Share

5: AMAYA’S POV

Author: Still Iv
last update publish date: 2026-03-24 06:27:09

They didn’t take me back to a cell. That was the first thing I noticed.

The second thing I noticed was the silence. This place they were taking me for the “clean up” was quieter.

A lot cleaner as well.

“Stand still.”

The order came as soon as they pushed me into a brightly lit room. I blinked against the sudden light, my eyes struggling to adjust.

After being in the dark cell for so long, everything felt too sharp and too bright.

I hesitated for half a second while I struggled to stay put.

A hand grabbed my arm.

“I said stand still.”

“I’’m trying,” I whispered quickly, exhaustion rising.

The grip loosened.

Women entered the room. They were not like the armed men. They had a ofter movements and calmer faces.

But their eyes… their eyes told me everything.

They were just as important as the guards and on some level, maybe more ruthless.

“Clean her,” one of the men ordered the women before stepping out.

That was it.

The door was slammed shut and suddenly… I was surrounded.

“Take off the dress,” one of the women said.

My breath hitched.

“Wh…what?”

She didn’t even react. “Take. It. Off.”

My hands trembled as I reached for the fabric. The dress I had worn two nights ago felt heavier now.

A lot dirtier too.

Stained with dirt and tears and sweat and blood. It didn’t belong on me anymore.

I didn’t belong in it anymore.

I pulled it off slowly, my fingers shaking, my chest tight with humiliation.

I wrapped my arms around myself immediately, trying to hide my nakedness, trying to feel like I still had any dignity left.

They didn’t care.

Hands pulled me forward.

Warm water hit my skin and I flinched.

It had been so long since I felt anything gentle that my body didn’t know how to react. My shoulders tensed, my breath uneven as they began to wash me.

Carefully and efficiently like I was an object being prepared and not a person.

“Stop shaking,” one of them murmured as she washed my hair.

“I can’t,” I whispered.

She didn’t respond.

They scrubbed away the dirt. The blood. The evidence of everything that had happened. My husband’s vile touch.

The floor of the cell. The fear.

But they couldn’t scrub away what I felt inside.

That stayed.

I fear it was never going to leave.

“Turn,” another ordered.

I obeyed immediately.I didn’t even think about resisting anymore. There was no point.

They rinsed my hair, brushing through it gently.

The softness of it made my throat tighten. I wasn’t expecting this, didn’t understand it and hence, I didn’t trust it.

This didn’t feel like kindness.

When they were done, they wrapped me in a soft cloth. Dried my skin. Dressed me in something new, simple, but clean.

“Good,” one of them said, stepping back. “He won’t like mess.”

My stomach twisted.

He.

Bane.

The door opened again. It was one of the guards that had brought me here.

“Bring her. The boss wants to see her now”

My heart started racing immediately.

This was it.

My feet moved before my mind could catch up. I followed them out, my hands clenched tightly at my sides, my breathing shallow.

“Please…” I whispered before I could stop myself. “Don’t—”

“Stop talking,” the man beside me snapped.

I shut up immediately.

We stopped in front of a large door. Bigger than the rest.

The man knocked once and then opened it without waiting and took me inside.

“Boss. The girl is here”

The room was… different.

It smelt like power and at the center of it… was him.

Bane.

He stood near the window, his back partially turned, hands in his pockets.

“Leave us,” he said.

The man beside me obeyed immediately and left. The door shut.

And suddenly…It was just Bane and I.

I didn’t move. I didn’t speak. I didn’t even know how to exist in the same space as him.

He turned slowly.

His eyes found mine again and just like before I couldn’t look away.

“Come here, Amaya.”

I took a step forward. Then another and another until I stopped a few feet away from him.

He looked at me fully now and my heart was beating so fast I thought I might collapse.

“You clean up well,” he said.

My throat tightened.

“Thank you…”

Why did I say that? Why was I thanking him?

I didn’t understand anything anymore.

“You were married two days ago,” he said.

“Yes.” My voice came out barely above a whisper.

“And now?”

I was almost excited to say the next words that came out of my mouth.

“He’s… dead.”

“I know. I was the one who ordered the hit.“

“What happens to me now?”

