Page 23 of Cruel God

Another threat wrapped around my throat with chains ready to force the air from my lungs.

Victor moved, grabbed the girl by her hair and pulled her up to her feet. She shrieked and cried, her naked body trembling uncontrollably. “Please,” she started to beg. “Please don’t do this. I didn’t mean—”

Victor jerked her to the side and rammed her face into the drawer cabinet by the wall, blood splattering on the wall and sticking to the mahogany. She screamed and wailed as Victor pulled her up, blood gushing from her nose, pouring on her chest and down onto the carpet in a sea of crimson. When she tried to cover her face, he slammed her head against the cabinet again, and that was when I heard that distinct, sickening sound of bones cracking. I could feel it in my spine, cringing as her painful cries reached my bedroom ceiling.

“Dad, please.” I stepped closer, wanting to stop him from hurting the girl further. It was different having a girl caned in front of you while your cock was in her mouth or when you were dishing out lashings because they misbehaved. But this? He was talking about murder, death, ripping a person’s life from their soul.

“Please stop, Dad. I’m sure she learned her lesson.”

“No!” My father snapped, directing his angered gaze at me. “This bitch has to die for even thinking murderous thoughts toward us. We are kings in this world while she is nothing but dirt stuck on the soles of our shoes.”

“Do you honestly think none of the others think murderous thoughts about us? For God's sake, Dad, we’re keeping them here against their will. Doing all kinds of sick things to them. Of course, they all would want us dead.”

It happened so fast; I felt the pain first before I realized what had happened. My father struck me in the face with the back of his elbow, sending my ass swirling toward the ground.

“Don’t you ever say that again, do you understand me?” Victor yelled. “Don’t you fucking dare, or I will lock you up down there with the rest of them.”

I rolled onto my back and placed my palm against my throbbing cheek, blood sticking to my fingers.

“You are a Cain, and this is our legacy. These fucking whores belong to us. Our fucking kingdom is built on their submission, their pain, their fucking blood. Do you understand that?”

I tried to push myself up by my elbows, but a kick to my side sent me back down on the floor. Before I could clutch my side, a heavy foot stepped on my face, his Italian leather shoes pressing my cheek hard against the wooden floors. “I asked, do you understand that?”

“Yes,” I cried out. “Yes, I understand.”

“Good. Ungrateful fucker. Now, get the fuck up.”

My arms felt weak as I pushed myself up, pain radiating everywhere from my face down to my stomach.

Victor’s face was red with fury, rage burning from his blue eyes with such intensity it was almost blinding. He grabbed the girl around her throat and pushed her up against the wall while he kept his murderous gaze on hers. “Now you watch, son. You watch and witness the most powerful display of dominance you will ever see.”

“Dad—”

The veins in my father’s hands and arms bulged through his skin as his grip tightened and tightened. The poor girl’s mouth gaped as she gasped, her eyes wide and panicked as she tried to scratch at Victor’s hands around her throat. Blood rushed to her face as my father kept on squeezing, robbing her of air little by little. All I could do was watch as life slowly started to drain from her eyes. It was as if I could see her soul dying. Like I could taste death on my tongue as I watched her fight grow weak.

I wanted to throw up and tear my own skin off while I struggled to keep the tears from streaming down my face.

If only I was stronger, bigger, braver, then I would have been able to rip her from my father’s clutches and save her. But I wasn’t bigger. I wasn’t stronger or braver…not when it came to Victor Cain. There was nothing I could do. Nothing.

Tearing my gaze from her lifeless eyes, I looked at my father. There was nothing but the gleam of pure satisfaction plastered on his face. One would think he was in the middle of a fucking orgasm as he continued to tighten his hands around her throat, snarling as he killed her.

First, it was her arms that fell to her sides as she became lax in my father’s grip. And then it was her green eyes. They became vacant, empty as her head lolled down to the side.

Gone.

One…two…three…four seconds passed before my father started to loosen his grip.

Wait. Was it seconds or heartbeats? I couldn’t be sure. But I heard the beating of my own heart loud and clear in my ears, thumping wildly, forcing blood to course through my body. It was cold…my blood felt like ice as it flowed through my veins, chilling me from the inside.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the now-dead girl hanging against the wall with my father’s hand still around her neck.

He killed her.

He murdered her. In cold. Fucking. Blood.

Victor let go of her throat, and her body collapsed in a heap of dead flesh right onto my bedroom floor. I stood there and placed my fist in my mouth, biting down. It was the only thing I could do to keep myself from screaming. To keep me from crying out and cursing my father to hell.

Victor wiped his hands down the front of his suit jacket, looking smug and satisfied.

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