Page 5 of Cruel (Brutal Academy)

She bared her teeth.

"Want to play, do you?" Like he had with the first woman, he grabbed her hair. He pulled her over to a shower and turned the water on.

No steam rose from it. He’d shoved the woman under the flow that must have been frigid. She squealed and tried to jump out. He held her under.

"Wash," he barked. "The quicker you do it, the faster you can get out from under this fucking cold water." His sleeve was already drenched to his elbow. He disregarded it and held her still.

She hissed, either at him or with the cold. Maybe both. She soaped and washed faster than I had.

He let her go long enough to wash her hair before stepping away and drying his sleeve with a towel. He tossed it at her to dry herself after she turned the water off. It must have been freezing, because his skin was slightly blue. And the towel was more than slightly wet.

She eyed the shelf of dry towels but must have realised he wouldn't let her use one. Instead, she rubbed the damp towel over herself and scurried away to grab her dress and pull it on.

Seeming satisfied the rest of us were going to behave, Hades strode around the room like he owned the place. More than one set of eyes followed him, full of fear, hate and anger.

When he got to me, he stopped.

"Well, what do we have here?" His blonde hair was slicked back off his head. His blue eyes were as piercing as the twins’. As ruthless and determined. Familiar somehow. If he worked for my father, I might have seen him before. Maybe I should tell him who I was. This could be nothing more than a case of mistaken identity. Even as I had that thought, I dismissed it. This was all deliberately planned. Right down to securing so many women who looked enough like me that if anyone was searching for a brown eyed brunette, they'd find over a dozen. That would make it harder for anyone to track me down.

I dipped my gaze to the tops of his cheeks, rather than looking him in the eye.

"I'm no one," I said.

He tipped back his head and laughed. "If you were anyone else here, I'd commend you for learning so quickly. All the other women in this room are no one. Bodies, mouths, pussies. There for the taking by whoever buys them. They'll go wherever they're taken and disappear. But you…"

He stepped around me, his eyes on me. "You're here because someone wants you to disappear."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied. How could he tell me from anyone else here? Unless he and Brutus picked me up from Brutham Academy. If that was the case, he might have an inkling of who I was. I didn't recognise any of the other women around me, but I didn't know everyone from the Academy. For all I knew, I wasn't the only one. If that was the case, why had he zeroed in on me?

"Don't you?" He flicked half dry hair off my shoulder. "I think you know exactly what I'm talking about. Let me tell you a story. I knew someone once who had some trouble with his family. They pissed off the wrong people. It happens, am I right?"

He moved around in front of me. "Sometimes families prefer to dispense family members who don't toe the line." He drew his finger across his throat.

I hadn't noticed a scar across his neck until then. It looked as though someone tried to cut his throat, but failed.

Shame.

"But sometimes, families prefer to make their family members disappear in a different way. They like the idea of thinking their dear sibling is suffering. They get off thinking they'll be used until they're broken. The particularly sadistic ones like to see their family members later. To see how they have changed. How they've fallen apart. Because some families are—" He considered for a moment. "Fucked up."

"I guess so." I shrugged. That sounded like something Chloe would do. Hell, it sounded like somethingI'ddo. When I got back to the Academy, it was exactly what I would do to her. If she thought this was the end, she was wrong.

"I see you know what I'm talking about," Hades concluded. "Why else would Lila Bell be in a place like this?" He smiled at my expression, clearly amused he'd caught me by surprise.

"I don't know who that is," I lied badly. My pulse was racing so fast I thought my heart might leap clear out of my chest. I half wished it would. At this rate, I'd need another shower to wash away a new layer of sweat.

His smile widened. "Yes you do. For the record, I don't work for your father. But a couple of people send you their best wishes." He looked thoughtful. "Or the opposite of best wishes. Worst curses?" He shrugged indifferently. "Close enough. Whatever they are, they come from Chloe, Dane, Zachary and… Slade Lincoln."

CHAPTER3

PARKER

"Ow, fuck." I tried to roll over, but the chains gave me nowhere to go.

I forced my eyes open. The relative glare made me blink a couple of times.

The room was dimly lit, but bright compared to the darkness the assholes had kept us in for the last few days. Was it three days or four? Hell, it might be five or six for all I knew. Too fucking long.

"You here, Hunt?" My mouth was so dry my voice was little more than a croak. The last time my throat felt like this was after screaming my lungs out at one of Wolf Venom's concerts.

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