I finally asked.

Silence fell between us.

“What happens now is that you belong to me, Amaya Vancouver.”

The words landed like a final blow.

I froze and my mind went blank.

“I…..” My voice broke. I swallowed hard. “I don’t understand…”

His expression didn’t change.

“You were bought,” he said simply. “Then taken,” he took a step closer, “Now you’re mine and belong to me.”

I shook my head slightly, panic rising.

“Please… I can’t… I don’t want that”

His hand moved suddenly gripping my chin. It wasn’t violent but it was firm and unyielding.

“You don’t get to want,” he said quietly.

My breath stopped as tears filled my eyes instantly. This can’t be happening to me.

“Listen carefully,” His voice cut through everything.

“If you agree to be my little princess…” he said slowly, his grip tightening just enough to keep my attention, “you live.”

My heart pounded violently.

“And if I don’t?” I whispered.

“I send you to meet your husband. I’m sure he misses you already.”

My knees nearly gave out. I sucked in a sharp breath, panic and fear and confusion crashing over me in waves.

I had two options.

Die…

Or…

Accept this.

Accept this man who could be worse than Raul. But at least this time, I got to choose.

My lips trembled but his eyes didn’t leave mine.

“I…”

“Go on, princess” he said calmly.

“I agree,” I whispered.

His grip loosened but he didn’t step away.

Instead his thumb brushed lightly against my cheek, and he leaned in and said to me.

“You’ll learn to love it here”

Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App

Latest chapter

  • THE KILLER THAT CLAIMED ME   82:Amaya

    The wardrobe handlers my father sent didn’t speak. They moved around my childhood bedroom like silent robots, laying out a heavy black silk evening gown across the mattress. It looked like an elegant shroud I can’t deny that truth.Regina stood by the door, her arms folded, watching me with an expressionless gaze as I sat unmoving on the edge of the bed. "Put it on," Regina said, nodding toward the dress. "Roman’s security detail is already in the driveway. Victor isn't going to ask you again." I didn't look at her. "And if I say no?" "Then the handlers will dress you themselves, Amaya. Don't make this more humiliating than it needs to be. It’s just a dinner."“Since when did you become my father’s lapdog?”“How dare you?!”“Be silent, Regina. This isn’t your domain anymore”I stood up slowly, my limbs stiff, and let the handlers dress me. The fabric of the black gown was cold against my skin. They zipped it up, tightened the waist, and pinned my dark hair back. Regina

  • THE KILLER THAT CLAIMED ME   81: Amaya

    By noon, the interior of the mansion was cast in a dim, amber twilight as heavy clouds blocked out the sun. I sat in one of the high-backed leather chairs in my bedroom, watching the dust motes drift through the narrow beams of light.My mind was somewhere far away.In my mind, I was with Bane. We were back at his beach house seated by the shore.The wind was in our hair and for a moment, just a tiny moment, I was happy.I was free.I was alive again. The heavy double doors of the bedroom swung open with a loud creak. My father walked in, his hands clasped tightly behind his back, his eyes locking onto me instantly.Even before he spoke I knew that he was probably here to deliver the unfortunate news that Roman would be here soon. "Roman's convoy just cleared the southern security checkpoint," Victor said, his deep voice cutting through the silence of the room. "They will be at the main courtyard within twenty minutes.”“Is there any reason that you saw the need to come and bothe

  • THE KILLER THAT CLAIMED ME   80: Amaya

    The heavy door of my bedroom clicked shut behind my father, the sound of the deadbolt sliding into place.I remained on the floor, my cheek pressed against the cold floor and sobbed silently.The physical sting of my father's slap was a dull ache compared to the suffocating weight of my reality. Every piece of this room was a reminder of what I truly was to Victor, a biological property. A thing that had to be traded, stored, and managed. The small, fragile illusion of love and freedom i felt with Bane had been erased in one violent night.And now Bane and Nathaniel were dead.Why did I have to kill everything that I touched? Regina stared at me all along. She didn't leave with Victor. Instead, she pushed off the wardrobe and walked slowly toward the bed. She stopped a few feet away, looking down at me with the same clinical, diagnostic expression she used when looking at files. "Get up off the floor, Amaya," Regina said quietly, her voice entirely flat. "Crying won't alter th

