NEARLY Trilogy

by Ashley, Devon

  “We did!” I rebutted.

  “You’ll be fine,” he told me, exiting the room and leaving me behind.

  Shit. If I were ever going to run, now would be the time. What I should’ve been doing these past few months was learning how to jump start a car. Hell, even On-Star would’ve been a blessing to set off and relay my position to the police, but I had a feeling the owners of those expensive cars made sure to deactivate that type of service for just that reason.

  I walked towards one of the scalloped windows made of decorative colored glass and peered down. Bushes lined the first floor of the house. I so would’ve broken this window, attempted the jump and made a run for it through the forest, despite not knowing where I was. I would’ve followed the road off to the side and just kept going until I found the first business. I wouldn’t have trusted any car that passed along the way. I would’ve risked exposure and wild animals.

  But I didn’t do it. Because Nick was passed out in Zander’s house. And because of that damn tracker inside me. I wouldn’t have gotten even a quarter mile down the road.

  Not to mention I most likely would’ve broken my legs jumping from this height. And then Zander would’ve probably been tempted to auction my ass off at that point. Since we were here and all…

  I spun and took in the room. The walls were mostly a dark cherry wood, the floors a similar shade of hardwood with large oriental rugs spread throughout. With the dim lighting, it was incredibly creepy, especially knowing what was going on in some of the other rooms in this house. Looking down at my feet, I worried this old mansion held a dungeon used for reasons I didn’t want my mind to explore.

  There were way too many shadows in this room, too many places for someone to be lurking, watching my every move. The only good thing was the excessive number of display cases to hide behind and décor items at the ready. Things like heavy candlesticks, pointy replicas of old knives and swords, and a collection of antique globes, one even made of artistically shaped iron rods.

  This room was large enough to have two sitting areas, a desk and a billiard table with the display cases kind of making an inner path to each station. One particular corner drew my eye. There was a U-shaped built-in bookcase that made its own nook. The two sides were lined with old-fashioned leather books, the back wall a large mirror that ran from floor to ceiling and a single arm chair for reading. But there was an oddly shaped table in the middle of the space. It was a thick, solid piece of wood that ran about four feet wide with a top two feet deep. But what was unique was the way the middle was carved down into the thick wood and lined with some sort of soft material. In a way it made me think of a saddle, but completely reversed to arc inward instead of outward. On the opposite side, two circular holes cut all the way through the wood at a slant. Curious, I was about to bend down to figure out the purpose of the holes when a smooth voice behind me said, “Hello.”

  I whipped around, my hand thrown against my heart as I took a step sideways.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” the man said. He looked to be in his mid-thirties like Zander, with dark brown hair that seemed ruffled to perfection, like fingers had been brushing through his locks for hours. The dimness of this corner made it difficult to tell the color of his eyes or the exact shade of his skin, though both seemed like warm shades of brown and tan, respectively. Horrifyingly, he was probably the best looking guy I’d seen yet, including Zander. One more reason to fear every guy out in the real world. This one also had a nice build and a good three inches on me even with the heels. And he was dressed how Zander used to, in a business shirt and pants. “I’m Cable Friggs.”

  “Cable?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  “I know, I know. My mother was a horrible namer.” He reached out his hand, awaiting mine. “You must be Natalie?”

  Megan, asshole.

  “Yes,” I answered, allowing him to take my hand, which he chose to kiss instead of shake. “Zander went looking for you.”

  “And he found me. That’s how I knew you were in here.”

  I tried not to look around the room suspiciously, but it was doubtful I pulled it off. “So where is he then?”

  “He had some business to attend to and he didn’t want you left alone given the clientele in the house tonight. Besides, I asked him to bring you here while I was in town so I could examine you.”

  “Excuse me?” I snapped, taking another step behind, yanking the hand free that he had yet to give back. I was in a house filled with girls up for auction. No one was fucking examining me!

