Page 18 of To Keep A Wolf
Assholes.
The burning in my veins is more than just poison now. It’s a promise to kill them all before this is over.
In the corner, slumped in his desk chair, Jadick draws ragged breath after ragged breath. Our eyes meet, and I pour every ounce of the hatred I feel into the glare I give him. He does the same, though his is twisted with… desire.
It’s disgusting, but I refuse to flinch away.
Not this time.
Instead, I let my gaze travel lazily to where his leg is bleeding and ripped open.
Then I look up at him again and smirk.
His face flushes redder than before. He leans forward as if he’s going to get up and march over here but then tenses when he remembers his injury. Bracing his arm on the desk, he says, “Take her upstairs. Two guards on the door and four more on the stairs. No one in or out but me.”
“And the wound, boss?” Gregario asks.
His eyes gleam most of all as they rake over my naked flesh. He seems most appreciative of the blood coating my shoulder and upper arm. It’s sick.
“Leave it,” Jadick tells him.
Gregario drags his eyes from me to his boss, confusion pinching his brows. “You don’t want us to patch her up?”
“Did I fucking tell you to patch her up?” Jadick snaps.
Gregario frowns. “Sir, the wedding ceremony is tomorrow—”
“Where was she?” Jadick interrupts. He looks to one of the other guards. Someone hanging back near the doors. “When you found her, where was she?”
“Sir, she was in the prisoner’s cell.”
The room is silent now. Tense.
“And the prisoner?” Jadick demands.
The man clears his throat. “Dead.”
Jadick’s silence might as well be a roar. He looks back at me, brutality twisting his features so that, for once, the monster he carries inside him is exposed. He knows what Kari told me. He knows I understand what will happen tomorrow. And he knows that, in this moment, knowing doesn’t change a thing.
He’ll still use me.
I’ll still die.
It’ll still all be for nothing.
“Don’t clean the fucking wound,” he says softly, looking only at me. His victory is grotesque. And my failure has never been more evident. “No point anyway, is there?”
CHAPTER6
Jadick stalks out the moment his orders have been delivered. His leg hasn’t stopped bleeding, and I take comfort in his obvious discomfort as he limps out. Burnett and another guard follow him, but everyone else lingers, still waiting. And watching. Or, more accurately, leering at the naked woman bleeding all over the rug. Bastards. I’d cover up, but there’s nothing handy. Instead, I hold my chin high and glare daggers at them, committing their faces to memory. A mental murder list of everyone I’m going to kill before this is over.
Someone near the back whistles, and the others laugh.
My fists tighten.
My vengeancewillinclude them—or I’ll die trying.
Finally, the men seem to realize it’s time to move me.
