by J. L. Beck
He comes to kneel next to the tub, sliding an arm under my shoulders so I can lean back without drowning. I get my hair wet and watch as Trey squirts some shampoo into Wes’s palm. He starts washing my hair, massaging my scalp gently, far gentler than expected, sending little jolts of pleasure down my spine. My eyes drift closed, and I relish in the feeling of his fingers threading through my locks, and massaging the tender flesh. It feels so good to be cared for. No one has ever washed my hair, and for some reason, that resonates within me. Wes is being kind, showing compassion, and it scares me as much as it makes me happy.
“Where did Declan go?” I ask as Wes rinses my hair.
“Out. You don’t need to worry about him. He won’t hurt you again.” Trey’s response surprises me, mostly because he thinks Declan hurt me. I think about correcting them, telling them that he didn’t hurt me, at least not like they think. All I wanted was for him to not discard me after sex. I wanted him to hold me instead of pushing me away. I consider that maybe the only reason they are being nice to me right now is because they think Declan hurt me and I don’t want their kindness to end. I decide not to say anything and hear them out on whatever it is they need to tell me first.
Trey helps me out of the bath and wraps my body up in a towel while Wes wraps up my hair in a second one. When we get back to the bedroom, I find a pile of clothes waiting for me on the bed.
“These are going to be big on you, but we don’t have anything else right now. When we make our monthly run, I’ll be sure to get you some things,” Trey tells me, and I wonder how long he expects me to stay here.
“Has my father contacted you?” I repeat my still unanswered question from earlier.
“Why don’t you get dressed, and then we can sit down and talk.” Wes grabs the towel and starts to dry me off, while Trey grabs a T-shirt and pulls it on over my head. I’m too busy being dried and dressed by them to respond, so I simply wait until I’m fully clothed in a T-shirt, and a pair of boxers.
“I’m dressed now. Please tell me what’s going on. You guys are worrying me, even more than normal. I’m so confused. Yesterday it seemed like you guys hated me, and now today you’re different,” I admit, knowing that I sound weak, but I suppose that’s a good thing. If I make them think I’m weak, that I’m submissive, then they’ll never see it coming when I escape, if I can manage it.
“Your father hasn’t responded to us,” Trey starts to explain while ushering me into a large living room area. I’ve only ever seen this space, but was never allowed to use it. He gently pushes me down onto a couch with a laptop on the coffee table in front of me.
“He must not have gotten the messages. Did you really send him those videos? I can’t imagine how he feels after watching those videos, he might be in shock. Yeah, he’s probably in shock. He’s my father, he loves me.” The thought of my father seeing me like that has my stomach churning, then again, the thought of him not responding at all, that’s even more terrifying, because without a response I know I’ll never escape them. They might as well let Declan shoot me.
“Yes, we sent him emails, including the videos,” Trey continues. “I’ve also been monitoring your father’s online activities, as well as all phone conversations. I know for a fact he has gotten the messages, but he is not responding. I’m worried that maybe he doesn’t care for you as much as we had initially thought.”
I shake my head, my fear spiking. “This has to be a mistake. This whole thing is a mistake. Of course he cares about me. I’m his daughter.” I find I’m yelling now, consumed with anger and pain. Nothing makes sense and what he is saying is not giving me any answers, it’s just giving me more questions.
“It’s not a mistake, Jessa. Your father has everybody at his disposal. He is trying to find us and where we are hiding you. He even went as far as to hire a private investigator, but if he was smart, he would know there is no way he’ll ever discover where we are.”
“So, he is looking for me.” I almost sigh. “Just let me go then. I swear I won’t tell him anything. I don’t even know where we are…” Trey shakes his head, and somehow I know there is more to the story than they’re letting on.
“He’s not trying to save you, Jessa. He is just trying to find us. He’s trying to—” Wes’s words cut off mid-sentence.