  His hands went up in the air in mock surrender. “Sorry. I should’ve stated that better. I’m the one who’s been performing your laser treatments. I asked Zander to bring you by so I could make sure your skin was healing and that the last treatment was successful.”

  “Oh,” I replied.

  “I would’ve followed up the last time, but as I understand it, there was a hiccup over ownership.”

  My eyes narrowed a bit. An ownership hiccup? Was that what my freedom in between was to this jerk? Three months, twenty-three days. I closed my mouth and literally bit my tongue. I wasn’t going to get into it with this guy. Zander afforded me more room to speak these days, but I had the feeling this guy wouldn’t be so accepting of the spirited response I had lined up.

  His eyes fell to my chest, but he was squinting his eyes and moving his head, like he was trying to see if my scars caught the light. I too looked down. For the most part, the cuts and burns there had faded well enough to not stand out anymore, but the burn on my forearm was still a little pink. But given the redness it had several treatments ago, I’d say it was pretty successful. It was funny. The burns were just a part of me that I’d come to terms with, so I hardly thought about them anymore.

  When I looked back up, I caught Friggs staring at the part of my chest that was covered. And then it hit me. This guy had seen me naked several times now if he’d been the one doing the treatments. One of my burns were on my left breast, but it was so pale now it could hardly get better. Once again I felt uneasy in his presence, scanning the room to see if Zander had snuck back in yet. When I turned back to Friggs, his eyes scanned me toe to head – slowly. When he reached my eyes, he mildly said, “That is a lovely dress on you.”

  Trying to get that perv’s focus off my body, I told him, “The only spot really left with some color is the one on my forearm.”

  His face switched back to doctor-mode and he focused in on my forearm. “May I?” he asked.

  Oh, God. Where the hell was Zander? He said to never be without him in this place and here he dumped me with the creepy dude. I turned and looked again to see if he’d come back yet.

  “Please,” he urged, holding out his hand to receive mine. “Zander’s inquiring whether or not we need to schedule another appointment.”

  I reluctantly allowed him to take my arm. He gently pulled me closer, lifting my arm higher to better see it in the light. His thumb pads rubbed their way over the remaining bumps of my burns. “Yeah, we can probably go again. I can’t honestly promise you that additional treatments will make this any better because it was so extreme to begin with, but we can try. At least it’s pale in color now, so it’s far less obvious. I could hardly see it tonight when I came up to you.” He dropped my arm and softly smiled when he added, “Lucky you, you’ve got such a pretty face most people won’t notice what’s going on down at your arm.”

  I forced a smile. He crossed his arms and leaned against the edge of the funky table. When he did that, my eyes were immediately drawn to it again.

  “Interesting, isn’t it? I know the guy who actually makes these.”

  Curiosity getting the best of me, I asked, “What is it, exactly?”

  “It’s the table I’m going to fuck you on, so bend over.”

  The stone glint in his eyes told me he was serious. My brain took too long to react so my body stumbled backward awkwardly, my legs not getting the message to run. And before they could, Friggs reached
out and snatched my arm, pulling me to him. I screamed, but before he could grab and pin my second arm, I thrust the heel of my hand against his nose in an upward arc. I felt it smash a bit, and he yelled and let go, forming a steeple over his nose. I scampered off, putting several huge artifact display cases between us. “Are you fucking kidding me?!” he yelled, his voice a little distorted now that he was clamping his nose. He stormed towards me, his arm swinging at the item displayed atop the table closest to him, sending it flying through the air, only to have it crash against the wall and shatter to the floor. I kicked my heels off – to hell with them. I almost grabbed one as a weapon when I spotted something that resembled a candlestick. Snatching it, I was surprised how heavy it was. It would be slow to swing, but it would do some serious damage to the monster stalking towards me.

  “Come here!” he yelled. When I dodged and ran for the safety of yet another table, he screamed it again. “COME. HERE!”

