Page 53 of All Your Hate

“Yeah, amongst other things.” I shrug.

“I’ve got so many bands to show you!”

I bite back a smile as he tells me what his favorites are. He even shows me the tattoos he's got of their logos. My backstabber of a heart warms a little as I listen to him. The smug arrogant mask he likes to wear has completely slipped. The last thing I want is to like anything about this man, but after not being shown an ounce of kindness for so long it's difficult to ignore my feelings.

More cars start to pass us by and I realize we’ve hit a city. My heart drops as I immediately see it’smycity. The one I grew up in. The one I was taken from. Bones lives just past the outskirts of it.

My mouth goes dry as dread sits in my stomach. “Where did you find me?”

Bones frowns, his eyes flicking between me and the road.

“I need to know, Bones. Was it here?” I lean forward in my seat, suddenly feeling suffocated by the cramped car.

“Yeah. Tommaso Abato lived on the other side of the city with his wife.”

I assumed I was taken elsewhere, but I’ve been held captive in my own backyard all along.

Bones would know that. He found out my name and my medical records. Surely he knows where I live.

“You didn’t know where you were, did you?” he asks softly.

Sinking back into the leather I shake my head. “No. They never told me anything. All they did was order me around. I didn’t even know whohewas until you told me his name. He wasn’t just a nobody was he?”

“Not really. He was a businessman who knew a lot of people and was about to run for mayor.”

“We should go to the police station right now, I can tell them what happened. If his wife’s still out there then maybe she can answer some questions. I didn’t even know he had a wife until now. What are the chances she didn't know about me either? She might be able to help.”

It's unlikely, but I can't imagine another woman willingly letting her husband do that to a person.

“Believe me, the cops won’t do anything for you. Your best bet is to let me handle it. And his wife, Daniella, she’s not going to be as easy to get to as the rest of them. Her face is still all over the news.”

“They suspect her?”

“No. The opposite. She’s got the entire city’s sympathy. I promise you we’ll get answers.” Bones gives me a look that is meant to reassure me, but it only makes me spiral deeper into despair.

I’m starting to wonder if I even want answers.

“You really have no idea why he chose you?”

Chose me.

That makes me want to vomit and punch something at the same time.

“I don’t know! Maybe you should have asked him that before you killed him. I was just on my way home when I was snatched up. Taken somewhere else in the city, a motel or something. It’s hazy. They started drugging me straight away. I woke up one day in a basement and got to stay locked away until he was ready to fuck me again. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?” My smile is laced with bitter poison, all for him.

Bones grip on the wheel tightens and his eyes darken, staying on me rather than the road. “What we have is nothing like that.”

“Wedon’t have anything. You have me because you’re a psychopath who thinks it’s okay to gamble with people’s lives.”

I wait for some sarcastic comment or another sexual remark, but he turns the music off and we drive in silence. His jaw is as tight as his grip on the wheel.

“You’re right,” he says tersely. “I do have you and unless you’re going to throw yourself out the door you’re at my mercy in this car. I thought I’d do something nice for you since you’ve been so good for me, but it seems that bratty mouth of yours is never going to change is it?”

To be honest, I thought he liked it when I talked back. It clearly does something to him as his pants are straining from his erection.

“I’m sure whatever I say will be wrong. So just take me back, I know that’s what you’re going to do. I said the wrong thing and now my punishment will be to go straight back to my cage like some naughty little pet.”

Bones rolls his shoulders back into the seat and runs his tongue over his lower lip. A dark smile curling them up. “You’ve got me all figured out haven’t you?”