  • THE KILLER THAT CLAIMED ME   79: Amaya

    A heavy, suffocating darkness pressed down on my chest, dragging me under every time I tried to claw my way back to the surface. My head throbbed with a sickening ache that pulsed behind my eyelids, a brutal reminder of the weapon Regina had slammed into my temple. Everything hurts. When the blackness finally began to crack, it didn't give way to the flashing red emergency strobe lights of the Valak estate.It didn’t even give way to the image of Regina standing above me. Instead, a soft, filtered morning light pierced through my lashes, revealing a high ceiling adorned with familiar white molding. What in the world?I know this place.I blinked rapidly, the agonizing pressure in my skull intensifying as I tried to lift my head from a plush silk pillow. There was no way that I could be here.In this place.After all this time.The air didn't smell like spent gunpowder, copper, or the burning stone of a burning estate. It smelled of expensive French lavender, polished mahog

  • THE KILLER THAT CLAIMED ME   78: Bane

    The world turned completely red. I watched the exact trajectory of the blow in agonizing, high-definition horror. One second my eyes were locked onto Amaya, her beautiful, soot-stained face illuminated by the flashes of my men's weapons, as she ran.Her hands reaching out to touch me. The next second, she was being violently ripped backward. I watched as Regina knocked Amaya out. The heavy steel butt of Regina's weapon struck the side of Amaya's head with enough force to drop a grown vanguard soldier. I saw the light instantly leave Amaya's dark eyes. I watched her limp, fragile body collapse onto the blood-spattered gravel of the courtyard like a broken doll. A sound tore out of my throat that wasn't human—a raw, demonic shriek of pure, unadulterated fury.They hurt her. They hurt Amaya.The last remaining boundary of my sanity snapped like a brittle twig. I lunged at my sister. I didn't care about the incoming mercenary rounds that were chipping the stone pillars inches

  • THE KILLER THAT CLAIMED ME   77: Amaya

    The world was spinning in a fractured blur of crimson strobe lights and deafening explosions. The image of the young vanguard captain falling to the floor, his chest torn apart by automatic fire, was permanently branded into my mind. He had done his best to save my life and lost his in the process. I would never forgive Regina for doing that to him. That was the last thing that he deserved. I couldn't breathe. My throat burned with the thick, toxic taste of spent gunpowder, ash, and the metallic tang of blood. My side still hurt with every move after Regina had hit me with her knee and pinned me to the ground like some animal. Every instinct screamed at me to curl into a ball and hide among the shattered remnants of the limestone pillars. I should have but the frantic sound of the sirens drove my feet forward. I had to get to him. I had to find Bane. If I found Bane, he would make sure that I was safe. I tore through the smoke-choked arches of the lower gallery, my

  • THE KILLER THAT CLAIMED ME   7: BANE’S POV

    The leather of my chair creaked as I leaned back and let out a long sigh. The silence of my study feeling like a terrible weight against my chest. My knuckles were still stained with the faint, metallic scent of blood despite the proper soap scrubbing I’d given them. They also hurt a bit bu

  • THE KILLER THAT CLAIMED ME   6: AMAYA’S POV

    The air in the hallway was thick with the scent of expensive floor wax and something more metallic.I didn’t have a name for it but what I did have for it was a feeling.A terrible reminder I was now a part of this monster’s world.Bane Valak. My feet felt heavy as I followed him, the plush carpet

  • THE KILLER THAT CLAIMED ME   4: AMAYA’S POV

    I didn’t know how long I had been there. Hours? Days maybe? It was really had to tell sometimes.Time didn’t exist in that cell. Only the cold and the silence between the mocking voices of the guards who made sure I could not escape. Only the sound of my own breathing, uneven and weak. I sat

  • THE KILLER THAT CLAIMED ME   3: AMAYA’S POV

    I had no idea how long I had been in that cold van, praying to God that this was not the night I went to meet my mother.There were no windows for me to look out of and I could barely hear anything other than the sound of heavy tires pressing against gravel. Eventually, the van stopped with a vio

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status