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  It was difficult to feel sorry for my prisoner when I knew the full impact of what he had done to the people that I loved.

  "Is she going to get better?" I asked Michael, and he smiled sadly.

  "She's in therapy," he said. "But mostly she just bottles it up and won't speak to anyone about it. She refuses to acknowledge what happened, but at the same time, it's impossible for her to move on from it. I was afraid what was going to happen today when she saw you. She was so very upset when you were taken."

  "I'm so sorry I caused this," I whispered, guiltily looking at my hands in my lap. "So sorry..."

  "It's not your fault, darling," Michael said calmly. "Some people are just weaker than others."

  At that moment, Max brought his mother over, his hand protectively resting behind her back.

  "Just sit down, ma," he told her softly. "It's going to be alright. I'm going to get some coffee brought out and I'll make sure you're feeling better. Just take deep breaths and relax, alright?"

  His mother nodded absently, folding her trembling hands on her lap over the designer bag she'd had on her shoulder before. I couldn't help but stare. Everything about the woman was so disturbingly perfect, from her almond-shaped long nails to the jewelry that adorned her neck, wrists, and fingers. She was truly beautiful, and since I'd last seen her, she hadn't aged a day appearance-wise.

  We all sat down at the table and Max and his father started talking about business. I felt his mother glancing at me, and at one point, she reached out for my hand. The conversation lulled when she did it, and the two men with us watched me nervously trying to decipher my reaction.

  But I'd dealt with brokenness before, and I recognize the jagged edges of Leila's heart as my own. I'd been hurt. I'd been trampled on. I'd had everything taken away from me.

  I let her take my hand and smiled at her, a motion she returned after a moment. She seemed so scared, so genuinely terrified of something I wondered whether there was an elephant in the room I wasn't seeing.

  "You have beautiful hands," she told me, her voice almost melodic, quite hypnotizing. "Such beautiful, delicate hands."

  She touched my fingers, my knuckles, and tsked when she saw my nails.

  "We'll have to get you a manicure," she said firmly. "You need a haircut, too."

  Surreptitiously I touched a hand to my black hair. It had grown down to my butt since I'd been taken, and Kain loved it. He liked my hair long. If I cut it, he wouldn't be pleased with me.

  How would he know, though? I still lived with this ridiculous notion that he would come and collect me, get me back from the Marinos. I didn't even know whether I wanted it or not, but I couldn't help hoping he'd find out where I was and took me in the middle of the night.

  I had a connection with a Kain. A fucked-up, twisted connection I couldn't just sever that easily. It was frayed and ready to break, but I wasn't there yet. Still, after all this time, my body cried out for his. I wanted his lips on mine. Woke up touching myself, wishing it was his fingers digging into my skin. I couldn't imagine being with another man. Didn't want anyone else to touch me... Only Kain, my captor, my torturer, the man who slew my entire family.

  I averted my eyes as Leila inspected me, trying to hide the truth from her. But from her knowing gaze, I knew she saw something she recognized in me. A kind of brokenness, a need to be destroyed despite the consequences. Perhaps it was the same thing she was dealing with herself.

  "I don't want to cut my hair," I admitted, and she gave me a gentle smile. "I... I like it this long."

  "We'll see," she said in a sing-song voice that was more disturbing than calming. "I'm going to call my team and get them over here tomorrow."

  "What are you ladies talking about?" Michael cut in jovially, and Leila shut her mouth right away, looking into the distance as her husband began to chat to me about this and that.

  I found it really weird that none of them asked about me. It had been five years since I'd seen these people, and they didn't seem to have even the slightest concern for what had happened to me since I'd been separated from them. I didn't mention it to them. I just sat off to the side and tried to contribute to the conversation, though my own words still sounded alien to my ears.

  It seemed to take hours of sitting on that terrace, talking about everything in the world and at the same time, nothing that mattered at all. By the time the Marinos got up to leave, I was exhausted by the pretense everyone was alright, and nothing bad had happened at all. It was like we were playing a game, one in which every mention of the tragedy that happened meant you had lost.

