I flinch, swallow hard, and stare daggers at Hermes. And suddenly, Ares’ disinterest in fucking my pussy during the first few months of my training makes sense. He was preparing me for a man who only enjoys anal, and if Hermes is right, he only enjoys rough anal.God, what Athena must have been through. Assuming she’s even still alive.
“I know.”
“So how is it that my brother is agreeing to this, especially after he fought so hard to keep you from this exact fate?”
“He’s not. In fact, his exact words were ‘absolutely fucking not.’”
He chuckles darkly, so much like his twin. “And the little mouse came scurrying to me.”
“You said there was no other way to get her back. Is that true?”
“If there was, she’d be sitting beside me right now, instead of my brother’s fuck toy.”
“Ares said she’s your adopted sister?”
“She would have been, had our father given a shit and actually adopted her. She was relative by marriage only, his second wife.”
It dawns on me then, something I didn’t see yesterday. The reason Hermes is willing to risk everything, and why Ares is not. “You love her.”
He looks at me, studying my face. For what—disgust? Horror? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a pinch of both, but I understand too, because I know something about wanting what you shouldn’t, craving it, and being so far gone you can’t tell the difference between right and wrong.
“We had a fucked-up childhood. Our mother was dead, and our father cared more about his drugs and weapons than he did his children. One day, this Mexican bitch shows up with a little girl in tow. Dad tells us the woman is his new wife, our new mother, and the kid is our responsibility now. We were eight fucking years’ old. She was six. We named her Athena because it’s what our mother would have named the baby girl she was carrying in her womb when she died.”
“I’m so sorry.”
He shrugs and hands me the joint. “Her mother OD’d on coke in the master suite. He didn’t even fucking bury her in a plot. Just had one of his men make her disappear with the rest of the bodies that wound up on the compound.” Hermes looks up at the ceiling, his expression turning from hard to wistful in a heartbeat. “The three of us were inseparable. We dreamed about running away, about hitchhiking to the border. We wouldn’t have even made it off the compound before someone reported us missing.”
“So, you and her . . . how did that come about?”
“Athena wasn’t just our adopted sister; she was the only girl we had any contact with. She was our first.”
Jealousy twists in my gut, hot and cruel. “Your first?”
“Our father shared our proclivities. It wasn’t unusual for us to see a naked sub crawling on hands and knees through the living room.”
“Explains why Ares is so comfortable at The Ranch.”
“Oh, you have no idea. Ares at The Ranch before his precious little Pet came along? Comfortable has nothing to do with it. He owned every single slave in that house, and everyone knew it.”
Ice prickles my spine.I don’t want to know this. I don’t want to picture him dominating other women, or men. The kiss with Israel comes back to me, and I hate him all over again. “Did he . . . did he send Israel to live with Texas because he couldn’t stand to see him sold to Vladik either?”
“Oh, little mouse, you’re so delusional.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Ask my brother why he trains slaves, why he’s so fucking good at it.”
I frown. “Because he enjoys it.”
“He does, but that’s not the only reason.”
I take another puff of the smoke, and exhale a shaky breath. The drug is quick to mess with my head. “He won’t tell me anything. He never does.”
“Ares doesn’t really believe that Athena is alive. He’ll never say as much, but I know he thinks she’s dead.”
“Then why take me? Why train me, and plan to sell me off?”
“He took you because he wanted you.”