Page 37 of We The Depraved

He stills and turns to take me in. “The point of this is to dry you out.”

I fold my arms over my chest. “Why do you need to dry me out so bad?”

He huffs and seems unsure if he should respond. Something on his face reads as if he’s just decided to say fuck it. “I’ve arranged for us to be married, here in a few short days. I’ve invited people. There’s a small guest list.”

“What?”

“You heard me,” he snarls.

I want to scream.

Yes, he fucked my brains out.

Yes, he’s attractive and made my pussy quiver.

That is nothing to build a marriage on and I don’t like him.

“No,” I tell him.

“You already know I have men trained on your sister. I’m part owner in the business you use to support yourself. Sage…it’s already done.”

He turns back around, runs water over the dishes and begins to scrub them. I stand there, powerless and watch him ignore me.

Niki Safaryan is corrupt and wicked. He has no problem killing. Honestly, neither do I. Flashes of Anthony’s dead body dropping to that apartment floor hit me.

“I won’t do it,” I tell him.

He continues to ignore me.

Later on that night, I fall asleep back on the couch. He drags a blanket across my body. He thinks I’m not listening and he tells me.

“Poor Kitten, you’ll be mine until death do us part.”

I don’t breath.

I don’t open my eyes and eventually I hear his footsteps fall away as he goes into his bedroom where I showered earlier. Part of me says go after him, kill him in his sleep and leave.

He has three fucking brothers, I think.

They would flay the skin from my bones, boil me into a soup and feed it their friends. I can tell they’re all cut from the same cloth.

The rational part of me realizes I need to survive. For me, and Khrystina and do what they say until I can get out of this whole fucking ordeal.

Sleep finds me, and I let it take me.

Sometimes, dreaming doesn’t hurt.

CHAPTER13

Sage

Afew days have passed at the ranch. I’ve seen workers milling around but I mostly stay out of their way. Other than breakfast and dinner, which Niki has cooked for me, I don’t even see him.

Erik brought me extra clothes by. I don’t ask how he even got inside of my house but when I go through and notice underwear in the plastic grocery bag he brought, I see him turn red as hell in the face. It stretches from his cheeks to his neck and finally he leaves.

I can’t take it another second and I want to know what’s going on in the real world. I’m not talking about the news but about The Crescent. Next to my grandmother and Khrystina, my business is my family.

The door to Niki’s office slams into a book case. He peers at me over glasses that I didn’t even know he wore. He seems a little embarrassed and takes them off.