Page 10 of Redeem Me
Chapter 10
Jade
“I want to know your name,” I finally said after a few minutes. We had stood there, locked in each other’s gaze without saying a word.
He shrugged as he placed the knife on the floor. A peace offering. “I will answer your questions but only if you answer mine.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “A question for a question then.”
He ran his tongue over his teeth. “This feels like we are fifteen and playing twenty-one questions.”
I chose to ignore the comment. There was no need for flirty banter. I was gonna go along with his plan but I wasn’t going to do so at the expense of myself. Of my body. There were other ways I could win.
He leaned against the wall again and watched me with heavy eyes. “Here, they simply call me the boss but I once had a name, a long time ago.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. It wasn’t an answer. I pressed my lips together. “Fine,” He looked up at the ceiling and his eyes crinkled in the corners in what I imagined was amusement. “Damian.”
That wasn’t so bad. He looked like a Damian. “Am I allowed to call you that?”
He smirked. “It’s my turn to ask a question.”
I nodded my head. It was going to be like that.
“Why didn’t you join the Crimson Pack?”
That was a complex question with a complex answer. “I don’t like Rafe Crimson.”
He took a step toward me. “I know that much. Butwhy?”
“He turned me against my will.” It wasn’t the only reason but I didn’t have to give him all of that. He cocked an eyebrow and nodded his head. He knew the answer already but was testing me.
“What did Rafe do to you?”
Damian flashed his teeth. “He was born.”
I rolled my eyes. “How vague.”
“He has been my rival for a very long time. Everything he did was thrown in my face. I could never live up to the wolf he is. I was never enough.”
I wanted more, I scented a story in the air but I knew I couldn’t pry. There was only so much this man would give. I would have to be careful.
He cracked his neck as he thought of his question. Maybe he was just hesitating for my benefit. He probably had all his questions planned out in his head. “Are you going to tell your parents what you are?”
The question stunned me. I blinked abruptly. “Probably not.”
He nodded his head like he expected that. “You’ll be relieved to know that we haven’t bothered them since that night. Since the night the ball was thrown through the window.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why did you do that?”
“I wanted to get you away from them, away from the pack. Rafe was becoming a problem for my people.”
I rolled my shoulders. Pain from standing in the same position was starting to get to me. I had no idea how long I would be standing there but I wished desperately for a chair. My body was too weak to keep going like this.
“Your people?”
He wagged his finger at me. “It’s my turn to ask a question.” He ran his fingers down his jaw. “Where do you think your parents think you are now?”
I had dreaded it. I had dreaded the thought of how they were coping with my disappearance. I had been physically ill thinking about them and what they were going through. “Dead.”
He smiled and my blood ran cold. “They know you’re safe.”
He was baiting me to use up all my questions on things that didn’t matter to him, but on things that only mattered to me. “What did you do?”
Elongated canines poked his bottom lip as he continued to look me over. “The great thing about having witches in my employ is that they can manipulate anything. Your body, your voice, even reality.”
My legs ached. I sunk to the floor and bowed my head. What had he done? Had he smoothed everything over? Had he made everything worse? How was I going to recover anything when I got out of here?