“What? What’s he doing? Why am I still here?” I’m freaking out more and more with each passing second. I can hear my pulse pounding in my ears, my heart’s beating out of my chest. Am I ever going to escape them? They’re being nice today. But what about tomorrow? Next week? I can’t stay here. I won’t.
“Calm down. You’re going to give yourself a panic attack if you don’t calm down.” I almost laugh. Of all the things that have happened to me, of all the things they’ve done to me, how they’ve used me they’re worried about my mental state now?
“Just tell me.” The words come out on a whisper. I feel defeated already, and I don’t even know what’s happening yet.
“He is sending people to kill us…all of us, including you.”
I let Trey’s words sink in for a moment before I let out a humorless laugh.
“That’s just ridiculous. Stop lying and tell me the truth. You guys are either lying your asses off, hoping I’ll believe you, or you are absolutely delusional. Nothing you say makes sense right now, and I can’t believe that my father would want me dead. I’m his daughter.”
Neither one of them responds, in fact, they look at each other, a silent conversation taking place right before my eyes. Seconds tick by and then Trey flips open the laptop in front of me. Multiple folders are open on the desktop. I take a closer look, even though I don’t want to and find emails sent from my father’s email address confirming all the things they are telling me to be true, but of course I still don’t believe a single word. This has to be a setup. They’re mind fucking me, trying to break me down, now that they’ve broken me physically.
“Sorry, but I’m not that stupid. It’s not that hard to create a fake email,” I tell them completely unimpressed. My response makes them both roll their eyes, and heavy sighs fill the air. They must really think I’m an idiot.
“We knew you’d say that, and we have more proof, so just hold your tongue princess and open your ears,” Wes orders as Trey pulls up another file with a voice recording and presses play. The first voice that comes through the speakers I recognize as my father’s head of security. A man I’ve known since I was a small child. A man that’s protected me, from everything good and bad in the world.
“I just got your email and I wanted to be certain that I understood this right…You want us to take everyone out? Even Jessa?”
I blink, not fully grasping what I’m hearing. My father’s voice fills my ears next, “Yes, that is exactly what I want…” I’ve never heard my father sound so cold and detached. His voice sounds foreign to me, but it’s definitely my father's voice I am listening to, there is no mistaking it. “I can’t give these thugs what they want. It would cost me my career, everything I’ve worked for, and even if you could bring her back now, she is already damaged goods and I don’t want to deal with that.”
The recording ends as fast as it started and Trey closes the laptop, the sound is deafening as the silence between the three of us continues.
“This… it’s a lie…” I shake my head, a damp piece of hair clings to my skin, making me shiver, but I don’t care. About being cold, broken, or even the consequences of what’s to come.
“It’s not. Truly, I wish it was a lie, but we know your father. We know what makes him tick and we thought he loved you enough to want you back. Clearly, he doesn’t, and so things have changed.”
I twist in my seat, afraid of the answer to my next question. “What are you planning to do to me then? Kill me? Use me? Tie me up and leave me in that disgusting room? If I’m no use to you now, then why keep me alive?” Tears sting my eyes. I don’t want to believe that my father would have me killed rather than brought home to him, but there is
no denying the voice recording. That was my father’s voice, those were his words. I can lie to myself all I want, but it doesn’t change what I heard.
I try to make sense of the words. Maybe I misinterpreted them, maybe he meant something else. It just can’t be. There must be some kind of explanation. My father told me all my life that I was his only reason to live. Why would he toss me away like garbage? Why would he protect me for so many years only to have his own men kill me? It makes no sense.
Has my life been nothing but a lie?
“We’ve shown you kindness that your father never showed our family. We didn’t beat you, or rape you despite what you think.” Wes speaks, frustration marring his features. “I want to show you a video. I want to show you the man that you think is your father. If you think this is as bad as it can get, then you have no idea. You being here with us now is your only chance at survival.”
