Agony overwhelmed as he struck me.
Each blow had come harder than the last, powerful enough to shatter bone, to shatter courage, to shatter sanity.
His fists and his boots and the grip of his gun.
So much pain.
But still, I’d fought. With every part of me, I’d fought.
I’d rolled to my side, rocking, curling into a ball to keep him protected.
Jarek had ripped my head up by my hair, and the vile voice whispered like it could be a balm in my ear. “Don’t cry, Aster. This is what was meant to be. You’ll see. You’ll see.”
He’d hauled me to the side gate while I’d prayed for you. I’d even prayed for my father.
The guard had let him pass. I’d pled for help, but the man, he didn’t listen, he didn’t care, the same as Jarek.
Monsters who looked at me like a possession.
Treasure or waste.
Whatever their pleasure.
Jarek pushed me into the front seat of his car.
I’d screamed for Papa. Prayed for him to come and save me. Or maybe he would stand aside and allow Jarek to ruin me.
Maybe I really was nothing to any of them.
Jarek had groaned as he’d gotten into the driver’s seat, his hand pressing on the wound before he’d hit me with his gun again.
“This is your fault, you cunt.”
I was so disoriented when he’d begun to drive. Blood ran in heavy streams down my face. My skin was busted open, throbbing and swollen.
Consciousness had come in and out of focus.
I was almost relieved when I realized we were at the Costa physician. He was the one who repaired gunshots and stab wounds and the evidence of beatings when my father’s men couldn’t be seen at the hospital.
He would help me.
He would help me.
But Jarek tossed me into the room, grated, “Get rid of it.”
It’d taken one look at the coldness on the physician’s face to understand what Jarek had meant.
I’d lost all sanity.
All sense of prudence gone.
I had raged, flying across the room to the locked door.
“No!” I’d screamed as I’d pounded my palm on the unforgiving metal. “Please, someone help!”
I jerked from a hand that grabbed me by the upper arm, and I ran through the room, tossing trays and supplies onto the floor.
They’d crashed.