Grievous (Scarlet Scars #2)(50)

Kassian crouches down in front of me, eye-level, looking me in the face. He says nothing for a moment. It’s unnerving.

I swallow thickly, forcing back a swell of emotion.

“Aw, my sweet pussycat,” he says, reaching toward me, nudging my chin before his thumb sweeps across my trembling bottom lip. “Did you think you would just awaken in my bed, all tucked in, snuggling with our precious little kitten? That everything would just be forgiven? Forgotten? Maybe you are stupider than I thought.”

Tears burn my eyes. I know what this room signifies. It’s sink or swim down here. This is where he breaks people, his own little twisted version of boot camp. He locks you in and puts you through hell. The girls at the club, they always called it training. You act up, you go back through training, as if this is just some regular job, like we were being taught to run cash registers instead of being forced into submission so he could sell us off.

I’m not talking about some BDSM shit. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing even remotely cathartic about what he does. He wants you to go numb. He wants you to give up. He wants you compliant, a pretty little Play-Doh body that he can shape and form however he wants. A few he keeps for his business, but most aren’t seen around again. Some he just sells off like property, while others never even make it out of this basement.

‘She could not be trained.’

He said that about me, too.

Some girls break within hours.

Most take a few days.

After a week, he usually grows tired and discards them, but he’s been trying to break me for years.

“So pretty when you cry,” he says quietly when that first silent tear streams down my cheek. He brushes it away, his touch too gentle. It fucks with my brain. “She got that from you, our sweet kitten. Every time she cried, it reminded me of you. Those soft, shaky breaths. The way you always quivered. She did that, too. Some days, I could not even look at her without reliving what you put me through.”

“I’ve done nothing to you.”

“You ran from me,” he says. “I gave you everything. I even gave you a part of me. Yet you ran.”

“You were hurting me.”

He raises his eyebrows, looking genuinely curious as he asks, “Was I?”

I nod.

“Well,” he says, staring at me for a moment before continuing. “I suppose, then, it makes you happy to know that you have hurt me back.”

“I never wanted to—”

He grabs a hold of the chain around my neck before I can finish, his hand slipping beneath it, twisting it in his fist, tightening it to where it cuts off my words. I can’t breathe. I grab his arm, clawing at it, trying to get him to let go.

My chest feels like it bursts into flames. Oh god.

“You have not felt my hurt yet, but you will,” he says, his voice low. “By the time I am through with you, there will be nothing left for anyone else.”

He lets go, and I inhale sharply, vision blurring. I’m hyperventilating, trying to calm down, but he’s still right in front of me.

It’s overwhelming.

“Not that anyone else wants you,” he adds. “Especially not that freak. Even he does not want you now. He used you up and now he is done. You are not worth it to him.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I whisper. “Lorenzo isn’t like you.”

Something flashes in Kassian’s face.

He laughs again.

He’s laughing at me.

“Oh, pussycat, you were not falling for him, were you? Did you think he would want to keep you? Oh, this is cute, suka. You gave him my pussy, and you thought you could give him my heart, too? You belong with me. Even he sees that now.”

“You’re wrong.”

“How do you think I found you? How do you think I knew where he lived? He told me, pretty girl... your scarred little plaything gave you up today.”

“You’re lying.”

He stares at me, unwavering, as he reaches into his pocket, pulling out a cell phone. After a moment, his eyes flicker toward it, and he reads out a phone number. Lorenzo’s phone number.

“Do you recognize it?” he asks.

I glare at him. “That proves nothing.”

He presses a button before holding the phone up. The harsh glow in the darkness makes me squint, and I blink a few times, realizing he’s showing me a text message.

14682 Liden Blvd, Queens

You want her, take her.

Leave everyone else alone.



“No.” I shake my head, the chain clanging. “No way, that’s... no.”

“It is right here in front of your eyes.” He shoves the phone into my face, smacking me with it. “Is that not his number? Did I not find you there?”

“Yes, but...” My heart is battering my rib cage. I feel sick. “He wouldn’t.”

“Threatening everyone he cares for must have done the trick,” he says, an edge to his voice. “Because you, suka, do not fall into that category. He would not sacrifice his family, his friends, for a piece of used-up pussy that half of this city has fucked!”

I snap, as he spits those words in my face, his anger slamming into me, fueling my own. I smack the phone out of his hand and send it flying across the room, hitting the concrete face-down, the glow extinguishing, the text message gone. “I hate you.”