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“I said kneel, whore. I hope your mouth works better than your ears. Open.”
He sits in his chair, where he usually addresses his minions, and keeps his hand wrapped firmly in her hair as his eyes flutter and a moan slips free of his lips. From this angle, I can’t see the act of him raping her mouth, but I know that’s what he’s doing. He’s punishing her and me in one fell swoop.
I squeeze my hands into fists, feeling my nails cutting into my palms, making tiny crescent moon scars that have nothing on the scars on my heart.
“Suck,” he snarls, but he doesn’t give her a chance to comply as he takes control and uses her as merely a toy to get himself off.
His eyes come to mine again, filled with fire and a dark promise. He’ll have me in one way or another. This woman on her knees has bought me another day, but my time is running out fast, right along with my excuses. You can’t reason with crazy, and Alejandro is crazier than most. He knows there will be consequences. He just doesn’t care.
The woman whimpers and gurgles as Alejandro fucks her mouth like a demon possessed. He roars out his release down her throat and tosses her aside like trash. Climbing from his ornate chair, which he treats as a throne, he slides his still-wet dick back into his pants and steps over the woman on the floor gasping for air.
He bends down once he gets to me and cups my jaw, holding me far tighter than necessary. “No, I don’t need to put my dick in you to come, but I’m sure there are plenty of other ways I can entertain both of us.”
It’s a clear threat, one I know he intends to follow through on. The only reason he is even remotely holding back now is because of his superstitions. Something everyone in this city buys into. I thought they were all nuts when I first realized how many people let such things rule their lives. Now I feel nothing but thankful for them. My reprieve won’t last forever, but it will last as long as Alejandro’s patience, which is frayed and threadbare at best. He’s hoping my compliance will ease things. Now it wouldn’t do to piss off a witch, would it?
He lets me go when I don’t speak and pulls a blade from inside his shirt pocket. I tense, but I keep myself still. He won’t kill me, but that doesn’t mean he won’t hurt me.
He traces my lips with the sharp knife before trailing it up to my eye. “Would you still be able to do what you do without these, do you think?” He digs the blade into my face next to my eye, just enough to pierce the skin, before placing the blade against his lips and licking the spot of blood clean.
He grins at me, the look on his face making my skin feel like bugs are crawling underneath it. Bored with me, he turns and walks over to the woman, who is on her knees now with her hands in her lap, waiting for permission to get dressed again. He caresses the side of her face before walking behind her and slashing the knife across her throat. The move is made so swiftly that I blink, unsure if I saw what I think I did or if it was my imagination playing tricks on me.
The fear emanating from the people behind me is palpable, and I bite my tongue hard to hold back my scream. I stare at the woman lying in a puddle of her own blood, staring at the ceiling. Her mouth moves, but no sound comes out.
I fight the urge to reach out and help her, but I know Alejandro will have me stopped before I can lay a single finger on her. It’s all part of my punishment. Her death is on me. I watch the light fade from her eyes, knowing I’m the only hope she has. But I do nothing, say nothing, and add her soul to the others that will haunt me.
“You. Clean that up,” he yells to someone in the crowd while pointing to the now-dead woman.
His eyes move to mine as he takes his seat on his throne once more, before he nods to the guard behind me. “Take her back.” He looks away from me, and I blow out a breath, knowing I’ve been dismissed.
The guard’s hand clamps around my arm, and I’m sure he’ll leave an angry band of purple bruises like he did on the other arm, but again, I don’t react. He walks me back down to al calabozo—the dungeon—past pleading hands that stretch between iron bars and sobbing captives begging for forgiveness.
I could tell them not to bother. There is no God down here. But I keep my mouth shut and my eyes forward as some brave soul hisses at me as we pass them.
“Bruja.” They spit before the guard stops and turns toward them.
They scurry back and hide in the corner, crossing themselves and praying. The guard urges me onward, pausing only long enough for him to open my cell and shove me back inside.
Home sweet home.
I walk away and sit in the corner farthest from the bars, the same corner I always curl up in, hoping by some miracle that I’ll fade into the shadows.
“You know that one day your luck will run out,” he tells me in broken English, making me jump. He rarely talks to me unless he has to.
“You think I’m lucky?” I chuckle, and once I start, I can’t stop until tears are running down my face.
“Crazy puta. You did this, and now all of us must pay for your sins.”
I glare at the man, my laugh stopping in an instant. “Your hypocrisy astounds me. Because the way I see it, only one of us is behind bars being forced to do a madman’s bidding, while the other does the devil’s work of his own free will.”
“You don’t know anything, bruja,” he spits before turning and walking out.
I hit a nerve there. Good. That asshole deserves it. I sigh and lean back, my head banging against the cold brick behind me. I bang my head a few more times for good measure, hoping to knock something free—an idea, a plan, anything. But no matter what, all I see are iron bars and darkness.
* * *
The soundof something dripping wakes me. I move and bite back a groan at the ache in my back and hips. Twenty-eight might not be considered old in the real world, but when it comes to sleeping on cold cement floors, it makes me feel ancient. At this rate, I won’t have to wait for Alejandro to kill me; my body will probably shut down on its own.
The dripping noise seems overly loud in my head and somewhat out of place. I frown into the darkness. It must be night; I can’t even see my hand in front of my face. Using the wall for balance, I climb to my feet and walk unsteadily to the source of the noise.
