Page 29 of Holiday Grief

If it were just her life on the line, she would have risked it, but risking the lives of her two younger sisters? That she couldn’t do.

So, she’d stayed in hell.

Endured life as a prostitute as penance for her stupidity, and the only way she knew how to keep her baby sisters from being subjected to the horrors her life had become. Daily beatings, starved, kept locked in a tiny bedroom with nothing but a mattress on the floor, a crude toilet, and a showerhead embedded in the wall that had only cold water. Raped more days than not by men who paid her pimp money, money which never came to her.

It was all for Bobby.

She was nothing but a prop to make him rich while she lived in worse conditions than most animals.

One chance.

That was all she’d had to escape him, and she’d taken it.

There wouldn’t be another.

This was it.

Even if someone was able to decipher the meager clue she’d been able to leave behind, that didn't mean they would find her. She could be anywhere, and she didn't even know when someone would discover she’d been abducted.

Would they even think that she’d been taken against her will?

Her family already believed she was immature and selfish, they might just think she’d bailed. And she’d broken Adam’s heart—Claire’s too—when she left. He’d been nothing but patient with her, working to earn her trust, fighting for her, for them, and she’d repaid him by bailing because she’d let her insecurities get the best of her.

Maybe he’d think she just left too.

Irresponsible Jasmine.

Selfish Jasmine.

Doesn’t love and care about anyone but herself Jasmine.

That’s what everyone thought of her. Maybe no one would even care that she was gone.

No one but Fauna.

Was her sweet doggie okay?

Had Bobby hurt her?

She would ask when he came back, but she was terrified if he knew just how much she loved that dog he’d go back and get it out of spite so he could use it against her, threaten to hurt it as a way to manipulate her.

The door to the basement where she was chained to the wall was opened, and Bobby slowly descended the stairs. He looked the same as he had the last time she’d seen him six years ago. His dark hair was still free of gray, there were no wrinkles on his face, and his bright blue eyes—eyes that had once captivated her and made her believe she’d fallen in love—were just as bright, only now she saw the darkness they held.

Dressed as he usually was, he wore a pair of black jeans and a crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. His arms were muscled and strong, and she knew he spent hours a day working out. At one time she’d liked that he was so big and strong, it had made her feel safe and protected. Little did she know how easily he could use that size and strength against her.

Now she knew though.

Knew as he gave her that one-sided smirk she’d once found sexy that he was about to deliver another beating.

As much as she wanted to beg for mercy, she knew it was pointless. He liked that, he liked knowing that you were terrified of him. It made him feel like some sort of god.

“Are you ready?” he asked as he stood before her.

Even knowing what was coming, Jasmine couldn’t make herself say the words he wanted to hear.

“Still being defiant? You were the one who ran, even knowing what would happen if you did. You were the one who was selfish, and yet I never went after your sisters, did I?”

Bobby said it as though he’d done her a favor by not abducting her little sisters like he’d told her he would if she ever disobeyed him.

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