Tender Mercies - By Kitty Thomas Page 0,15

But she’d never be brave enough to say something like that. He reached outside the door for the tray of food he’d brought down with him. Scraps from last night’s meal. He hadn’t even brought her water. She’d have to drink it from the sink. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could go on like this, surviving on almost nothing while Lucas used her for his amusement.

He put the food on the ground between them and crouched down next to her, a thoughtful expression on his face. “We are at an impasse.”

She looked up from the plate, dreading whatever might be coming next. She tried not to cringe when he ran his hands over her.

“I can’t finish you. No matter what I do, you hold onto something that I can’t touch. And I refuse to be bested in that way by chattel.”

For a moment, Grace’s life scrolled through her head as if she were trying to hold onto the good memories from before Eleu, because it felt as if something very important were happening. Like something big was ending. The words Lucas spoke were laced with finality. She thought back to the night before, to that house and those men, and the talking in the language she hadn’t been taught.

“I’ve sold you to a harder master. If he doesn’t break you, he might just end you, like his last slave.” Lucas barked out the name, “Asher,” and then the man from the party was filling the doorway to the point where he blocked out all the light from outside the room.

Close up, it was obvious he was a good six inches taller than Lucas. Broader, too. Grace’s eyes drifted to large, strong hands. Hands that could crush her. Then she looked up into the angriest eyes she’d ever seen.

She shook her head. “No, please, no.” Maybe death was better than this life, but faced with the reality of a known killer standing there ready to take her home with him, she couldn’t stop the panic from overflowing. “Master, please. Don’t do this. Don’t sell this slave. She’ll change. She’ll be better.”

“It’s too late. He’s already paid me.” Lucas stood and moved against the wall. Now nothing blocked the path between her and the large, intimidating presence blocking the exit.

Asher took a few steps into the room, and she moved back into the corner, as if her retreat would impede him or slow him down. He reached down and gripped her firmly around one arm, hauling her up to stand. She struggled in his grasp, her brain suddenly stuck in a loop. This is the man who is going to kill me. She’d always believed that eventually she’d die at Lucas’s hands, but now she knew otherwise.

“Do. Not. Fight me,” he snarled.

She froze at the ferocity of those words, her eyes raising to his. Everything stopped for a moment, and she spent a timeless eternity drowning in his eyes. Some wild part of her felt he was trying to communicate in another way beyond words, but she was too scared to hold onto the thought long enough to take it apart and analyze it.

When he guided her out of the room, she didn’t give him further trouble.

At the front door, he draped a cloak around her and led her outside. She had to blink and squint against the sunlight. Birds chirped in the distance, bathing the day in happiness she knew she’d never feel again.

Though Lucas had taken her out some in the time he’d had her, it had always been at night, to parties and clubs, to show her off, or, more recently, to arrange her sale. The day she’d first walked into his home had been the last she’d seen the sun––until now.

Asher pulled her into the backseat with him, and the driver started the car. She avoided his eyes, too afraid to see that fierce anger blazing behind them, an emotion more intense than she’d ever gotten from Lucas.

Her former master had been a great mimic of humanity when he’d only had to be behind a webcam, but the truth was clear once she’d stepped into his house. He was empty inside. Asher was the opposite of empty. That kind of intensity ignited new fears. What was a man with that kind of emotion capable of? How easy would it be to set him off, and what would be the consequences when she did?

She looked out the window, watching the trees go by in a blur. Grace