Love the Way You Lie(49)
I taste something metallic on my tongue. Blood? “Because I’m telling the truth.”
He leans back, smiling. “I’m not in a hurry, sweetheart. I’ve been waiting a long time to get my hands on you again. I intend to savor this. You’ll be praying for death before I’m done with you.”
What he doesn’t understand is that I’m already praying for death. I’ve lost everything.
My sister. I’ll never see her again.
Thwack.
And Kip. God, he was never really mine. But the hope of him was so sweet.
Thwack.
Even my father. I had waited so long for him to stand up for me. Did he mean it about my mother? That would mean he didn’t kill her.
Thwack.
But if she’s been alive all this time, it means she left me. Abandoned me to this life.
Thwack thwack thwack.
It’s too much. The physical pain. The emotional. My soul is on fire. My skin is ablaze. The edges of my vision turn crimson.
Byron looms over me, a smile on his face. And I am more afraid than ever. It’s never good when he’s pleased. “I know what you’ve been doing here. A stripper. Fuck, I’m glad I didn’t marry you. I’d have had to kill you. I guess I’ll kill you either way.”
Don’t let him get to you. He can fuck with my body, but I don’t want him to fuck with my mind. I have a sick feeling he’ll do both, and I won’t be able to stop him.
“I know about your little boyfriend too.”
My stomach turns over. “Your brother?”
Byron laughs, and dread settles deep into my core. “I’m surprised he told you about that.” There’s a gleam in Byron’s eye. “Did he tell you our family secrets too?”
A little. I know about Kip’s father and how he left them. I knew they grew up poor. Is that why Byron seemed to hate me from the beginning, because my family had money? “No.”
“The fucking jewels. They belong to my family. To me. I thought they were gone…but then you came here.” He leans close. “Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t know where the jewels are. Don’t know where your sister is.” He snorts in disgust. “You’re not much use to me, are you?”
“Then let me go.”
“You were going to be my consolation prize. You and your father’s entire fucking empire. Did you know that? I couldn’t have the jewels, but I could have everything else.” He runs a finger over my breast, taking my nipple between thumb and forefinger. Rolling. Squeezing. “And you were my little jewel, weren’t you? I polished you, didn’t I?”
A tear rolls down the side of my face. “No,” I choke out, but it’s a lie.
Because he did polish me, until I shined, until I was both flat and sharp. He used me like a jewel—a thing to be worn and then tossed into a drawer.
“Not just you, Honor. You weren’t the only jewel in my crown.” His hand circles my throat. “Did Kip tell you about our sister?”
My breath catches. Any Emilys or Sylvias I should know about? But he never answered.
“She grew up different than us. She had all the things we never did.”
Suspicion is a dark vine wrapped around my lungs. Making it hard to breathe. Two poor brothers. A sister who grew up rich. It seems impossible. I’m praying it’s not true. I’m praying it’s not me.
His hand on my neck squeezes, cutting off my air supply. “Her name is Clara,” he whispers.
And I black out.
* * *
When I wake up again, it’s dark. There is a man sitting beside me. I recognize him from the dining table earlier. He is one of Byron’s men. He runs his hand up and down my belly, occasionally cupping my breast, kneading me. I don’t know how long he’s been doing that. My skin crawls. He brushes over a welt from earlier, and I gasp.
He looks startled—then amused. “You’re awake.”
My mind is still spinning from what I know. Kip. Byron. Clara. All of them, related.
And me too.
It all makes sense now, in a horrible way.
The hand tightens on my breast until I whimper. The other man from the table is leaning against the wall, watching. Both of them are dangerous, but the one on the wall scares me more. There’s something flat in his eyes. Something reptilian.
In the time that passed, the rope has loosened—just slightly. There’s more give than before. But I’m still not sure I could pull my hand free without breaking it. And if I did get free, there’d be nowhere to go. They’d just tie me up tighter. They’d just hurt me more.
The first man runs his hand over my body, poking at the bruises already formed, reaching down between my legs and shoving into my dry pussy. “Awake and ready for us.”