Page 2 of Reign of a Billionaire
“Liar,” Sofia bellowed, her manic expression alarming. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something was off.
“It’s true,” I gritted, the bullet that’d pierced clean through my shoulder burning like a motherfucker.
Sofia’s wild eyes snapped to me, full of hate. “Because they have her,” she screamed, her usually perfect silver chignon disheveled and her eyes wild. “The Tijuana cartel ended her, and it’s your fault, Ghost.” Lou whimpered, tears running down her cheeks, and shook her head in disbelief. “You’re their bodyguard, why didn’t you protect her?”
Lou’s breathing escalated, her eyes darting wildly around to her mother’s guards. “Mother… I… made him… run… with me. Lia didn’t… c-come.”
“More acid,” Sofia ordered, and Lou’s wounded whimper slashed through me. She trembled but fisted her hands, trying to be brave.
I roared with fury, fighting against the chains. Unsuccessfully. Instead, I was forced to watch while enduring my own torture.
I’d been holed up in the windowless room for what seemed like days as I drifted in and out.
Sanity refused to leave me. Somehow it had endured the cruelty inflicted on my body.
My limbs were frozen, my belly empty. My right shoulder was dislocated, and my entire body screamed in pain. I was filthy and naked. I couldn’t hold my head up without getting dizzy. Every breath was agony.
It wasn’t my first beating. The years had been hard. Time had no meaning here. Only torture did. Until I met the girl with the golden-hazel eyes.
The girl who’d grown up with me. My savior.
A cry tore through the haze in my brain, causing me to peel my swollen eyelids open.
“Don’t worry, Lou. I’m okay,” I grunted. All the fucking years of torture and I’d never cracked—until today, when she was forced to partake.
I was hanging by a cord that was cutting through my wrists. Lou had to watch my latest bout of torture. It was either that or have Sofia’s men hurt her too.
And she had done plenty of refusing—her scars were proof.
“I’m so sorry,” she croaked, her cries ripping at my heart. Her face was blotchy and pink, her split lips trembling. Sofia wanted to harden my Lou, make her indifferent to human suffering. But deep in her core, that wasn’t who Louisa was.
“It’s okay. You’re not hurting me,” I assured her while she shook like a leaf. Seeing her pain was gut-wrenching. Blood gushed out of my cuts, but still I cared more for her well-being. She hadn’t actually laid a hand on me, but her presence during the sessions was enough to shatter her.
“I’m okay,” I repeated, barely managing to reassure her with a smile. Before I could say anything else, another punch across my face connected.
“Please stop hitting him,” she begged her mother’s men.
Another punched me in the stomach, stealing my breath. I spit blood, my vision turning blurry.
Louisa’s screams turned haunted, her voice hoarse. I locked on to her blotchy face, her expression full of terror. I refused to pass out. I had to hang on for her. She started fighting against the men who held her, giving her an inch only to pull her back.
“Stop! Please stop,” she begged, her eyes red-rimmed. Fresh tears streamed down her bruised cheeks. “It was my fault.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
I couldn’t let them hurt her.
I lost consciousness several times. The next time I peeled my eyelids open, it was to an eerie silence. I was no longer tied up.
It’d been days, possibly weeks. I had no idea how long I’d been imprisoned. Time was an abstract concept as I drifted in and out of consciousness. Every breath was agony, and my entire body screamed in pain from the bones I was sure were fractured.
But I didn’t give up.
I held on for Lou, my eyes locked on her, drawing strength from God knew where and offering it back. Except she wasn’t moving, and whatever morsel of hope I had left extinguished as I watched her lifeless body sprawled on the filthy ground, her long golden locks stained with my blood.
“Wake up, sunshine,” I said.Please don’t leave me.She didn’t move, lying still like a broken angel. “Please wake up. We have to get somewhere warm. P-please wake up, baby.”
My voice cracked, mirroring my heart. I’d never begged for anything. Not when I was tortured and abused within an inch of my life, not when I wished death on those responsible. But now, I begged and pleaded, calling on whatever deity or divine being to spare her life.
