We walked upstairs, through the dining hall and out onto the terrace. I hadn’t been outside in weeks. The heat felt good on my skin, even with the welts scoring across the backs of my thighs from a few days earlier.
I stepped on a sharp stone and it dug into the sole of my foot, but the pain was minimal to what I was accustomed to. I did my best to keep my steps even and quiet like I was taught—compliant and invisible.
I stopped when Alfonzo did, keeping my eyes down.
“Leave us,” a voice ordered.
Alfonzo pushed by me and I was left standing on the hot patio stones, the soles of my feet burning. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth trying to numb out the pain. I was good at numbing out the pain.
I recognized Raul’s voice. He owned the compound and he owned me. I’d seen him a number of times at meals when I was in the dining hall, not eating but being played with.
“Come closer.”
I took several steps forward until I stood under the shaded canopy and kneeled. I’d never been brought to Raul before. Fear crept across my skin as I wondered what he wanted with me. It was insane to feel this way, but comfort came with routine, with knowing.
And this was unusual.
“This is the girl. Raven. Of course, that’s not her real name. Alfonzo named her. Said she reminded him of a raven because she is so intelligent. A problem solver.” He chuckled. “She pushed her bedframe up on its edge against the wall, then climbed it so she could reach the ceiling. Then she used the sheet wrapped around her hand to dig through the plaster between the wall and ceiling. Smart. She knew when she could do it and when my men would be checking on her even without a window to tell the time.” Every day I dug a little further until Alfonzo walked in unexpectedly one day and saw me. That’s when they took my bedframe away. “Raven is the daughter of a well-known scientist.”
I inhaled deeply to try and settle my nerves and that was when his scent hit me.
A slight whimper escaped and I started to look up, but stopped myself. I couldn’t breathe because I knew that scent. I’d never forget it. My heart pounded and sparks darted over my skin.
I wanted to fall on the ground and sob, but I was too scared to do anything but keep my head down and remain as still as I could.
So many emotions traipsed all over me and through me. It was like my adrenaline had been drowned and now it was being pulled from the depths of the ocean and given life again.
Kai.
Maybe I was wrong in assuming he was here to save me. Maybe it was the stupidest thought I’d ever had. But it was all I had.
“Obedient. Now. Took Alfonzo and Jacob weeks to break this one.” Raul laughed and it crackled as if he smoked too much.
“She’s a risk,” Kai said.
I choked on the sob as his voice blanketed me. I dug my cracked, split nails into my naked thighs to keep myself from looking up at him, to see for myself that it was really him.
“Perhaps. But my understanding is you enjoy risk, Kai,” Raul said.
I heard the click of a lighter and then the smell of cigar smoke billowed in the air.
“A high-profile missing girl is a liability.” Kai’s voice was controlled and casual. What was he saying? It sounded like… no. No. It wasn’t true. “No matter how beautiful.”
Raul chuckled. “True, but you wouldn’t have come if you didn’t want her.”
I squeezed my eyes shut to keep the tears from forming. Emotions ran rampant like I was being tossed and turned in a tidal wave. I didn’t know what was happening. He’d been told I was here? Raul told him? Kai knew Raul?
“She’s too skinny and I’m betting if she looked at me right now, her eyes would be dead. Your men have broken her already. I prefer to do my own breaking, makes for a loyal slave.”
Tears filled my eyes as I listened to his words. It was the last layer of me being slowly peeled back, but it wasn’t thrown away. I wouldn’t believe it. I’d seen something in Kai. I’d felt it. And if there was any part of the girl I’d once been left inside me, then I believed Kai was here to help me, not to destroy me. I saw the good in him. I felt it. I wasn’t wrong about him.
“Raven.” I stiffened as Raul spoke to me. “Get up.”
I stood and he grabbed my wrist, yanking me close. My thigh hit his knee and I nearly fell into his lap.
My heart pounded erratically as I sensed Kai’s eyes on me. Eyes I liked watching me a couple months earlier. Green eyes I’d been captivated by. Eyes that I dreamed about until that memory was beaten out of me.