Page 54 of Monster's Edge

Now it’s my turn to be surprised. I know that he means saving me, but why does Ian want me saved? I’m not his. I’m not his to save. I’m my own person.

Only, as his grip tightens on my leg, I realize that once again, I’ve been outsmarted and outplayed. I’m not my own person any more than a house pet is their own person. I’ve been locked in a cage my entire life, but it’s been such a big cage that I never realized just how far it stretched.

“Of course,” Georgetta says.

“You’ll be rewarded.”

She nods but doesn’t speak again. I wonder if she’s thinking about Lucas. I wonder if she’s thinking that Ian should have come for us a long time ago.

And I wonder what’s going to happen to us when we get to his home.

3

The first thing I realizeas we pull up to Ian’s house is that he’s letting me see it. That should probably be a red flag. If this is a secret sort of house, me knowing the location isn’t a good thing. The fact that I can see it means he’s planning on keeping me for some time. Either that or he’s planning to kill me. I’m still pretty hung up on the idea that Ian is going to murder me. I’m not really sure why.

It’s just that he’s completely fucking terrifying.

I know, logically, that he’s let me see his place before. This is where he took me the night he kidnapped me. He drugged me, brought me here, and fucked my damn brains out. That was at night, though, and it’s mid-afternoon now. Everything looks different in the daylight.

The second thing I notice is that his house is just as big as my dad’s. Maybe it’s even bigger. I look over at him sharply. So much for Ian being a second-in-command kind of guy to my dad. I don’t know where the Salucci family gets their money, but it seems as though Ian is in no short supply.

If this is the case, though, then why does he even want to do business with my dad? I can’t really see a good reason. My dad is a prick. Fucking asshole, really. I’m still angry that he basically sold me – or tried to. There’s a part of me that still doesn’t want to believe this is real, but as Ian digs his fingers into my thigh and I look up to see him watching me curiously, I realize that this is very, very real.

“We’re home,” he says. There’s a sort of finality in his tone, as though there shouldn’t be any sort of doubt in my mind where we are. We’re at his home, yes, but this is going to bemyhome, too.

“Home,” I repeat. I gulp, swallowing any other questions that are bubbling up inside of me. Home.

I don’t even know what that word means anymore.

Like my father’s place, Ian’s home has a wall around the entire property, along with a guard’s building. Unlike my dad’s guard shack, there’s an actual little building for Ian’s guards. There are two of them: one watching people leave and one watching people come. I’m pretty sure their building is big enough that it probably even has a bathroom in it. That’s something my dad’s guards have never had.

Ian doesn’t wave to the guards. The driver stops and says something to the man waiting, and then we’re through the gate. Just like that.

Georgetta is quiet as the car pulls to the front of the house. The three of us climb from the vehicle. Ian offers me his hand and helps me out. The driver gets out on Georgetta’s side to assist her. There’s another person up front, just like I suspected, but it’s not a man: it’s a woman. She’s tall and wears her blonde hair pulled back in a tight bun.

“Mr. Salucci, we’re ready.”

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