Scum.
“He didn’t need to hurt me. I participated. I happily gave him pleasure because I earned pleasure in return.”
Soap.
I desperately wanted soap to wash my mouth.
Silence fell, cloying and sticking to the cave walls. I hoped my lie wasn’t so farfetched to believe. The past few months at Hawksridge gave no hint to who Daniel truly was. He was awful, but I did understand what it would be like to be rejected from birth, told you were unwanted, stripped from human connection.Love. He’d never had unconditional love.
Was it too hard to imagine that with his guard down and happiness in his veins, he wouldn’t want togetherness rather than rape? Jethro and Kes were kind-hearted and loving—beneath the bullshit layered on them by Cut. But at least they’d had some semblance of family. Their mother had cared for them. They’d been raised in a marriage not a regime.
Daniel hadn’t been so lucky. Was that why he’d never evolved past a spoiled brat? Did he lack everything that made him human because he’d never been given tenderness and mothering? Had I gone too far by hinting in my arms he’d found sanity for a change?
“I gave him more than he asked for. I gave him affection.” My eyes narrowed with anger. “I gave him what you were never able to give.”
Cut froze. His entire body locked down as if I’d stripped back his shell and revealed a grotesque truth inside him.
Oh, my God.
Was that Cut’s issue, too?
Lacking love from his own mother?
Bonnie...how much had she warped her son?
His lips pulled back, revealing glistening teeth. “Where is he then? If you gave him a night of fucking wonder, why wasn’t he in your bed? Why were you fleeing with Jet? Why does every word spewing from your motherfucking mouth reek of horseshit?”
I stiffened, curling into myself for protection. “I’ve always said I would run if I got the chance. Jethro gave me that chance. As for Daniel, he left after he finished. I assumed he went to fetch you.”
My mind grabbed a new idea.
“Perhaps, he found another woman to spend the remainder of the night with. Perhaps, he got too drunk and is sleeping it off in the shade.” I kept my voice level, even though it begged to wobble with uncertainty and plead Cut not to hurt me. “I don’t know where your son is. And no matter how many times you ask me, my answer won’t change.”
Cut swiped a tired hand over his face. A tiny part of me wanted to shout so loud my admission would echo in every cave within the mine.
It was me.
Me.
I slaughtered your offspring.
I was the one who took his life before he could take mine.
And I’ll take yours before we’re through.
But I swallowed it back, letting my rage rejuvenate me.
Cut snarled, “You’re lying. Stop fucking lying and tell me the truth.”
“I’mnotlying.”
He grabbed my hair in a feral fist. “You had something to do with his disappearance. I know it. You can’t spin it away, Nila. I’ll tell you what I think happened.” Cocking his chin at Jethro, he growled, “Kite arrived and together you killed him. You plotted this and—”
“No!”
He yanked my head back. The diamonds around my neck bruised my larynx. “Tell me the truth then. Where. Is. My.Son?”
I gasped. “I didn’t do anything.”
