Page 36 of Stolen

“I don’t believe I’ve said onefuckingword to you,” he roared down at me.

I flinched in my cage and forced my eyes to the floor. I was pretty sure I just gave him the reason he was looking for to punish me again. My body trembled with fear as I realized that. But then I noticed something—something that nearly made me smile like the goddamn Grinch. The slight purple and green bruising around his left eye brought a surge of pride and satisfaction to my entire body, my own little ray of sunshine.

Ha, ha-ha, ha, motherfucker.

“Get her back in her cage,” he ordered, pointing at Kayla. “And you,” he said boring down at me. “I thought we had extinguished the last of your defiance.”

“That’s correct,” I said, turning my eyes on the floor.

“Except that’s not what I’m seeing.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t want any more trouble,” I answered, looking over at Kayla who was thrown back into her cage.

“Yet you chose to open your fucking mouth again, didn’t you?”

“I…”

“Don’t you dare lie to me, little girl. You will surely regret it,” he warned.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, surrendering my fight. “It was a mistake.”

My body was so wrecked; I didn’t think I could withstand another beating of any kind, especially if it was worse than the last.

“Well, isn’t that fucking precious,” he said with a snort. “Lucky for you, I’ve got too much shit to do today, but I meant what I said yesterday. Give me one reason, and I’ll easily find the time to beat that perfect ass of yours all over again,” he said, leaning close to my cage.

I ignored his threat and returned my eyes to the floor. I didn’t want to give him another reason. Not yet, at least.

With that lasting warning that chilled my bones, he turned and stalked down the hallway and out the door without a second glance, the guards close on his heels.

“You shouldn't have done that,” Kayla admonished as the doors closed. I turned back to look at her.

“I couldn't just sit there and do nothing. It’s not really in my nature.”

“Your nature is going to get yourself killed.”

“It was worth it if it stopped them from hurting you,” I retorted.

“You're not what stopped them. He was,” she argued, nodding in the direction of the doors.

“I suppose you're right,” I acknowledged, slumping my shoulders in defeat.

“Just keep quiet next time. I don't want to be responsible for you getting hurt because you tried to come to my rescue. You look like shit as it is. I'm a big girl, Jaden. I can handle them.”

I smiled at her then.

“Well, damn, bitch. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you and I may have been cut from the same cloth,” I commented. She snorted at that.

“Maybe. But I think they forgot to measure out the same amount of badassness that you have that I clearly lack. What you did with Jared and those guards the other day? I’ve been wanting to ask you, where the hell did that come from?”

I shrugged, not wanting to encourage her further. “I just know how to fight. Or, at least, sometimes I do.”

She glanced down at my hands. “Explains your busted knuckles. What happened with the owner?”

I sighed at her question, wondering how much I should reveal, and hating the memory of it.

“I fought him in the hallway for a while. Gave him that black eye if you happened to see it.”

She paused for a second, staring at me with her eyebrows practically touching the ceiling.

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