They were barking orders at me, but I felt all out of sorts. They sounded like they were shouting at me from the other end of a tunnel, with their voice all muffled and my vision going blurry. One of them was standing behind the camera, and they were getting more frustrated by the second. I felt a sudden sharp blow to the side of my head and felt my chair crash to the floor with me still tied to it. In addition to my impossibly dry, iron tasting tongue and lack of vision, one of my ears was now ringing. The room spun as my chair was moved back onto all fours. The movement made me want to puke. I thought about my baby in my womb and felt more afraid than I had ever been in my life.
Finally, I came to enough to understand what they wanted from me. One of them angled my head toward the camera, and I tried to explain to Paul that I needed him to do what they said. I needed him to give them whatever they asked for so I could come home. It wasn’t hard to act terrified and cry for the camera like they wanted.
When it was finally over, I let out a sigh of relief. They had what they wanted from me and would soon have what they wanted from the Garcias. I would be going home soon. I’d have time to feel heartbroken and betrayed over Nic then, but right at that moment, all I cared about was getting my baby and me out of there alive.
But as they packed up the camera and one guy left to go see to its delivery, the rest of them stayed behind. They didn’t seem in any hurry to leave. Instead, they circled around me like animals.
“You said if I made the video, you’d leave me alone!”
“We said we might take it easy on you if you did a good job,” one of them cackled.
“You must have something really magical between those legs of yours for as much as Nic has been coming out here to see you. Jeopardizing our whole plan just to get more of it. He’s been so greedy keeping you all to himself.”
They were closing in on me, some of them being so bold as to start stroking the growing bulges in their pants. I started kicking my legs and screaming as loud as I could, but it didn’t stop them. I heard one of them whispering, “Throw her down on that mattress over there and rip off her pants. I go first, then the rest of you can have a turn.”
My screams grew so loud that I couldn’t hear anything else they said. I didn’t want to. I wanted to be somewhere far, far away from there. As two of the men untied me from the chair and tossed me onto my bed, I realized this was all my punishment for being so selfish. I should have stayed home and taken care of Mama without question. I should have accepted my marriage to Paul and been happy. If I hadn’t had sex with Nic by the creek, maybe I wouldn’t be here right now.
I felt the cool air of the room against my legs as they tore my pants from my body. I sobbed uncontrollably and thought about my baby again. If we ever did make it out, I was starting to worry there would be nothing left of me to mother my child. I would be an empty shell of a person, stripped of anything that used to make me alive and human.
I closed my eyes and tried to slip out of my body, drowning out the men as they circled around my bed. I would be home soon, I reminded myself. If I could just go somewhere else in my head for a little while, this would all be over, and I would be back home before I knew it. Everything would be better then. I just had to keep breathing, keep fighting, and survive.
I barely felt the brush of one of their hands against my leg before it was suddenly ripped away. I kept my eyes shut so tight and was trying hard to drown everything out, so much that I didn’t realize the men were being tossed around the room one by one like little rag dolls until they all ran away.
Chapter 19
Nicholas
I tore around the room like a mad man, punching them out and tossing them against the walls. I was so filled with rage that I could have taken down an entire army to save Jada. While I was passed out in my room drunk, they barricaded my door and stormed into her shack. When I had finally sent them all running, I walked over to Jada. She was petrified with a black eye swollen shut and blood trickling from her mouth. She had been stripped down to nothing but her underwear and was curled into a ball, tied at her hands and feet.
“Jada, it’s me. You’re okay now. I’m here. They’re all gone,” I rushed to her side, but she flinched and screamed bloody murder. What had they done to her before I made it in? This was all my fault. “Shhh, it’s okay. It’s me, Nic. I’m here for you.”
I wrapped her in a blanket and held her in my arms until she stopped kicking and screaming. I rocked her gently back and forth. “Shhh, it’s going to be okay. I’m so sorry, Jada. I couldn’t get out of my room. I should have never left you alone.”
Once she calmed down, I untied her hands and feet and helped her get her pants back on. I brought her cold water and pressed a rag to the cuts and bruises on her face. My throat tightened, and I could barely swallow as I saw how scared and wounded she was. Slowly she started coming back around, seeming to gain more clarity of her surroundings.
Her eyes focused on me after a while, but she looked confused. I could see a million thoughts rushing through her brain, and she was growing angry. It all culminated in her rearing her hand back and slapping me across my face.
“I deserved that. I know. I’m so sorry.”
“This whole thing was about you getting revenge on the Garcias!” she screamed. “How could you never tell me that you knew them and that you were just trying to get money from them!?”
I tried to get her to sit back down because I was worried about her, but she was inconsolable. She flailed around the room, nearly toppling over from still being dizzy.
“I should have told you. I wanted to. I was going to. That was why I brought you here originally, yes. But Jada, everything changed. That’s why I couldn’t take you from the party that first night we met. I thought with the time and distance I could do what I had originally planned, but once you were here...I just couldn’t let you go again. But it was too late. Everything was already in motion. I was going to let you go tomorrow, I swear. But they locked in my room and now all of this…” It was hard not to trail off into tears as I tried so desperately to explain. “I did everything wrong. I know that I did.”
