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.“Sometimes, we would watch these porn videos at night.He told me I was becoming a man, that I was old enough to see it.”Rose gripped his leg.“Until one night, after we’d watched some dirty movies, he came to my room.”She felt sick to her stomach, knowing what was coming next.“He was drunker than a skunk.He’d been into the bourbon downstairs and he crawled on top of me, while I was sleeping.The bastard tried to kiss me and I had no idea what the fuck was going on.I was a virgin.I’d never even fucking held a girl’s hand.And this bastard was grabbing my dick, trying to sex me up.”Rose scrunched her eyes shut.She knew that feeling, someone bigger and stronger than you, pawing at your body.“I screamed my head off and he slapped me, pressed his hand over my mouth and told me if I woke one of the servants, I’d be sorry.He weighed about two hundred pounds or so, twice my size at that age.He tossed me over on my stomach, used his belt to lash my wrists to the bed, and fucked my ass until I bled.”Her stomach clenched.“The next night, he came to my room and I threatened him.Said if he touched me again, I’d tell my mother and the police.He decided to teach me a lesson,” Duke said, his face completely impassive.“Justin had a thing for pain, it got him hard.” He sucked in a breath.“That night, he shoved my underwear in my mouth, duct-taped me to the bed, and whipped me bloody.Then, he fucked me.The bastard didn’t even use any lube on me.”Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes and she dashed them away, swiping at them with the back of her hand.She knew he wouldn’t be able to take it if she started to cry.Duke took a sip of his scotch.“Afterwards, he said no one would ever believe a little punk like me, a poor kid from a broken home.He said I was ungrateful.That he’d been nothin’ but nice to me and I should try to please him.” He chuckled dryly.“That bastard actually tried to fuckin’ guilt trip me.But, it was his threats that worked.He said if I told her, he’d divorce my mom, and we’d end up on the street.She’d die without medical care.”“Oh my God.He blackmailed you!”“Yeah,” Duke said tightly.“And he picked the perfect fucking thing too.So, I shut my mouth and took it…for nearly four years.”Her weeks in captivity had been horrific, but Duke had lived in his hell for years.“It just became a fact of my life.He’d come upstairs late at night, after everyone had gone to bed and fuck me.I had nowhere to go and I was too damn afraid and ashamed to tell anyone my stepfather was molesting me.So I took it.I buried it down deep and tried not to think about it too much.Instead, I studied my ass off.I took honors classes, did extra credit, joined every club that would have me, especially if they had after school meetings.”She stared at the dancing flames, willing her nausea to die down.“It finally stopped around the time I turned seventeen, right after my mom died.I grew six inches in one summer and I didn’t look or feel like his fucking boy toy anymore.When he came to my room, I punched him in the gut.Really wailed on him.My mom was dead.He didn’t have a hold on me anymore.I gave him two black eyes, broken ribs, and he’s lucky I didn’t cut his fucking balls off.”“Did he fight back?”“Oh, he beat the shit out of me, too.But I gave as good as I got.After that, I put a fucking lock on my door, and he left me the hell alone.”“Duke, d-did you kill him?” She rolled over to see his face.He offered her a black as sin smile.“You bet your ass I did.”“Tell me,” she said, moving to a seated position beside him on the couch.“I need to know.” She chewed on her lower lip, waiting to hear the story.“Why? So you can fantasize about offing Kent? It changes you, Rose.”“I’m already a different person,” she said, chin jutting out, daring him to contradict her.“Yeah, you’ve been beaten down.You’ve been hurt.But you aren’t a murderer.”“And you are?”“I am,” Duke said, nostrils flaring.“I was taught by the government how to be a sniper and I was damn good at my job.Hell, maybe I even enjoyed it a little too much.”“You’re trying to scare me,” she accused.“Trying to get me off this path.”He drained the rest of his drink.“Fuck.Yes I am, Rose.It’s a bad path and it don’t lead anywhere good.”“How did you kill him?” she asked again.It was like she was obsessed, she needed to know.“I shot him in the back of the head,” he said flatly.Rose couldn’t help but imagine shooting Kent like that.Watching him pitch forward, in an explosion of brains and blood.“When?”He searched her face and from his expression, it was clear he didn’t like what he saw.“During med school.By then, I had enough knowledge of the human body to make it clean and quick.”“Why did you wait so long?” she asked, shaking her head.“I don’t understand.You were close to becoming a doctor.Why did you risk it all?”“Why didn’t I let it go? The way you have?” he pointed out.She nodded.It wasn’t like she had just moved on like nothing had ever happened.“Point taken.”“I was a hypocrite,” Duke said finally.“I knew what my stepfather was, but I didn’t report him to the police.I was humiliated I’d let it go on so long.So, I kept my mouth shut and I took his money and used it to pay for school, even though it ate at me.I told myself I deserved it, for all he put me through.But I was taking blood money from him or hush money.Whatever you want to call it.I just couldn’t do it anymore when I found out Justin was grooming another kid.”“Oh, God,” she breathed.His face was grim.“The maid’s son.He was twelve years old, just like I’d been when he got the hots for me.I’d stopped by the house to drop off my tuition bill.Justin was supposed to be at work, but instead I found him in the pool with the kid.They were laughing, floating together on the inner tubes, and he had a look on his face—that hungry, dirty look.” He shuddered.“And I knew exactly what he was going to do the boy.” Then, he faced her.“And I knew what I had to do.I made up my mind then and there to kill him.”“How did you do it?” she whispered [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]