Page 6 of Hurt to Love
So, what was a guy to do?
There I was, standing with a saucy little red-headed number draping herself against me. She was cute and needy and desperate to get fucked. But damn, if my stupid, guilty lizard brain wasn’t warning me of the dangers there. Could I really sneak off and fuck this hot chick, when I knew some girl might need my help? No one else seemed to give a damn about the little girl cowering in the corner. What if another guy saw her and decided to take her off, do things that she obviously didn’t want? Would I be able to live with myself if I let that happen?
“Amber here loves a bit of dirty talk, don’t you? We call her our filthy-mouthed toy. But this one,” Enzo gave the beggar girl one last kick, “she doesn’t say a word. Never has. But we’ll break her soon.” Enzo’s grin was wide now, showcasing his ugly gold tooth.
Doesn’t speak? How the fuck does that work? How would she use her safe word if she couldn’t speak? Jesus, what kind of fucked-up shit did these cunts do with her if she couldn’t say no? From the look of her, she didn’t put up much of a fight either. And yet he said they’d break her soon. She already looked broken to me.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her. What was her story? Where had she come from? And why was she curled up on the floor, taking their bullshit and not fighting back? I had to find out more. I was a sucker for an underdog.
“I would ask you what her story is, but I know you won’t tell me, so maybe I’ll find out for myself. I’ll take Wednesday Addams here, or is it Cousin It?”
Amber groaned and screwed her cute little button nose up at my dubious choice, glancing at the girl on the floor like she was dog shit.
“I hope you’ve got all your shots up to date,” she hissed. “She’s rabid, that one.” Then she sashayed off, to rub up against one of the other guys in the room. I definitely dodged a bullet there.
“I think I can handle your feral toy.” I smirked as Isaac bent down to grab the girl off the floor and whisper something into her ear.
“She’ll be perfect for you, Cill. You talk enough for the both of you. No need for her to speak.” Enzo laughed.
“Room two is free.” Isaac pushed the girl forward, but her head stayed bowed. Her hair still stuck to her face like greasy waves, protecting her from the world around her. For all I knew, she had three eyeballs hidden under there. At least it’d make the evening interesting, trying to find out.
She had a grubby sundress hanging off her bony frame. It’d been white once upon a time, but lack of washing had turned it a dishwater grey, and frayed at the bottom. Not that she seemed to care. In fact, I think she’d have preferred to blend into the background judging from how she carried herself.
“Now run along,dog, and give the nice man what he came here for. And no biting this time.” Enzo slapped her ass and pushed her forward into me. Instinctively, I held out my arm to catch her and guide her out of the room, but she jolted away from my grasp. She really was a frightened, pitiful little animal, and something told me I needed to get this girl as far away from those fuckers as I could. Even if it was just for a couple of hours of respite.
Crouch down,as low as your feeble body will let you, and blend into the background. That was my plan for survival. I was the forgotten girl, literally. I hoped to be that way for the rest of the night. Maybe the dirty, padded walls would camouflage me enough that I would go unnoticed. I had the dirty dress on to match, so maybe I’d get lucky? I knew the brothers liked to share theirtoyswith their so-called friends, but when it came to me, they liked to inflict their own style of pain. Nothing done to me could be described as pleasure, and they made damn sure of that. I was exclusively theirs to torture and torment, or so I thought.
I hated their parties; the filth, the depravity. It was light years away from the world I had come from, and I would never accept this as my future. Not now, not ever. I would never be done fighting. At least the smell in this hovel was slightly better than some of the other clubs they’d taken us to. Here, they used the scent of popcorn to disguise the stench of sex in the air. I’d never eat a tub of the stuff again. Not that that was an option. I was lucky to get one meal a day, let alone a snack.
I kept my head down and used my hair as a shield, so I could be an observer and not a participant at this heinous gathering. I sensed movement to the side of me and turned slightly to see three men enter the room. Great. Just what we needed. More morally devoid men to join in thefun. I watched as my ungracious hosts, my captors, stalked over to them and shook their hands. There was some low chatter and laughter, but it was all fake. Judging from the brothers’ faces, they didn’t even like those men. Two of the guests walked off, prowling the room, looking for their first conquest of the evening. But the third one stayed at the door, and I tried to observe his interaction with the brothers whilst remaining invisible. I don’t know why, but something about this third man seemed to put the brothers on edge. I’d spent long enough around those two beasts to know when they felt threatened. I’d studied them better than any subject I’d taken at college. To defeat the darkness, you had to understand it first, right? I was well on my way to obtaining a doctorate in all things Conti. So, watching them, I knew something wasn’t right.
