Connor's Claim (Body Count, #2)

by Jolie Vines

But in my quest to ready myself for a man worse than even my father, the edge of the tape covering my inner arm tattoo caught on my clothes. I hadn’t looked. Hadn’t even peeked. Suddenly, I needed to know. I dropped the dress to the floor and peeled away the tattoo’s opaque cover. A word was revealed, black ink written into my skin in beautifully executed script. CLAIMED. My breath hitched. My heart pounded. Spinning around, I peered back to the mirror and lifted my cami, tearing away the tape over my lower back. WANTED. The next were at the top of my back and then my thigh. OWNED. NEEDED. The word under my breast gave up MINE. My laugh came out as a sob. He’d threatened his name, but the delivery was just as perfect. My hip declared LOVED. Oh God. I had one last tattoo to read, and it was the smallest, inked right behind my ear. FREE, the mirror told me. I wasn’t free, not yet, but a burst of hope suffused me. I’d been wrong about his rejection. What he’d done to me was the evidence of Connor’s claim, and it changed everything. Now, I’d do all I could to end this horror show in the best way possible.