As if to prove his point, Night steps forward, tugging one of the girls forward and ripping the clothes off her body. He squeezes her breasts. “There is no meat on this girl. How will we sell her if she looks like that, huh?”
Junior lowers his head. “I will make sure she eats more.”
Night grabs the girl, turning her around and pressing her back against his chest. His hand moves over her body. The girl whimpers in fear.
“Leave her alone!” the beta male suddenly yells, stepping forward. “Stop it, you fucking coward!”
“What did you say?” Night sneers, his eyes flashing. Fear fills me, yet I can’t look away.
With one swift moment, Night pushes the girl to Junior, grabs the guy’s head, and snaps his neck. Laughing when his lifeless body drops to the ground. Just like that, he has killed him. It’s not the first time this has happened, but I can’t get used to it. I feel sick to my stomach.
The other girl convulses, throwing up to the floor. “Take them away,” Night huffs to Junior. “They are an eyesore. Make sure they look good tomorrow! And you,” he turns to PJ “clean up.”
PJ looks up, shocked, before gazing towards me. “Isn’t that her job?”
“Listen, asshole,” Night hisses. “Your life hangs on a thin thread. You and your friend there fucked up. Make sure he wakes up, so he can help you clean, get rid of that waste’s body,and then you will think of a good plan about what to do with the whore you brought along.”
PJ doesn’t dare to oppose and lowers his head, while Night shifts his attention back to me. Opal is still on the run; she can’t have gotten that far. I swallow thickly, trying to will down the bile I feel in my stomach before smiling shyly at Night.
It seems to work because he cocks his head. “Azurite,” he whispers, walking towards me and grabbing me by my arm to tug me up. He takes me with him towards his private room. “Azurite, my most beautiful gem,” he whispers while he pushes me towards the bed.
I look at him, anxiety spreading through me. He hates it when I don’t look at him. He is rougher then angrier.
“You are my gem, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” I whisper.
“You know what I like?” he asks while he pulls the dress off my body. His eyes gaze over me. I’m not sure why he always looks at me like that. I’m dirty and scarred. Why does he think I’m a gem?
“You are exactly like Dad said you would be,” he whispers. “You grew up to look like her.”
Dad? It’s the first time I hear about Night’s father. “I didn’t know,” I mutter. “That he is… well…”
“He isn’t alive anymore,” Night says darkly, while settling between my legs. He gets rid of his shirt before hovering over me. “He was a loser. He let his woman get away, although she was his perfect gem.”
My heart starts to beat faster. What is he talking about? It can’t be… no way. In a far corner of my mind, I remember a photograph. I remember how I sat on a bed, and an older man pointed at the picture and said it was my mom. I can barely remember, though. All my memories from before Night took me are getting more and more blurred daily.
“A gem,” I say in my daze. “I’m a gem.”
“Yes, Azurite,” he whispers. “You and your mother were rare gems. I’m not a loser like my father, not a weakling. I will make sure to keep you under my protection. No one will steal you or take you away.” I turn my head to the side, trying to will down my disgust and fear, when I feel him push into me. It still hurts like the first time. I can’t help but whimper in pain. Night, however, doesn’t seem to notice; he is completely in his own haze. “You are mine. You belong to me. My father might have lost your mother, but I found you, and I made sure to take my favorite possession with me.”
His breath feels too hot on my skin, like it’s burning me, and I have to fight back not to throw up. My heart hurts so much. What did I do to deserve this? Hopefully, hopefully, it was worth it and Opal escaped.
“Night?” A voice comes closer, and someone knocks at the door.
Night stops his movement, glaring furiously at the door. “Junior, are you insane!?”
“She is gone,” Junior yells in panic.
“Who?” Night growls when he climbs off the bed, and I feel both relieved and terrified. Relieved to have him off me, terrified of the news Junior brings.
Night opens the door to face the other man. Junior doesn’t even pay attention to me; instead, he looks at Night in terror. “That young girl, Opal. When I went to bring her dinner, her cell was empty.”
A growl erupts from the room, and I cower back into the bed. “WHAT!?” Night screams. “Turn every piece of this house around. And make sure to head out to search for that little bitch! And find out how she did it! Whoever helped her will wish to never have been born.”
Chapter thirty-nine
Escape