29
Jessie
A shriek jolted me back to full consciousness.
Flickering flames in a blackened fireplace. The stench of old piss and rancid body odor in my nose. Another shriek and grappling behind me.
“I’ll have her!” a man shouted.
Fists hitting flesh.
A whimper.
He spit and cursed. “Do as you’re told an’ care for the woman. Or I’ll be takin’ a strap to your a*s afore f*****g you raw.”
The old man—Shiv.
He hit me.
Between my eyes ached, and I closed them, biting back a groan, wishing for my mind to shut down again and leave me in quiet darkness.
Shiv had shown up on Brock’s stoop. Hit me. Dragged me to a cabin I’d seen twice the summer before he’d dropped me for Cort’s delivery service.
“Fuckin’ bastard,” a young voice muttered, and a hand jerked me onto my back.
I gasped as my h
