Page 13 of Stolen

Though his bait was designed to get me to lash out so he could justify hurting me more than he already was, my bait was only designed to see what threw him off and what didn’t. I could tell he wasn’t expecting that response.

Good.

“Probably not as avid about riding motorcycles as he will be about riding you,” he countered.

“Or she,” I added enthusiastically.

“I doubt it. When your combat skills are revealed, you’ll attract the men like bees to honey. My female buyers typically refrain from those kinds of complications.”

My brows furrowed in confusion. “What the hell are you talking about?”

He gave me a knowing smile. “Now what kind of merchant would I be if I didn’t disclose important details about my supply?”

I silently thought through what he was revealing, and in a way, it sort of made sense. If he sold me under the guise that I was a simple troublemaker but didn’t reveal that I actually came with real self-defense skills, it might piss my buyer off when he recovered from the broken bones I would no doubt give him, even if it cost me more in the end. To hide that red warning flag would be akin to fraud in the legal world. Like selling a battle-worn fighting dog under the guise of a retired cop dog. You might have words for your seller if your dog starts randomly chewing the flesh from your bones.

“So, you’re going to disclose me as a major red flag now, huh? Because you think I can actually fight? What a compliment.”

He didn’t appear all that amused.

“You’ve given several of my soldiers bruises and broken bones, and in the last ten minutes, one now has a stab wound. Given the chance, you wouldn’t just kill out of self-defense. You’d do it methodically.”

“And the compliments just keep coming,” I said with a smirk.

He tilted his head as he regarded me carefully.

“You’re still not quite seeing the bigger picture, are you?”

I sighed, stretching my neck from side to side as the tension began to build in my shoulders from my position on the bed.

“The way I see it is that any incentive I had to behave to avoid revealing myself as a red flag has now gone completely out the door. I can’t imagine the number of bruises I’ll show off at auction will sway a buyer one way or another. If they know I’m a skilled fighter, then they’ll get exactly what they paid for.”

I watched him stride over to the bed, the steel look of challenge emanating from his cold eyes as he leaned down over me.

“Then I’ll just have to give you the same incentive I give the rest of my soldiers. If you make it a habit of disobeying me, then I won’t bother rehabilitating you. I’ll just fucking kill you and parade what’s left of your body around as an example for the rest to learn from.”

His voice was so smooth and deadly it felt like Death whispering in my ear, singing gently to me of threats and violence. Ice formed up my spine, the shiver impossible to control or miss. I could feel him smiling along my ear before he quickly rose and stepped away. I didn’t even have time to dwell on his final threat before the sound of his belt buckle caught my attention.

“Let’s get that incentive embedded right now, shall we?” he said as he gripped the end of his belt in his hand, leaving the buckle to swing freely.

Oh, fuck.

And then I felt it. The buckle of the belt slammed down on top of my bare back, biting into my flesh. I suppressed my scream, inhaling on asharp gasp as I sucked in air, my body jerking harshly at the contact. I had only a second before the sound of the belt whipping through the air caught my attention again, my body clenching tightly in fear and anticipation. But the fire that erupted over my back sent my brain into a tailspin of absolute fucking agony. I couldn’t suppress the scream that time, my voice bellowing out as my fingers ripped into the sheets beneath me.

“Much better,” he praised above me and swung again.

The belt came down again, the muscles in my back tensing up as they absorbed the punishing force of the belt, the pain of its sting spreading into the pits of my stomach. I pulled at my restraints, trying to distract myself from the anguish forming at my back as another strike came down.

“Ah!” I bawled,

“There it is,” he commented softly. “Beautiful.”

I bit my tongue, wishing I had it in me to deny him my screams, but I didn’t want to encourage him. I feared it would cost my body much more than it would my pride if I stayed silent. And I really needed my body to be able to survive this far more than my pride.

The pain worsened with every blow, each of my muscles throbbing with tension as I thrashed against the sheets. I lost track of the number of times he struck me. My back was now made entirely of fire, and all concentration was lost to nothing but the agony. I could feel the bruises forming and the skin tearing until I honestly believed acid had pooled in the curve of my spine.

By the time he finally dropped the belt to the floor, I was capable of only two thoughts—the unholy hellfire raging at my back and how badly I wanted to kill this twisted motherfucker. Every muscle in my body screamed from his relentless brutality, the ruined sheets beneath me damp with my sweat and tears while strands of my hair stuck to my face.

Forcing myself to breathe silently through my anguish, I turned my face so I could watch him walk over to the nightstand next to the bed and pull out something small and square from the drawer. My heart stopped when I saw it was a condom.

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