I think back to when I was first kidnapped. I was exhausted after swimming to shore all night, and then the hands came around me. At first, I thought it couldn’t have been Enzo. I thought it was one of my father’s debt collectors.
After Enzo spared my life, I thought he had compassion. There was no way he would have done this. And then I overheard the men talking about Enzo, about his boss Black. When I was brought to a room full of wealthy men, plodded out on stage like cattle, and sold to the highest bidder, it was Enzo’s name who was given as the seller. He may not have been there, but it was by his order that I was sold.
Enzo must have realized I would have never stayed away from Miami and my father. But he couldn’t kill me, so he sold me.
I swallow the tears back down. “You ensured I was broken, by selling me to the worst men. It’s my turn to give an ultimatum: kill me or answer my questions, because I will not live another day in this hell without understanding why you didn’t kill me that day. Why you were tasked with killing me in the first place.”
I spit my words out, but he doesn’t flinch. Each word is like a punch to his gut. But he’s invincible; he can’t be fractured. He has a natural armor I would die to possess.
“You’re right. I sold you, not to the highest bidder, but to the cruelest man to ensure you a life of pain. One who didn’t even want you, but loved knowing he would ruin you for any other man. Now that you are broken he has no use for you, so he dumped you on the nearest shore.”
I should sob at his words. Or feel validated for confirming my suspicions. Enzo is responsible for my pain, and I have a chance to hurt him for hurting me.
“You are wrong about one thing,” he says.
“I doubt it.”
He smirks. “The men failed. I’ve seen shattered women. I’ve tortured enough men to understand when that last bit of desire to live leaves, when the whites vanish from their eyes, and they relinquish their souls to me. I know what it takes to drive a person to the edge of existence and ensure they never want to hold on. Your body may be in agonizing pain, your mind clouded with fear, but you, Kai Miller, are not broken.”
I gasp.
I’m not broken.
I’ve known it the whole time, yet I needed confirmation from someone else to believe it. My father didn’t say it. Mason couldn’t even imagine it. But Enzo said it without me even asking or pleading with my eyes. It’s what I needed to hear to survive.
“I know I’m not broken, despite what everyone keeps telling me.”
He nods slowly with a tiny twinkle in his eye.
“Now that we’ve settled that, you don’t truly want me to kill you. It’s time to play a game.”
“No, no more games. Even if I win, you’ll find some twisted way to deceive me.”
“And you never deceived me?” he asks.
“No, not during the game.”
He nods. “I never lied to you during the game either. You won the game. I answered all the questions I could.”
“All but the one that truly mattered.” Why? Why did he come to kill me? The one question he never answered and I need to be answered more than anything.
“I was a boy with little power then. Now, I’m a king.” He gestures to the grand room that looks more like a lair than a room.
“You will answer any question I ask if I win the new round?”
“Yes, if you win, I will answer any question.”
This is why I came. To get answers to my questions. To understand why, of all the millions of women in the world, the devil found me. I can’t trust Enzo, but this might be my only chance to get answers.
Why was Enzo assigned to kill me?
Why didn’t he kill me?
Why did he take me?
Why did he have his men sell me?
Why was I tortured to the edge of breaking?