I had siblings at one point in time. A sister and a brother. Older sister. Little brother. Were they my siblings? They were potentially dead or made from monsters. Did I even care?
“So you made me. You made me as leverage for your son… for my brother.”Again, my brain seemed to latch onto the fact that I had siblings.
A brother, for definite seeing as The Company had probably already wound up killing Silver.
A brother made from the man who had killed my mama. From the woman who had raped my bio daddy and harmed mymen.Did I even want to know him, or would he be just as tainted as his parents? Would I only see his parents when I looked at him?
I knew instantly what the truth was, even if it hurt a little.
Iwas nothing like Elaina.Iwas nothing like my parent. Why would this Steel be any different with his stupid metal name? Our names had alliteration. I wondered if it was on purpose? Did it mean something? Or was it coincidence… I wondered if he had brown eyes like my mama, his aunt, and tanned brown skin and a penchant for violence.
I wondered if he was a monster like his daddy or if he had managed to escape the DNA that plagued him.
I wondered if –
“Are you going to stand there and talk to yourself, or let me go?”Elaina snapped at me as she once more tried her best to crawl, despite the bone sticking out of her flesh.“I told you what you wanted – I even have a car over there with the keys in the mirror. It won’t take you five minutes to drive home if you go right at the edge of the street, so just let me go.”
Yumi poked me in the arm, reminding me of her presence and making me flinch a bit. “What are we doing, Sapphire?” She asked softly. “This lady is mean – I know her. I don’t want her left to be here another day.”
I froze. “She hurt you?”
“No, but she let men do it. She did not care when I cried or asked her help.” The disgust in Yumi’s tone was clear – her words were just another long line of confessions to add to my birth mother’s sins.
Elaina tried to say something, but I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t hear anything over my heartbeat and the wind.
She wanted mercy? She wanted a quick death or a release?
She shouldn’t have touched what wasmine. She shouldn’t have made me in the first place.
“Sapphire.”Elaina gurgled out my name like a prayer as blood seeped from her wounds. Her eyes darted between me and Yumi, as though seeking out which one of us would go easy on her.“Please. I’m begging you.”
Unlucky for my mother, I was not a God.
I did not listen to prayers or begging, especially from sinners.
I just made them repent.
Chapter Nine
Did having sex when your girlfriend was missing make you a horrible person? Well, I wasn’t having full on sex. I had yet to go all the way with Price, purely out of guilt and grief. We would have all the time in the world to do things with each other when our girl was home and I would wait until then. But sometimes, like a handful of minutes ago, I woke up panting and yelling and scared. The PTSD of my capture so many months ago had come back to haunt me when I was feeling the worst I had ever felt in my life, and I had needed something to bring me back to reality.
Something like Price, on his knees, using his filthy mouth for something other than trying to spout positive nonsense that I knew he didn’t believe in.
“Jesus.” My fingers tried to lock into his hair, but it was too short. That was fine. I had my girl’s hair to pull and control andI didn’t need to do that with Price when he let me push my hips against him, anyway. “I’m so close, Price. Oh, God.”
I could have sworn I felt him chuckle against me, his cockiness knowing no bounds. It was hot even if I knew it only boosted his ego.
At first I had been a tiny bit jealous of how much better at this stuff he was than me. I felt like an idiot who didn’t know a thing, just like I had the first couple of times I’d hooked up with Sapphire. But Price had made me move past that. He’d made me forget about anything other than the feel of him, whether that was his hands or mouth on me or the other way around. He made me feel like I was the best man he’d ever even looked at, and whilst I had no clue if he was lying to make me feel better, I didn’t care. The way he stared at me made my heart hurt less. The way he spent days upon days insisting I was okay, and things would be fine, made me feel like my control was coming back some. And the way he moaned as I came in his mouth, watching him swallow every drop and lick his lips clean, was enough to calm down my racing heart and push back the memories of my torture that would become my future therapist’s problem.
“Feel better?” He kissed me before he got back on the bed and fell against the blankets, his breathing sharp and his pretty skin damp with sweat.
On any other day – any other lifetime – I would have wanted to stay in bed. I would have remained by his side for hours on end and done all the wicked things I wanted to do. But we had more important things, and women, to find and do and I already felt enough guilt about doing something like this when Sapphire wasn’t home to even waste another moment more.
“A little. Thanks – I appreciate you helping me.” I really did. More than I would probably ever share with him, even if I was fairly sure he already knew just how much I loved his cocky ass.
“You know, I might get offended at how often you’re using me for sex.” He deadpanned, as he grabbed his cigarettes off the wooden side table and his lighter, too.
Price knew Sapphire would beat his ass for smoking inside her house, which was why he did it. He said he wanted to give her something to be mad about because she fought harder when she was mad, and she would need to fight hard to come back to us and stay alive.
