Discarded by M. Hunter (the reading list .txt) 📕

hair. She yelped and screamed and tried to prise his hand from her hair, but his grip was strong and his pull tight.

‘You belong to me,’ he said evenly, almost lifting her from the floor. ‘When I tell you to go and screw a client, you will fucking go and screw that client. Am I clear? Do you realise how much you cost me tonight?’

Tears had found their way to her eyes once more and she continued to claw at his hand without success. ‘Let go of me,’ she spat. ‘I won’t do what you tell me. You’re just a brute and a bully.’

He slapped her hard across the face with his free hand but held her tight, which kept her upright. Her cheek burned with the pain. He slapped her again in the exact same place and the anger erupted from her gut. She scratched her acrylic nails down the side of his face, drawing blood. He immediately released her hair and she toppled to the floor, breaking her fall with her hands and immediately diving away from his lunge.

‘Oh, there’s nothing I like more than a girl who thinks she’s got a bit of fight in her. I broke that out of that black bitch and it’ll be fun to break it out of you too.’

He lunged again but she shuffled her feet out of his grasp. She was now on the linoleum of the kitchen but that meant she was heading towards a dead end. But if she could just slip into the bedroom, she could barricade the door until she thought of a better means of escape. Scrambling over the floor, she’d almost made it to the next strip of carpet when she felt the warmth of his hand on her ankle, dragging her back towards his menacing sneer. It was the same look he’d worn when he’d closed the door on him and Precious earlier.

‘Leave her alone,’ she heard Grey say, but out of sight.

‘You stay out of this,’ Mr Brown barked back. ‘If you kept better order around here I wouldn’t need to dole out the punishments.’

Grey came into view and she saw him push a hand into Mr Brown’s shoulder, causing him to release her ankle.

‘Oh, you want a piece of the action, do you?’ Mr Brown sneered, before a fist flew out and connected with the side of Grey’s head.

Grey stumbled, crashing into the crockery and cutlery on the draining board, sending it hurtling to the hard floor, narrowly avoiding Joanna’s feet as she scurried out of the way. Grey straightened himself before lunging back at Mr Brown, driving a shoulder into his gut and forcing Mr Brown to take several corrective steps backwards. Mr Brown drove an elbow into Grey’s back and her knight dropped to his knees, but he wasn’t beaten yet, coming back with an uppercut to Mr Brown’s chin, before having his legs kicked out from him. Grey fell to his knees and Mr Brown took advantage, delivering blow after blow to his face, blood splashing across the cupboards, tiles, and floor.

Joanna didn’t want to watch the two of them any longer and saw her opportunity to make it to the bedroom and barricade the door, but as she pressed her palms into the linoleum, she felt something sharp catch her skin and saw that the blade of the chopping knife had drawn blood. She stopped and looked back to where Grey’s face was rapidly swelling under the force of Mr Brown’s punches. Without a second’s thought for her own safety, she grabbed the knife’s handle, and charged towards the two of them, aiming for Mr Brown’s chest. But he saw her coming and took a single step back, swivelling Grey in the process, and Joanna’s momentum was too great to stop. The knife cut through Grey’s crumpled and bloody shirt like it wasn’t even there.

He grimaced and blood spurted from the wound as he crumpled to the floor, clutching at the area where only the handle remained visible.

Joanna stared open-mouthed at what she had done, but couldn’t move to do anything to help him. Shock shut down her brain and she stood as still as a statue while the blood quickly spread over the rest of Grey’s creased shirt, swallowing the stains caused by his bloody nose and lips.

‘Oh, fucking brilliant!’ Mr Brown shouted at her. ‘Look what you’ve bloody well done now!’

Grey spluttered on the floor as his breaths came quickly, but they started to slow until they stopped altogether, leaving him staring ashen-faced and wide-eyed at Joanna.

She still couldn’t move and made no effort to fight Mr Brown as he picked her up and carried her out through the rain, forcing her into the boot of his car. ‘I should have buried you with that black bitch but I can’t afford to lose any more money tonight.’

She stared at him from the rough surface of the boot liner, paralysed by fear.

‘You’ve cost me far too much already,’ he growled, ‘and it’s about time you started earning some money. So you’re going to go away for a while, Kylie, somewhere you can’t cause me any more trouble. And I know just the man who’ll pay good money for a virgin like you.’

Chapter Forty-One Now

Weymouth, Dorset

I’m absolutely exhausted as the train door whooshes and opens and I step down onto the platform, leaving only a scattering of passengers who will continue their journey on to Devon. I don’t envy them. All I want to do is get home, shower, and rest. I received a follow-up message from Rick while I was on the train, telling me he’s reserved tables at the Italian, Thai, and Indian restaurants that he suggested earlier, and all I have to do is tell him which to cancel. I certainly have to give him credit for enthusiasm and perseverance.

It has been a long time since anyone showed such interest in me, aside from Maddie, but her interest is usually