by Nashoda Rose
Her hair flowed past her shoulders in long lazy curls, and pale flawless skin matched her blonde hair. It wasn’t bright blonde; it was a quiet blonde that didn’t scream at you when you saw the color, matching everything else about her.
But with all her beauty it was something else that caught my attention, the mark on her inner wrist. I only saw it for a second when she reached forward to give me the water the second time and then the sleeve of her silk white dress slipped over the top of it again.
It looked like a … a branding. Scorched words burned into her skin. She started to walk away taking the empty bottle with her when I called out. “What will happen to me?”
When she turned it was graceful and flowing, the silk dress floating around her legs as she moved then settling next to her slim thighs. I wanted to beg her to help me, to let me go, but begging never helped. It only made you appear weak, and I knew this girl wouldn’t set me free. No one would.
“You’ll die if she has her way.” Even though her words tore through me like a knife, her voice was sweet and soft, perfectly matching everything else about her, except the emptiness in her eyes. I didn’t see hope or laughter or even anger. They were just eyes watching and seeing, not reacting, yet hidden there was a familiar torment.
“Why?”
She didn’t say anything.
“Why did you bring me water if I’m going to die anyway? Do you get off on seeing a girl in chains? What’s next … you going to whip me? Are you going to ruin your pretty silk dress with my blood?” I knew I should keep my mouth shut, but if I was going to die, then I was going to do it fighting. “I’ll never beg. You can whip me until I die, but I’ll never beg you to stop.”
“I was afraid of that,” she said in a quiet, husky whisper. “They’re always watching.”
“What do you mean?” She walked toward the door and opened it. “What do you mean?” I screamed.
The door shut.
Greg escorted me to the washroom. My arms and legs were so cramped that I didn’t have the ability to fight him. He kept his eyes locked on me as I lowered my panties and sat on the toilet. It took a few minutes before I could finally go; stage fright took on a whole other meaning.
I washed my hands and face and then his heated fingers coiled around my arm as he led me back to the bed. I hesitated and he yanked on me so hard I slammed into his chest. His dark brows lowered over his beady shit-brown eyes. His matching shit-brown hair hung like greasy strands of thread over his forehead. His fingers tightened into a bruising grip as he thrust me toward the bed.
I shook my head back and forth, instinct fighting me as we drew closer to what had become my cage. A cage of comfort and deceptive beauty, and yet it was anything but. This was sacrificial no matter how I looked at it. I was going to die here. Used until I died. Driven to beg, but I wouldn’t, and I knew that would make it worse for me.
Greg tossed me face first on the bed, and then he was on top, his thighs on either side of my pelvis.
“Get the hell off me.” I freaked, my heart slamming into my chest and my pulse racing wildly as I tried to get away. I flailed wildly and knocked both of us off balance. I landed on the cement floors, my right knee hitting so hard I was screaming in pain.
Greg had no mercy as he picked me up in a bruising grip and forced me face down on the bed again. Soon I was chained, but worse I was lying on my stomach. The panic of being unable to move rushed through me, and I pulled at the chains, my back arching, my cheeks pressed into the pillow.
“It won’t be long now,” Greg said and then strolled casually from the room as if this was nothing to him—that a woman kidnapped and chained to a bed was a usual occurrence.
“Good! Tell that bitch I’m waiting for her.” I don’t know if he heard all of it since halfway through my shouting the door slammed.
I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes the gray-eyed girl stood beside the bed, another water bottle in hand. She crackled the plastic casing and the lid fell to the floor. I lifted my head as much as I could, and she poured the water into my mouth. Although half of it slipped out the side and soaked into the pillow. She placed her finger under my chin to assist me and poured the cool liquid slower so I could swallow easier.
“How long have I been here?” I asked when the water was finished.
“A day and a half.” She stared at me for several seconds, her delicate thin brows lowered over her eyes. She tilted her head forward so her hair swung forward and hid her face. “He’s here, being forced to watch you,” she whispered, and then she spun on her heel and I heard the door open and close.
