by M. S. Willis
On one particular morning, while sitting at the keyboard of the shining, black grand piano that Joseph had bought to be a centerpiece of her music room, Arianna toyed with the keys, her boredom affecting her ability to connect with even her music that morning. Standing up, she moved fluidly to the large bay window of the room, her eyes looking out over the woods that surrounded the house. It was still early enough that a dense fog clung to the ground, appearing like a swirling pool of mist over the leaves and small plants spread across the forest floor. She admired the thin splinters of light that broke through the thick canopies of the trees and she decided to explore the grounds around the perimeter of the house. She returned to her quarters and selected a coat that would be thick enough to guard her against the chill in the air.
When she’d finally traveled the long distance to the side doors of the corridor, she pushed out into the open air, breathing deeply, the feeling of ice blanketing her chest and lungs. The steam of her breath billowed out in front of her as she walked a path into the interior of the forest. She walked for half an hour, noticing that the path traveled parallel to the house, rather than leading her out deep into the woods. The serenity and peace of her surroundings soothed her tired spirit, energy seeping into her heart and mind from the lack of walls surrounding her.
Walking leisurely, she listened to the bird songs and the wind as it forced its way through the heavy boughs of the trees. If ever there was Heaven on Earth, Arianna thought she had found it in that moment and it had been her husband who’d given it to her. She smiled a sad smile. Their love was bittersweet because, when they were together, nothing else in the world mattered; but when they were apart, she couldn’t help but feel terrified that Joseph wouldn’t return the same man that he’d been when he left her in the morning.
A loud snap sounded behind her and Arianna turned suddenly, the clear blue of her eyes deliberately traveling over the distant trees and shrubs, seeking out the cause for the noise. Although the sun should have been higher in the sky, it seemed the fog had grown even more dense during the passing morning, effectively diminishing her vision to within fifty feet of her on either side. Another soft rustle and her eyes shot to her left, scanning intently seeking out the source of the sound. Her heart rate slowly sped in her chest, and her billowed breath appeared before her at a more frequent rate. She’d walked such a distance that she was unsure where on the property she stood, but she was comforted to find that, in the distance, she could still make out the lights of the mansion. The next snap that she heard had her eyes shooting back in the direction from which she’d traveled. She stepped backwards, unsure of where to run if an animal was sneaking up to attack her.
An eerie silence fell over the forest, her eyes moving desperately to locate the cause of the sounds she’d heard. When another soft wisp echoed through the trees, she looked out again, her eyes finally settling on the blonde fur of a distant deer. She laughed, her hand going to her chest in an attempt to settle the pounding beat of her heart. She watched as the deer bent down to eat plants on the ground. The animal’s beauty was breathtaking. Majestically, it moved through the trees, its large antlers casting shadow when it traveled through the sparse bits of light that leaked through the thick canopies. Fascinated by its presence, she watched silently as it moved through the fog, but eventually it moved so deep into the woods that she could no longer make out its form.
Spinning on her heel, she turned to go back to the house but suddenly found herself locked within the thick arms of a strange man. His hand covered her mouth when he brought his mouth down to her ear. “And what do we have here? You appear to be lost, little one.”
Forcing her off the path, he dragged her into a dark area where light could not penetrate. She felt the rough bark of a tree when he pressed her against it, his hand quickly moving to reach under her jacket and shirt. When his fingers brushed across the bottom of her breast, she opened her mouth to draw in one of his fingers, biting down hard enough to break the skin, her mouth instantly filling with the bitter, metallic taste of his blood.
The man pulled away as soon as she bit him, but brought the back of his hand across her cheek with such force, her head was knocked sideways against the rough surface of the tree. She slid down against the tree, her skin scraping across the bark and the taste of her own blood now mixing with that of the man she’d bitten.
