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“Who is he, Mama?” I asked, running my finger along the outside of the picture.
Her mouth twitched on one side and her throat bobbed. “My knight in shining armor.”
“Then why isn’t he here?” I wondered. “Aren’t knights supposed to be with their princesses?”
“Not all princesses get their happily ever after.” Clearing her throat, she snapped the locket shut. “And some princesses have a bedtime. Go get your water.”
Giggling, I hopped down from the chair to grab a glass of water. Once I was done, I placed it in the sink and held out my arms. Smiling, my mother lifted me into her arms, cradling me to her chest like I was the most precious thing she owned.
“One day,” I yawned. “I’m going to have a knight of my own.”
“Not all knights have shining armor, little one,” she warned me, her voice low and thoughtful.
“Mine will,” I told her stubbornly as my eyes began to close. “And he will never leave me.”
* * *
The door to the cell creaked open, letting in a stream of dim yellow light from the hall. I didn’t open my eyes, but I could hear his voice. It was low and garbled, as if he was trying to talk to me while I was underwater. Smooshed nose had no doubt done some form of damage to my ears. Upside, I didn’t have to listen to their shit.
Kellan’s footsteps echoed loudly in the quiet room. I kept my breathing even, eyes shut, hoping he would think I was still asleep and leave me in peace.
I was never that lucky.
“I know you’re awake, little one,” he sneered. His hand clenched around my jaw, gripping it tight enough to bruise. “No need to pretend.”
His cold eyes greeted me when I opened mine. He was only inches from my face. My heart thumped in my chest wildly when I saw the long, curved blade in his hand. My jaw clenched, the pain grounding me. I refused to show this fucker any ounce of fear.
“Stay still,” he whispered to me seductively. He pressed the tip of the blade between my breasts and slid the knife slowly through the fabric. “You won’t need this much longer.” He smiled down at me, like I was his lover and he wasn’t forcibly undressing me. The velvet fabric gave way easily beneath the sharpness of his blade. He mumbled an insincere apology each time the tip of the knife nicked at my skin, causing blood to swell to the surface.
I gritted my teeth, refusing to make a sound.
“Your grandmother informed me that you were such a docile little lamb,” Kellan murmured. He kept stripping at my dress, piece by piece, until it lay in ribbons surrounding me. I lay before him, shackled in nothing but my underwear. My breasts were on full display, and the lascivious way he licked his lips told me he wasn’t hiding his attraction to my body.
“I’m not,” I snarled at him. “You should ask for a refund.”
Kellan chuckled darkly and pressed the blade against my right nipple. I hissed at the pain that bloomed when he sliced a shallow cut across my areola.
“There are so many ways to break someone, you know,” he kept on murmuring. At this point, I was sure he was simply talking to hear his own voice. He didn’t care what I had to say on the subject. He just wanted me to listen to his endless droning. If I wasn’t tied down, I’d slam that knife through his vocal cords. Then no one would have to hear him speak again. “Pain is the most common, of course. Cutting. Sawing. Beating.” He let out a wistful sigh, like he was recalling a happy memory. “But from what I’ve learned about you, that won’t really work.”
He grinned down at me when he felt my body stiffen in response to his words.
“That’s what I thought.” He chuckled like it was the best news he’d ever received. “You know pain all too well because of that wretched Christian Ward. The man doesn’t know the art of torture and making someone fear it instead of leading the subject to adapt to it. A waste, really.”
“No,” he continued, the knife in his hand skating along my pebbled skin. “But I’ve watched how you respond to looks…touches…” He trailed off, his free hand running up my inner thigh. I kicked my leg out, which wasn’t shackled, and nailed him in the stomach.
My reward was a slice of the knife down the middle of my upper thigh. I screamed, unable to contain the sudden pain that swept through me.
“Keep it up, little one,” he growled. “I don’t need all your body parts. Just the useful ones.”
“Yeah?” I sneered. “I doubt any of your body parts are useful, so feel free to swap places with me. I’ll gladly remove some of your appendages.”
The fucker laughed. Not one of those half-assed ones either. He let out a full belly laugh that, if under different circumstances, was attractive as fuck. Too bad he was the creepy-ass villain in this story. He’d sure as hell make an amazing mafia bad boy in one of those smutty romance novels I loved so much.
“Did you get anything from her yet?” Marianne’s cool voice seeped into the room. Kellan smirked.
“We were just about to get started.”
They wanted information.Wonderful.
