By then, I was thirteen years old, and it had been five long years since I'd been taken. I was the only kid in the room lying back against one of the overstuffed cushions they had strewn around on the floor as they got high. Maybe they forgot that I was there, or maybe they just didn't care since I was nothing to them anyway. I'd been so beaten down by then, at least in their eyes, that they saw me as nothing more than a mindless object, something that was there for their pleasure and enjoyment.They started reminiscing, and that conversation led to Cierra Stone and how they'd missed that one. I have no idea why my mind decided to latch onto that, but it did. Someone had escaped them, not the same, but it was enough to spark a flame inside me. I listened to everything that day, sucking it all up as I imagined this person like me, who'd been lucky enough to escape their clutches. She became my obsession and my hope.For the next five years, I played them for fools. Though schooling

What the hell? This isn't how this was supposed to go. I for damn sure didn't know the little girls were around, or I'd have come up with something else or found some other way to get my point across. Shame burned a hole in my cheeks, and it only got worst when the women came in. "You were right Catalina, that was really good Roxy, where did you learn to dance like that?"What did Cierra mean that the kid was right, right about what? I hadn't seen her around when I talked to her brothers, and not even they knew what I was up to. When I looked at her, all I saw was an innocent little girl with a pleasing smile on her face, but her eyes… what just happened? I looked around at all of them, trying to make sense of all this, and when I glanced upstairs, I was surprised to see a line of backs. What kind of men are these anyway? I put on one hell of a show, and not one of them made a move? And what about their wives? Why are they all smiling at me like that? Didn't they know what I was

I led her to my room, where I saw that my sister was being funny again. There were clothes on the bed for Roxana along with toiletries. Ash had obviously brought them here instead of taking them to the room Roxana had used as a show of acceptance. Gideon had said he would talk to her about my feelings because as brave as I am, for some odd reason, I can never face my sister with certain things.I didn't make a big deal of it, and neither did she. "I'll leave you to get cleaned up; I'll be back by the time you're done." I kissed her forehead one last time before leaving the room, reveling at the fact that this whole situation had turned out completely different than either of us had imagined.I'm still a bit put out with her for her actions, but I can understand why she did what she did. I learned something, though; I learned that these men, even though they don't know me, have a creed that's pretty similar to mine and my brother's. The way they all tried to protect her while talkin

She looked around at my question as if expecting to find someone else hiding behind me."I'll show you, but you can't tell daddy.""Oh, really! And why is that?""It makes him nervous." I raised my brow at that. If her daddy is the big tattooed guy who looks like he gnawed on granite instead of a pacifier as a kid, then I don't see much of anything making him nervous.And then her words registered, and I felt a dip in my gut. Here we go, this is where she's going to burst my bubble, because what could she possibly be doing that would make her dad nervous and who with? I felt a deep sense of disappointment and betrayal and recognized it for what it was.Because somewhere deep in the very recesses of what once made me human, I'd been holding onto a slim hope that these people were what they seemed. That they weren't hiding behind a façade. I'll give it to them; they're much better at hiding what they really are than the people who'd fostered me. It hadn't taken me long to recog

This kid is not normal. How the heck she talked me into teaching her how to fight first before showing me how to build a bomb like she was about to is anyone's guess; I'm still trying to figure it out myself. "You can teach me the basics, and then I'll bring Lily-Anna, and you can teach her as well. But first, I have to make sure she won't get hurt.""Aren't you afraid that you'd get hurt?""No!" That's all she said with that look in her eyes from before. Okay, kid, you're the boss. Geez, did she get all of her dad's genes or something? The guy looks like there's a whole lot more going on behind his eyes, and the way he'd talked me into feeling calm is still a mystery. His kid seems to have inherited his traits and then some.We stepped away from the table because she insisted that we get started right this second, which I didn't question because whatever."Okay, before we get started, the first thing you need to learn is where to find the pressure points on the body. That way,