“No.” I shake my head and get up from the couch. I’m not sure where I’ll go, but I don’t want to see anything or hear anything else. I need to digest all of this, come up with a logical reason for why this is happening. My father isn’t the man they’re making him out to be. I know it. They’re lying, they have to be.
“I don’t want to hear or see anything else. I just want to leave. Please, just let me go.” Tears form in my eyes. I feel broken, so damn broken like a broken doll, shattering into pieces.
“You can’t leave,” Wes tells me, standing up and moving in on me, as if he’s waiting for the moment when I make a run for it. As if I could escape… I open my mouth to respond, but I’m interrupted by the dinging of the elevator. It opens a moment later and Declan walks into the living room looking like he just ran a marathon.
Sweat drips down his face, and there seems to be a peacefulness in his eyes that I’ve never seen before. The darkness I’ve grown so accustomed to is still there, but he seems as if he’s got a clear head.
“I see your plan is working, she definitely looks like she is on board,” Declan says sarcastically.
On board?
“What plan? What is he talking about? What are you trying to get me to do?” I ask Trey and Wes who are both glaring at their brother.
“Go on, tell her your plan. I’m guessing she didn’t believe that her father wanted her dead?” Anger zings through me, burning fury pulses through my veins. I’ve endured so much at the hands of these three men, and now they’re fucking with my head.
“We were hoping you would help us to get to your father, help us take him down,” Wes admits and my mouth pops open in shock.
“You mean help you kill him? You are asking me to help you kill my father?” How stupid do they think I am? What makes them think I would ever agree to such a thing?
“You don’t know the things your father has done. You have no idea what kind of man he really is,” Trey tells me and all I want to do is cover my ears and stop listening to them.
I want to storm off, hide in my room and slam the door, but there is nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. I’m stuck here with these three men who have complete control over me, and I wonder how I’m ever going to get out of this.
Chapter Twelve
Trey
“I want to leave,” she says, looking me right in the eyes. It’s as if she knows I won’t let anything bad happen to her, and I hate that weakness, hate the hold she has on me. But if she thinks batting her eyes at me is going to get her out of this mess, she’s horribly wrong. I can’t help her, no one can. We’re in this together.
“I’ll put a bullet between your eyes before I allow that.” Declan’s deep voice vibrates through the room.
“You’ve wanted me dead since the moment you kidnapped me, so I suppose you’re going to get your wish, but not before you got your dick wet, right?”
Her blue eyes blaze with fury as she walks over to him. She cranes her neck to look up at him and part of me wants to reach out and grab her, to stop her from pushing him. He’s not on board with keeping her, he doesn’t trust her. All she’s going to do is push him until he breaks and I don’t want to see her get hurt.
“Don’t pretend like you didn’t want it,” Declan says, looking more amused than pissed off, which relaxes me a bit. She can be glad he just worked out. “You think I didn’t hear you moan and feel your pussy clench down on my cock while I was fucking you? Maybe you should watch that video, you can see for yourself what a whore you are…”
With a grunt that sounds more like a war cry, she is on Declan, her small hands clenched into tiny fists pounding on his chest. “I fucking hate you!” she yells at him, pushing against him one last time before he snatches her wrists in one hand.
She keeps wiggling in his hold, but he just kicks her legs out from under her and lowers her to the floor to pin her down. In less than five seconds, she is completely immobilized.
“You can hate me all you want, it doesn’t change anything. Keep telling yourself you didn’t want it. Maybe you’ll start to believe your own lies.” He gets off of her and walks past us. “Keep your pet on a leash or I’ll teach her to behave.”
Thankful that I didn’t have to stop Declan from doing something stupid, I walk over to help her up, but she just shrugs me off. “Don’t touch me,” she says bitterly and something inside of me snaps. I know she’s going through shit right now, trying to digest all of it, but she doesn’t get to shrug me off. Grabbing her by the arm I pull her up roughly.
“I’ll touch you whenever the fuck I want to,” I growl into her face.
