Page 59 of Cruel God

I merely stood there, watching her struggle, listening to her beg, and feeling my soul get torn to shreds. And the only thing I could do was touch the skin below my ear—the spot where my mark of possession remained permanently on her flesh and stared at her for a second longer before steeling myself once again.

“I delivered,” I said to Anatoli. “And now it’s your move. Enjoy your new pet.”

I turned on my heel, and Hope’s cries turned into screams, gut-wrenching screams that could crack through the ice around any hardened man’s heart. In all these years, through all the pain and suffering she had been through, I had never heard her cry like this before.

Fear, panic, heartbreak…it tore through her throat and cracked my chest wide fucking open.

“Please don’t leave me here. I’ll do better. I’ll behave. I will never disobey you again. God, please don’t. Don’t leave me. Don’t!”

I sucked air through my teeth, my insides filled with a thousand shards of glass, slicing me open from the inside out. But I did what I needed to do. It was the only way…so I walked toward the door without turning back, placing my hand on the doorknob.

“Rex, please! Don’t do this.” I heard her struggling to breathe through her weeping cries. “Rex, I love you.”

My body froze, and my heart no longer beat. I died. That was the motherfucking moment I died the most painful death and descended straight down to hell.

“I love you,” she repeated, softer this time.

I never knew how much I needed to hear those words from her until that moment—until I heard her say it for the very first time. The pain it inflicted was the equivalent of a hundred knives butchering your flesh while you simply were unable to die.

With a sideways glance over my shoulder, I hid the torment I knew would be carved on my expression. “You have a new master now, Butterfly. You should love him…not me.”

“Leave!” Anatoli yelled, and I swung open the door storming out without looking back.

Chapter 21

Iwalked further away from that room, and I cursed my dead father’s bones with every step. If he hadn’t betrayed me by selling Hope to Anatoli behind my back, all of this never would have happened.

Victor discovered who Hope really was to me and how I truly felt about her. To him, she had become my greatest weakness, while to me, she was my greatest strength. But Victor Cain was always right. Always knew better. And after I found out about his hidden deception, accepting payment for something—someonethat wasn’t his, it solidified my resolve to kill him. There was no doubt about it. No questions to be asked. When it came down to choosing between my father and Hope…I chose Hope.

No hesitation.

But I wasn’t aware of how deep my father’s deception was. He sold her to the most powerful man in Russia and accepted a substantial payment for her. It was only a matter of making the delivery to complete the transaction. It was something I couldn’t allow. And merely two hours before the delivery was scheduled to take place, my father took his last breath.

Dominoes fell after that, Victor’s death affecting so much. And I spent years trying to keep that last fucking domino from falling.

Hope.

I could hear her screams as I walked away. It made my ears bleed, and my insides turned. My heart was no longer beating; it was pounding like a jackhammer against my ribs, about to crack through. Every step felt like a shovel of dirt being thrown inside my open grave. Until finally…my phone vibrated.

I stopped dead and pulled out my phone, reading the words on the screen.

“I have it.”

As I closed my eyes and slipped the phone back into my pocket, I inhaled deep. The swoosh of adrenaline drowned out the music and laughter of guests downstairs, my rapidly pounding heart echoing inside my ears.

I turned and walked back to the door, Anatoli’s two bodyguards stopping me this time. I could have asked nicely for them to let me pass, maybe offered them a bribe. But pulling two blades from behind my back, slicing it through the air and severing their throats was just so much more rewarding. Their eyes grew wide, hands grabbing their bleeding necks as they fell to their knees—slowly choking on their blood.

Kicking the door open and storming in, I was just in time to see Anatoli tear Hope’s thong as he had her bent and pinned on the table with his dick already out of his pants. Hope cried as he pushed her head hard against the mahogany, but he let go of her when he saw me barge in.

“What the fuck?”

“Oh, and one more thing.” I rushed across the room and launched at him, throwing his back against the body of the dead girl hanging from the cross. My blade sank into his stomach, and I could feel it slice through his organs. “No one. Touches. What’s mine.”

I roared like a demon-possessed animal, flicked the other blade and drove it into his left eye, blood squirting across my face. There was no better sight than watching his body go rigid for a second…before tumbling to the ground like it was nothing but rotten flesh.

As much as I wanted to stay and watch his blood mix with his dead whore’s, staining the carpet, Hope’s crying demanded all my attention, and I darted to her side, gently placing my hands on her shoulders. She jerked away from my touch and ran to the other side of the room, pulling the mask from her face.

Jesus Christ. Her face. All I saw was pain. Torment. Betrayal. And I hated it. Even her eyes as she looked at me— had lost their vibrance.

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