Page 55 of Behind the Shadows

“He wasn’t useful anymore.”

“Is that what you do? Decide when someone isn’t useful anymore and then you slit their throat?”

I stood and walked to the table before I pulled the kitchen chair across the floor, the legs scraping across the cement. I sank into the seat and leaned forward. She glowered at me.

“That night in the car, I tried to tell you that I wasn’t a fair man and that I often decided if someone lived or died. I wasn’t bullshitting you.”

I stared at her, searching her for any hint of her remembering me. “You’re not here because of Draco. He just did me a favor and helped me plant myself in your life. The situation has taken a turn, though, and I need to know if I should deal with him or not.”

“You’re going to turn me over to him?” She narrowed her gaze at me, attempting to hide the fear.

I placed a finger under her chin and forced her to look at me. “You might be in chains and naked, but let’s get one thing clear. You’re mine. He won’t touch you again.”

A flash of relief crossed her face. Was I to interpret that being chained and naked on a bed with me was better than being with him? What kind of monster was he? I was well aware of what kind I was.

“If you don’t like where you’re at, you have no one to blame except yourself.” I leaned back in my chair again.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she asked. “You have no idea what I’ve lived through. What I’ve survived. How can you even say something like that?”

I rubbed my jaw as I pondered if I should get to the point, but I couldn’t rush things. I had to savor the words when they left her lips, and she admitted that she betrayed me.

“We have all the time in the world. Your bosses aren’t expecting you at work for at least a few weeks, if not more. Your parents are on vacation, and I have your phone, so I can easily convince them that you’re safe and sound.”

Her shoulders rolled forward in defeat, but I knew it was too easy. I hadn’t won, we were just starting the war.

“What did Draco do?”

She rubbed her arms, goosebumps dotting her flesh. “He stole my sister and me when we were barely teenagers. No, not steal us. He bought us from our own family—like meat. And every night, he made sure we remembered what we were worth.”

He touched her? Sold her?The only reason he was still alive was because I hadn’t known. But I know now. My brow rose with her confession. “And?”

“He sold us for sex. We were raped, drugged, and starved to keep us under his control.”

My stomach lurched, bile scorching my throat. The chain around her neck suddenly felt like my own hands had put her back into that nightmare.

Shame dug in deep, colliding with a rage so sharp it rattled my bones. I wanted to hunt Draco down and kill him slowly, make every bastard who’d touched her bleed.

Understanding dawned on me. It made sense why she wasn’t begging and pleading for me to let her go—to let her live. She’d had this life before, and this time she was determined to walk away with her dignity and life intact.

“How old were you?” My words were laced with eagerness. Her next words would fucking flip my world and everything I knew inside out. I thought the Pied Piper had fucked with me, but this?

For the first time since I’d taken her, Holland choked back a sob. She looked away, shame and guilt dancing across her expression. But what would she have to feel guilty about?

“It was my thirteenth birthday.” She lowered her head, her red hair hiding her pain from me.

The words shattered me. Thirteen. My chest seized, lungs refusing to work as the number echoed in my skull. She hadn’t even been a woman yet—just a child. The same age as some of them I helped save. The same age my world changed forever.

My vision blurred, my heart a fist of fury. Every memory I thought was mine to bear suddenly seemed smaller than the hell she’d survived. And I’d chained her here, naked, like I was no different from them.

The room blurred in and out as the flashback took me away from reality once again.

“Get out! Now!” a voice said.

Dazed, I searched the room, but all I heard were shouting and screams. My uncle jerked my arm so hard I thought it popped out of the socket, but none of that mattered.

“Stop! Let me go!”

Two men grabbed the redheaded girl, and her big blue eyes landed on me for a moment.