AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Different how?”
“His torment of me was more psychological than it was physical, but I guess I put it down to me being sold as a perfect blonde virgin with big blue eyes. I thought he didn’t want to mark me in case it brought down my value.”
“Who were you sold to first?”
“A man named Douglas Finch. He wasn’t as mean as the others, but he had a thing for innocence. He grew sick of me in a little over a year. Kyle facilitated my next sale on behalf of Douglas to a man named Craig Lewis, who had me for maybe two years…” She thinks about it for a second, her eyes squeezing shut as if it will help the memories come easier. “He died. A heart attack while he was…while he was on top of me. And then I was sold on to a man named Cyrus Kemp.” Her body trembles as the name falls from between her lips, and I already know I’m not going to like whatever comes out of her mouth next. “He was…violent. He got off on causing others pain, both physical and mental. He would starve me for days, and then when I was almost to the point of no return, he’d force-feed me until I threw up. He’d string me up and beat me until I passed out, and then when I woke up, he’d be using my body. He would drug me regularly, getting me hooked on God knows what, so I relied on him, so I wouldn’t try to end it because I needed my next fix.” Tears fall against her soft cheeks, and each word brings bile further and further up my throat. He tortured her. He fucking tortured my girl. He better fucking hope he’s not still breathing because the death I’m planning for him in the back of my mind is worse than any even a sick fuck like him can imagine.
I reach over and brush my thumb across her cheek, wiping away the tears as they fall. “We can stop, sugar. If this is too much, we can stop.”
“I’m okay,” Mia whispers, leaning into my hand to give herself the strength to keep going. “Cyrus grew bored after a couple of years. My responses to his torture became predictable, and I really thought he was going to kill me, but then one day everything stopped. He stopped torturing me, he stopped using me, it just stopped, and it wasn’t until a few weeks later when Kyle arrived that I realized they were getting me back to baseline so I could be sold on again.”
I close my eyes and take what feels like my fiftieth steadying breath since I asked her to go through the worst years of her life. I don’t know how much more I can handle listening to.
“I was relieved, but also afraid. Some of my injuries from Cyrus weren’t quite healed yet so I wasn’t ready for sale. Kyle took me to a house in the middle of the woods, and he left me there with some of his guards with strict instructions not to hurt me, but they didn’t listen. They saw it as an excuse to use a free whore as much as they could like they did the girls at The Factory.”
I shove myself to my feet and move away from Mia as the rage I’ve been desperately trying to push down boils over the edge. I need to get her out of the firing line, because right now I’m ready to tear the head from every man who even thought about touching my woman. It’s irrelevant if they did or whether they were just a bystander, they all need to be wiped from the face of this planet, and I will not rest until I lay the heart of every one of them at Mia’s feet like a sacrifice to a deity.
My deity.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
MIA
Ace paces up and down the balcony, his hands fisted at his sides as he tries desperately to reign in his emotions. The muscles in his neck and shoulders are tense with the pressure of his anger, and he won’t look at me.
I don’t know if he realizes it or not, but his eyes are looking anywhere but at me.
I knew this was a possibility.
I knew there was a very good chance he would look at me differently once he knew even a fraction of what I’d been through, but I wasn’t ready for it.
He can’t even look at me.
He’s disgusted by me.
The tears falling against my cheeks come harder and faster as choked sobs escape my throat. I spent so long repressing my emotions that now I have no idea how to control them once I’ve set them free.
I dart my gaze to the door. Maybe I can sneak back into the apartment. I just need to put some warmer clothes on and then I’ll be able to leave. I’ll work everything else out afterward, but I need to get out of here. I won’t be able to handle the disgust when he finally forces himself to look at me.
It’s not like this is my first rodeo. Everyone I’ve met in the last eight years has looked at me like I’m the scum of the earth, because to them that’s exactly what I am. I’m just a piece of meat, a warm body for men to use when they need a stress reliever. But I can’t handle Ace looking at me like that, not when the memory of him was the only thing that got me through some days.
As quietly as I can manage, I slip from the outdoor couch, heading for the door. Each step is planned in my head, but going through the motions won’t be as easy as it seems in my mind.
I only make it three tentative steps before a strong, tattooed arm wraps around my middle and tugs me back into a body so hard it may as well be made from stone.
“Where do you think you’re going, sugar?” he murmurs against the shell of my ear.
It occurs to me that I should be panicking right now. That being restrained like this should have me spiraling into an anxiety attack or at the very least fighting like hell, but even without being able to see who has me wrapped in their arms, I know it’s Ace, and my body relaxes into his on its own accord.
“I was going to go,” I whisper.
“Go where?”
“I don’t know. I just—” I choke on the words before they can make it to my lips.
“You just what, Mia?”
“I can’t see you look at me with disgust.” The words are so quiet I barely hear them myself, but the tension in his body tells me he heard every last one.
