Page 74 of Born in Depravity

I frowned. Two small square and flat objects.

“Go on and see what I got you.”

I slowly grabbed the smaller of the two first and flipped it over. My wide eyes jumped to his, but I knew there wasn’t any wariness in my eyes.

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, and I didn’t mistake it for what it was. Excitement.

An eReader.

Did he really get me an eReader?

I held it tightly in my hand and pointed to myself.

He offered me a small smile and nodded. “Yeah. It’s yours to keep.”

I blinked and looked back down. Why would he get me an eReader?

I had never had someone gift something like this to me before. Not even my own father. He never liked that I scoured his library for books. Sometimes Roberto had managed to get his hands on a paperback to give to me. Most of them were fantasy and romance books, because he knew I loved to read in that genre, but I never kept the books.

I had to give them back to Roberto once I was done reading them, for fear of Father finding it and punishing Roberto.

But this …

An eReader meant endless options to download any kind of books I wanted to read.

My eyes burned.

“There’s an account set up on there already, so you don’t have to worry. Buy whatever books you want to read.”

I bit my lip and looked back at him.

Should I hug him? Kiss him?

Give thanks to the monster?

I didn’t know.

I stayed where I was.

Mikhail gave me the other object. This one surprised me even more than the eReader. A tablet.

“Don’t get any ideas. You can’t really communicate with anyone, and the internet access is restricted to only streaming sites so you can watch movies, should you get bored of reading your books.”

It was a little messed up that I found myself being grateful for these small things. I knew that.

He was, after all, one of my captors.

He held my freedom in those big hands of his, and it should be a slap in the face that he was doing this.

It wasn’t a nice thing.

He was simply increasing the length of the leash for me, but I was still collared, no matter what.

Yet, I—

Fuck. I did feel grateful.

And for the first time, I was thankful I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know which words to use.

* * *

Mikhail didn’t leavethe room after he gave me my presents, like I had expected.

He grabbed his laptop and he worked mostly from it while sitting on the bed.

I was also in bed with my new eReader, in the furthest corner away from him. He seemed to have gotten some amusement from that. I didn’t dwell on it.

I was just thankful he let me put on clothes again.

Men’s clothes that were way too big on me, but at least I wasn’t spending my day being naked with him close by. It felt dangerous somehow.

And as if he could tell what I was thinking as I pulled on one of Damien’s shirts, Mikhail had said, “Do you really think some bit of fabric is going to protect you from me?”

I looked at him before quickly looking away and climbing back into bed.

Now, I was looking through the digital library and purchasing any and every book that held even a smidge of my interest. I couldn’t wait to read them.

Mikhail was typing away on the computer.

I wondered what he could possibly be working on.

Being ranked so high in the mafia didn’t exactly offer any jobs that would require computer work, did it?

Unless he was trying to find his next victim on the dark web.

I shot a cautious glance his way. The typing on the computer stopped suddenly as he looked up at me.

I turned away quickly and back to my eReader.

The click, click, click of his fingers moving across the keys started up again, and I soon found myself relaxing a bit.

We stayed like that for most of the day. Mikhail didn’t really speak to me, and someone brought breakfast, lunch, and dinner for us.

It was the same lady who had brought me my meal before.

She shot a fearful look at Mikhail before setting our food down and making a hasty retreat. I did catch her eyeing the present Mikhail left for me briefly with a weird look in her eyes before she left and closed the door behind her, but that was all.

Mikhail fed me all three times the meal was brought in.

I wondered if he got some sick sense of satisfaction for doing all these things for me.

I didn’t ask.

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