Page 120 of The King of Hearts

She leaves with my mother, and it only takes Aunt Rosa a couple of minutes before she’s coming into the room.

“Are you ready for bed, precious?” she asks. Her voice sounds sweet, and if I didn’t know what kind of person she is, I’d think she was nice. She likes to pretend she’s nice, but she really isn’t. What she does to me and what she makes me do to her, isn’t nice at all.

I nod, but keep quiet. I don’t think I could make any words come out past the lump that’s still in my throat. She holds her hand out, and a shiver of dread slides down my back when she licks her lips.

“Come on then,” she says when I don’t immediately take her hand. “I’ve got your surprise up in your room. You’re going to love it.”

I take her hand and we leave the library. I’m taller than I used to be when she first came to live with us. My head reaches her shoulders now. As we go up the stairs, I wonder if I’m strong enough to push her down them, and if I did, if it would break her neck. My mind is filled with what she would look like with a broken neck, so I don’t realize we’ve made it to my room until she’s pushing the door open.

It’s dark inside. I’ve never been scared of the darkness before, but this kind feels different.

Aunt waits until the door is closed before she flips on the light switch. It’s so bright that it takes a minute for my eyes to adjust. When they do, they lock onto my bed and the person lying on top of it.

My stomach cramps so hard that I almost crumble over from the pain. I must look like a ghost because all of the color drains from my face.

It’s a little girl. Younger than me by a lot of years. Her hair is long and blonde, spread out on the pillow, and she has a blindfold on. She looks so tiny lying on my big bed. Her hands are over her head with her wrists tied to the headboard. Her legs are spread open and tied the same way. And she’s completely naked. I look away from her, not wanting to see her nakedness. I feel disgusted, even getting the glimpse that I did.

“Isn’t she beautiful, baby boy?” Aunt Rosa asks. “We’re borrowing her for the night so you can practice what I’ve shown you. But we have to be careful. You can’t be too rough with her. Theo took her from Grant without telling him, so we can’t leave any evidence that she’s been used. Theo says Grant’s very possessive of her.”

I don’t know who Grant or Theo are, but it sounds like they’re just as bad as Aunt Rosa.

I turn away from the bed and look at my Aunt. I don’t have to tip my head back as far, since I’m nearly as tall as her.

“Let her go!” I demand. I don’t know where it comes from, but there’s a strength in my voice I’ve never used before.

“Let her go?” She looks at me like I’ve just said something stupid. “But you haven’t even fucked her yet. We’re not letting her go.”

I ball my hands into fists and press them against my thighs. “I don’t want her, Aunt. Let her go,” I repeat.

I knew it was coming, so my knees are locked in place when the back of her hand lands across my cheek. I still stumble back a step. It’s been a while since Aunt has hit me. It doesn’t hurt as much as I remember. Maybe because I’m older and bigger now.

“You ungrateful little shit. I got this girl for you.” Her eyes narrow to little slits. “You have no idea what I had to do to getTheo to let me have her for the night. And now you want to toss her away.”

Her hand comes out again, but this time, I catch her wrist before it touches me. I squeeze hard enough that her face scrunches in pain. Seeing that look, not pain from the knife she makes me use on her, but real pain, makes me feel powerful. It makes me feel like an actual man. Not a man she made me into who inflicts pain, but one who protects. I want to protect that little girl on the bed.

She’s shocked at my move at first, her eyes wide, but then yanks her hand out of my grip and rubs her sore wrist. She takes a step closer. “You’re going to fuck that little girl. Now get on the bed and do as you’re told.”

My back goes straight, and it makes me a little taller. “No. I won’t touch her, and neither are you.”

“Is that so?”

I nod.

She glares at me, and before this moment, that look would have had me shaking and scared. Not anymore. Stopping Aunt from hitting me, refusing to do what she told me, and standing up to her has given me a sense of bravery I’ve never had before. Seeing that girl on the bed, knowing the pain she’ll feel if Aunt gets her way, has given me strength.

Aunt Rosa spins around, and I know exactly what her intentions are. A red haze covers my vision, and I launch myself at her. She’s at the foot of the bed when I grab a chunk of her hair. She screeches to a halt, and I think the surprise of my action freezes her in place because she doesn’t move at first.

But then she does. She reaches back and tries to pry my hands off her, but I have a really good grip in her hair.

“Let me go, you ungrateful little bastard!” she yells. “You’ll pay dearly for disobeying me.”

Her threat doesn’t scare me anymore. I’m so angry that she brought a little girl here for me to hurt, that all I can’t think about is stopping her, stopping her from ever doing anything like this again. From hurting me again.

When she manages to twist around, her hands come for my face. Two of her nails rake down my cheek, but I don’t feel the pain. I yank her hair and her head hits the sharp corner of the footboard. All of her struggles stop, and she goes limp, but I barely notice. That redness in my vision gets even bolder.

She falls to her stomach, and I go down with her, straddling her waist. My hand is still in her hair, and I use it to lift her head and smash it down on the floor. There’s a loud crunch. I don’t know how many times I repeat the move. It must be a lot, because when my vision finally clears, there’s a lot of blood on the floor beneath her. I sit there on her butt, feeling like I can barely catch my breath, and my heart feels like it’s going to jump out of my chest.

I untangle my fingers from her hair. Some of the blood must have splattered to the back of her head because the strands are sticky, and my hands have blood on them.

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