  One of the doors swung open and Zander walked in, immediately narrowing his eyes at the situation – me poised with some heavy object held in my hands like it was a baseball bat, Cable pissed and flushed red with anger, blood splattered on his white shirt. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he asked with an eerie calmness. Relief rushed through me. My arms and legs were seriously shaking, my heart beating painfully as if I’d been running for an hour.

  Cable exhaled a heavy breath and I ran to hide myself behind Zander, who took the object from me the moment I got to him. My hands dug beneath his suit jacket and fisted his belt, as if it could anchor me in place.

  “Why the hell don’t you keep her sedated?” he spat, reaching for his busted nose again.

  “I don’t need to. She obeys everything I say. Now what the hell were you doing?”

  “Just telling the little lady to bend over. Apparently, she thinks she gets a choice in the matter.”

  “Imagine that,” Zander remarked with a droll voice. “She’s not some damaged piece of ass like downstairs. And you weren’t supposed to screw her until I got here.”

  “What?” I cried, taking a few steps away from Zander now.

  He turned to face me, hardly fazed that I was trying to retreat. With an annoyed expression I didn’t feel had anything to do with me, he softly said, “I’m sorry. It’s time to pay for your last treatment and Frigg’s here,” he added bitterly, pausing to turn to the side and flash him an infuriated expression, “won’t allow me to pay cash this time. He wants you. And as much as it pisses me off that he’s forcing my hand, it’s a payment that must be made.”

  My jaw slackened and fell open, my feet moving farther away from them both. Zander still ignored me, probably because he knew I had nowhere to go but to run into a mansion with fifty more men like Friggs roaming around. He turned his back on me and motioned his head at Friggs. “What the hell happened to your face?”

  “She did. The bitch fucking hit me.” Friggs wiped his sleeve across his face to absorb the blood slithering down from his nose.

  Zander burst into laughter, which got Friggs even more irritated, settling his evil glare on me. I swallowed hard, trying to think of a way out of this but coming up empty. “Alright,” Zander said, still calming his delightment, “I have a proposition for you, Friggs.” He paused to look between us. “One that I think you can both agree to.”

  Not. Bloody. Likely.

  “You know my price. That’s what I expect to be paid.”

  “Yeah. Here’s my suggestion anyway. Natalie’s a little feisty, but you already know that. It’s what you like and why you’re forcing me to pay this way. I think the two of you should fight.”

  “What?” both Friggs and I asked at the same time.

  “Seriously. Fight. If she wins, I can pay cash. If you win, I’ll step out of the room while you fuck her in that little table of yours. I’ll even double up. One hour instead of thirty minutes.”

  I gasped. That was horrible if I fucking lost! That asshat was taller, wider, stronger – you name it!

  “Are you fucking serious?” He spat blood to the rug beneath him.

  “Afraid you’ll lose to a girl half your size? Eh. Maybe you should be, because that nose of yours looks pretty nasty right about now.”

  “Alright, fine.” He lifted his arms to the side and took a mock bow in my general direction. “It’ll be my pleasure to teach the little bitch a lesson. And when I win, the extra time will give me plenty of time to redden her ass before giving her back.” Turning back to Zander, he said with disgust, “And I cannot believe you allow your whore call you by your real name.”

  Zander sighed and shook his head, making his way back to me. Turned out I kept on walking backward until I hit the wall. “Please,” I begged him quietly. “Call it off. I can’t take him.”

  He put his hands on my shoulders, possibly to steady or calm me. In a volume only we could hear, he said, “Don’t think that way. I saw you practice with your trainer once. You’ve learned enough to do some damage.”

  “Zander, I’m not delusional,” I whispered harshly. “I only took those sessions to be able to get in a surprise hit and run away. Which I did already!”

  “And you busted his nose,” he said proudly.

  “Yeah, but now he’ll know it’s coming so he’s going to block everything I do. It’s like David and Goliath.”

  “David won.”

  I buried my head in frustration, shaking it out. Friggs made a living of smacking around girls. I wasn’t going to win. I was going to lose and get shoved atop that god-awful table.

