Dominate Me

Chapter 27

~ Miles' POV ~

Hawk stepped into the room and immediately took his place back by the curtain, fiddling with it gently.

"Avery, do you remember when I told you why Tex wanted to get to you?"

She was pensive for a moment before nodding. "Because you and Liam killed his dad. You weren't supposed to, but you lost control of yourselves because-" she cut herself off, a shocked gasp leaving her lips.

She figured it out that quick. I smiled sadly to myself, feeling naked at the sheer lack of wall Hawk and I could no longer stand by, though he'd stood entirely behind it.

"You said it was too personal for you both. Tex's dad took you, didn't he? It's where you met."

I nodded once, Hawk's jaw nearly bulging from his skin at how harshly his teeth were ground together.

"We were sixteen. He hadn't started trafficking until he saw the interest in us from buyers, but even still, he saw us as potential... employees. He wanted to mold us into puppets that would go out and get others for him to sell. He raised Tex to do anything he wanted, too."

"And Luke?"

Fabric tearing stole our attention, the curtains frayed where Hawk had ripped them in his grasp.

"My brother was nothing but a pawn to get to me. To break me." His gritty voice was a mirror of his pieced together soul, cracking and breaking further along the way.

"Luke was used against me to earn my submission in exchange for his freedom. As soon as they told me that, I told them to let him go and I'd do whatever it was that they wanted. But I wanted him safe first."

He turned towards Ava, his eyes haunted and jaw taut as his chest heaved, each breath torturous. "He collapsed before he even made it out of his makeshift room. He was dead before he hit the floor. He was only eight years old and I couldn't protect him. They'd chained him up like an animal because he tried to fight back, acting like he was big enough to even break the ropes. He died because of me! I couldn't protect him - my own brother. My baby brother. His blood is on my hands and I can never wash them of it."

I turned at the flinch that hit Ava from the mention of the chains, my curiosity piquing at her reaction to that specific piece.

"When I met Miles after finding Luke, I just... I don't know."

"You stuck to me. Welded yourself. Glued your lips to my asscheek. I don't blame you, honestly. I do have a nice ass." I joked, knowing he needed the levity.

"Fuck you." He retorted, though a light smile played at the corners of his mouth.

"I love you, too." I laughed, winking in response to his glare.

"He isn't wrong, though. Tex's father nearly killed me when I tried to go after his men for what they did to Luke, so he threw me back in my room and I had this idiot on the other side of the curtain wall. I did latch onto him a bit. He's two months older than me, but damn if I didn't go big brother on him. We spent the next few months trapped there, but when we escaped, he had my back and I had his."

Ava cleared her throat, chewing on her lower lip and fidgeting with her thumbs, unsure of whether or not to stay on the bed.