  "We'll see you soon," Michael said with a bright smile, shaking his son's hand. "And we'll discuss the wedding plans soon, too."

  I hope he hadn't noticed me blushing at those words.

  They were just about to leave when I rushed after them, tugging on Michael's sleeve and sheepishly staring at the floor when he turned around to face me.

  "I just..." I started, my words drifting off into nothing. "I just wanted to ask you about Ryker."

  I saw Leila freeze on the spot, her fingers digging painfully into her own hand. I gave Michael a surprised look and he responded with a cold smile, gently touching his palm to the small of his wife's back.

  "It's alright, my darling," he said softly. "I'll be right with you. Go wait for me in the car."

  Leila moved away without giving me a second glance, and soon it was just Michael and me in the hallway. He turned to look at me, taking a deep breath when his eyes connected with mine.

  "How much has Max told you?" he asked me, and I stared back.

  "He hasn't said anything," I admitted. "I'm just... I'm sorry, I'm just trying to understand what happened here. When I was last with you, you seemed like such a happy family, and now..."

  "And now," Michael interrupted me. "My younger son has disgraced me. He does not deserve my name, and I do not wish to speak about it. He is gone. It's done. Is that enough information for you, Miss Sokolov?"

  "Yes," I replied softly, slightly surprised by his cold tone. "I understand."

  "Well then," he said, back to his jovial self. "I'll see you tomorrow."

  He pressed a kiss to my cheek and backed out of the room while I stood there uselessly, fidgeting with the hem of my dress.

  I had dinner with Max, and things only got curiouser and curiouser.

  My husband-to-be seemed distracted, glancing at his phone every once in a while and furrowing his brows when he did. Finally, I'd had enough of the silence between us as we ate our dessert, and I cleared my throat.

  "I'm busy," he replied instantly, and my brows knitted together in worry. "I'll pay attention to you in a second, princess."

  I nodded and stared at my beautiful plate, having suddenly lost all of my appetites. I moved my food around the plate, waiting for Max to be done with his work when he suddenly slammed his fist onto the table and cursed out loud angrily.

  I flinched in my seat, my palm flying over my mouth as I stared at him, waiting for an explanation. Yet his eyes were still glued to his phone, and only moments after, he started to speak again.

  "Looks like your pretty boy escaped yet again," he finally said.

  "What?" I asked, confused about what he was saying. "Ry...Ryker?"

  "No," Max barked. "Why the fuck are you so obsessed with my brother?"

  I blushed and looked at my plate. Why was he so sensitive to the topic of his brother? I decided on the spot I would make it my mission to find out what had happened to Ryker. My head hurt when I pictured him hurt, or somehow inconvenienced. I still had feelings for him... so many feelings that I was sick of fighting. I needed to see him, and soon.

  "I'm sorry," I whispered, but Max ignored me completely.

  "It's not about him," he said bitterly. "But another one of your lovers, nonetheless. You know, Ophelia, if we weren't engaged and if you weren't so fucking pretty, I'd think twice about marrying you."

  He raised his eyes to mine, and there was venom in his gaze a
nd poison in his words when he spoke up next.

  "You're used goods," he said, and I blushed deeply. "You've been raped... Fuck knows what that monster did to you. You're fucking lucky I'm going through with the arrangement. Not every woman who got destroyed like you would be treated the same way. Small mercies, right?"

  He chuckled as if he'd just told a joke, and I stared at him incredulously.

  "I'm not destroyed," I managed to get out. "I..."

  "I don't want to hear it." He held his hand in front of my face. "I really don't. I know what's true. I know a whore when I see one."

  "Are you calling me a whore?" I asked him coolly, and his icy eyes zeroed in on me. "I'm not a whore, Max."

  "Maybe," he grunted. "But you're still going to have to learn some manners."

  I'd had enough.

  I pushed my plate away and stood up, but he was next to me in seconds, twisting my arm so uncomfortably behind my back I cried out.

