Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106541 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 533(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106541 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 533(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
This is my life now, and I must accept that if I don’t want my body covered with welts, scars, and burn marks. The ones I have now I can cover with well-placed trinkets and flowing locks. Others here are nowhere near as lucky.
“Pаб.” I shift my head when Master Rudd enters the kitchen. “How much longer until dinner?”
Before I can answer him, a loud bang sounds from the living area of the compound. I would have believed Jace had fallen again if a silver canister didn’t roll into the room and fill it with smoke. It is the raid at my auction all over again, except this time, they don’t shoot, then ask questions. They ask questions, then shoot, and all their attention is focused on Master Rudd.
“I didn’t touch her, I swear,” he replies in English, even though the questions being fired at him are spoken in a foreign language. “I housed her and fed her as requested. That’s it. I did everything you asked.”
“If you’re lying…” begins a tall brute of a man whose gun is pressed at Master Rudd’s temple. It burns his skin since he used it to kill the two guards stationed in the living room. “We’ll come back here and finish this.” When he locks his eyes with mine through strands of sweaty hair fallen in front of his face, standing motionless like a robot at the side of the living room, he sneers a grin that seems more playful than evil before he shifts his focus to a man standing at his right. “Scan her.” As a second brute heads my way, the leader shifts his focus back to Master Rudd. “Or perhaps I should take care of matters now. There’s no way you didn’t touch her. Даже у Бога возникло бы искушение откусить от этого яблока.”
I only catch portions of his sentence spoken in a foreign language, but it already had me worried before Master Rudd says, “You can check for yourself.” He locks his eyes with mine. “Lay down, Pаб.”
Almost trance-like, I move to a sectional sofa at the side of the now-cramped space and lie down. I’m quivering like a bag of nerves, but you wouldn’t know that from the outside. The rod in my back has solidified over the past few years because it is the only thing keeping me alive.
“And get killed for deflowering his Mary.” The brute cracks Master Rudd over the head with the butt of his gun. “No thanks.” After gesturing to the men around him to follow him, he lowers his eyes to me lying lifeless on the couch. “Come.”
I snap my eyes to Master Rudd, then suck in air like my life depends on it when he nods his head to the man’s abrupt command. “Go, Pаб. We planned for this.”
He may have always known I wasn’t his, but his wives were never part of the equation, so why are they being walked out by men with blood splatter over their clothes?
“The men have a long trip ahead of them. Your wives will keep them entertained,” the leader replies as if he heard my private thoughts.
“But the Bobrovs are never without women,” Master Rudd complains, his voice the lowest I’ve heard it. It wasn’t even that low when he suggested his first wife dye her hair and take my spot as a Bobrov bride. “And I’ve never disrespected him. Not once.” When they continue without pause in their strides, his anger gets the better of him. “I should have bitten into her cunt and marked it so he’d never have a use for her.”
My hand darts up to suffocate my sob when the ringleader’s response comes in the form of violence. He shoots Master Rudd between the eyes, killing him instantly.
“Go to Mommy,” I whisper when Jace remains standing at the side of the living room, staring at his now-deceased father. “Now, Jace,” I shout when he remains frozen in place. He doesn’t need that memory of him.
He’s barely made it to the master bedroom when I’m stuffed into the middle car in a long line of SUVs. It’s overcast today, so seeing the setting sun for the first time in years isn’t as beautiful as I’ve imagined the past eight years.
Furthermore, I can’t take my bewilderment off my surroundings for even a second. It’s all so familiar, even with me not seeing it for years.
This can’t be true.
I must be delusional.
There’s no way they’ve held me captive in a town bordering my hometown for years.
The auction was held only a quick drive from my compound, and I arrived at Master Rudd’s residence within minutes of being bundled into the back of an SUV by Aaren, but this route is familiar, and the scents are all the same.
We’re at the docks my father took me to multiple times between the ages of eight and the day I was kidnapped. He had several insurance claims here that took weeks for him to sort through. I came with him because it was summer break, and I loved how the shipping containers were the skyscrapers of the sea.