Amber drifted over at their command and went into her bitch-from-hell vixen mode. And then the third man turned to look at her, but instead, he noticed me. Shit. That was the last thing I wanted to happen. I willed myself to merge into the wall, or slide undetected into the floorboards. Anything to save me from what these men had in mind. It was no use. Scarface came over and yanked me up, squeezing his fingers into my arm to leave more bruises on top of the ones I already had.
“Be nice to this…gentleman,” he hissed into my ear, “we need him on side. But not too nice,dog, or you won’t like what happens when we get home, understand?”
I nodded, feeling numb to their threats and heavy-handed ways. As if their house of hell could ever be a home to me. Home was where the heart was, and my heart had been ripped out the day they took me. I’d left it behind, hundreds of miles away. Safe, for when I finally returned, and return I would.
I heard Amber give some snide remark about me being rabid, and I smiled to myself. Would I want to be willing and able, like her? Hell no. I would take the rabid badge and wear it with pride if it kept me away from men like this.
Scarface pushed me forward and the other, younger brother gave me a parting gift, slapping my ass and telling me not to bite. Wasn’t it common knowledge that a bite from a rabid dog could kill? If they didn’t want me to bite, then they’d have to muzzle me.
The guy I’d been promised to for the night caught me as I fell forward, but he didn’t grip me tightly. They weren’t cruel hands like the brothers. Not yet, anyway. I still yanked away from him though. I wasn’t anyone’s property, and I didn’t like to be touched. He had to know what he’d signed up for tonight, and unlike Amber, I wasn’t going to lie down and take it. He kept his cool, despite my obvious unwillingness to leave, and led me from the main room to room two.
He was probably one of those fucked-up assholes that liked the fight. The brothers always said it made thingssweeter. I didn’t like making anything sweeter for them, so I soon learnt to switch myself off from this world. Shut down and shut out the filth. That’s what I’d have to do here too. I was good at that part at least. Survival, through any means possible, was always my number one concern. I knew the brothers had this whole place on lock down. Escaping was pointless. I knew better than to rile them up for no good reason. I’d tried escaping enough times in those early days, and each attempt only made things more painful for me in the long run. No, I was playing the long game. Tonight was not going to bethenight for me.
I keptmy head down and eyes to the ground as he walked me down the corridor towards the room he’d been assigned to. Dread coated the pit of my stomach, drenching me with fear and making me sickeningly alert and ready to defend myself at a moment’s notice. To outsiders, I played the role of the docile victim well, but that was all it was. A role. In private, I fought harder than any soldier. I was also an expert at shutting off my emotions when the fighting became too much and the battle was lost.
I had no idea what type of battle I’d be facing, but everything about this situation felt off. My captors had offered me up like a sacrificial lamb, and yet I didn’t feel like I was being led to the slaughter. This man, strolling nonchalantly at the side of me, humming like he didn’t have a care in the world, was throwing me all kinds of mixed signals, and knocking my preservation radar out of sync. Who the hell was he?
He stopped in his tracks and pushed open a door. I peered up at him through my hair, and my brown eyes met his green. He was smirking, but his eyes looked devious, as if he was hatching a wicked plan. I didn’t trust him. I didn’t trust anyone.
“Ladies first.”
He swept his arm forward, like he was a gallant prince, gesturing for a princess to enter a ballroom. I wasn’t fooled. There was nothing regal about this man, or the whole sick scenario I’d been hurtled into.
Cautiously, I stepped around him, as if one touch from him could fatally wound me, then I dragged myself into the room. Such a simple task, and yet it felt like I was wading through treacle. I glanced over my shoulder at this guy, who had a smug-ass look on his face. If he thought I was going to be easy to deal with, he had another thing coming.
“So, they tell me you don’t speak.” He grinned.