I jerked on the chains. What? What did she mean? Oh God, please don’t let it be Ream. I’d rather die here alone, starving, and breaking until … I no longer existed. An empty shell with nothing left inside to love, to give to anyone, to feel.
Was that what Ream had meant? How he’d felt all his life—until me.
Baby. It was his voice in my head that would save me now.
Beautiful. He was all I had left, and when I died it would be with his arms around me.
I love you, Kat.
I closed my eyes and listened to his voice over and over in my head. And then after a while, I sighed as my mind took me … gave me him and I slept in his arms.
I woke to something heavy on top of me. An arm curled around my waist, tugging me upward so the chains were taut and manacles dug into my flesh.
Cold lips on my neck.
No. No.
The naked heated skin on top of me smelled of mint … Oh God it was him. My stomach revolted and I swallowed, trying to keep the water down as the heavy body pulled me in tight against him.
It was his whisper against my ear that sent me wild. “This time we have lots of time and no one to hear you scream.”
I screamed anyway. As loud as I could. Fighting. My arms straining against the immoveable chains. He was too strong, and I was like a tied-up rag doll, pathetic and weak. Unable to get free. Unable to do more than cause him to get more turned on by fighting.
I felt his cock swell and jerk as he rubbed it up against my ass. His thighs pinned me between his legs like tree trunks. “Oh, Jesus, yes, you’re better than Alexa promised. A real fighter.” He kissed the back of my neck, his tongue sliding down my flesh to my shoulder. He circled and kissed the spot and then bit down hard.
I yelled as the agony of his teeth tore into my skin, my body straining with tension.
“You know I fucked your boyfriend in this same bed. He screamed too.” I gagged on the bile that rose in my throat and stuck my face into the pillow. “He fought like you, at least he did the first few months. And then … then I think he enjoyed it. He especially loved it when I went down on him. Of course that was after he took care of me.”
No. Ream. No. That was why. Oh God.
I love you.
I love you, Ream.
“You’ll stop fighting me too. And then we will have to try some new … things.” He nibbled on my ear, his breath heavy as if his weight caused him to have trouble breathing.
The loud crash had both of us jerking, except I had nowhere to go and I couldn’t see the cause of it, but I heard it.
“Get the fuck off her.” Ream’s voice was laced with so much rage that it was barely recognizable.
The weight lifted. “Who the fuck are … Jesus, you’re the boy. Look at you, all grown up.”
“Yeah, and you’re Uncle fuckin’ Ben, the bastard who is going to die begging me for mercy this time.”
The elation and fear hit me like a parade of fireworks. It was relief at him being here and then terror that if he was here then maybe he was a prisoner too.
“The key. In the drawer of the nightstand. Undo her manacles.” I couldn’t see him, but the laced venom in his voice would’ve made anyone do as he said, even if he didn’t have any weapon. “Now!” I heard the door slam shut.
The cutting metal fell from my ankles and then my wrists, and the first thing I
did was curl up in a ball, my knees to my chest and my arms wrapped around them. It was protective and instinctive, like my body needed to feel itself after being forced apart for two days.
“Kat. You need to get up.” I closed my eyes, letting his voice trickle over me like cool water. “Kat. Do it now, baby. Go to the bathroom and shut the door,” Ream ordered.
Silence.
No one moved.
Then I uncurled and lifted my head and searched the room for him.
It was my strangled sob ripping from my throat that broke through the silence. Standing with nothing but a knife held in his hand at his side and a deadly darkness in his blood shot eyes. And it was terrifying. He was terrifying and beautiful all at the same time.
There was nothing in his eyes except coldness, an iciness emanating from every part of his body as he slowly scanned mine. It was like his hands were running over my skin and goose bumps rose from his cool gaze.
“Go in the bathroom and don’t come out until I tell you.”
