Hope Restrained (Estate Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

me?”
    Xander looked up at Aaron, noticing how his eyes narrowed
from his rage. He nodded. “She’ll be dead before the morning. You have nothing
to be concerned about there.”
    “Must we kill her?”
    Soft and delicate, Maddy whispered her question. Standing,
she stared at Aaron, crossing the room so that she could touch him. “I’m tired
of the constant slaughter. We’re trying to bring down this network, but it
seems like everything we do only serves to make it stronger. Maybe, we should
let whoever sent her send more, let them start a war that kills off the network
while we run as far from it as we can.”
    Aaron’s face softened. “It’s not possible, Mouse. If anybody
is going to be targeted within the network, it will be you, Xander, or me. There
wouldn’t be a war, because there is no loyalty — not to anything that is
worth their lives. They are loyal to the network, to the money and the power,
but not to me specifically. The Estate members will follow whoever controls it.
If more are sent and I’m killed, they’ll take control, The Estate will exist
indefinitely.”
    Xander pitied Maddy when he saw her face fall at Aaron’s
words. He knew she hated living in this place, knew she still felt trapped,
held within a waking nightmare. However, she wanted it destroyed and the only
way to accomplish that task was to remain a part of the very thing they hated
the most.
    “Use any method necessary to get the information we need,
Xander.” Aaron looked up from Maddy, anger evident in his eyes. “We can’t look
at her like a woman brought in, we have to look at her as a threat. I expect
her to be treated as such.”
    Nodding his understanding, Xander strode across the room
towards the door.
    “Do those methods include rape?”
    He stopped, his head dropping before he slowly turned to
look at Maddy. Her eyes were red from unshed tears.
    Aaron reached out, pulling her towards him. Tipping her chin
up, he looked at her for a few seconds before responding. “Maddy, she’s not
like you. She’s like us. You need to recognize that. We’ll do whatever we have
to do to keep you safe. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but it can be an
effective method of breaking a person down.”
    “Are men raped as well?” The incredulity in her tone was
surprising.
    “I can tell you that Xander and I have not participated in
that type of method; but, I can’t say that I haven’t heard of it being done.”
    Her head fell against his chest and Aaron wrapped his arms
around her to comfort her. Aaron spoke again just before Xander left to return
to the holding cell.
    “I’m sorry, Maddy. We are not good men.”

Chapter Five
    It felt like her shoulder was on fire when Hope woke. Her
head pounded where she had been struck and her wrists stung from where they’d
been cut by the metal shackles. She knew instantly that she was in a cell of
some sort, a prisoner of The Estate.
    Shaking away her disorientation, she slid her feet across
the ground so that she could push up on her toes to remove the strain from her
arms. Her head fell back against the wall when her bodyweight was better
supported. Opening her eyes, she strained to see in the dark. Above her, was a
glass domed roof, the moon and stars of the night sky clearly visible and
providing enough illumination that she could make out the small table in the
center of the room and an elaborate system of chains that ran across the walls.
    Her heart tapped against the inside of her chest, slowly,
rhythmically, as she forced herself to not panic — to remain clear headed
despite her situation. When she could put her full weight on her toes, she tugged
on the shackles, the movement sending a sharp wave of pain down her arms. Her
body shuddered at the sensation. Since she’d been young, she reacted to pain
differently than most people — she’d enjoyed it. Not so much the
sensation of the pain itself, but the rush that coursed through her body afterwards.
It caused her heart to