“Bullshit.”
My brother scoffs with a chuckle and waves Matteo forward with one hand. “Well, here’s your perfect opportunity to prove me wrong, then. One on one.”
Bay is going to kill me if she finds out I allowed her ex to fight Torin with a six-inch blade.
However, this needs to happen. And Torin has a lot of pent-up aggression he needs to release and get out.
Matteo begins to circle my brother while Torin mocks him, careful to keep him in sight at all times. De Leon is so predictable, it’s almost secondhand embarrassment.
He tries to inch on my brother without him noticing, but he waits too long, and his steps are too wide. Torin jumps back when Matteo swings his blade, going for his gut first, then his head.
And my brother, all he does is laugh.
“Think outside the box, Matt,” Torin taunts with a smirk. “That’s what she calls you, right? Cute little pet name—” Matteo lunges again, almost nicking Torin in the side, which prompts Torin to whoop in excitement.
“Damn, almost got me there. Keep it up. You’re doing great.”
Matteo’s upper lip curls back, but he keeps circling Torin. “You think you’re so tough, Wildes. You don’t know the struggle or how to keep people in line even if they did it themselves.”
“Do tell. And this time, say it with your chest, De Leon.”
“You think you’ve got this all figured out. The Landings, Bay, your littlecrew. The thing is, you give her too much power. A power she’s going to use against you when she climbs on the Fifth Titan seat.”
He knows she has the Fifth seat.
It’s not exactly a huge secret, but I’m not a fan of him knowing. I don’t like that he knows anything about her.
“That’s why I always made her remember who was boss,” Matteo claims evenly. “That little bitch is hard headed. Always wanting to push the bar but see, I instilled fear in her. Something she still feels ’til this day.”
“Not enough if she was willing to risk it all to be with me.”
Matteo flings the knife in a failed attempt to hit Torin, but it clinks to the concrete. “Thatbitch will pay for all her indiscretions against me. She knows what will happen when I get my hands on her. And if she thought it was bad before, I’m worse now.”
“What did you do?” Torin presses, his gaze flicking to mine for the briefest of seconds before landing back on De Leon. “Smack her?”
Matteo chuckles with malice. A hardened sound alluding to it being anything but. “What didn’t I do to that girl? Waterboarding, public humiliation because she wanted to be a whore behind my back. The boys loved using her to stroke their cocks to. All that cum, Wildes…there was loads and loads of it, and I wouldn’t allow her to shower them off becauseyouwanted to get inside, didn’t you? Then there was fucking her against her will…”
My blood runs cold as Torin’s expression blanches a bit. He doesn’t scowl. He doesn’t show any emotion, but I know the comment hit exactly where it did for me.
And it was in the gut.
“She screamed and fuckin’ screamed for me to stop. But all it took was one punch, and she’d shut the hell up.”
“Made you feel like a man, didn’t it, De Leon? Fucking and beating on an innocent girl got your dick hard.”
“I liked Bay,” De Leon replies nonchalantly. “But I didn’t like her enough to be exclusive, but that’s beside the point. I didn’t need to be. I just wanted her power, her heirdom so I could take over the Titan seats. Other than that, I broke her every single fucking day of her life. And I loved it.”
I’d broken her every single fucking day of her life. And I loved it.
That’s what men tried to do to me in prison, especially since I was so young. Some wanted another member of their gang. Others wanted me to be their bitch to fuck whenever they pleased.
I was terrified at night someone would attack or kill me.
Until I began to learn the game.
Bay was in her own confinement with De Leon. He tortured and raped her like she meant nothing to him. As if she was disposable and meant nothing at all but what was owed to her.
That’s all he wanted.