I nodded and slipped off the side of the bed and backed slowly away from Ben, at least that was what everyone called him, and I suspected no one used their real names in this place.
Ream’s eyes were locked on the fifty-year-old, naked piece of shit. There was a look in his eyes that was filled with hatred for Ben. It was encompassing. Driven. It was like a dam had broken and all the pain he’d suffered at the hands of this man was revealed in his eyes.
Hatred. Pure hatred so deep that it could only go one way.
I stood in the doorway, afraid to leave Ream, afraid to close the door and have him disappear.
He didn’t even look at me as he said, “Run all the taps.”
His stone-cold voice still managed to flutter across my skin like butterfly wings. “Ream.” His eyes remained glued to Ben. “I love you. No matter what happens.”
I saw the slightest ease in his stance, nothing anyone would notice, except I did. I could. And I knew exactly what he was going to do to Ben and it didn’t matter. He needed to know that. Ben deserved the consequences for what he’d done to Ream and how many others over the years.
“You love this man-whore?” Ben laughed, but it was an uneasy sound with a slight quiver to it. He was scared of Ream. As he should be. “That’s all he is. A whore. And he liked it. He screamed my name when it—”
“Close the fuckin door, Kat,” Ream shouted.
I slammed it shut then turned on the taps full blast. I sat on the floor as far away from the door as I could.
“I’m going to rip you apart, you little fuck.”
“And I’m going to let you try. But know that you’re going to die for what you did to me and to Kat.” Ream’s voice was steady and slow, each word pronounced with obvious threat.
When the screams started I put my hands over my ears.
***
It was a long time before Ben’s cries became moans of begging before finally the silence. Not moving, I was curled up with my head between my legs, arms wrapped around my body.
I felt his hands on my arms, his scent surrounding me, comforting me as I breathed in. And then he was all around me.
“Baby.”
That was all it took. That familiar gentle voice that sunk into me. I violently threw my arms around him. “Ream. Oh God. Ream.”
He stroked my head and burrowed his face in my neck. I’d never felt like I was home until that moment. It wasn’t about the place, it was the person that made the home. And I had no doubt Ream was mine.
“I’m sorry. I thought … I should’ve known. I should’ve trusted you.” All the pain I caused us for not believing in him.
“Shh.” He pulled back and I didn’t want him to. I wanted him to keep me in his arms forever. He insisted though and quickly pulled off his T-shirt and slipped it over my head. Then he held my head between his hands to make sure I was coherent and listening because I was sobbing uncontrollably now.
“The evidence was pretty damning, baby.” He caressed my cheek with his thumb. “I didn’t trust myself. I knew I’d never do that to you, but … waking up like that. Not remembering. All the fucked up memories from this place … it slammed me and I couldn’t think straight. It made me sick to think I did that to you.”
I kissed his lips, his nose, his cheeks. “You didn’t, Ream. God, I love you. And I want to get out of here and show you how much. Maybe we can go to the cottage for a while and—”
“No. Not yet. Okay?” He pulled my head into his chest and kissed the top of it. “We can’t go yet. A while longer.”
“Ream, we have to get out of here.” I wanted to look up at him, but he kept my head tucked against his chest and I listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. It was soothing, like I was cocooned in my favorite blanket.
He slipped his hand in mine and gave a light squeeze. “We have time. How are you feeling? Your legs okay?”
“They’re fine, not much exertion lying on a bed for nearly two days.” I tried to make light of it, but Ream’s body stiffened and his arms tightened around me. “Who is … was he?” I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Ben was dead.
“Just a sick fuck that needs fear to make him get off. It’s over now, baby.” Ream had to live all these years knowing this man was walking around free, hurting others. Incarceration wasn’t enough for someone like that. Ream had been so young …Ben deserved whatever Ream had done to him.
“Alexa … she’s insane, Ream.”
