Page 160 of Reckoning

I shake my head.

I have no idea what he’s going on about but I doubt my ignorance will save me.

“Your father stole a very rare, very precious jewel. He and Darius thought they could out manoeuvre me, they thought they could fool me. And when that didn’t work, he decided that instead of giving it back, he would hide it somewhere I’d never think to look. Do you know where that is?”

I could laugh. I could seriously laugh at the irony of this. Itisabout the Devil’s Heart diamond, isn’t it? He’s as deluded as everyone else.

But even if my father did take it, how the fuck would I know where it was? Besides, they burnt the house down. They reduced it to rubble. If there is some bloody diamond hidden there it’d take years to shift through all the debris.

His hand traces up my stomach before coming to a stop above my belly button. “He tried to fix you, didn’t he? He saw your condition as a failure, a tarnish on your great family name, only the surgery didn’t work.”

I frown, trying to jerk away. What the fuck does he know about it? What the fuck does that have to do with any of this?

His lips curl like he can read my thoughts. He lowers his face till he’s right up in mine and I can taste the foul breath despite the fabric in my mouth.

“Do you know what he did, Sofia? Have you put it all together, yet?”

I shake my head. He’s playing with me, taunting me the way a cat does a mouse before they kill it. I hate how powerless I feel. I hate how defenceless I once again am.

“I always wondered why Otto kept you alive, why he kept you close. It would have been so much easier to kill you off and be done with it. But you see, he figured it out. God knows how he did, but he knew. And he was smart enough to wait it out. Turns out he did have patience after all.”

Wait what out? What the fuck is he talking about?

He pushes further into my belly, to the point where it really hurts. I try to twist, to get away and the chair starts to scrape back.

He grabs my head, half tearing my hair out of my scalp. “Your father was a smarter man than I gave him credit for.” He states. “He knew exactly where to hide it, where to ensure it would be under all our noses and we wouldn’t think to look.”

I stare back trying to understand what the hell he’s getting at.

As he reaches around to undo the ties, I keep still, waiting. Playing docile, playing the scared little creature they all believe me to be.

My hands come lose, then my ankles – though they’re still strapped together so not much use if I want to run.

But it’s enough.

Blue Eyes tries to carry me over to the bed and I lash out, using my elbow as weapon, slamming it right into his face. He groans, falling backwards. But Martin is there in a flash, he grabs me, shoving me face first into the gurney, pinning me down.

“You stupid slut.” He growls. “We were going to play nice, make this as pain free as possible for you, but now…”

I can feel my leggings being wrenched down, I feel freezing cold air hit my skin.

My heart slams into my chest.

I scream out into the gag but it does nothing.

“Do you know what hoops Otto made us all jump through?” He growls, fumbling with his pants. I know he’s undoing them, I know exactly where this is headed.

“Do you, Sofia? You think he let just anyone fuck you?”

I curse him, snarling into the fabric. Telling myself that this doesn’t matter. That he’s had me before, and it didn’t make any difference. It won’t make any difference this time. I refuse to let it.

He pushes himself into me, forces himself in. I scream more, I jerk, feeling how he tears my muscles, tears my insides, only the sick fuck is groaning like this is pleasurable.

For a moment I can’t focus. I can’t take it. The pain is too much. Everything grows hazy. Maybe it’s the drugs they gave me but I know if I pass out I won’t wake up. That that will be it.

And yet I’m okay with that, some part of me feels okay, because I just want it to end. I just want the pain to stop.

But I don’t want to die. Not like this. I don’t want them to win.

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