“You like to play rough, do you?” Kneeling down he grasped her by the collar of her jacket pulling her up so that his face was nose to nose with hers. “I can play rough too.” His breath smelt of cigarette smoke and liquor and when she went to scream again he covered her mouth with his yellowed fingers, careful to put enough pressure against her lips to prevent her from biting him again. His large body pressed down over her, his other hand pulled at the material of her jacket, eventually working its way towards the button of her pants. She brought her knee up, connecting weakly with his crotch, alerting him to the fact that she was intent on fighting against him.
Easily flipping her over, he used his hand to push her face down into the sodden ground, pulling at the waist of her pants and exposing her bare ass to the chilled air. She cried when his hand slipped beneath her panties, tearing the fabric in his rush to violate her.
She could barely breath, the dirt from the ground filling her nostrils and throat from her rapid inhalation of air. The skin of her cheek stung from where it had been scratched open against the trunk of the tree and then forced into the earth. Tears fell from her eyes leaving muddied trails through the dirt that now covered her face. His large hands undoubtedly bruised her skin and when he finally had her stripped off her pants, he lifted her hips towards him, letting go only briefly so that he could free himself of his pants as well.
Taking the split second of opportunity, Arianna turned her head to the side and screamed with every bit of breath she had left in her. The man instantly corrected his error, grabbing her by the hair before he forced her face back into the damp ground to silence her cries. Her mouth filled quickly with mud and her body fought against the barrier preventing her ability to breathe. Just as the man had positioned himself to force himself inside, her body tensed in her last defense against the violent intrusion. When it was clear she would be raped, Arianna heard a loud and unexpected crack above her just before the man’s weight disappeared from her back. Turning her head, she spit out the mud that filled her mouth, exhaling from her nose forcefully to clear her nasal passages.
The clear blue of her eyes peeked open and fell on the shadowed blur of two men fighting just before she noticed the quickened burst of sunlight bouncing off a large metal blade. The larger of the two men swiftly overtook the smaller, the blade in his hand sinking into the skin of the other’s neck, moving sideways with such force, his head slid effortlessly from his shoulders and to the unforgiving ground below.
The larger man stood straight again, his fist relaxing and releasing the body of the smaller man so that it fell to the ground, almost soundlessly. Arianna trembled, but was frozen in her fear, unable to move away from him as he approached. Kneeling down, the man rested his hand against her back.
“Are you hurt badly? Can you move?” His voice was a low baritone, the quality of it soft, yet apprehensive. “Mrs. Carmichael, can you speak?”
Confusion flooded her mind at his knowledge of her name. Adrenaline coursing a furious torrent through her veins, a tunnel threatened her vision from the assault of the chemical within her body. She attempted to shake her head, to move away from the unfamiliar man that spoke to her. Recognizing her fear towards him, the man removed his hand and put distance between them so as not to cause her more alarm.
Looking away from her, he called out to someone in the distance, instructing the unseen man to find Joseph.
Pain slowing her movement, Arianna cautiously pushed herself up from the ground, her eyes remaining focused on the man kneeling down beside her. She pulled up her pants immediately, ashamed to have been seen practically naked by a stranger. Unable to stand fu
lly, she backed herself against a tree, her head lulling to the side in opposition to her attempts to remain conscious. She wanted to run, wanted to escape the unknown person who, just seconds before, she’d watched take another life brutally and without hesitation or shame.
Her eyelids felt heavy and her head throbbed painfully from the rush of blood through her body. Each beat of her heart echoed inside her skull as the flesh on her cheek burned under what felt like fire held to her skin. Her head weakly lulled sideways, allowing her eyes to meet with the larger stretch of sunlit ground that illuminated the entryway onto the forested path on which she sat. The man beside her remained quiet but she noticed out of her periphery vision how he stood immediately when the sunlit path that she watched became shadowed by the body of her husband and the two men who ran behind him.
Joseph ran to her quickly, his hands immediately examining her body in search of injuries. When his eyes fell on the scraped side of her face, a dark sheen of anger flooded his steel grey eyes.