“Oh, how convenient!” she scowled. “You were going to let me go tomorrow? Why not tonight? Or yesterday? The day before that!? Last week!? You tried to keep me locked in here against my will and now look at me!” She pressed her hand to her swollen eye and flinched. “This happened because of you! Do you know what they were about to do to me!? Because of you...You put my life at risk! And my baby’s life! Our baby’s life!”
I blinked, unsure if I heard her right. But she pressed her mouth to her lips as if to try and stop the words from coming out, but it was too late.
“Baby...What...what baby?” I stammered, trying to get closer to her. “Jada, look at me. Are you...Are you pregnant? Are you pregnant with my baby?”
She was frozen at first but finally answered with a silent nod. The entire world felt like it had just cracked open beneath our feet, but somehow we were still standing. We were the only ones standing in my mind: just me and her and the life growing inside of her.
“When? How?”
She cocked her head. “Well, I think you know how. As for when...It was after our first time. I knew I was pregnant before you even brought me here. It was why my sisters rushed the wedding. They told me who you were...about your reputation. And said that I needed to try to pass it off like the baby was Paul’s from our honeymoon. I didn’t think I would ever see you again. And I certainly didn’t think I could have a child with you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Why didn’t you tell me everything you were keeping secret!?” she shouted back. “I didn’t know why I was really here or what the hell you had planned. I didn’t want you to know about the baby if...if I was going to have to go back home and still try to let Paul think the child was his.”
My heart swelled with renewed hope. “Jada, this is wonderful news. We can be a family. I can take care of you.” I tried to
wrap my arms around her, but she stopped them midair and pushed me away.
“No, we can’t. Not after all this. Not now that I know why I was here all along. This was all just about money for you!”
“Jada, please listen to me. You said you loved me. Did you mean that? Because I love you. I may have been too scared to say it before, but I do. You’re free to go now. You can do whatever you want. But please...consider having this baby with me. I’ll take care of you and make sure nothing ever happens to you again.”
“So, what...you plan on locking me up in a bigger room...maybe even a whole house...and pretend like I’m not still being held hostage by you!?” She shook her head and turned her back on me. “I’ve just been a pawn to you this whole time. A means to an end. It all makes perfect sense now. Maybe you got distracted on the way cause you liked having sex with me, but that doesn’t change what I am to you. I’m not stupid enough to think it could ever be any different. I could never be with you.”
The hatred in her voice was thick. By trying to find some way to keep her close to me, I had pushed her further away than ever. I knew there was no going back now. The only thing left to do now was what I should have done from the beginning.
I walked over to the broken door of the shed and trailed my hand along the frame. “You’re free now. I’ll leave you alone. You can do whatever you want. I’ll understand if you never want to see me again. But...before you go, I hope you’ll at least come tell me goodbye. I know I don’t deserve it, but…” I studied her face and could see how unmoved she was. Nothing I said mattered anymore.
I walked away and left her alone. The house was completely empty now. Even the maids were gone. The guys knew they had killed any chance they had at getting a dime from me the moment they went against my wishes. And if they didn’t know it at first, they knew it by the time I was done beating each and every one of their asses off of Jada. Maybe they took their little hostage video with them, but Jada would be going home soon and it would be useless. Aside from all those blissful days spent with her and then ruining the best thing that had ever happened to me, all of this had been for nothing.
I walked into my room, making sure to leave the door open so I could hear if there was any more trouble. I had imagined building some kind of life with Jada, but I never imagined we had already made one that had been growing inside of her this entire time. I wanted more than anything to raise that baby with her. But I knew it was too late for fantasies like that.
A while later, I heard Jada’s footsteps softly creeping into my room. I jumped up when I saw her, bracing myself for her decision. She seemed calmer, but her face was still beaten of course. I wished I could take every last scratch from her body and put it on mine instead.
“You have to see a doctor,” I insisted before she could say anything. “You have to make sure the baby is okay.”
She nodded. “I will. After I go home. They’ll take care of me and make sure I get checked out.”
My heart cracked open when she said it, but I couldn’t have expected anything different.
“I’m going to go back to Paul,” she explained with alarming resolve. “I’ll tell him that I was taken and held prisoner, but I won’t say by who. I’ll pretend it was just a random group of men whose faces I never saw. I won’t give them your name. I’ll tell him I was raped and hope he’ll take pity on me enough to accept the child as his own. It’s too late now to try and pretend like it’s his.”
“I’d rather die than have that little shit raise my child!” I thundered back.
“You can do just that for all I care!” she screamed. “I could’ve died! The baby could have died!” She took in a deep breath and tried to speak more calmly. “Look, it’s really not up to you, Nic. I’ve made up my mind. And anyway, whatever you have against them...Paul would never put me in harm’s way or hurt me the way that you have. The baby and I will be safe with him...if he’ll still have us. More so than we could ever be with you.”
