CHAPTER NINETEEN
Laurel
I was on a time limit.
And time was almost up.
Whoever was the one running this show had said he was done waiting. I knew it was coming but I had no idea when. Each second that ticked on felt like one less breath that I had left. I tried not to cry. The truth was, I wasn’t even sure what was going to happen to me. Something worse? I did my best not to imagine what that could be.
“Fucking useless bitch,” my captor said as he came into the room and slammed the door behind him.
He paced like a wild animal in front of me. For a second, I was glad I was in a cage and that there were bars between us. He was clearly losing it. Only thing was, he had the key to get in and once he chose to use that, there would be no escape for me. I supposed I should have found some comfort in that he hadn’t opened the cage door as of yet. He never tried to touch me.
“Whore,” he said and his wild eyes jerked to meet mine. “You’re all just worthless whores. You were supposed to wound him. Hurt him. Taking you should have done something. I wanted him to come and find you so that I could take something away from them like they did me.”
His voice was vibrating just like his body. He was seething. I was a little lost as to all the things he was ranting about and I had a good feeling I didn’t really want to know.
“A whore. Just like her. Doesn’t matter how old you are, you are born a whore. Now you’ll die like one.”
I blinked, and then his arm punched through the space between the bars. Before I knew what was going on, he had a tight grip on my hair. My nails went to his hand, scratching and clawing in an attempt to set myself free. But it was no use. With a quick yank, my head hit the bars and he continued to pull like he could somehow yank me out through the side of the cage. I screamed. I screamed so loud it pierced my ears and made my throat feel scratchy. Tears filled my eyes but I didn’t stop trying to get away.
I heard the click of the lock and I knew he had opened the door. Then his free hand was around my throat and I was being dragged out of the cage. My back hit the floor so hard it rattled my teeth. He was on me, the weight of his body pressing down on my chest as he sat on me. His knees pinned my arms to the floor.
“Please,” I begged. “Please. I don’t want to die like this.”
“You should have thought about that before you spread your legs for a filthy Steel Paragon member.”
“I-I didn’t know. I’m sorry.” I couldn’t tell you why I was apologizing.
“He doesn’t even care about you. Left you in that crackhead apartment building. Only fucked your desperate cunt when no one was around. He didn’t even care about you enough to bring you around his brothers.”
Everything he was saying were things I had thought before. Maybe not so crudely. But the same ideas and views had been there at one point or another. I hated to admit that this crazy psycho was right but maybe he was to a certain degree. In a way, I only had myself to blame. It was my fault for giving in and wanting someone that I knew I never should have had. That one bad choice had ended me up here.
“It was a mistake,” I said and tried not to choke on the words as they left my throat. “I see that now. I’ll never… I’ll never go near him again.”
“It’s too late. Don’t you see? You were supposed to be the beginning of the payback, but you’re just a worthless whore.”
He shook his head like he was disappointed that I hadn’t fulfilled his plan like he hoped I would.
“It doesn’t matter how young they are. It was all her fault, too,” he went on and I tried to follow along for some reason. “Her little body made him do it. Made me do it. And it wasn’t our fault she cried so hard. It wasn’t my fault that I covered her face too long when I tried to quiet her. No, it was all hers, because she was a whore and she wanted something she couldn’t handle.”
My head snapped to the side as his fist collided with my cheek. A whimper escaped me and I hated it. I didn’t want to let him know that he had gotten to me. I hated that he could see that I was terrified.
“It was all her fault and they killed him for it. It wasn’t bad enough that they kicked him out because he gave those whores what they deserved, then they took the law into their own hands when they found out about my sister. They killed him, you know? Killed him because she was a little whore.”
This was it for me.
I could feel it.
And though this guy wasn’t all that big, he definitely overpowered me.
I had never felt so weak.
So ready to let go and give in.
Because I knew to try and fight him was futile.
I screwed my eyes closed tight. Even still, I knew what was going on because there was the distinct sound of a zipper being lowered. I tried, I really did. I kicked and tried to buck him off of my chest, but all it managed to do was wear me out.
