SIX
He doesn’t even realize he’s just made a huge mistake.
The agony in my hand and shooting up my arm barely registers over the thrill of knowing I’m getting out of here…soon.
Cutting off someone’s finger is brutal and a staple of torture.
It’s also really fucking stupid when you have them strapped down to something and are depending on the restraints to keep them compliant.
The leaden feeling in my limbs will wear off after a few hours. It always does.
Once that happens, I’ll be able to slip my left hand free of the restraint thanks to now being sans-pinky.
The man who doesn’t make mistakes has finally opened the door for his own demise.
It was only a matter of time, and now that it’s happened, I can barely contain the excitement bubbling through me.
I study the back of the man who has sliced and diced me for almost two weeks. He has no idea that by this time tomorrow, he’ll be dead.
What I wouldn’t give to be able to have a few days with him in this playroom to inflict upon him what has been done to me ten-fold.
He will get what’s coming to him, but getting to Jade trumps my desire to exact the type of revenge that’s burning in my brain and gut right now. She’s the only thing that’s mattered in my life since the moment she first smiled at me and that unfamiliar tug in my chest formed. My black, dead heart warmed with something I’d never experienced before.
And I won’t fucking lose that.
“Are you done for the day?” My words come out more like a croak through my raw, scratchy throat.
It’s stupid to engage him. I know that. I try to never give him any indication that anything he’s done to me hurts. And that’s a real motherfucking chore. I’ve gritted my teeth so much and so hard, at least two have cracked. But knowing I’ll have the upper hand shortly has brought about a new bravado and desire to fuck with this cocksucker.
His turn back to me is slow and methodical. “Would you like more?”
Dark eyes roam over my naked form. “Perhaps you wouldn’t miss a rib or two?”
He stops at my cock. “Then again, the American serial killer…what was his name? Ah, yes…Dahmer…he may have had the right idea with keeping certain things as trophies. It would add a little something special to my collection. I can keep it next to your finger.”
The mere mention of my missing digit causes a throbbing to erupt again in my hand.
“Who needs a pinky anyway?”
The doc chuckles and returns his attention to my face. “That may be true, and you won’t be needing any of your appendages anyway.”
My balls shrink up into my body at his words. Maybe antagonizing him was a bad call. If he decides to continue working me over there’s nothing I can do to stop him.
He leans back and shakes his head. “But I won’t take it tonight. You’ve lost enough blood as it is. I wouldn’t want you to go into shock. Having to revive and stabilize you would ruin my dinner plans.”
I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved by someone else’s hunger.
“I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow, Konstandin. We have a lot of work to do.”
He’s certainly right about that. I have a lot of work to do tomorrow. As soon as these drugs wear off, this fucker is mine.
His retreating footsteps and the clicks of the locks falling into place allow me to relax, as much as that’s possible while strapped to a metal table, bleeding from an amputated finger, and about a million other cuts.
Jade’s green eyes flash in my mind.
The pain means nothing.
Nothing means anything.
Not until Jade is safe and back in my arms.
Tarek won’t kill her. No, in his own sick, twisted mind, he loves her. That’s what terrifies me the most because Tarek’s version of love isn’t anything a normal person would recognize.
I didn’t even know what it was until I met Jade. And even then, it took six months of watching her, guarding her, and seeing what a truly magnificent and innocent person she was to finally realize the tightness in my chest and the racing of my heart weren’t caused by any ailment. I had fallen in love with my brother’s fiancée. And for some reason only God knows, she loved me back. Even through the hard, bloody exterior, she saw into the depths of my black soul and found a sliver of light.
No one has ever meant anything to me. No one ever got close enough to touch my heart. But she didn’t just touch it, she consumed it, and me.
I don’t even care if she never forgives me, if she says she never wants to see me again after letting this happen. As long as she’s okay, I can find a way to scrape and survive, even without her. Even though she is the very air I breathe. I just need her to be safe.