“Was she here? A week ago? Was she on this property?”
“If you’re asking me those questions, then you already know the answers.”
He was more like a death sentence for any woman who came in contact with him. Thinking of my baby sister at his mercy made my blood fucking sear. I always knew there was a chance for him to retaliate, but I never imagined it would be with Juliet.
How naive am I?
“Do you know what he’s into?” Dad questioned while I held on by a very thin thread.
“I can imagine,” he acknowledged, watching as my father pulled out his phone.
Picture after picture, lifeless body after lifeless body appeared on the screen.
If this motherfucker was surprised, he didn’t show it. He was a blank canvas of emotion. Where I was ready to attack like a guard dog, he was ready to strike like the snake he was.
“This is what your business partner has been doing since before your piece of shit father killed your mother in front of your eyes.”
He cocked his head to my father’s statement. “And yet you never came back for me, but I wasn’t her blood, was I?”
My heart pounded against my chest.
Louder and louder.
Faster and faster.
I exploded.
“Does Juliet know the truth?”
His gaze locked with mine, and I didn’t realize I was holding in a breath until he simply shook his head and stated, “Not yet.”
Juliet
“Ahhhhh!” I screamed bloody murder, jolting awake.
My head was throbbing, and the familiar pain was like coming home to Donovan when I first woke up on the piano in my old bedroom.
With wide eyes, my body propelled forward from the force of Troy’s whip hitting my stomach.
“Stop! Please stop!” I begged, not caring that I sounded so weak.
He didn’t; instead, he struck my chest, my legs, and the side of my neck. Blood immediately poured out of my flesh, staining my dress. I was shocked he’d left me clothed, and I wasn’t naked, shouting for mercy.
I was sweating profusely.
Shaking.
Panting.
Was this what dying felt like? Was this what Donovan’s mother felt?
“Well, well, well, look who finally decided to grace me with her presence. Did you take a nice nap, sleeping beauty?”
Whip to my inner thigh.
To the other one.
To the top of my mound.
“No more! Please, Troy, no more!”
“MASTER!” he yelled as the tail of the whip slammed against my cheek. “You call me Master! You’re my slave now!”
I refused. He’d kill me before I ever addressed him as anything other than a psychopath.
“NEVER!”
The whip hit the same spot on my stomach, and I almost threw up from the rip-roaring pain, reminding myself that I could live through this.
He’d come for me.
I knew it like I knew my name.
Pet.
My head hung by my chest. I was exhausted, and he had only just started beating my flesh. I realized I was tied to the same cross he’d beat me on the last time.
“Juliet…” he sang in the creepiest voice I’d ever heard in all my life.
It was one of those tones that you heard in a horror movie, triggering the hair on your arms to stand straight up. Fear creeped up my spine, becoming a part of me.
Like Donovan.
My master.
“Let’s play a game, shall we? I just love playing games. What do you think? Will you play for me, pet?”
He was using Donovan’s words to mess with my head.
“Fuck you.”
My head whooshed back from the force of his blow to the side of my face. I slowly turned my head around, glaring at him through the slits of my eyes, acting as if my cheek wasn’t on fire. “You hit like a bitch.” I spit blood on his face, and it landed near his mouth.
He viciously smiled, sticking out his tongue and licking it off.
“You taste good enough to eat. What do you think, pet? Do you want me down on my knees, devouring your pretty pink pussy?”
“Donovan will kill you if you touch me.” But would I be alive to see it? My chest ached almost more than my body.
“Donovan and I have shared many slaves. Where do you think he learned everything he knows? I taught him how to touch, how to lick, how to fuck and beat women into submission.”
“He’s nothing like you,” I spat.
“On the contrary—he’s worse than me. I wasn’t the one who killed my own father.”
“That monster deserved to die. He should have done it sooner.”
He rolled his eyes, gripping onto my mouth. “I thought you were smarter than you looked. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and Donovan is the spitting image of his father. Trust me, little one. I’ve seen what he’s capable of. He stole you, didn’t he? Mafia princess to the Sinacore family.”
I swallowed hard and let go, but not before he licked off the blood from the gash on my cheek he’d just inflicted.
“You’re such a pretty girl, much prettier than your mother was at your age.”
I jerked back. “You know my mother?”
He smiled, reminding me of a Cheshire cat. “Knew. I knew your mother.”
“What does that mean? Is my mother here too? Did you take her too, you fucking demonic asshole!”
He roughly pinched my cheeks, causing my lips to pucker. He crashed his mouth into mine with so much passion I thought he was going to rip my face off. Finally, he released me with a loud smack from his lips, pulling back to look me in the eyes as he licked more blood away.
“What do you want?” I gritted out, holding back the bile rising in my throat.
“What do I want? Hmmm…” he hummed. “I want a lot of things. But first, I want to be the one to break you by telling you the truth about who you really are.”
“Like I would believe anything you say.”
“I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a liar. Let’s see … where should I start? From the beginning, I suppose, right? It’s always best to begin there.”
I didn’t stop him, and God help me, I wanted to know what he had to share.
Hit to my chest.
To my stomach.
To my leg.
“Ahhhhhh!”
“Yes! Scream all you want! No one can hear you, and no one’s coming for you like no one came for your mother!”
“What?” I asked through the agony I was feeling.
“You heard me. No one cared enough to save her life. Your family didn’t have to; they already had you. She gave you up willingly.”
My eyebrows lowered. “Gave me up? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Your daddy…” he sang again in a high-pitched tone. “He couldn’t keep his dick in his pants, and one night during an auction, Donovan’s father shared your real mother with him.”
“What?! No! No! No!”
“Yes! Yes! Yes! You’re a fucking bastard! Your mom was Donovan’s father’s slave for twenty-two years, and when she wound up pregnant, she begged, pleaded, on her hands and knees to her Master to not make her get rid of you. So Donovan’s father did the next best thing—he made a deal with your daddy. The Sinacores turned a blind eye to what we were doing in our business, and they got to raise you instead. With the woman you’ve believed to be your mother all these years when she’s not. Your mother was a slave who couldn’t suck cock to save her life, but that’s not why he killed her.”