“I would’ve never let that happen,” I defended. “I wish more than anything I could take it all back. I wish I had done something different. But I got to you as soon as I could, and I would have burnt the whole house down to get out of there and get to you. You have to know that.”
“Look at my face, Nic! Think about how you found me! Think about how you’ve treated me this whole time!” She lost her words in her tears and could barely stand to look at me.
I was filled with such immense guilt that I wanted to die right then and there in front of her if it would have proven how much I cared and how much I hated myself for what happened to her...for everything I had done wrong up until then.
“This is why we can’t be with you,” she added quietly. “Even when you don’t mean to be, you’re dangerous. You put me in harm’s way. I used to have this crazy fantasy that it could all work out between us, but...I see now how ridiculous that is. I have to leave now. I want to go home to Paul and my family and try to make things right. But...you asked me to come say goodbye. So...Goodbye.”
I wanted to rush over and take her into my arms, even if it was only one last kiss. But I could tell she didn’t want me to touch her. She didn’t even want me to look at her. She wanted to be as far away from me as she could, and maybe that was for the best.
I watched her turn to leave and felt like my heart had just been ripped right out of my chest. Nothing would ever be the same again. Even if I went back to my old and tried to pretend none of this ever happened, I would always have this gaping wound left from when she walked out of my life.
The bottle of liquor was calling me from the counter, but staying locked in my room and getting drunk was what caused her to be hurt that night. She was long gone, but I still felt the need to do it right this time around. I had this sense of needing to prove to her that I didn’t have to let her down.
I didn’t know if the police would end up finding their back to the hideout now that the guys had vanished, and Jada was returning home. I couldn’t stay there. I packed up my bag and set out to return to my manor, finally.
Chapter 20
Jada
I had forgotten what it felt like to be free as I stepped out into the night air. I stopped at the first house I came to and told them who I was. They let me borrow the phone to call my mother and sisters so they could come pick me up. I still hadn’t seen what I looked like, but I could tell by the neighbors’ frightened faces that it must have been bad. I asked if I could use their bathroom to clean up as best I could, so my family wouldn’t have to see me that way.
The cold water from the bathroom faucet stung against my face and dripped back down into the basin in a bloody brown color. I cleaned up my scratches and tried to scrub the blood from my shirt. By the time I got out, Lucia had arrived and was waiting anxiously to see me.
We collapsed to the floor in tears as we hugged. She told me Elaina had to stay home with Mama to keep her calm until we got back.
“I can take you to Paul’s, though. If you want to see him first,” she said. “They would understand.”
“No!” I answered too eagerly. “Did you tell him you heard from me yet?”
“No, but he’ll know soon. We told the police so they would stop looking for you. They’ll want to question you, but they said they could wait until tomorrow so you’d have some time to rest.”
“I want to see Mama and Elaina.”
She nodded and kept her arms around me tight as she walked me out to the car. As she shut the passenger door behind me, she pressed her hand to the window before finally walking around to the driver’s side. It was like she was afraid to leave me even for a few seconds. Like I might vanish again.
“Now I know how everyone felt while I was gone,” she said when she climbed into the car.
I remembered what it was like when Lucia and Elaina were gone...how worried Mama and I were about them. I hated Nic for putting my family through that again. But I was still so confused. Why had he let me go so easily? Why, after all o
f that, did he give up his chance at the ransom money?
I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts to say anything on the drive home. We arrived faster than I thought we would, and I was eager to run inside and let Elaina and Mama see that I was okay. My face was beaten, but I was alive. Elaina pulled me aside the first chance she got and asked if the baby was okay.
“As far as I know,” I answered, rubbing my hands across my stomach, which was now starting to show. I wouldn’t have been able to hide it from Nic for more than maybe another week.
“We’ll have a doctor come see you tomorrow,” she said. “We’ll get you all checked out just to be safe.”
No one wanted to sleep that night. We were all so happy to be back together, and I was still too shocked to fall asleep anyway. When my sisters and I found ourselves alone, I started to wonder if maybe they could understand something about the situation with Nic. Their own relationships were so unconventional, after all. I decided to tell them everything. They already knew who Nic was and what happened between us at the party, but I knew they wouldn’t tell the police he was the one who captured me if I asked them not to.
I talked until I was blue in the face, trying not to leave out a single detail. It felt like if I missed anything, they might not understand it enough to give a clear verdict. By the time I was done, I thought I sounded like a crazy woman. I was convinced they would tell me that I had gone mad and that Nic obviously didn’t care anything about me.
They were quiet for a long time, exchanging looks that I couldn’t quite read. Until finally they suggested that maybe Nic’s feelings for me were real. It was both relieving and terrifying to hear them say it. At least I knew I wasn’t insane. Or if I was, they were just as nuts as me.
Stolen Pregnant Bride (Olive Skin Devils Book 3) Page 13