Page 145 of Dissolving Prejudice

Dion locked eyes with me as he waited for a confession for a crime I didn’t commit. And so, even though my whole body hurt and I could hardly keep my head up, it didn’t stop me from spitting in his face.

My spit, mixed with my blood, landed right on his left eye, and I watched it slowly slide down his face.

“Kill me if you want, but don’t call me a traitor. ’Cause I ain’t one,” I rasped through gritted teeth. “Besides, I’ve got no fucking idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t steal shit.”

Dion wiped my spit off his cheek, then looked down at his hand. “Kill you?” He snorted. “Now, why would I do that when there’s still so much I need to know?”

He wiped his hand over my face, smearing my blood and spit all over it. He then, in a sharp move, grabbed my jaw and forced my head still before pulling a switchblade out of his pocket. Sweat dribbled down my forehead as I focused on the silver knife in his hand, and I tried pulling away when he only kept me closer.

“See it as a little souvenir for all the good times we’ve spent together.”

Digging the tip of the blade into my right cheek, he stuck it in good until he reached the bone. My lips parted in a scream as he slowly moved the knife across my face, the blade drawing over the bridge of my nose as he carved me from ear to ear. Blood oozed from the freshly cut wound, some of it getting into my mouth while I gritted my teeth against the pain. Dion ignored my protest as he pulled the knife out, only to dig it back in and carve another cut, this one going from my jaw all the way up to my eyebrow.

“Not so handsome anymore, are you now?” He laughed before looking behind me. A second later, they covered my head with the damn hood and pulled it back, choking me.

I had no time to focus on the cuts to my face as my body went into defense mode, and I started to move and struggle in an attempt to get loose when they kicked the chair to the ground. A violent scream erupted from me after I landed on my injured hand, and while it hurt beyond words, I had little time to adjust to the pain before they poured water on my face. Water got into my mouth, and I struggled to breathe through the wet cloth and aching pain. I tried fighting my restraints to no avail because each time I attempted to move, I got either kicked or punched.

Out of air, I coughed and gagged, and when I was done, I tried calling Dion’s name. In response, another bucket was poured on my head, causing me to shut my mouth so water wouldn’t get into my lungs. I only managed to hold my breath for brief moments, and eventually, I couldn’t help but choke. The pain was almost unreal, to the point of being unbearable, when it all stopped. Silence spread around me, and I didn’t hear a thing until someone punched my stomach, causing me to puke all the water out. They waited until I stopped coughing before pulling the hood from my head.

Tears welled in my eyes while I attempted to ease the pain with breathing, only each intake of air stabbed me from the inside like the dagger of a sharp knife.

“J-just kill me,” I panted.

The lights on the ceiling blinded my sight until someone moved to loom over me, blocking them away.

“Didn’t you hear the boss?” Gale nudged my cheek with his shoe. “Nobody’s dying on my watch.”

Having nothing to do but to accept this was God’s fate for me, I closed my eyes. Funnily enough, Shay-Lee’s face was still all I could see. His wavy blond locks, the beauty spots above his lips, every shade of blue in his eyes—I saw it all, as if we were lying next to each other on our bed. This heaven couldn’t have been further from the hell I was stuck in, but somehow, it felt so real. So close. Almost a breath away… Perhaps this was what dying felt like, although I doubted it. After all, they’d just told me death was a luxury I didn’t deserve. But they fooled no one, and since I knew I wasn’t stepping out of here alive, I prayed. I prayed to God to keep my angel safe because I couldn’t anymore.

Shay-Lee

“You listen to me, you piece of shit, if you don’t release me right this second, I’ll have my men come for you!”

“Your men, really?” Oro snorted from the driver’s seat.

I woke up a while ago to find myself tossed in the back of a shady van. With my body half-asleep from the drugs he’d injected me with and my hands cuffed with zip ties behind my back, things could have been better.

To say the least.

“Yes. My men. The same men who will snap your bones like toothpicks if you won’t let me go right this second.” My mouth was dry as fuck, and for some reason, I drooled like a dog. Annoyed, I tried cleaning it with my shoulder when the asshole spoke.

“You think I don’t know that you don’t have any security team? Which is weird, by the way, given your fortune.” He chuckled. “Anyway, I know everything about you, mister. So don’t bother lying.”

He met my confused stare through the rearview mirror.

“I know where you work, what you do, how you drink your stupid matcha, which tastes like grass, by the way. I even know how you sound when he fucks you.” His lips twisted with repulsion. “To tell you the truth, I feel sorry for Camilo that he has to suffer those noises you call moans.”

My eyes widened with rage. Not because of his baseless accusations, which weren’t true as I had one sexy voice, but because I’d just learned I had a stalker. Or at least, another one if you included Jordan on the list. “For God’s sake, why can’t I have a normal life for once?” I tossed my head back with a deep sigh. “And to be kidnapped by some ugly twink on top of it all… How much lower could it get?”

“An ugly twink? Are you nuts?”

“No. But clearly, you are,” I hissed when he turned to glare at me. “Eyes on the road, you fucker!” I shouted, and thankfully, the idiot listened. “If you’re going to kidnap me, the least you could do is not get me into another car crash,” I snarled as he mumbled something under his breath while clutching the steering wheel harder.

“Aww, someone can’t take criticism?”

“Just shut up! It’s hard to focus with all your talking,” he snapped, his shoulders slumping.

What a weakling.