Uncertain of how to respond, she sat and blinked at him before she finally formed words again. “Then why haven’t you made me tell you why I’m here?”
“You’re going to tell me because you trust me and not because I made you.”
“Oh,” she breathed.
Tell him! She opened her mouth to reveal everything, but the words froze in her throat. This had been an act of kindness on his part, but would he be so kind if he knew the truth? Elyse tried not to scream in frustration as she tried to sort through this mess. It was all so damn unfair.
“No, the Savages never compelled me, or at least I don’t think they did,” she said to distract herself from his revelation. “In the beginning, I refused to help the bastards. Then they dragged my father in here, held him down, and cut off the top part of his index finger in front of me.”
She could still hear her screams mixing with her father’s wails as they dragged him out of the room. She’d been openly sobbing as she tried to break free of the vamps holding her so she could get to her father, but they wouldn’t let her go. Joseph waved the fingertip in her face and commanded her to do as he asked, or he’d bring her more parts of her father. At the same time, her father’s sobs went eerily silent as her heart thundered in her ears.
With apprehension churning in her belly, she’d promised to do anything Joseph asked.
“Good girl,” Joseph said and shoved the fingertip into her shirt pocket.
Elyse had screamed and thrashed against the vamps still holding her. When they released her arms, she’d torn the shirt off and flung it on the floor. Their cruel laughter followed them from the room. She’d run after them in the hopes of seeing her father, but the other vamps were already shoving him into a car and taking him away; that was the last time she saw him.
“I stopped fighting them after that,” she said to Saxon and pushed the can away. “If they could control my mind, why didn’t they compel me to do what they wanted? Why did they have to hurt him?”
“Because using your father against you was a lot more fun for them.”
She held back the tears burning her eyes. “My poor dad. They’ll kill him when they discover I’m gone.”
Saxon walked around the table and rested his hand on her shoulder. “I’m going to make them pay for this, Elyse. I promise they won’t get away with it.”
She didn’t respond as she bowed her head to stare at her fingers. He didn’t like pressing her on this, but he had to know more. “So the parts of your father that were on the mantle, they gave them to you whenever you tried to resist them?”
“No. I wish I could say I was strong enough to stand up to them, but after seeing what they did to him, I couldn’t disobey them. I’ll never forget my dad’s face. His blood….” She shuddered as she lifted a hand to her cheek. “It was so warm when it splattered my face.”
That was probably why she hated blood so much, Saxon realized. Who could blame her after witnessing that?
“I always did what they asked afterward, but sometimes, I wasn’tcapableof doing it, or I would lose—” Elyse broke off before she revealed too much about her ability. “When those times happened, a new body part arrived. They never brought my dad back here, but they did bring hispiecesto me.”
Saxon’s breath hissed in, and when her head bowed, he caught the scent of her tears. Kneeling beside her, he brushed back her hair to wipe away the tears streaking her cheeks. The broken look in her blue eyes tore at his heart, and for the first time, he realized he was coming to care for this beautiful, tormented woman.
“And sometimes, they would bring me a piece of him for no reason,” she whispered. “Sometimes, I would open the front or back door and discover a jar sitting there. They were like cats bringing me a present, and it got so Ihatedopening the doors because I was terrified of what I would find.”
The amount of psychological torture they’d put her through would have broken so many others, but Elyse’s spirit had somehow survived it. He wiped away more of her tears as he kissed the tip of her nose; this strong, broken woman was his, and he would spend the rest of his days making sure she was protected.
“When was the last time you walked outside this cabin?” he asked.
“The night you arrived.”
“Before then?”
“It had been a few months, maybe longer. I stopped opening the doors, but when one of the Savages came in at night, they would bring the jar in and make sure I saw it before placing it on the mantle.”
That’s why she was so pale, he realized; she hadn’t seen the sunlight in months.
“I’m going to make them pay, Elyse. Ipromiseyou, no matter what happens, I will make them suffer for what they’ve done to you.”
“Saxon….” Her breath caught when he lifted his head, and she saw the red in his gaze as well as the anguish. That anguish was forher. “Saxon.”
He leaned up and, cupping her cheek, kissed her with a tenderness that left her more shaken than the numerous orgasms he’d given her over the past couple of days. Her fingers encircled his thick wrists as she lost herself to him. She’d learned the taste of his lips well over the past couple of days, but she’d never get enough of it.
She didn’t realize she was still crying until he pulled away and wiped the tears from her face.
“They’re going to pay,” he vowed.
