Page 61 of Cherished By the Sinners

“What do they want her for then?”

He sounded so baffled she snorted a laugh.

Both men looked at her like she’d lost her mind.

“You dare to laugh?”the Sniffer asked.His eyes glittered with rage.

She looked at Eli, he looked as baffled as the Sniffer.“Isn’t it obvious?”

None of their expressions changed.

“Happiness.”

Now it was their turn to laugh.“With you?”the Sniffer said as he chuckled.“You are a whore.”

“I was,” she agreed.“I’m not anymore.”

Eli shifted in his seat.“Uncle, I want to show you something.”

His uncle looked at Eli with varying degrees of interest.The Sniffer waved his hand like he was some royal prince or something.

Eli turned to her.“Show him your back.”

“Why, so he can call me even more names?”

“I think he should know who you are.”

She thrust a chin at the Sniffer.“He’s already decided who I am.My scars aren’t going to change his mind about anything.”

She turned to the Sniffer.“What’s the grand plan?Are you planning on killing me?”she kept talking.“Why wait?”She stood and walked toward him.

Sniffer frowned.“Youwantme to kill you?”He looked at Eli.“Is she sick?”

Darlene stopped a couple of steps away from the Sniffer.“I’ve been ordered around and abused for years.A serial killer used my back as a canvas, then tried to kill me.”Her voice quivered and her hands shook.It was as if all the rage she’d stuffed down deep inside her soul had broken through a dam and flooded her entire body.

“I’m so tired of other people thinking they get to decide what happens to me.So, if I’m going to die, I want to do it on my terms.I want it to be my decision.”

“I make the decisions here.”The Sniffer narrowed his eyes as he looked at her.“You’re a servant, a nothing, a nobody.”

“If I’m nothing and a nobody, then there’s no reason for me to be here.”

He stood, so rapidly it looked like he’d been seated one second then standing the next.“You are here as a hostage.”

Was he nuts?“What possible gain could I bring you?”

He sneered at her.“The Brezniks need to be brought to heel.”

Darlene sighed.“How well do you know them?”

His smile was terrible.“Much better than you do.”He bent closer.“They are evil.”

“No, they’re not.”She shrugged.“I haven’t known them long, just a couple of months, but I think morally gray is a better description.”

The Sniffer looked at her with wide eyes for a moment before bursting out in laughter. Eli joined in.

“They have committed horrible crimes,” the Sniffer told her with relish.

“I can’t think of a single person who hasn’t done something horrible at least once in their life,” Darlene said.“We are flawed, all of us.Only a fool would think otherwise.But I don’t care about what they’ve done in the past.They treat me with respect, kindness now.They’ve given me a home and a job, and for the first time in my life I’m making all the choices for me.”