Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
His gray eyes reach inside mine, clawing out my soul the moment his fingers scrape down on the floor and begin to claw their way to me in desperation, leaving bloodied streaks on the floor.
The sight haunts me. Destroys the very core of my being and grinds it into dust.
“Still think you have any semblance of power?” his father grits.
THWACK!
He strikes Ares’s back with an actual bullwhip right in front of us.
I shriek from the sound it makes, the flick of his wrist as he so easily scars his own son.
“NO!” Kai screams, to no avail.
“Move, and I’ll put a bullet in all of you,” the guard growls. “And I’ll do it far quicker than any of you can ever pull the triggers on those measly guns you have.”
But it’s the way Ares gazes up at me with a pleading look in his eyes that breaks me as he begs, “Please … run.”
“STOP!” Caleb screams at Mr. Torres. “What the fuck is wrong with you? That’s your fucking son!”
“What is wrong with me?” Torres growls. “It’s your fault he’s behaving this way. You degenerate pieces of shit, breaking into my casino, have destroyed his mind. He’s no fucking son of mine.”
Despite the pain, Ares manages to curl up and bring his knees forward, leaning on both hands and knees, blood dripping down on both sides.
His father whips him again, causing his body to buckle under its own weight, and tears spring to my eyes. “Stay down and let these friends of yours watch you whimper like the useless animal you are!”
But Ares refuses to lie down, continuously shoving his own knees underneath his body to try to stand, even when his whole body caves in on him.
I can’t. I can’t watch this.
Not again.
Even if there’s an automatic rifle pointed at me, ready to kill me, I can’t let Ares suffer. He’s suffered enough.
Right before the third strike hits him, I bolt away from the door and wrap my arms around his body, shielding him from the impact right when it strikes. “NO!”
THWACK!
“CRYSTAL!” Blaine’s voice rips through me, but not nearly as harshly as this whip.
The sizzling pain is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced, a crackle to the spine like thunder, heat striking my skin causing a loud shriek to emanate from my lungs.
Just one strike, compared to the hundreds Ares might have received …
And I am struck in awe at how long he endured.
I thought I knew what hatred was as Ares tried to instill it within me with every one of his stares, but now … now I’ve felt it enter my skin and seep into my bones, twisting my mind into furious knots until all I see is red from blinding rage.
I turn and grip the whip at the edge, holding on as tightly as I can while staring into the eyes of the real monster. “This stops. Now.”
“You … You dare to interfere?” he says, grinding his teeth. “It is my right to punish him.”
“Your right is nothing but to feel the same pain you inflicted on him!” I scream. “How dare you? How fucking dare you?”
He yanks away the whip and pulls out a gun instead, aiming it at my head. “Move.”
“Torres, don’t you fucking dare!” Caleb yells.
“Stay out of this,” Mr. Torres grits before he focuses his attention back on me. “You … you … I recognize you. Why do I recognize you?”
“Because I look like my father … the innocent man you callously murdered without a care just because you thought you had the right,” I growl. “And I watched your son pull the knife out of his body.”
His face contorts with utter evilness and a hint of disgusting pride. “You … you’re the reason my son destroyed his chances to be a true Torres.”
The barrel is pushed into my forehead.
“No,” Ares grumbles from underneath me. “Please. Don’t kill her.”
His father begins to laugh maniacally. “You all came here to do what? Save him?” He laughs again, even more menacingly than before. “You think I took him against his will? He came on his own accord. He doesn’t want to be saved.”
“Bullshit!” Caleb yells. “He never asked you to fucking whip him!”
“He needed to be shown the punishment for defying me, for continuously killing the people I work with, for purposely getting in my way every single time just to defy me.”
“You broke him,” I mutter. “You broke his spirit. His body. His mind. Even his heart.”
“Torreses have no conscience. No remorse. We don’t need a fucking heart,” his father growls, glaring at Ares. “And yours made you weak. Vulnerable. Useless. You couldn’t even kill one man to solidify your place as my goddamn heir. You chose his life over your own, for her?” He spits on me. “What a disgrace.”
When his hand rises to strike me with the whip, Kai swiftly takes out the momentarily distracted guard with a single shot to the temple while Caleb runs toward Mr. Torres and grips his wrist, twisting it to stop him from hitting me. “Don’t you fucking dare!”