I need to get to a phone. I need to see if she’s okay.
After what seems like hours, I’m ready. They spin me around to look in the mirror and I blink in surprise.
This is almost… nice. Almost.
I’m still his slave girl.
Who is the girl staring back at me? It isn’t me. This can’t be me.
My eyes look brighter than usual, framed with the lashes they did… I don’t know, something to. My lips are so full and pink I purse them just to feel if they’re really mine. I’m not sure what they did with my skin, but it glows, making me look almost angelic and ethereal. The clothes I’m wearing are beautiful. I look down at my nails and smile to myself. I’m used to the ragged mess I make of them, but now… now they’re almost pretty. I take a peek at my toenails. They are, too.
It’s like I was Cinderella in the garden and my Fairy Godmother just waved her magic wand.
Voila.
I’m beautiful.
A little part of me squeals at this, but only for a second, before I realize that… he’ll notice this, too. This is what he wanted. He orchestrated this. And if I think I look beautiful…
“Turn around to face me, kisa,” he orders. Swallowing hard, I meet his eyes in the mirror, predatory and calculated. A shiver slides down my spine as I slowly turn to obey.
If he were anyone else… a boyfriend, a lover, even a friend… I would stand with pride before him, knowing I was a diamond in the rough, polished and dazzling now. But he’s my captor, the man who will punish me and extract payment for the dues owed him.
I can’t meet his eyes when he looks at me like that, as if he’s ready to pounce and devour me in one fell swoop. Nausea swirls in my belly when he snaps out orders, and those that came to doll me up leave as if the room’s on fire.
We’re alone. And I know without him even telling me, it’s time I paid my first installment.Chapter 6After this morning, my need to punish her burns in me with ferocity, like a forest fire consuming everything in its path. She’s mouthed off and tried to set me on edge, prattling on like a child when I see right past her. The girl fooled the authorities and had no place in a mental institution. Anyone can tell by looking in those eyes of hers that she’s not only lucid, she’s brilliant. Fucking brilliant.
When she turns to look at me, anger flares in me that she dare look so beautiful, because I want to shelter her from the eyes of every fucker I see, but I can’t. I have to parade her around like a goddamn pony at a fair.
I’ll make sure anyone who comes within a mile of her knows she’s fucking mine.
“Come here,” I snap, angry that she’s so beautiful and perfect, that curvy, vivacious figure accentuated with the dress that hugs her curves. Those full breasts that beg to be held and bitten, those hips marked with my cane and soon, my teeth. Her eyes that spark with fire, her too-perfect porcelain skin, those full lips that need to be wrapped around my cock.
She’ll go to that fucking ball with her body fucking owned by me.
Fucking owned.
The door shuts behind me and I know we’re alone. Good to know “get the fuck out” is a very effective way of clearing the room.
After today… after what’s happened… it’s time I exacted her punishment for her crimes. I need to control her.
I suspect it’s the fucking Thieves that came here today. They sent someone in a bold-faced attack and didn’t even bother to hide it, for when my men interrogated him and stripped him, the telltale tattoo on his shoulder marked him as one of theirs.
I left the group, he said, lying through his fucking teeth. It wasn’t the Thieves, he said, before they cut out his fucking tongue and left him for me to finish off.
Lying fucking bastard.
Why they came? I have no idea. We haven’t rattled their cages since before our former leader Dimitri was in charge. Though not allies, we’ve come to a sort of mutual agreement that we don’t venture toward each other’s territory. They do their business and we do ours. Though we’re all Bratva, we are not brothers.
And now they send their man here in a sting operation? And kill our youngest recruit?
That boy had the potential of being a loyal member of our brotherhood after he’d learned his place. I’d taken him under my wing. Recruited much the way all of us were—orphaned, powerful boys who needed direction and guidance. A purpose. I made him one of ours, like a younger brother. But then the Thieves came and ruined that.