Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
The only real surprise is that I’ll be seeing anything again. If Papa’s saying that the guards will need to be more careful around me in the future…that means I’ll have a future. Which wasn’t so certain before now.
It probably wasn’t certain until Doc said that Tusk wouldn’t have any lasting damage.
Not that it means I get a pass. With Victor properly chastened, Papa’s gaze settles on me and he rises to his feet. “A lady never loses her temper.”
A million angry replies fly to my tongue but I swallow every one. Wearing a smile, I say pleasantly, “Yes, sir.”
You fucking sadistic asshole.
I tense as he comes closer, the lit cigar dangling from his fingers. I hate everything about our positions when he stops in front of me, my face on level with the front of his trousers. It’s not a relief when he grips my chin and tilts my head back to meet his eyes—the cigar still scissored between his fingers, the smoke curling past my eye, that burning tip so near to my cheek. “You’re a good girl, Cherry. And I understand that you might feel as if I’ve broken a promise to you.”
I don’t respond because I don’t know how to answer that. Disagreeing and agreeing both seem dangerous. Tension holds me in a breathless grip as I wait for him to continue.
“You must be disappointed. A gentleman keeps his word, and I said to you that you only had to do as you’re told, and you’d be safe. Yet Victor tells me that Tusk was boasting of his eventual prize when you attacked him. Was it temper or fear that propelled you forward?”
I know what this answer should be, because women are allowed to be weak and terrified. Never angry.
“Fear,” I lie softly.
He nods as if that was what he expected and gently pats my cheek before returning to his seat. “You are not wrong to blame me. Truthfully, I never expected any fighter to win ten rounds. So you were to be a tease—an incentive for them to win, one that they saw every day but could not touch.” Briefly he purses his lips, then shakes his head as if in regret. “Though I will not deny him the prize if he wins, I will see that you emerge from it as unharmed as possible.”
My response is ashes in my mouth. “Thank you, sir.”
He sighs. “That does not sound genuinely grateful.”
Fear spikes through my stomach. “I truly am, sir—”
“No, Cherry.” He holds up his hand to stop me, regarding me with a pitying look. “You think I do not understand? In these immoral times, it takes great effort for a girl to remain chaste, as you have, and you are to be commended. But there always comes a time when a girl’s role evolves into that of a woman’s, and she must relinquish the prize that she’s guarded so carefully. In this past month, I have comforted my own daughter as she shared the same fears before her marriage, uncertain of the man I had chosen for her. Yet she has adjusted very well to her new role and to all of the duties demanded of her. As will you.”
Oh my god. There’s nothing to say. Absolutely nothing to say that won’t get me in so much trouble. “Yes, sir,” I whisper.
“And perhaps it is for the best that you will be rid of your virginity. With Lissa gone, you will need to take over her duties in the barn. But that is something we will discuss further when you return.”
Her duties in the barn. Which means that after Tusk is done with me, I’ll be the one to give the fighters their ‘rewards.’ That new duty might be a punishment for zapping Tusk or might have happened to me after I was no longer a virgin, regardless of today’s events.
I should have expected it. But to hear my fate spelled out so casually still sends me reeling, so that the rest of what he said makes no sense to me. “When I return?” I echo stupidly.
Papa doesn’t answer me. Instead he looks to one of the suited guards flanking the door. “Please show our guests in.”
Members of the Iron Blood. Only three, though I heard far more motorcycles than that arrive.
But I can barely focus on them. I don’t know why Papa’s announcement slaps me so hard. It truly wasn’t anything I couldn’t have guessed. But it’s as if I can’t wrap my head around it. Maybe it’s shock finally catching up to me. Maybe it’s the horror of realizing how easily they plan to replace Lissa. I know we are nothing to them. Not me, not the fighters—we’re just meat with no value beyond what we help Papa earn in the ring. Intellectually, I’ve known that. But this is the first time I’ve felt it, and it’s as devastating as it is enraging.