She doesn’t believe us anyway so there’s no reason to treat her like an actual princess now. In the end, we can’t have her thinking that we are weak, even if she does come to her senses, we can’t have her expecting mercy from us simply because we told her the truth.
“You don’t have to believe us, but you will respect us. Put your hands on my brother again and I’ll let him have his way with you.” I drag her to the couch and make her sit. She looks up at me defiantly like she wants to fight, but beneath that, I can see the lust filter into her eyes.
“It doesn’t matter if you help us or not the outcome will be the same. You can’t leave so either you die, or you stay here with us. How pleasant or unpleasant your stay will be is going to depend solely on you,” Wes explains to her.
“You can’t just keep me prisoner for the rest of my life. I’m a human, not some fucking animal.”
“Why not? Who is going to stop us? No one knows where we are and no one is going to find us here,” Wes says as I sit down next to her and rest my hand on her bare thigh possessively. I don’t squeeze enough to hurt her but enough to let her know who is in control.
“We thought treating you nice would make this easier, but maybe we were wrong. Maybe we need to keep this simple so you know your place.”
Her head whips in my direction, the fire in her gaze is intoxicating. I want her. I want to hurt her, touch her, consume her.
“And what exactly is my place here?”
“You are ours now, we do whatever we want, use you whenever we want and you’re going to tell us everything you know, whether you want to or not. Do you understand?”
I tighten my grip on her thigh. Her pupils are already dilated, and she is staring at me with her lips pressed tightly together. She’s looking for a fight and I’m about to give her one.
“I asked you a question. Do you understand?” I give her another chance to answer and when she still refuses, I squeeze her thighs even harder, my touch a smidge above bruising. “Answer me or we’re going to have to teach you some manners.”
She keeps scowling, clear defiance in her eyes, acting like a child testing her boundaries. My blood is already boiling, more with need than with anger at this point.
It’s obvious she wants to see what happens when we lose control. Maybe she even likes the idea of us putting her in her place, either way, my cock is more than ready to punish every orifice on her body.
“Fuck you,” she spits, sealing her fate. I glance over at We
s who is already smirking and shaking his head.
“Oh, you will. You’ll fuck all of us.”
“No, I won’t. I’m still sore.” She makes an attempt at prying my hands off her legs, but she’s not strong enough. She’ll never overpower us, never escape. She belongs to us now, forever, until we decide we’re done with her.
“Guess you should’ve thought of that before you decided to mouth off.” I grab one of her wrists, while Wes grabs the other and we pull her up to her feet. I already have the perfect punishment.
“Wes, get the handcuffs and meet us in Declan’s room,” I order, right before I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder. She gives my back a few laughable punches before she gives up. I knock on Declan’s door with my foot and he opens it a second later.
“Hey, can we use your pull-up bar?” I ask Declan who eyes me curiously.
“Sure.” He shrugs and lets me in. Wes is already back with the handcuffs as I step into the room, letting Jessa down beneath the pull-up bar Declan installed in his room.
“W-what…are you doing?” Jessa asks while I move her arms to above her head. Wes has already figured out what I planned and attaches the handcuffs to her wrists before fastening them around the metal bar above her.
I step away and look at our handiwork, admiring her beautiful body. Even stretched out, she has to stand on her tiptoes because the bar is too high. So fragile, so fucking beautiful, and all ours. Her face and neck are flushed and her eyes are wild, but there isn’t a lick of fear in those blues.
She wants this, even if she won’t admit it.
“Are you ready to be punished?”
She shakes her head, but her body betrays her. Her puckered nipples press against the fabric of her shirt, and her pink tongue darts out over her bottom lip as if she’s envisioning us fucking her like this. That can be arranged, Princess.
Declan steps closer, his presence making her tremble. He grabs the hem of her shirt, pulling it up and over her head before tucking it behind her neck so it hangs loosely around her arms. Wes walks around her and pulls the pair of boxers she is wearing down her legs, leaving her completely bare.