Trust in Me by Skye Warren

down over me, a grin lighting his face. “I lied, you know. He was the one who gave you two away. He was too interested in you, too interested in a used up whore.”
    The one who gave you two away. The two of us, as if he’d learned both our secrets instead of just mine. The shock must have registered on my face even through the bruises, because he laughed.
    “Don’t worry, cara ,” he said. “He’ll pay for that.”
    Then the door shut, and I was left in Leo’s care.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Ten
    The belt dropped in front of my face.
    “Thank God he’s gone,” Leo said. The hoarseness in his voice wasn’t from exertion. He could beat a man with his fists for hours before tiring. Maybe it was guilt, but my guess was arousal.
    The man got so turned on by pain, by a sliced up woman. It wasn’t his fault. He really couldn’t control it. But I couldn’t tell him so. Couldn’t move my jaw at all. It might have been broken.
    He knelt beside me. His touch was gentle like Tyler’s, but where Tyler had avoided my cuts and bruises, Leo traced them. They burned from the salt of his skin.
    “What’d you do?” His voice held regret, but also a morbid acceptance that he liked it anyway, that he would take what he could get. It was always my fault.
    I gave a short shake of my head against the concrete which only succeeded in dizzying me. I didn’t think I had much in the way of consciousness left.
    “I’m not going to hurt you anymore. I’m not.” It sounded like he was trying to convince himself, and failing. “You’ve been through enough.”
    Some shuffling sounds came to my ear, the very air rustled, and then an even softer touch pricked my open wounds. He was licking me, I realized, tasting my blood, feeling the jagged skin against his tongue. I hated my body for appealing to him, for attracting him, but at least this was passive. When Leo hurt me, I could take myself away in my mind. Carlos never allowed that.
    I couldn’t hope that he’d disobey Carlos, not when he’d never done it before, but I could try. “Please, just make it quick. Give me the knife, I’ll do it. Please.”
    He shook his head thoughtfully. “I’m not going to kill you.”
    That’s how I knew I was in a bad way, that those words inspired disappointment instead of relief. “Why not?” Petulant little girl, bleeding on the floor.
    “I need your help.” Light flickered in his eyes and then extinguished—the light of sanity. “There’s going to be a new jefe around here. Carlos has gotten out of hand. And Tyler…” He made a low sound of dismissal.
    He was hardly the first person to challenge Carlos for leadership. Honestly, I didn’t think he had it in him, not to win, not even to try, but maybe Tyler had really gotten to him.
    “A few of the guards are with me already. The rest will scatter when the fighting starts. Carlos and his pretty boy Tyler don’t stand a chance.”
    I tried to process this. Maybe Leo didn’t have it in him to actually run this place, but if he’d prepared a trap…
    “Why would you need me?” I asked.
    “Tyler’s one of my guys. He’s going to take down Carlos there, and in return, I turn over a few big time guys and get immunity. Well, fuck that. I’ve been under Carlos’s thumb for too long to take orders from some fuckwad FBI agent. Once Carlos is dead and Tyler has control of the shipment, you’re my trump card.”
    I laughed. The sound in my throat when I heard how crazy it sounded. Maybe Tyler had betrayed me to Carlos. Or maybe he hadn’t since Carlos seemed to know about both of us. But even if he hadn’t, even if this was part of some twisted plan of his to free the slaves, to get me out, to get a promotion, he didn’t give a shit about me. “Tyler doesn’t want me.”
    Leo gave me a kick in the ribs, almost a friendly admonition, like a light punch in the arm. “You stupid girl. What do you think this is all about?”
    I thought back to when Tyler had asked to buy me.