Damaged Queen (Darkness Within Duet 2)

“I didn’t consider this much of a laughing matter.”

“You’re kidding, right? I don’t know if it’s Harper being here or if I’m finally waking up to what it is we’re fucking doing.”

“I’ve told you not to go there.”

“Go where? Go to the reality that we’re holding men and women’s lives in the palm of our hand. What if that chick didn’t want to go with her master? What if she wanted to stay in Tillie’s brothel, or better yet, what if she wanted to do neither and just go fucking home?”

“We don’t have the luxury of walking away or creating that kind of life.”

“Why not? I for one didn’t sign up for stealing girls and having them earn us money.” Axel stepped right up to him. “We were going to be better than this. You remember that, Draven? Remember when we promised each other a better life?”

“Times change. People change, and we can’t keep looking at the past, for fuck’s sake.”

“We’re too busy repeating our fathers’ mistakes, and one day we’re going to look in the mirror and be exactly like them.”

“We inherited their legacy, and we can’t turn our backs on it, not yet.”

“We helped them build this, Draven. Make no mistake about that. We’re the reason this is still standing while they’ve all been dead. You shouldn’t have put Harper on that damn post. We shouldn’t be doing anything like this.”

Draven said nothing.

This was not the first time, nor did he anticipate it would be the last that Axel had struggled with their reality, or at least, this part of their reality. Killing people, drugs, guns, controlling people in positions of power, Axel relished. Human trafficking, the sale of human flesh, Axel always had a problem with, but then, Axel’s father had been a cruel bastard and Draven knew when they were growing up, Axel saw a lot of bad shit that turned him against it.

“I’ve got to go away for a couple of days.”

“Why?”

“I’ve got business to attend of my own. You think you can keep Harper alive until I get back?” Axel asked.

“You know I can.”

“I don’t know if you’d decided to kill her for fun or something like that.”

“Axel, I’m not a monster.”

This time Axel did snort. “Keep telling yourself that. Maybe one day you’ll either believe it, or not. I’ve got to go.”

Axel walked away, and Draven watched the post burn until it was nothing more than embers. In his mind, he heard Harper’s screams, the sounds of her pleas as she begged them all to stop.

He’d ignored her, and they’d used her back for sport.

Stepping away from the embers, he made his way toward one of the guards, giving him the instruction to keep an eye on the fire.

Entering the kitchen, he saw Ian still in his home, nursing a cup.

“It’s coffee. You want one?”

“I thought you’d be back home by now.”

“It’s my turn to stay with Harper. I don’t want Hannah to know I’ve failed again.”

“Why would you fail?”

“Hannah stays with her during the whole of her time, regardless of if Harper even wants her here, and I end up leaving.”

“You and Harper still not getting along?”

“I doubt we ever will,” Ian said.

“She blames you for her mother.”

“She blames me for a lot of things I can’t control.” He sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Are you going to kill my little girl?”

“Are you going to stop me?” Draven asked.

“Don’t make me do this. Don’t make me choose.”

“I’m not going to make you choose, but I guess I already have my answer, and that is why Harper will never trust you. You’re too weak. She doesn’t deal with weak men. Only the strong.”

“I should have kept you away from her all those years ago.”

“You were too busy in Hannah’s pussy to even give a shit about Harper. You didn’t know what she was going through. How she was dealing or should I say, how she wasn’t dealing.”

“You just like to keep rubbing it in my face how bad of a father I am.”

“No, what I like to do is make sure the men near me take responsibility for their actions. You never do that. When it came to Harper, all you wanted her to be was a good girl. To not make waves. You wanted her to leave you alone.”

“That’s not true.”

“It’s why it was so easy to draw her in. To nurture that anger that’s always simmering beneath the surface. Harper at times looks weak and vulnerable, but that is because she is a tiger in waiting, ready to strike when she needs to.”

“And you’re the one that draws it out?” Ian asked.

“I’m the one that doesn’t try to keep the tiger at bay.”

“I’ve heard the men talking, Draven. You intend to break her. How is that not keeping the tiger at bay if you intend to break her?”