“Arianna…” His voice was controlled, a lethal edge to the one word he was able to vocalize. Picking her up, he cradled her to his chest and spun quickly to exit the forest. The black tunnel continued to threaten her mind and the last thing she saw as Joseph carried her out from beneath the canopy of the trees was three men who silently walked in a triangular formation behind Joseph as he approached the mansion.
Chapter Seven
“She’ll come around, Joseph. I’m sure your wife loves you enough to understand the decisions you’ve made for her. She’s living a lifestyle unknown by the majority of the ladies in her society. She is the envy of every woman who knows her.”
Joseph sat back in his leather chair, his eyes locked to those of his most trusted man across the expanse of the large wooden desk between them. His voice was regretful when he responded, “But am I responsible for what happened yesterday in the woods? If she’d known, if she stayed where she was supposed to stay, she wouldn’t have been attacked. There’s nothing I can do now but be honest with her. She’ll want to leave, she’ll never understand that my choice was made for her, to give her everything she could ever want.”
Connor nodded his head in understanding. “Have you had the opportunity to explain? Have you ensured her that she will be protected heavily from this point forward? It will not happen again, I won’t allow it.”
Steel grey met emerald green when Joseph looked straight into the loyal eyes of his guard. A shrewd intelligence filled the grey, his knowledge that Connor would not falter or fail apparent in his gaze. “You are to remain at her side at all times. I trust you to oversee her daily activities, to make sure that no other man amongst your team comes in contact with her.” Sitting back, he folded one hand over the other, resting his chin on the tops of his enjoined hands while considering what he would divulge to his wife. “I haven’t spoken to her yet, she slept most of the night, only waking occasionally to some bastard nightmare from which I could not protect her. I had a nurse come to the mansion this morning to tend to her wounds. I wanted to give her some time before I explained.”
Nodding again, Connor relaxed into his chair. “I’ll go with you when you explain. It might make her more receptive to my presence.”
Joseph chuckled darkly, knowing full well that his modest wife, a soul who would never cause or allow harm to another, could never understand the shady dealings he’d undertaken over the years. “She’ll resist. She may seem weak, but there is more to her than can easily be seen. However, she is also smart enough to know she has no choice but to remain where she can be kept safe. Every demon out there now knows my name, knows that if there is any weakness in me at all that can be attacked or exploited, it’s her.”
Pushing himself up from his chair, Connor paced the ground in Joseph’s office. “I won’t be able to manage the network while protecting her. Who will you choose to take over my responsibilities…to protect you in my absence?”
Joseph sighed loudly in response to Connor’s question. “I thought about that long and hard last night while I watched over Arianna as she slept. I believe Emory can take over for the time being. It won’t be often that he’ll have control over the network…only at night and other times when I’m with her.”
Connor stopped suddenly, and with his hands folded behind his back, he looked up at Joseph. “Are you sure? Emory seems like a loose cannon. He’s good at his job, yes, but I’m not sure he can be trusted. There is something – off – about him.”
Shrugging off Connor’s concern, Joseph pushed himself up from his chair before saying, “I understand what you’re saying, and that is the exact reason Emory has not been chosen to protect my wife. However, I believe that he can be easily handled in other matters. I’ve already set him on the task of determining the identity of the man who attacked Arianna. Once we discover his identity, I’ve instructed Emory to form a team to track down and kill whatever group it was that sent him. If he’s successful in his task, I’ll have no concerns as to his loyalty to The Estate and his ability to manage the men.” Walking briskly towards the door, Joseph motioned for Connor to follow. “I guess it’s time to talk to Arianna.”
. . .
“I can’t believe you’ve kept this hidden from me all these years, Joseph. I…why…how dare you?!” Her sobs accented her words, her voice strong, but broken by the information her husband had just revealed. “It’s like I’ve never known you at all. This isn’t you; you’re a businessman, not a criminal. How does something like this happen?” Arianna turned away from her piano, spinning on the bench so that she could look her husband directly in his eyes.
