Page 85 of Betrayal (Corrupt Empire 1)

“You know you can’t give up. He needs you. He needs his mother.”

“What kind of mother am I? He sees too much. How can he grow up normal when I’m beaten, raped and abused weekly? He hears it. I cannot hide what happens from him.”

“He’s a strong boy, Miss Lockhart and you’re still his mother. He loves you. You are his everything.”

She dissolved into another fit of sobs.

“They’ll destroy him. I can’t let them turn him into one of them. I’m worried I won’t survive long enough to keep him safe.”

Tina stroked her hair, her eyes softening.

“They won’t. You know they can’t do anything to him because of his father. And I swear to you, Lizzie, I’ll protect him. I’ll make sure he knows what they’ve done. He’ll never become like them. I’ll raise him right, give him the life he deserves if anything happens to you.”

“You’d do that even though they pay you?”

“The sick bastards need to be stopped. What they do to people is despicable. I stay because of you and Aiden, not because I want their money. The only way I can help you is from the inside.”

She smiled for the first time.

“You really are a kind soul.”

Tina finished up bandaging her cuts.

“There, now, you need to get some rest. We’ll talk more when you’re feeling better.”

I backed away, knowing I couldn’t be caught watching them. Whoever these people were, they would pay for hurting her. Pay for hurting my mother.

I got back in bed and lay there. Under the covers, I vowed I would avenge her. It didn’t matter I was only seven years old nor that I had no idea how to achieve it. I would make sure they all paid the price for hurting my family.

And Tina would help me.

l

Pain. That’s why I would never desire pain. Neither to inflict it on another or have it inflicted on me. Not after seeing someone go through the brutality she’d been through. Shaking off the sudden influx of emotions that memory caused, I focused on Avery again.

“I’m going to leave you to calm down.”

She turned to me. Her eyes full of unshed tears. Fucking hell. Doe eyes. Never in my life had someone had such fucking power over me with one single look. Fuck. I wish I deserved her. I wish I fucking deserved to have her, but I didn’t. And I was still the arsehole who’d take her anyway. I’d take what’s mine.

My feet stuck to the floor. If she wanted me then she had to come to me. That’s how this worked. The thread which bound us together rippled. She took one step in my direction before breaking into a run. Her arms wrapped around my back, her face pressed into my t-shirt.

Having her so reliant on me was a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I needed her to obey me when the time came to execute my plan. A curse because her submission was like a fucking drug to me. So fucking intoxicated on her need for my control.

“Don’t go,” she whispered. “I feel so alone when you’re not with me.”

“And here I thought I’d made you angry again.”

“I know why you did it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

She dropped her arms and stepped back. I hadn’t returned her embrace. Fighting the urges coursing inside me to tear her clothes off. It kept getting harder to resist her. Now I knew how fucking sweet she tasted and how tight her pussy was. I wanted to be in her so much, my cock throbbed. I’d have her bound up with leather cuffs, open and exposed for my viewing. My fucking pleasure.

“If you keep looking at me like that, Aiden, I won’t be able to keep my promise not to ask you again.”

Her voice brought me crashing back to reality.

“Looking at you how?”

“Like I’m a meal and you want to devour me whole.”

---