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I spat at his feet. “I’m not stupid. It doesn’t matter how young or old someone is. You can’t buy or sell another human being.”
That earned me another hard slap.
“You’re going to have to learn the rules, Tatum,” Tobias said icily. “You are property now. You will do and say as we tell you, or you will face punishment. I won’t go easy on you just because you’re my son’s new toy.”
His son’s toy…
He’d said the same thing earlier. My mind had simply skated over it in my shock and horror.
“Elias?” I said, my upper lip curling. I should’ve known that arrogant prick had something to do with this. Like father, like son.
Tobias nodded. “He will be your new master. You will do his bidding at all times.”
“I won’t.”
Another slap. This time, I was braced and ready for it. “You can try to fight all you want, but we will break you, you stupid little cunt. You’ll accept your new place.”
I winced at the insult and shook my head. “No,” I whispered. “No one will ever own me.”
“You’ll change your mind,” he said coldly, rising to his feet.
“I won’t. I’m going to get out of here, and when the police hear what you’ve done, you’ll be screwed. Doesn’t matter how rich you are. You can’t buy people.”
“So you’ve claimed. And yet, I can buy people. I have before, and I will again. Even if by some chance you managed to escape from here—it’s impossible, by the way—there isn’t a single person in the world who would help you.”
“You’re wrong.”
“No, I’m not.” His lips curled into a thin, savage smile. “The best thing about being as wealthy as I am is the realization that everything and everyone is for sale. If you ever got away and tried to tell anyone what happened to you, I would squash you like the little insect you are.”
I drew back, shaking with rage and indignation. I hated that he was probably right. Hated that men like him could get away with things like this, all because they had more money than everyone else. It was sick.
Tobias reached out and roughly forced my chin up to meet his gaze. His eyes were cold and dark, his features arranged in a sneer. “The only reason I haven’t already crushed you for your insolence is because my son is so looking forward to crushing you himself.”
Every hair rose on my arms and the back of my neck. In all my life, I had never truly felt the presence of evil. It seemed like something that only existed in books and movies or shocking FBI case files that would never be close enough to my life to affect me in any real way. But I felt it now, dark tendrils curling their way up my legs, heading for my throat and choking me with their black, rancid presence.
I didn’t respond. I shrank back, hugging my arms around my body, shivering all over.
Tobias suddenly turned his head, and I followed his gaze to the door. Someone had just appeared at the pane and was looking in at us. I would recognize that tousled brown hair and arrogant, devilishly-striking face anywhere. Elias.
“Ah. Speak of the devil,” Tobias said. “He must’ve heard that you’re finally awake. I don’t think you’re quite ready for his company, though.”
He strode over to the door and swiped a keycard through it.
I followed him, and he shoved me back and stepped out, shutting the door with a slam. I pounded my hands on it, screaming at the men through the pane.
Elias looked right at me and smiled, clearly amused by my distress. I wanted to claw his painfully-handsome face off, wanted to shred him to pieces with my nails. But I couldn’t touch him. Couldn’t even get close to him until they deemed me ‘ready’, whatever that meant.
Tobias whispered something in his ear, and the two men turned and walked away.
I closed my shaking hands into fists, willing myself to breathe properly. I needed to keep my mind as calm and focused as I possibly could in such a harrowing situation, for my own sake.
There had to be some way out of this place. This situation. Had to be.
I could never put up with this. I could never give in. I had to stop these Crown and Dagger assholes from trying to turn me into nothing but a subservient slave, and I had to escape this place. I didn’t know how, and I didn’t know when. All I knew was that I would make it happen.
One way or another, I would be freed.