When the breath left him in a whoosh of air as he leaned forward, I kneed him in the face with the other knee.
But, just like my father told me, a determined man wasn’t going to go down easily. Taking a knee to the balls and to the face didn’t take Drill Sergeant Brees down like I would’ve hoped.
So I decided that the next best thing was to run.
I ran.
Hard.
Only, he was faster.
Just like my father said.
A man is always going to be faster. Stronger. Able to go longer than a woman. If you ever truly need to get away, you need to strike hard, fast, and think smart.
I screamed.
Only, my face met the dirt so fast that the only sound that got out was a high-pitched yip before my mouth was full of so much dirt that screaming was impossible.
I struggled hard, but his full body weight pinned me down, forcibly holding me there while he growled behind me.
“Made a mistake, you little bitch,” Brees hissed from behind me. “All I wanted was a fuck. You could’ve given me that without getting this. But… your fault.”
I struggled hard, and with each tug of my arm, he’d punch me somewhere.
Neck. Kidneys. Shoulder. Ribs. Face.
Over and over, he hit me, trying to keep me still, and over and over I struggled until I just… couldn’t.
There was no fight left in me.
“No!” I cried, tasting dirt, saliva, and blood. “Please, no.”
“Ahh, the sweet sound of begging coming from a girl so high and mighty.”
I wanted to throw up.
He was such a piece of shit.
That’s when I heard the sweetest sound to ever grace my ears. It calmed me down so quickly that a rush of euphoria rolled through me.
Absinthe Solomon’s voice.
“Get your filthy fucking hands off of her.”
Then the sound of punching filled the air.
Grunts. Curses. Then a bone-wracking thump.
That’s when I passed out for good. At least, only after I felt the sweetest touch on the edge of my jaw. The only place, likely, that wasn’t bruised or bleeding because he couldn’t reach that particular spot with the way I’d been positioned.
When next I woke, it was to a sterile-looking room.
My eyes peeled open, and I was staring at a white ceiling with very bright lights.
“How the fuck does something like this happen?” I heard my father growl. “We left her in your care, and you shit all over that. And now you’re sending the man that saved her to prison? What a crock of fucking shit.”
I turned my head to see the general standing there with my father all but thumping him in the chest with his finger.
My dad was in his face, pissed as hell, and towering over the general.
My mother was standing at his side, looking just as pissed. And then there was my grandfather, staring right along with my mother, quietly seething.
My brother was there as well, flanking my father, arms across his thickly muscled chest, jaw clenching and unclenching as if he was having to control his temper or he was going to deck the hell out of the general.
Oh, boy.
“Dad,” I whispered softly.
My father’s head whipped around so fast that he all but caused himself whiplash.
He was there in the next second, leaning over the bed.
“Baby,” he said softly. “Are you okay?”
No, I wasn’t okay.
But I also didn’t want him to be hurting the five-star general that was currently the only man that could make my life a living hell.
“You’ve been asleep for days,” he whispered. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
I wasn’t okay. Not at all.
And I knew without a shadow of a doubt I didn’t want to return to the Army.
Not after what I’d just gone through.
“No, I’m not okay.” I swallowed hard. “I want to go home.”
His eyes turned soft. “You’re coming home. As of this afternoon, you’ve been medically discharged.”
Thank. God.
I closed my eyes in relief, but then something my father had said to me brought me up short.
Eyes flashing open, I stared at my dad. “The man that saved me. Drill Sergeant Solomon. Where is he? Is he here?”
My father’s jaw clenched. “No, honey. He’s not. He’s been detained for further questioning for attempted murder of that piece of shit Brees.”
CHAPTER 1
Everybody is a dumb whore.
-Sin’s secret thoughts
SIN
Two years later
Dishonorably discharged.
Moved to Huntsville State Penitentiary.
Getting out from under the torturer’s thumbs.
Thank fucking God.
I didn’t think that my life could get any worse.
But then I’d gone to Leavenworth, and I realized that there were worse things that could