Joseph stepped towards her, his hands reaching as if to touch her, but fisting instead when he pulled them back to his side. “Don’t question my decisions, Arianna. You’ve lived a life of luxury unlike anything you’ve ever known before because of MY decisions…”
“Yes, Joseph, I am living a life I’ve never known before – you are at least correct on that! All I’ve ever known is love, companionship, a family who I spent time with; but now, and over the many years you’ve kept me trapped here, all I’ve known is solitude, sadness, a great and heartfelt longing for the husband I married years before. And now? Now, I can’t even walk the grounds of the home you’ve given me without fear of being assaulted by the trash you’ve attracted into our lives. Years ago you told me you’d reconsidered their offer, you’ve LIED to me all this time, leaving me in the pitch black of shadow – easy prey to the lifestyle you’ve led.”
Her voice dropped low, quiet and troubled as she made her next statement. “I was almost raped, Joseph…raped! Do you understand what you’ve done? What you’ve become?!”
Joseph remained still as Arianna approached him. With their eyes locked, he kept his expression blank, attempting to hide the seething rage her words had created within him.
“I want to leave, Joseph. I want to leave this place and these people, and that man who stands behind you.” Her hand raised, she pointed over Joseph’s shoulder towards Connor where he leaned against the wall of the music room. “Did you see what he did in those woods? How he killed that man without thought?”
His voice dripping with barely controlled wrath, Joseph said, “He was protecting YOU. That man he killed was trying to rape you, to harm you on the grounds of OUR home! You can’t leave, Arianna. I love you too much to allow that.”
She stilled, her sullen eyes dropping to the floor before lifting once again to look fearlessly into the molten and angry steel color of her husband’s. “The way you treat me, leaving me alone most of the time, only to show up when you want sex, you call that love? That’s not love, Joseph. It stopped being love years ago. What will you do if I leave? If you love me so much, will you let me go?”
“No.” His response was instantaneous and assured; the deep growl of his voice a warning given to the woman he loved. “If you leave, I will drag you right back. Your family is gone, lost a long time ago, you have nowhere to go.”
Some
thing snapped within Joseph at that moment; the knowledge that his wife wanted to leave him, that she dared question his love for her, caused a violent change within his psyche. He knew she’d never understand, but never had he believed that she would choose to live without him. She was his and had been since the moment he’d laid eyes on her. He’d worked tirelessly to give her everything, but yet, she couldn’t appreciate the long hours he’d worked, the tangled web of genius he’d employed to create the sophisticated network that supported them. He wouldn’t allow it – he’d make her love him again.
“Connor – leave us.”
Arianna’s eyes left Joseph to watch as the strange man behind him pushed off the wall and strode heavily through the door of the music room, closing it behind him as he entered the hall.
“Is that man my new babysitter? Must I drag a killer around with me now just to survive the situation you’ve created?” She knew her words would anger him, she could see the rage burning behind his eyes, but she held strong, her nerves already shredded, her world already destroyed. She didn’t fear what else she could lose now that it felt like she’d already lost all that she’d ever had.
Joseph didn’t respond to her, the normally tan skin of his face turning an angry shade of red. Unbridled fury coursed violently through his face as he took determined steps towards her. She backed up, each step in perfect timing with his.
Fear suddenly brushing across her mind, she attempted to soothe the beast her husband had become. “Joseph? What are you doing? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell…”
“Don’t apologize, Arianna.” His voice was eerily calm. “You’re only telling me what you really think.” His head tilted to the side, his keen eyes surveying the myriad of expressions that raced across the beautiful face of his wife. “I just find it – upsetting – that you choose to blame me alone.”
Her back against a wall, Arianna attempted in vain to keep fear from saturating her voice when she responded. “Who else do I have to blame? I didn’t choose a life of crime. I didn’t have an obsessive need for more money, more power. All I wanted was a loving husband, a happy home – children…”