Page 129 of Shifting Hearts 1
No! I cannot be hearing this.
All the respect I have for my uncle is demolished with one sentence.
“Tell me more about your plan.”
THREE
Maddy
Iwalk out of the room, hoping to catch at least a snippet of the information I need, but the door closes behind me with force, and I blow out a breath.
Fuck!
I should have let it be.
But somehow, I knew, I just knew that something wasn’t sitting right with the shots. And when I saw the hesitant look on the face of the freakishly handsome, although scarred, stranger against the wall, I knew I needed to do something.
There is just something about a man who wears his scars with honor.
Not that it was honor I was thinking about when he touched me.
In fact, I could have sworn that my skin was trying to jump off my body. I felt the wave of anticipation rush over my skin.
He didn’t even flinch when he felt my birthmark. That was something I had never experienced before.
Since I was a baby in the orphanage, Mrs. Gruber constantly reminded me of the hideous mark on my hip and that no one would ever want a child as defective as me.
It took me years under her thumb to realize that some people honestly didn’t care, but it was too late by then.
I couldn’t save myself anymore. Maddy Smith had nothing that anybody wanted.
But I could be a protector for the rest.
Walking toward the locker rooms to get out of this ridiculous getup, I think about the day that I discovered my unique gift.
I don’t know where it came from or how it works, but I know it made it very easy to get what I wanted.
Taking a seat on one of the old, tired chairs, my hands hang helplessly between my spread legs, and I let the memories take hold of me.
I was around fourteen years old and puberty hit me hard.
Apparently, it wasn’t enough for Mrs. Gruber that I worked like a dog to earn my keep; she wanted more.
So, when she yanked me off the floor and threw the scrub brush aside, I knew she had a different plan.
She pushed me, fully clothed, under the cold water spray in the shower and raked her fingers through my long black hair to tie it in a ponytail.
Swinging me around, she scrutinized me from top to bottom.
“You’ll have to do. Keep your mouth shut and do what he tells you to do. I don’t want you waking the other children with your screaming, or I’ll have you out on the street so fast, you won’t know what hit you. Do you understand, girl?”
I nodded mutely, scared shitless because I had seen the men who came through here. There was no way for me to defend myself against them.
“What about my birthmark?” I tried as a last resort.
“Just keep their hands away from it and you should be fine. I got the back room ready. So, get going. And don’t come back to me when you are done. Go get cleaned up and go to bed. I don’t want to see you for the rest of the night.”
She spoke as if placing an order at a restaurant instead of bartering with the only precious thing I had left. My virginity.
