Page 145 of Spark

“But it’s not all bad,” she said with a shrug. “Sometimes, he lets me have my morning tea out here on the porch. Sometimes, I get to go on supervised walks around the yard. Those are always nice.”

Like that was an improvement.

“What do you do in his suite all day?” I asked.

“Read,” she said. “He brings me books to read during the day and schools me on them later to make sure I retained what I read.”

“What sort of books?”

“They’re always different. Sometimes, they’re on psychology, sometimes, science or geography. Most of the time they’re sexual but always educational.”

So that was how he kept her mind intact. Had her brain stimulated and distracted from the horrors of her life by reading.

I dared to push further, afraid of what I’d hear.

“And what happens if you’re not able to retain everything?”

“Then I’m punished,” she said softly, shrinking in to herself.

“How does he punish you, Kayla?”

She closed her eyes and turned her head away. “He hurts me. He hurts me badly. If I do anything to upset him, if I’m ever disobedient, he’ll make me scream for the rest of the day. And I’ll spend the rest of the night in my cage until I… beg for his forgiveness.”

Fuck, not a cage, too.

“I tried escaping, too, once. Never again,” she murmured, shaking her head.

God, I wanted to march back into that house and stomp on Rainer’s throat until it was crushed under my heel. Sadistic motherfucker.

“I’m so sorry, Kayla,” I said, placing my hand against her back. I didn’t know what else to do. She sniffled in response.

“So… what’s he like?” she asked me timidly.

I released a breath and curled into myself more than I already was. How to describe Darren Davis?

“He’s…” I started but had trouble voicing the words. “He’s quite honestly my worst nightmare. He’s cruel, sadistic, possessive, and very… very unforgiving.”

Kayla was silent for a moment as she nodded in understanding. “Does he hurt you?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

She nodded in return. “I’m sorry, Jaden. I’m sorry it had to be him.”

I looked down at my lap and felt my chest cave in. “He’s hunting down Jason and my mom and brothers. When I escaped, it was so I could get to a phone to warn them to run because he was coming for them. They got away, but he found the rest of my family. Killed my uncle and is holding the rest of them over my head if I fuck up.”

“What? Why would he feel the need to go after your family?”

I shook my head. “He thought they were holding me back from accepting my life with him. He thought if he severed the connections of my old life, I would move on with the new since I would have nothing left to go back to if I ever got away.”

“That’s so fucked up!”

I nodded. “He’s so fucking diabolical. After I was able to warn Jason to tell my family to disappear, Darren had some girl drugged and burned to be mistaken as my dead body back home. I’ve been declared legally dead, Kayla. They had a funeral for me and everything, and that fucker went! He surrounded himself with my grieving family, and now, he’s having all of them watched. I guess he somehow decided keeping them alive as leverage was him being merciful for me.”

“Oh, my God, Jaden. I’m so sorry. What a fucking asshole.”

I shook my head. “It’s okay. It doesn’t matter anyway. He may be scary as fuck, but that’s not going to stop me from killing him.”

Kayla looked up at me as if I’d lost my mind. “You are?”

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