“Aw, you see,mademoiselle, that’s not how things work.”He shrugged.“You know my face.You know my name.”
“No,” she quickly said with a shake of her head.“I don’t know your name.”
“Oh, it’s Savage.”He grinned, knowing he got one over on her.“Do you want to know why I’m named that?”She didn’t even respond but he chuckled anyway.“To send a very specific message, I have to get very bloody.”
He grinned and showed off his forked tongue, which explained the hissing.Savage moved toward her and that’s when she made a move to run up the stairs.The bathroom had protected her once, she hoped it would again.The only mantra running through her head screamedfaster, faster! Footsteps pounded behind her, the swish of the knife making her cry out in fright.Suddenly, he grabbed an ankle and she went down.
Quinn hit her chin hard, but she ignored the pain as her body moved into survivor mode.She turned around and kicked out.The man grunted and let loose her ankle.Using the opportunity, thinking she had a chance, a scream burst forth as he grabbed her again.This time, however, he had her leg.Then her waist.He flipped her over onto her back like her struggling meant nothing.
“I like the fighters,” he said.Everything about him churned her stomach.
“Let me go!W-what do you want?”
“I want to hurt you,” he replied as if it were obvious.“I want to destroy you just as Maxence destroyed my property.Tit for tat, and all that.”
Confusion filled her.Max wouldn’t do that.Would he?Granted, he had seemed different the past week.Dark, or perhaps brooding would be a better term.She had chalked it up to being in his space, but now, she realized it was something entirely different.
Suddenly, he brought the knife up and sliced her t-shirt down the center.Screaming, Quinn thrashed around, trying to dislodge him but he was a boulder sitting on her.
“Maxence has been a thorn in my side long enough,” the animal said.“I’m going to bring him to his knees, and you’re going to help me send a message.”
A moment later, her bra was also cut in the center, and he pushed open the two sides, revealing her breasts.Panic set in.
“No!No, no, no.Please no!”
He ignored her.“Look at these beauties!If I didn’t have my masterpiece in place, I definitely would play with these pert tits.”
He bent his head and licked one nipple.
“No,” she whispered brokenly.Tears rolled down her face.“Let me go.Let me go.Please, let me go.”
Quinn banged her fists against him.She bucked and squirmed hoping to make it impossible for him to rape her.He grabbed one arm and brought it to her side, then lifted his knee and knelt on her hand.She flung her arm around in a futile attempt to not be restrained, but her flailing meant nothing.
“Now, pet, this is going to hurt,” he said, as if he were mentioning the weather.“But this will send Maxence a message not to fuck with things that aren’t his.Soon, I’ll kill every single person ofLa Famille Lemaire.Comprendre?”
She was beyond hearing anything he said.Sobs wracked her body, her mind consumed with the idea of what he was going to do.Was she going to die?
He laid the tip of the knife against the top of one breast, then he pressed the tip in and pain engulfed her.She screamed over and over as he sliced over the curve, down her sternum, and below the other breast.Carving a broad S on her skin, sealing this moment forever in her brain.
“There now,” he rasped, sounding proud of himself.“Don’t you look pretty?Maxence might share your bed, but I’ll be the one in your head.Every day.Every time you look at yourself in the mirror, you’ll remember me and this moment.”
Then he leaned down and kissed her.Quinn was beyond knowing anything more.She retreated into a place where pain and degradation couldn’t touch her.No longer could she feel her body as she drifted into nothingness, far removed from the world and the man who had branded himself not just onto her body, but her soul as well.She thought he’d rape her, but he didn’t.Instead, he did something far worse.
He put her in purgatory.