He nodded. “As a child she was obsessive and cruel. I suspect she was the reason many of the animals in the neighborhood disappeared. But she tried to protect me, even at twelve years old. She stood up to her father and begged him not to take me downstairs.” He paused. “She’d hold my hand all the way to the door leading down here. Her father wouldn’t let her come any farther and then she’d kiss my cheek and squeeze my hand and tell me it would be okay.” He shook his head and sighed. “Never was okay. Even when she stood waiting for me when I came back, sometimes so beaten down that I had to be carried. Lenny was adamant about his clients not leaving scars. He wanted to maintain my look of innocence he said. Paid more.” I choked on my sob wanting him to stop, but knowing he needed this. “Alexandria would nurse me back to health and by Monday I’d be back at school and everything would be normal again. Week after week the same thing, until it finally stopped. Alexa thought it was her begging, but the truth was my mother’s debt was paid off and Lenny surprisingly kept his word.”
I nodded. It didn’t make him a good person though. He pimped out a kid for two years.
“She was fourteen then, and it was no longer a little girl trying to save her hero, it was a girl wanting to make her hero hers.” His arms tightened around me and he took several deep breaths. “I was never a fuckin’ hero, least of all hers. I hated her for what she did. I didn’t want her help.
“She had it rough too. We barely had enough to eat, but with all the druggies that came to the house, Lenny never let anyone touch her. But she was insanely jealous of Haven. She pretended not to be, but I saw her always trying to keep us apart, blaming Haven for anything that went wrong.” He grunted.
I was quiet a second then I said, “I love you, Ream.”
He looked up at me and I saw the coldness lingering. “I’ll get you out of here.”
“Us.”
“Baby.” He leaned in then started kissing the tear stains away. “It won’t work that way. Not this time.”
His words hit me so hard it knocked the breath out of me. “No.” He tried to kiss me again and I yanked back. “No. Ream. No.”
He sighed stroking the side of my face along the edge of my scar then kissed it, the velvet tip of his tongue caressing the raised surface. When he pulled back there was so much regret in his eyes. “I did this.”
“What?”
“All of this is my fault.”
“No, it’s Alexa’s. It’s your mother’s for selling her children to Lenny for drug money. I don’t care how many scars I g
et as long as you’re with me. I can fight anything if I know you’re beside me.” I put my hands on either side of his. “Ream. No. I won’t leave here without you.”
He groaned.
“No. Promise me.”
“Baby—”
I was trembling and shaking my head back and forth. “No.” I tried to get up, but he leaned back against the wall and dragged me with him. “We have to go.”
My back was snug against his chest and his arms were around me, fingers linked. He kept me locked against him as I fought to get free. To take us away from here.
“Kat, I need you to stop. Stop fighting me.”
I pounded my fist into his thigh, and he kissed the top of my head. “We need to leave.” But this time my voice was a whisper because I was realizing that this … Ream being here with me had more to it than what I’d first thought.
“Alexa’s mind is warped.” Ream stroked my arms slow and casual, as if we were sitting on the dock and he was telling me a story. “She grew up surrounded by druggies. Her mother … she ran away when Alexa was two years old, at least that’s what the rumor was. Most likely she overdosed.” He lowered his voice. “There is only one thing she wants.”
My heart slammed into my chest. “She can’t have you. You’re mine. I’m not letting her have you.”
His mouth was in my hair and I felt the curve of his lips. “Oh, baby, I love hearing that more than anything. Those words from your lips … I love you, Kat.” I heard the hesitation and my breath hitched. “But I can’t let anything happen to you, you know that, right? I told you.” Fear plowed into me like a Mac truck, and I tried to turn around but he held tight.
I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. He was going to do something stupidly brave or just plain stupid, and I wouldn’t let him. “No.”
“Kitkat.” His tone was strong and fierce, but I knew no matter what he said, I’d never leave him behind.
“No, you promised to marry me.” I felt him stop breathing, his body stiffen, and then it was like he let it all go and brought the warmth around me and took me into him.