King's Prize (Kissed By The Baddest Bidder)

Chapter 12: Payback

"Get on with it, kid. I aint got all day."

"Kishi! She's not ready for this!"

Mamoru looked back inidignantly at Honey's high-pitched voice, her eyes in narrowed slits as she tried to shake off Soryu's hold on her arm, but I merely stood my ground, my hand clasping the riding whip so hard my knuckles were already white. Honey had given me a hell of a lot to think about since they brought me to an abandoned warehouse with a bound and gagged yakuza inside, and everything I learned about the occupants of the penthouse eclipsed this "gift."

Eisuke's gift, from what I had gathered.

"Satine," Honey's voice was as sweet as her name but it wasn't enough to shake me from my resolve, and I stared at her both with sadness and disappointment. I would've worshipped the ground Honey walked on, I thought, and now I learned that Honey was not as perfect as I thought her to be.

"You don't have to do this."

I said nothing. Right. I didn't have to do this, but I felt like doing it.
The hotel has secrets. So did the owner and the others, and irrationally I felt like they had betrayed me. The beautiful world I thought was my safe haven was nothing but a figment of my imagination.

I looked down at the man huddled in the corner.

Rino's father.

I should be rejoicing that this man, who had given me a taste of hell in so short a time, who had brought other girls like me to indescribable cruelty, was here where I could inflict the same physical injury. I wasn't brought up to exact revenge where its due, for there was no cause to do so, and my mom, who had been the gentlest of creatures, would surely disagree to what I was about to do.

Miss Honey looked shocked, and I wondered how, as a mafia princess, would she even dare try to stop me after the lengths they had gone through just to bring this despicable man down on his knees.

"I want to," I said in a whisper to my benefactress, who slumped her shoulders in resignation.

Mamoru stepped back as I raised my arm, my whole body tensing, my heart hammering in my chest as I delivered the first lash, and the sound of whip connecting with flesh brought a mixture of relief, regret and rage.

Gathering as much force as I could muster, I brought the whip down a second time.

"That's enough, Satine."

My arm stopped mid-air as Soryu's voice rang out, but my incredulity and indecision was only for a moment before I turned from him to lash out again, and again, my body trembling as the force of my anger heightened with every sound of the whip cutting through skin, Rino's father whimpering with every strike, and I was unable to stop the tears from falling as I fell from my dreamy illusions to the reality that I was now inflicting injury to someone else, no matter how deserving. Because though I wanted so much to avenge myself and the other girls, I was more hurt in the realization that Honey, Eisuke and the others were probably as dark as Rino's father.

"Satine."

I looked back sharply at the sound of Eisuke's voice, who was now standing behind me, his eyes enigmatic and face expressionless as usual. He reached for the whip and tugged it out of my hand before he started pulling me away.

As soon as we were outside the warehouse, he turned me to face him and covered both my hands with his, and only when I looked down did I realize I was shaking uncontrollably.

We stared at each other for I don't know how long, and my throat constricted with unshed tears as I craned my neck to look up at him.

Eisuke Ichinomiya was not the hero I fantasized him to be, and I wanted to cry, wanted to flee his presence right there and then; instead, I waited for him to speak.

Hands still on mind, his eyes were unfathomable as he said, "I thought you'd want to."

I pulled away from him. "I did. It made me happy to see him crumble like that." I spat the words out one by one and Eisuke frowned.

"That's not the reaction I was hoping for."

"You're not the man I thought you were, too," I said in a whisper, my eyes finally brimming with tears as I walked past him to the waiting limousine.