hugging me and tucking me under his dark wings of safety, Saint led me away from the pit bulls’ cage. The inside of my belly stirred with butterflies and ignited a light I hadn’t experienced in a long time. The protection of his embrace made me warm, content, and giddy like a fucking teenager about to head out on a first date. Except this was no romantic experience. We were about to commit murder.
“Is everything set?” Saint asked as he let go of me.
“Good to go,” Zane answered and patted the unconscious body on the chest.
It was Preston, strung up with shackles around his ankles and he was upside down, held up by a chain. Zane placed him in the same cruel situation I’d suffered in that room; he would receive the same punishment, only far worse. We’d show him no amount of regret. No remorse for what we were about to do because he had done that to me. The butterflies in my stomach grew. More fluttered, my pulse raced, and my heartbeat in my ears. Excitement coursed through me, and I couldn’t wait for the bastard to open his fucking eyes. I wanted him to stare me in the eyes right before he was about to die.
As if Saint sensed my enthusiasm, he rammed his fist into Preston’s junk. “Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey.”
Preston’s eyes shot open. Veins popped out of his skin, the blood rushed to his head, and I knew all the pain he felt because I had already lived through it. I had survived his torturous tactics, forcing me to listen, but now it was his turn. He would answer to me and my men.
“Happy you could join us, asshole.” I smiled at Preston.
