I look up at her. “He would have, if he knew. Malachi would have come.”
I gasp between trying to pull in oxygen, knowing without a doubt that if Malachi knew he had a sister out there, he would have found her.
Her breathing is ragged above me. “Instead, he was protecting you. He still is!” She lands one more kick before taking her seat again, running her fingers through her hair, putting it back in place. She’s bat-shit crazy.
“Declan told me all about you and your brother. He told me about how he set up your brother, stood there watching as they beat the life out of him. It made him so hard he screwed me for hours.”
My body retches, unable to keep the bile down. As she continues, every bit of sympathy I held for the little girl lost inside of her dies with the lasting words that fall from her lips.
“He told me that Malachi was watching you. Even with you out of picture, you still got his attention. We came up with a plan. I was going to be just like you, that sweet little act. It was exhausting.” She rolls her eyes. “He fell for it. I watched as he warned the men off me. He became protective. The first stage of the plan had gone better than we thought.” She grins.
“Then he bought you. Declan said he was different, that he was mean to you, ignored you, treated you like nothing and fucked you like his own whore.” Pain lances my heart at her words, remembering everything that had happened in that house, knowing now that it was for protection. I don’t know if it’s enough. The bad times wrap their fingers around my throat, stand in front of me so I just see them. The happy times are all tainted in darkness, hard to remember. Even though my heart feels shattered without him, my body physically misses him so much that it aches to breathe.
“We both believed it until you walked into the compound. One look at your face and I saw it all. After everything he has done, you still love him.”
I nod as tears run down my face, remembering seeing them together, the pain that sliced through me. She’s right, I love Malachi, more than I thought possible. I know Malachi is my soul mate. We are all led to believe that love is enough by the great poets that have stood the test of time, but they were wrong. Love isn’t always enough. I don’t know if it is enough for us. If by any slim chance I get out here, I don’t know how we can fix what we’ve broken. Though I long to close my eyes and wake up back in that house.
“When I told him, you’d walked into Gage’s office, he was up and running after you. Malachi doesn’t run after anyone, they come to him, but you...”
She sneers again, before a smile appears so quick, making her look beyond crazy.
“We’ve got you to thank for stage two: kill Gage. You had done it.” She laughs. “Declan and I were planning for weeks how to do it and you walked right in and shot him in his office. I bet the bastard couldn’t believe it. I asked him, you know—Malachi. I asked him if he loved you, if you were the girl, he was so messed up over. He admitted it. Even if he hadn’t, I would know. His eyes, they told the truth, so powerful you could feel it. The intensity of it was as strong as a storm.”
I pull in a shuddering breath.
“You hate me because he loves me?”
She shrugs. “I hate you because you made him weak. He was meant to take over, taking me and Declan with him. With Gage gone, he was meant to take the reins. But you were always in the way.”
I laugh. I can’t help it, it bubbles out. “He never wanted it! Never. He hated the Kingston name, what it meant.”
“Because of you and your brother!”
I look at her, straight in the eyes. “Have you ever known Malachi to do anything he didn’t want to? He never wanted to work for Gage. It was Declan that wanted it; he is the one that always craved the power, the money. Him, not Malachi. And you fell for it hook, line and sinker. You drank his poison.”
She frowns at my words, but I don’t stop, not sure if I am right, but I can’t seem to stop them from flowing.
“You went along with everything he fed you, and now Malachi is looking for me, isn’t he!? Do you think he won’t figure it out? He’s smart; maybe he already has.”
Her eyes twitch as she shrugs, but there is fear starting to swirl in them. She smiles, trying to cover it. “He won’t find out; the seller is already on his way. You will be long gone before he even gets a sniff of this place. We made sure of it.”
She smiles proudly, like they have everything covered.
“What about everyone here? All your customers? You think if Malachi corners one, he won’t get the truth? How many people are you going to kill? What happens when he finds out you not only sold me but killed my baby, his baby. Your niece or nephew.” My throat burns from the truth as tears fall down my face, landing on my bare legs.
“He’ll forgives us. He didn't mean to hurt Declan. It went too far. He’s angry but he will forgive us.” I shake my head.
“No, he won’t. If he’s already hurt Declan, he’s onto him, to you both.”
I watch the smile drop as uncertainty covers her features.
An actual smile crawls up my face. “Do your best, because he will do so much worse.”
She leaps at me, just as the door opens.
“Iris.” She freezes, her hand held above me. I watch her change in front of me, plastering a smirk on her lips.
“Denzel dear, didn’t I tell you she was beautiful.”
The man comes into view; he’s tall with blonde wavy hair peppered with streaks of grey, ocean blue eyes. His skin is tan, as if he had just come back off holidays. I would place him around fifty, but his body is well looked after. The look in his eyes makes me cower back. True evil lies behind them.
He steps closer to me. “Yeah, she sure is.”
Kneeling in front of me, he grips my chin, moving my face side to side, looking me in the eyes. “Stand.”
At his command, I stand. He opens the silk gown, taking in my body, running his finger from my throat, down my breast. I bite my lip to stop the whimper. “She will make a pretty penny. I have the perfect buyer in place.” He turns back to Iris. “I could give him a call now. He will be here within the hour.
Iris’s smile grows. “Ring him—and chuck the other girl in for free.”
34
Prince
“Are you sure?” For the third time, my breathing stops. Marcus looks up from the laptop he has been working on non-stop to watch me.
“Yeah, I am sending you a picture now. I don’t forget bitches, especially ones as fine as her.” My message tone goes off and I open the picture Denzel just sent me, falling to my knees when I see her. Lilliana.
Her raven hair is down, draped around her face like a veil as she looks at the floor. Her body is so thin I can see the lines of her ribs, and her skin is pale, marked in purple bruises.
But it’s her.
“It's her. Who took her?” My voice is betraying my true feelings. Denzel pauses before he sighs.
“You already know, don’t you?”
I had gone over everything I had learnt, the pictures, the doctor’s words. Everything leads to one person, but I’m hoping I’m wrong. Though it’s the one thing that makes sense.