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“No shit. I don’t want to have to beat the shit out of some poor teenage boy for popping a hard-on after catching an eyeful of what she’s working with.”

Now this was a conversation I could have gone my whole life without hearing. They were both idiots.

There would be no beating up teenage boys who couldn’t help their hard-ons. Hello, they had raging hormones to deal with. It was not like it would be their fault.

And I’d wear whatever the fuck I wanted to and absolutely nothing at all if the mood struck me. Perhaps they hadn’t been here with me long enough to learn that. Learn they would though. I’d give them no other option.

Just like I’d done with the rest of them.

I dove into the water before I could talk myself out of it.

It was the exact opposite from being under the water in that shitty hole in the ground. It was warm and so far from dirty it was stupid.

The water felt incredible as I swam to the opposite end of the pool. The chlorine burned my eyes, but I didn’t mind, I welcomed it. It made me feel clean as opposed to the dirty, muddy water from that hole.

I touched my hand to the smooth flat surface of the side of the pool, and my head surfaced above the water. I sucked in a lungful of air before spinning around, tipping back under the water, and soaring through the water in the opposite direction.

This was better than most things, so much better. I finally felt free gliding through the water.

I swam lap after lap, back and forth, until my mind was entirely empty of the bullshit clogging it up and my body was completely exhausted.

I still needed sleep to help heal my body and my mind, and I could really use some food, which was laughable because before I’d been taken, I’d been complaining about being overstuffed with food.

I stopped swimming in the middle of a pool, floating with my head above the water for a few seconds before going completely under. I was ready for it this time and sucked in a lungful of oxygen before letting my body weight drop.

I imagined huge boulders tied to my body, and I sank to the bottom in a flash, as if they were real.

I felt my ass touch the smooth cement bottom, and I curled my legs up to my chest so I was able to wrap my arms around my knees and hold on.

My hair floated all around me, and even though the chlorine burned my eyes, I refused to close them. I needed to know it was safe here in this pool and underwater. In my head, I already knew that, but for my own peace of mind, I had to do this.

I wasn’t weak, and I wasn’t about to let something the fuckwad Council did to me break me in any way.

Eff that.

I stayed down there until my lungs burned and I was forced to go up for air. Then I dropped down and did it again.

And again.

And again.

I did it so many times, I lost count. I did it until I was comfortable enough to close my eyes down and simply let the darkness surround me.

There was no Adrian attacking me.

There was no Council standing around the pool watching me.

There was only me and the surprising stillness surrounding me.

No flashbacks.

No terror.

There was just me and my trusty bodyguards as they stood back watching over me.

When I finally crawled out of the pool, I collapsed onto the cement and rolled over to my back. I swiped the wet, tangled hair out of my face and then just lay there panting and staring up at the sun shining brightly overhead.

A towel dropped down on top of my chest. I raised my arm up to shield my eyes from the sunshine to see Tyson standing over me.