  “Hey,” he said, letting me stay buried. “I only offered this because there’s nothing I can do about you getting thrown into that fucked up contraption. Yes, if you lose, you’ll spend more time in it, but if you win…nothing. You’re done, we go home and we’ll never come back.”

  I sighed and dismally looked up at him. “I don’t want him to touch me like that.”

  A softness overcame his features that I thought he’d only been capable of faking up till now. But given the recent predicament, it seemed truly genuine. “Neither do I. So win.”

  I closed my eyes and sighed. No way in hell I was going to win.

  We turned our attention back to Friggs, who was currently checking his reflection using the glass of a tall display case that held vintage erotic magazines. Catching Zander’s advancing figure, he turned and muttered, “Bitch had her little pep talk yet?”

  My eyes automatically frowned. I loathed this jackass. Thank God I never fell under his ownership.

  “So what exactly determines the winner here?” he asked, eyes set hard on mine. The light hit them now. They were a light brown, but the yellowish glow made them appear fiery too, but far crueler than Zander’s ever appeared. Zander was into manipulation. Friggs seemed keen on pain.

  “Well, she’s a girl, so I think the stakes should be different. You should have to knock her out, but she should only have to get in three good shots.”

  “Five,” he countered, and I scowled.

  “Really?” Zander mocked. “You can’t knock her out before she gets three hits past you? Have you got your granny panties on underneath those pants?”

  Friggs wasn’t bothered by the insult. His lips twisted callously to one side. “Nope. Going commando. Just like your little whore here.”

  “Four,” Zander countered, again ignoring his derogatory remarks. Bring ‘em on. They were only fueling the fire I felt coursing through my veins. My right hand twitched, fingers awaiting the chance to smack the shit out of his face again. Maybe I could ugly him up like he’d probably done to hundreds of girls by now.

  “Fine. It’s not like she’ll get in even one.”

  Sadly, despite my desire to rearrange his face, I sort of had to agree with him. But I was willing to try if it meant I got the chance to kick him in the groin that was aching to rape me. “I don’t know,” I mocked rather boldly, “I got to your nose pretty easily.”

  Unfortunately, that sneer didn’t get wipe
d off his face. It was only replaced with a wicked smile that found me entertaining. Zander took that as his cue to back out of the way. Friggs walked towards me, wagging his finger. “And no using the precious artifacts around the room. You break one of those and your cunt will belong to me until the end of days.”

  Guess that only applied to me then. He sure didn’t seem to care about destroying that one piece earlier. I maneuvered around the display I was standing beside, slinking through the tight spot between it and the wall, knowing he was too big to follow.

  “Come on,” he taunted, altering his course to come in from the other side. “I thought you wanted to fight.”

  I figured out a little too late it hadn’t been the best decision. I was kind of pinned in at the moment, with the only real path leading straight to him. He was already grinning – he knew the layout of this room perfectly, knew that I’d basically just trapped myself. I felt no shame in running though, even if to prolong being shoved over that table. And since retreating the way I came wouldn’t get me away from him, I ducked and crawled under the case to my left. I was almost through when he snatched my foot and yanked me back.

  I yelped and kicked at his hand with my other, knowing full well I was completely exposing myself without a goddamn pair of underwear. Probably wouldn’t have mattered though. The dress was riding up my body the farther I got dragged. My leg was released and hands slapped against my upper arms and yanked me up carelessly. One arm wrapped around my neck and latched onto my shoulder, the other tightly around my waist, pinning both of my arms down.

  “So tell me, Princess. How do you want me to knock you out? Eh?” I stomped on his foot, but my bare feet did nothing against his shoes. If only I had kept my heels on. “Should I choke you slowly unconscious or just slam your head against the wall?”

  Not wanting to find out, I did the only thing I could think to do. I chomped down on his arm as hard as I could, my tongue tasting blood before he jerked it free, loosening the grip he had on my body.

  “Ow! The bitch bit me!”