Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
And terror slowly begins to take over.
“Go on then … put it on,” Lex growls.
The threatening way he stares at me makes me want to run, but I have nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. No other choice but to do exactly as they say, or they will hurt me.
And I know they would because they’ve done it many times before.
Eventually, I lose all hope and lean over and grab the fabrics off the floor. My stomach drops as I hold the body piece up in front of my face. There are holes in all the important bits.
“Well?” Lex says through gritted teeth.
“Can I have a bit of privacy?” I ask, my voice fluctuating in tone.
He makes a face and then laughs. “Privacy? For wearing that?” But when he looks at his wife, he stops laughing and rolls his eyes. “Fine. In there.” He points at the closet. The same closet I was in before when he made me wear his wife’s dress.
With a heavy heart, I walk toward it, taking every second like it’s going to be my last, stretching them to the limit.
But once the door closes, I cave in on myself.
“Beast,” I quietly mutter to myself. “Where are you? I need you.”
I know he can’t hear me, but the words still flow off my lips like a whisper into the wind, a wish floating away into oblivion.
“What’s the holdup?” Lex barks from the other end, knocking on the door. “Or do you want my guard to come inside and help you?”
“No, no,” I mutter between unsteady breaths. “Almost done. I just need a minute.”
“Hurry up,” he adds with a stern voice.
The air is getting harder and harder to breathe in as I pull off my clothes one by one, dropping them all to the floor like a snake shedding its skin. I still manage to put on the outfit, despite all the drops of sweat rolling down my shivering body.
When I’m finally in the outfit, I fetch a bathrobe from the hangers and pull it over the skimpy parts so I don’t feel so … naked.
Because that’s all this is. A bunch of strings pulled together over my nude body.
The door opens, and a guard steps inside. “Come out. Now.”
I nod at him through the mirror and turn around, walking as slowly as I possibly can to stretch out the time as much as possible.
But nothing can prepare me for stepping out of the closet straight into the lurid gazes of the people I hate so damn much.
Bile rises in my throat, but I swallow it back as I come face-to-face with my own damn father. “What’s going on?” I mutter at Lex.
I thought my father would be long gone by the time I left this room, but he’s still here, even though I’m dressed in the most inappropriate outfit. And Lex’s wife is still here too. Both are watching me with ill intent.
Lex steps forward, an evil grin on his face as his hand rises to meet my face. “You know, I’ve always had this fantasy …” he muses, caressing my cheek with those cold, thick fingers of his. “For someone to share with my wife.”
Tears well up in my eyes.
Please, no. Not that. Anything but that.
“So I’m going to give you one more chance to prove to me you’re as willing as you said you were …” he says. “And I will make your father watch every inch of me corrupting you.”
My father? Oh God.
When Lex attempts to remove the bathrobe, I shudder, and my stomach suddenly turns over. I run to the bathroom, sick to myself, and throw it all up into the toilet.
“That’s no way to start and get me in the mood,” Lex growls from the bedroom.
I quickly flush and get up, washing my face under the water.
You can do this, Aurora.
Just once, and he will set you free.
Ignore your father.
Ignore everything.
The sink slowly fills with water, and I look at the reflection of the girl leaning over. All I can think of is shoving my face inside until I no longer breathe.
BANG!
I lift my head and listen.
That sounded like … a bomb.
The same kind that was used when my house was blown to bits.
Another loud bang makes the house shake.
My heart stops.
Beast.
CHAPTER 24
Beast
Two minutes earlier
I open the trunk of the car and stare at the box filled with guns, knives, grenades, ammo, and more. Luca made me drive back to his building for it and stuffed it in the back, but this is the first time I’m looking at it.
I’m impressed.
“Where’d you get all of this?” I ask.
“Where do you think?” he retorts, winking. “Sons do what sons do best.”
“Steal,” I fill in.
“I prefer the term ‘borrow,’” he replies, making a fake rainbow with his hands.
“Thought I’d recognized these,” I mutter as I pick up one of the guns.