  "Don't you go anywhere," he threatened. "Not before you finish your fucking dinner, whore."

  "Max, I..." I started, but he placed his palm firmly over my mouth, making me whimper.

  "Sit down," he commanded. "Fucking eat up."

  He moved away and forced me back to my seat, and I stared at my destroyed dessert with no appetite and tears welling up in my eyes.

  I would never be free...

  Chapter 13

  Max

  Perhaps I had treated her unfairly.

  After Ophelia finished her dinner, I walked her to her room. I waited until the light came on inside, but I didn't enter. I knew the cage would be in place, and I couldn't fucking bear to look at it. Knowing what that monster had done to my girl, I was pissed off that she still needed the metal bars to feel safe when she slept.

  I left her in the room and walked down the hallway, my attention back on the phone. I was getting updates about the situation at hand, and I didn't like them one bit.

  Kain was still on the loose. After the months that had passed since we first found him, it was a fucking embarrassment to our whole family. The Marinos had promised to work with the Sokolovs, to join forces and band together to strengthen both our businesses. Since the Sokolovs were essentially wiped out, the duty of sorting through their business fell to my father, and now to me. And I wasn't sure I could cope with everything that was going on.

  I picked up my phone when it rang, barking a hello into the ether.

  "We didn't get his, boss," my associate told me regretfully. "We were only minutes, maybe seconds too late. He escaped through the window."

  "Why didn't you have people on the ground?" I barked at him. "You're fucking useless. I should never have given you this job."

  "We'll get him," he tried to console me. "We're too close not to, and he's going to make another foolish decision sooner or later, which is when we'll bust him."

  "I don't have the fucking time to sit around waiting for foolish decisions," I barked. "I need him captured, and brought here."

  "Like I said, it would be safer to put him somewhere else," the man replied nervously. "I don't trust him around you..."

  "That's not your call to make," I growled. "I want him here. I want Ophelia to watch me kill him."

  I looked up to find the door of Ophelia's room slightly ajar, and my mouth set in a thin line. I could see small, dainty fingers, the very ones my mother had complimented, between the doorframe. Her eyes were there too, glinting in the light.

  I cut the call and approached the door, but by the time I got there, she had retreated back into her room. I slammed her door shut.

  I backed away from her room and down the hallway, but on second thought, changed my direction and lingered in front of her door a bit longer, toying with the key for her room. I hadn't thought it would be necessary to use it, but Ophelia proved me wrong yet again.

  I slid it into the keyhole and listened to the satisfying sound when I locked her inside.

  At least now she couldn't get away... even if she tried.

  Thorn had told me all about Ophelia's attempt to help his girl escape, and I wasn't about to take any chances. I knew she was afraid, but I couldn't let her act on her fear. All she would do was hurt herself if she got impulsive, and even though she might not believe it, I didn't want her to get hurt. I cared about Ophelia. Always had.

  I walked down the hallway into my own quarters. I had a master bedroom only a couple of doors down from Ophelia, and at first, I'd thought she would spend her first night back with me. But her reaction to seeing me was enough to convince me otherwise. Still, there was the lingering feeling of her not finding me good enough. The knowledge that she still preferred my brother. Fuck, she'd already asked about him several times and it hadn't even been a full day. I should have punished her for that.

  My sexual tastes had changed since I last saw Ophelia. Back then I was a fucking pussy boy, who'd only slept with a girl I'd known for years. But the years in the fighting ring had taught me more than just to fight for my life. They taught me what I liked, and it wasn't always pretty, innocent girls who liked it on their back with all the lights turned off. I'd developed a taste for the dirty, for the depraved, for the taboo. And I was ready to introduce Ophelia to my world and knock everything Kain had taught her out of her pretty little head.

  I slept restlessly, waking up several times until I finally decided it would be pointless to go back to bed again. It was four am by that point, and I had a sudden urge, a need, to make sure Ophelia was alright. I'd locked her in her room, but it didn't mean she was okay... This was a new home for her, and I knew she was probably scared.

