Page 29 of Born in Depravity

I’d just escaped one monster. How could I be in the hands of another one?

Why was I here?

“Open your eyes, Catalina.”

The monster knew my name.

I kept my eyes shut. This couldn’t be any more than a bad dream and any moment now, I would open my eyes, and I’d be in the truck.

The voice hardened. “I’m not a patient man. You’ll do well to remember that. Now open your eyes and look at me.”

I bit my lip. I didn’t want to open my eyes. I didn’t want to look at him.

But fuck, I didn’t want him to hurt me either.

I opened my eyes.

The first thing I noticed was that it was light outside. Probably late afternoon by my guess, and I was in an unfamiliar room. The walls were dingy, with suspicious stains on the ceiling. I didn’t even want to think about the bed I was lying in.

I turned to my side and gasped.

The man from the gas station. And from the diner, which I was now realizing was because they had followed me there.

This was the biggest of the three men. All three men were big, but this one was a giant.

Dark hair and dark eyes, tan skin, and a vertical line down his cheek. He looked cold.

I shivered even if it was bordering on hot in this room.

“Good girl.”

He walked over to me, and I flinched when he reached out his hand. He ignored that and he… he petted my hair.

I looked up at him. “You’re such a good girl. In fact, I think I’ll call youpet.”

My eyes widened in disbelief. Like I was his pet?

What the hell?

I tried to scootch away from him, but he held me still, and something in his eyes told me not to anger him.

Fuck that.

I was stuck in a room with a man who’d just referred to me as his pet.

I jumped out of bed before he could say or do anything. My eyes quickly scanned the room for an escape and when I saw the door, I shot for it.

I tried the handle, and it wasn’t locked. I wasn’t sticking around to see if the man could catch me or not. I opened the door and ran out, only to slam into something hard.

I let out a small cry and let my eyes adjust. I met the clear green eyes of the man who had paid for my gas. There was something about his eyes that reminded me a lot of a wild animal. I didn’t want to test out whether this wild animal bit or not.

I moved back a step and tensed when I hit another chest.

I was trapped between two giants. The green-eyed man moved forward, causing me to move back a step, and then another, and another, until I was fully in the room.

“Where are you going, princess?” the man asked me, as if we were having a casual conversation between friends.

I shook my head but said nothing.

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