Page 12 of Avenging Devil: Part 2

Chapter Four

Saffie

“Why…” slap… “did you fuckin’…” punch… “do it, Sapphire? Why the fuck did you get rid of my kid?”

Curling into a ball, I try to protect myself from the blows which keep raining down. I’m crying and gasping for breath, trying to understand how it is I’m back in the Crazy Wolves’ clubhouse, though it’s hard to keep my mind straight when every part of my body is screaming in agony.

How did everything go to shit?Fucking Niran, that’s how. He’d played me from the start, from the day we met. He must have known who I was somehow.

The first time we met I was wearing a disguise. It clearly hadn’t worked. He’d known who I was even then. But that doesn’t make sense. How could he have been fooling me for weeks? It must have been after that.

It had taken time for me to admit I’d met bikers before. Maybe that was what had raised a red flag. Maybe it was only then Niran had decided to use me for his own gains. That must have been when the betrayal had come, when he’d learned I was property to one of his brothers in leather. My only solace is that won’t do him any favours. He might have been brought along with us for now, but Duke won’t tolerate a man like him for long.

I hate Niran with every fibre of my being. Almost as much as I despise Duke.

“Are you fuckin’ listening to me, Sapphire?” A vicious kick to my stomach makes me retch.

I know where I am only too well. I’m back in an all-too-familiar room in the clubhouse, the one where I’ve been imprisoned before. When I was first dragged in, I’d tried to reason with Duke, but he started using his fists, and while he’s asked questions, he’s not given me an opportunity to get a word in.

Something he must realise and rectifies now, or maybe it was the whispered words from Slit.

“She won’t be able to talk soon, VP.”

Duke pulls his punch, turning to put his fist through the wall instead, before turning back and glaring at me balled up on the floor. “Speak to me, Sapphire. Why the fuck did you abort my kid?”

Now I have the chance to state my defence, I don’t want to take it. I don’t want to speak about my beloved baby, not to him. It’s like tainting his memory. But weak as I am, when I see those fists poised again, I cry out, “I didn’t have a choice, Duke. He didn’t have a chance.” I sob the words out between painful gasps. “He would have died if he’d been born. He could have been in pain. I couldn’t handle that.”

“You couldn’t handle that?” he roars and backhands me again.

With one eye swollen shut already, I try to peer out of the other, then close that one too. Duke has murder in his eyes. It’s signalling it’s me with no chance now. If death’s coming, I’d rather not see it. With nothing to lose, it makes me reckless.

“Just go ahead and kill me and be done with it.” I’ve no reason to live. No baby, deceived by yet another man who’d wormed his way into my trust, and trapped back here with the one I despise with every bone in my body, life holds nothing more.

He grabs me by my hair, lifting me inches off the floor, my scalp screaming in agony. “You think I wouldn’t kill you in a flash and be done with it? You think I want you anywhere near me, you snivelling little bitch? Oh yes, that’s what I’d fuckin’ like to do, but unfortunately for you, you’re not going to get that wish. You’re staying here in a living death, and you’ll be my fuckin’ brood mare—” He breaks off, spits at me, then continues, “All those years when you had me fooled you were an infertile cunt, it turns out you were taking the pill the whole time. Christ, I passed you around my brothers just in case I was firing blanks. But it wasn’t me, was it? It was all you. And when you did fall pregnant, you go and kill my kid.”

Duke’s really missing the point. I’m going to enrage him, but if it drives him over the edge, so be it. I don’t want to live.

“I was pregnant before, Duke. You killed that baby in my womb. If you really want me to have your child, you’ll have to stop beating me. You’ll have to stop passing me around to your disgusting brothers who are probably riddled with STDs and stop feeding drugs to me.”

He draws back his fist. I tense for the killing blow, but it doesn’t fall. Instead, he snorts a laugh. “I didn’t want to be saddled with a kid hanging around for years before I needed it. Things change. I don’t want you to have my fuckin’ kid, Sapphire, I need you to. Hell of a difference. You think I want to fuck your scrawny ass? Hell, whores, fuck that, sex dolls are more responsive than you.”

He needs me to?Bewildered, I state, “I don’t understand.”

“No, you don’t fuckin’ understand anything. You’re useless, you know that, Sapphire? You couldn’t even breed a healthy kid. And you went and fuckin’ killed him. That was my son, Sapphire!” He seems to be getting enraged all over again.

Before he explodes, I scream out to explain, “He wouldn’t have survived!”

“He might have on life support or something!” Duke screams at me. “He only had to live for maybe a year...” He shuts his mouth, but he’s said too much.

I can’t let that go. I have no hopes of an explanation, but I ask for one anyway. “What do you mean?”

His body is taut, his jaw tight as he stares down at me. “You have no fuckin’ idea how much I want to kill you, Sapphire. I don’t think I’ve ever detested anyone so much. You were fun to play with to begin with, but when you walked out? That was the final straw. No one leaves me, understand? No one. Ever.”

I didn’t exactly walk out. As I remember, I was wheeled into the hospital, and wheeled back out by the good folks from the Freedom Trail. But I’ve some sanity left, so I don’t elaborate on that.

“I’d kill you right now, but I need you healthy. This is how it’s going to go, my little socialite. You’re going to stay here, locked in this room. You’re never going out, which sadly means I can’t have the fun that I want as I can’t risk you going to the hospital again.” His expression and raised eyebrow almost suggest I should feel sympathy for him. “I’ll have to fuck you, but you getting pregnant is all that I want. I don’t even care if it’s fuckin’ fathered by one of my brothers. I’ll accept paternity. No one would question it as you’re my wife.”

He’s given voice to my absolute worst nightmare. When Duke says fuck, he means it. He’s rough, violent, and always makes me hurt. That’s bad enough, but some of the other equally perverted members can be worse. It’s a death sentence if only for my mental well-being. He’s talking about me being raped, repeatedly. I don’t know if I can stand it.

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