  I got out of my room and put on the shirt from the previous day on, leaving it unbuttoned and exposing my scarred but ripped body. I was proud of my physique and I worked on it every day. Whether it was to mask the scars or to get the memories of what I'd been through out of my head, I wasn't willing to find out. I'm sure a shrink could have told me, but I didn't give a shit. All I wanted was justice for the Sokolovs and for Ophelia to finally be mine like she was meant to all along.

  Walking down the hallway, I put the key in her lock and opened the door.

  The room was enveloped in darkness, the only light coming in the moon through the window. It would go soon, and another day would be on us.

  The cage stood front and center in the room. I realized the workers had removed the bed, and my hands formed fists as I stared at the monstrosity in the middle of the space. I wondered whether Ophelia had told them to get rid of the bed because I sure as fuck hadn't.

  It was huge, the metal bars thick and silver. It was big enough for her to be able to stand in, and the inside was littered with cushions and blankets. It didn't look uncomfortable, but it still made me sick to my stomach.

  My princess lay on top of the pillows, curled up in a fetal position and hugging her knees. Her hand was under her cheek, her head resting on it as she slept peacefully. She looked so calm like that as if there wasn't a worry on her mind.

  I stepped closer because I couldn't help myself. I knelt down next to her, and my fingers reached in through the bars to stroke her pretty cheek, flush with color from whatever dream she was having.

  Her fingers shot up and she grabbed my arm, and I froze. But it didn't look as if she'd woken up... No, she was still sleeping just as peacefully, but her fingers wrapped around mine now and she dragged me closer, pushing my pointer finger in her mouth. She started sucking me, and I stared at her in disbelief.

  Kain had done a thorough job of fucking my girl up, and for that, he was going to pay in blood.

  "Beautiful girl," I whispered, letting her do what she wanted. "Beautiful broken girl."

  She turned in her sleep and my hand fell away, but I couldn't bring myself to pull it out through the bars. Instead, I reached for the sheet that covered up Ophelia in the warm night and pulled it off.

  Just as I suspected.

  Even though her wardrobe was stocked with clothing in her size, she had chosen to go nak
ed yet again.

  I'd uncovered one of her breasts. The other was still hidden, but her nipples were so painfully hard they poked at the fabric of the sheet, sticking out from under it. Her skin looked luminous in the moonlight. She looked like a fucking dream come true.

  Perhaps this was the answer after all. Perhaps I'd be able to find what I'd been looking for at the bottom of a bottle, deep inside a whore, in the girl sleeping in front of me. The girl who had been promised to me all along... Perhaps she was the answer after all.

  I couldn't help myself. I pulled the sheet further down, exposing her creamy smooth navel, her belly button, her cunt. She was waxed like I'd noticed before, and I briefly wondered if that bastard had wanted her to stay like that, with no hair whatsoever between her legs. If that was true, I was going to force her to do the opposite. I was going to erase any and every trace of Kain there was left in her system. I wasn't going to stop until he was fucking gone.

  I reached for her again, my finger sliding down her neck, over her collarbone and down to her pebbled nipple. She let out a tiny breath when I touched it, my fingertips feeling rough against the softness of her skin. She was a fucking vision... Nothing like the girl I'd known at eighteen and yet still so very much the same. But now there was a sensuality to her, a fact that made me so attracted to her my other hand reached between my legs, stroking my growing cock.

  My finger followed the path of her breaths, over her ribcage and down her navel. I stopped on her hipbones, feeling how hard and protruding they were. My cock twitched in my pants, desperate to get out and plunge into the sweet silkiness of her cunt. And now I couldn't resist any longer. My fingers traveled over her smooth skin with no hair in sight. I parted her pussy lips and her legs opened as if on cue, inviting me into her warm pussy.

  She was so perfect... Still, with everything that had happened to her, she managed to keep the innocence around her like a protective cloak. She was beautifully sprawled out for me like that, and I desperately wanted to fuck her. But I knew it was too soon... I didn't want to scare her, and if she woke up then and there, I risked alienating her forever.