Page 151 of Boy of Ruin
Not here.
Not here.
Not. Here.
But then I hear it.
The door creaking open at the top of the stairs. I jump, my eyes flying open, chin quivering. Light spills down the stairs. Heavy footsteps, the smell of something sweet wafting in from the open door.
Do they bake?
Do they cook?
Do they have meals without me, knowing I’m…starving?
I see black shoes. Polished. Tailored pants. But I don’t look beyond that.
I don’t look, and when I hear his voice say, “You’ve done so well, Jeremiah. I think one more day, and you’ll have served out your punishment for what you did to my daughter, hmm?” all I can do is plead.
I promised I wouldn’t.
I told myself I was stronger than that.
That I would never want my beautiful sister, Sid, to do this. To beg. To kneel. To give. In.
But I can’t stop it, the word that leaves my dry throat. “No. No.” I didn’t touch his daughter, the eldest. She lied.
She lied, because she’s fucking insane.
Another whimper. Snot bubbles from my nose, tears well up behind my eyes, and I’m amazed, as I scream the last word, that I have enough liquid in my body to cry at all.
“NO!”
But he doesn’t listen. He never does. He turns away, and I think, as he walks up the stairs…I think he laughs.
But I scramble upright, the bobby pin shaking as I use the light to find the keyhole in the padlock.
I die a little more, my chest caving in, that plea still flowing from my cracked lips. My broken heart, even as I dig the pin in.
How did I get here?
And why me?
I turn the bobby pin, my hands trembling. Just as he closes the door, the padlock falls to the floor, and for a moment, I can’t even breathe.
I’m fucking free.
“Where is he?”
Maverick inhales from his vape, looking like he wants to kill me, his brows knitted together, eyes full of anger. I don’t care.
I haven’t been able to leave this house.
Just like old times.
Tonight, in just a few hours, we’re leaving. But Mav wanted to talk. Fucker.
Ella is on Maverick’s lap as we sit in their living room. I try to ignore the fact she’s here, that she lives here, but it’s a little difficult, considering her current fucking position.
