My brows dip down low. “Run me out?” I question. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He shrugs his shoulder. “My guess is that he wanted you to run back home. I don’t know, it wasn’t exactly a long conversation.”
“So, what did he tell you.”
“He said you were dangerous and that it was in my best interest to do whatever it took to run you out of here.”
“That’s why you were such an ass the second I walked through the door. I couldn’t figure out what I’d done to piss you off but I didn’t really care because fighting you felt so damn good.”
Slade’s lips pull up into a grin. “You threw me a fucking curveball, Virago. I wasn’t expecting that fiery attitude from you.”
I get him back on track, not wanting to get lost in this weird connection between us. “So, why’d you do it?” I whisper into the quietness.
His eyes drop to the floor and I feel empty without them. “I didn’t want to,” he promises, gently shaking his head. “I had no fucking choice. At first, I told him no. I wasn’t interested in being a pawn in his bullshit games, but…”
“He threatened you.”
“He said that he could get to me anywhere, anytime and when I still refused, he pulled out his phone and showed me pictures of my little sisters at their swimming lesson, my mom, my dad, even my fucking brother in the military. I was trapped, I had no fucking way out.”
Understanding dawns and I suddenly find it impossible to even want to hate him anymore. “It was me or your family,” I say, glancing down at my passed out brother. “I would have done the same thing.”
“You’ve got to understand,” he continues, really trying to make his point. “At that stage, you were a nobody. I couldn’t even put a face to your name. He was asking me to chose my family over a complete stranger and if I came through…”
“What?” I say with a heavy glare at the side of his head. “What grand prize was worth tormenting the broken new girl?”
Guilt takes over his sharp features. “He was going to get me onto any college basketball team I wanted and if I didn’t come through, he’d make sure I never played again.”
I don’t doubt that for one second. I’ve seen him do much worse in his study for far less. The man is simply a monster, the worst kind of monster. “I get it,” I say too quickly, still frustrated with the situation.
“If I’d known who the hell you were or what kinds of things he’d done to you…”
I shake my head. “Don’t. Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Pity me.”
Slade looks across at me and in a flash his hand is at my ankle and he drags me across the couch until his hand is at my back and he’s holding me up against him. “I don’t pity you, Skylah. I think you’re the strongest fucking woman I’ve ever met and the fact that you’re still standing proves that.”
“Stop,” I whisper, feeling my emotions creeping up on me. “I need to hate you.”
“What does that even mean?” he question, frustrated at still not having a clear answer since asking me at Nessa’s party. He drags me back onto his lap and when I don’t respond, he sighs. “Look, at the beginning, to me you represented the person who was endangering my family. All I had to do was get rid of you and they’d be fine, but the second I saw how fucking beautiful you were, it was all over.”
“Slade,” I warn, begging him not to go on.
“You opened that smart mouth and it became some twisted kind of foreplay. I hated the things I did to you, they made me feel sick. I mean, fuck, Virago. I snuck into your room in the middle of the night and grabbed you. If I’d known what he’d done to you, I’d never have done that, not in a million fucking years. You were terrified, I saw it in your eyes and it made me sick. You were so ready to slit my fucking throat until you realized I wasn’t him,” I swallow hard at the memory. “You fought back every time. No matter what terrible things I did or said to you, you were stronger and I realized that running you out of here was never going to happen.”
“I’ve got nowhere else to go,” I admit. “Running out of here means going back there and I will never do that. I’d rather stay here and fight you than face that again.”
“Yeah, I realized that after you put me in my fucking place on Monday.”
“I really didn’t mean to tell you about the whole ‘highest-bidder’ thing. That just sort of slipped out,” he nods and I meet his stare. “He’s going to come after you when he realizes I’m not leaving, you understand that, right?”