Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 34560 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 173(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34560 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 173(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
“She’s--.”
“Not bruised or raped?” Judas cut him off. “She wouldn’t be. The Barrons aren’t involved in that line of business anymore.”
“Where is Audrey?” dad asked through clenched teeth.
“She’s safe for now.”
“Then let my daughter go,” he demanded.
My eyes darted around taking in the upper level and various stalls padlocked with half-naked girls locked within them. They stared through the thick, grime covered bars and warily watched the exchange taking place.
It was true, then.
Dad and mom were sicker than I could ever be. What the fuck even was this?
“Did you bring what we agreed upon?” Judas questioned
“It’s all here but until I see Audrey too, we have no deal.” He motioned to a black bag at his feet. “Your sister is--.”
“She’s at home, Marcus. Maisie has been back with my familigia for almost a week now.”
His sister wasn’t missing? No, that wasn’t important to me right now.
“What the fuck is this, dad?” I blurted out in a rush of anger and hurt.
His features crumbled; all bravado zapped away. “Rhia, honey I can explain,” he took cautious steps towards me.
“Explain it how? What kind of sick--.”
A pop tore through the air and his body jerked. His eyes went wide, staring straight into mine as he stumbled forward.
“Shit,” Judas cursed. He let me go and moving with a speed almost imperceptible to the human eye he retrieved the black bag from the dirty concrete floor.
“Dad?” I attempted to catch him, but Judas was at my side again and hauling me away.
Chaos erupted all around me. People came rushing into the barn from the front and the back. I glanced up at the last second, spotting my mother holding what looked like a gun. It finally clicked for me then, she’d used it on my dad.
The last I saw of him, he was lying on the floor still alive, watching as I was dragged away by the boy, he’d come to save me from.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I didn’t remember much, but I felt everything and what I did recall I wanted to forget. The woman I thought of as a mother killed my dad. The girls locked away in the barn were all dead and burned to ash along with his body. Something about Evie’s operation being compromised was mentioned in passing when Gavin arrived three days ago.
Or maybe it was four.
Judas had taken me back to the charming craftsman and that’s where we still were. He’d made no apologies or assurances about what had been done.
He didn’t own up to the fact that if he hadn’t lured my dad there with faux photographs and a made-up vendetta, he’d still be alive. He didn’t do any of these things because he wasn’t sorry, and he wanted him dead. If Evie hadn’t done it Judas would’ve.
It was all an elaborate scheme to wipe out the Clermonts and obtain whatever my dad had brought with him.
Standing beneath the showerhead that had gone from steaming to lukewarm, I braced my hands against the tiled wall and arched to take him deeper. His fingers dug into my hips; his dick hit every spot I needed it to as he fucked me back to reality.
It didn’t matter if I said no or demanded it, almost every time he had done this to me the past few days nothing stopped him from making me come screaming his name or begging for him to fuck me harder.
It wasn’t about an emotional connection anymore.
We’d gone fully into unhealthy toxicity.
It showed when he finished and left me alone to soak in the water that had gone cold. I wanted his punishing thrust, but I couldn’t stand the gentleness of his touch.
I resented him for his ability to carry on like he hadn’t ruined me. I hated him but I loved him too and the turmoil of that mixed with everything else was breaking me down.
He claimed to love me too not that long ago. I was an idiot to believe that for a single second. Luckily for him it was Evie who I wanted to tear apart. My anger wasn’t reserved solely for Judas, though. The person I was angry at the most was myself.
His betrayal and choice to use me for his own personal gain was another loss I had to face. Losing everyone and everything at once shattered me into a million shards and it was all because I was determined to be by his side.
I was this pathetic thing that had let a boy do exactly as he promised he would, and now I was paying the price for it. He’d made me an offer the night before and I knew the only option I had was to take it. Judas and I could never be together in a way that wouldn’t bring pain.
With everything that had transpired, I was resigned to this being the climax of whatever we had between us. I needed to walk away before I truly lost myself in his manmade hell.