Gabe chuckled to himself when I stayed silent, sitting back on his ass and ripping the bar open, biting a huge chunk with his sharp white teeth. He didn’t seem to care that he was lounging on this filthy floor. I doubted anyone ever cleaned it; the evidence of the last time I was tortured in here no doubt still remained.
Gabe looked relaxed as he chewed the food, taking his time. I wasn’t hungry, though, so it had no effect on me. not like before when I was half-starved. He didn’t know Theo had spent the night worshipping me with food, and I’d eaten all sorts from his skin too. My body was nourished; I didn’t need to ache for a damned protein bar.
“Get away from me,” I groaned, my voice thin but strong. “Leave me alone.” Instinct had me wanting to ask why I was here, what he was going to do with me, but it wasn’t worth knowing.
Gabe shook his head, his eyes a little manic, but his posture still relaxed — which persona was the fake one? He’d hidden this so well, masked his true self and manipulated me into thinking I might have a friend here. Who was he really? Who was he to Rafael? They’d seemed… close. In that moment, when it all came to light, more than just employee and employer. But I hadn’t let myself consider what more there was.
I wanted to ask, but wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction, so I bit my tongue until I tasted blood.
“I’m not leaving you, love,” Gabe said. “No, I have to get you ready for dinner.”
“Dinner?” I questioned, my head lolling a little, fatigue and pain making it hard to stay awake. Food only went so far, and I didn’t know how long I’d been here, what they might have already done to me. I felt… tired.
Gabe nodded. “Family dinner. You have to look your best.”
My eye twitched. What damn family? I’d killed my dad. My mother was a monster, and my sisters were probably all dead by now. Connor too. I couldn’t even think about a world without Theo in it, so I pushed that away. The Delucci’s must be here to gawp at their leader’s broken bride.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I spat at Gabe. “You disgust me.”
His grin widened, like that was just what he wanted to hear. “All the better then.”
He moved fast like a snake, his hand suddenly in the roots of my hair, tugging me to stand in one rough motion. “Rafe wants you presentable, so you will be presentable.”
“You’d do anything for your master, wouldn’t you?” I goaded him, trying to wind him up as he dragged me across the disgusting room. Spiders still clambered around, piling over each other, disappearing into a fog and repeating over and over. My feet tangled underneath me when he yanked, and I fell to the floor with a crash, pain ricocheting through my body. “Are you like his little pet? His slave? You can’t have been faking the entire time, Gabe. There must be something good in you.” I sucked in a deep breath. “I think you are secretly fond of me.”
At that, he punched me in the cheek, then kicked me in the stomach, making me fall inward and wheeze. He yanked my head back, grabbed my chin and forced me to stare at his rageful face, so twisted and nothing like the friend I thought I might have.
“Let’s get one thing straight, Violet,” he said, spitting my name. “I am whoever I want to be. You are shit on the bottom of Rafael’s shoe. You failed. You were fun to mess with, to break. You have no say, no words. Your failure is our fun.” He paused. “I broke you. We broke you. You lost.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, unable to help myself, conjuring up false strength. My jaw so tense I thought my teeth might shatter, my veins vibrating.
Gabe grinned, wicked and alive. “Any church covenant you think exists here to protect you is a farce, you idiot. Rafael hasn’t believed that shit for years. He’s here for the fun. The power it gives him. I’m just happy to ride on his coattails.”
I choked at his words, unable to process them. “You’re all bastards.”
It was all a joke? None of it was real. My torture was in the name of nothing but sick, twisted fantasies from depraved men. It was obvious, really. What church would have the covenants I was put through? What good was any of it? Just a bunch of evil men hiding behind a law that they created.
“And you’re all pigs,” Gabe replied, then spat at me with a snarl. The glob landed on my cheek, running down my neck. I tried not to flinch, I really did. But I failed, and the smirk that broke out over his face enraged me.
“And pigs are only good for one thing.” He pulled me back to my feet with his fist in my hair.
I didn’t want to know what pigs were good for.
A feast.
Twenty-Seven
Violet
“Shelooksdisgusting,”Les,of all my tormentors, said with a frown as he studied my naked body. “She’s put on some weight already. Fucking pig.”
Gabe decided to continue my humiliation ritual and despair by bringing in one of the few other people that truly terrified me. My first real victim, still alive, walking with a gait now, a peculiar hunched over form like he was trying to accommodate for the missing appendage between his thighs. I suppressed a smirk, bolstered by the knowledge that I’d harmed him. That act is what started it all, I think.
“You feel lighter, I bet,” I scoffed back, looking at his empty crotch.
Les slapped me as I finished speaking, his fury evident in how it radiated off him. “You fucking bitch, I ought to-”
“Lesley,” Gabe admonished, and Les scowled.Lesley, yikes. It was a strange kind of fear I had for him, because there was no respect. He didn’t make me cower, I knew what I’d done, why his hatred ran so deep, but the terror was more primal than that. If he could, he would. It was there; the only thing stopping him from killing me were his orders.
