by Nashoda Rose
“Even after knowing … what I was?”
I yanked from his arms and swung around and grabbed him by the cheeks. “Yes. Don’t even question that. Ever. I fell in love with you, and that’s all of you. What happened here is part of who you are now, and that is the man I love.”
He stared at me for several seconds then a low growl emerged from his throat and he kissed me. It was hard and unyielding, like the rush of a wild river. Despite where we were, the circumstances, it didn’t matter because we had one another. His tongue sought mine, and the sweetness swarmed me bringing me into him, our lips locking together like smoldering links of metal being welded together.
He was first to pull away, and I felt his body sag into mine and it scared me because it felt like defeat.
“Ream? Why can’t we leave?” This … sitting here waiting … but for what? It wasn’t right. Something was off and my stomach felt like a tide crashing into jagged rocks over and over again.
He sighed and lowered his eyes.
No. No. I knew something was off. We should be running for our lives, and we were sitting here in the bathroom. “Ream. No.”
“Kat—”
I felt the tears, foreign tears that now weren’t so foreign anymore. “No, don’t say it. I won’t leave without you.” I tried to get up again, but he held me to him. “Ream, let’s go. We can make it.”
“No, baby. We can’t.”
I choked back my sob and yanked myself from his arms, scrambling to my feet. “The door, it was never locked, we can get out of here.” Ream sat on the floor, knees bent, watching me. The fear was like a spider weaving its web around me. “Get up, damn it.”
He was so calm. Too calm. Resignation. Oh God. No. But it made sense. How he found me. How he just walked right in here and no one did a thing. How there was no rush to leave. And then I did what I swore never to do again. “Please … Ream … please, we can try. Please.”
He got to his feet and walked over to me and then cradled me in his arms as I begged through my tears. He stroked my back and wiped away my tears with the pad of his thumb, slow and gentle, his eyes filled with concern—for me. And it was maddening. I wanted to shake him and yell and beg and then run from this place with his fingers locked with mine.
“Alexa … called me. Made me a deal. It was the only way to get to you fast enough before Ben ….” Oh God, I didn’t want to hear the rest. I just wanted to take him and run. “Baby, look at me.” I closed my eyes when he tilted my head up. “I need you to look at me.” I didn’t want to because I knew what I’d see … the acceptance of what this was. Of what was going to happen here. He kissed each eyelid. “Open them, beautiful.”
I did and everything inside me was screaming. “Deck. Deck will come.”
He shook his head. “Deck’s not coming. No one knows where we are.”
My breath hitched. “But he’ll figure it out. Georgie will call him and he’ll find us.”
He caressed the side of my face and I leaned into it. “Deck’s in Afghanistan. Even if Georgie can reach him again … I won’t risk your life, Kat.”
“You’re telling me you came here without telling anyone? Jesus, Ream, why?”
“Because I want you to live. I won’t risk your life. She’ll let you go and this will end.” He leaned in close and kissed my cheek. “I’ll get out. I’ll come back to you.”
“No.” I pushed away from him and shoved him backwards. I turned and started walking out of the bathroom then stopped dead when I saw the body. Ben was spread eagle lying on the bed, the manacles on him. There were welts and blood all over his body like … I looked back over my shoulder at Ream and he stared back, a cold, indifferent expression in his eyes. He knew exactly what he did and there wasn’t a flicker of remorse.
Ben had damaged Ream for two years. Whatever happened in this room had been horrific for Ream. He didn’t have to tell me any of it; I saw all of it in that body lying motionless.
Suddenly the door opened.
I staggered backwards until I hit Ream’s chest and felt his hands on my arms holding me steady. Alexa strode in with Greg and Lance, her knowing smile brilliant as she glanced at the bed and then at us.
“Well done, Ream.” She gestured to Ben’s lifeless body. “And deserving, I imagine. I knew you’d like your gift from me. Ben was all giddy about being able to fuck your girlfriend here. Didn’t take much to convince him to come here.” She tilted her head to Lance and Greg, and they started toward us.
“No. Wait.” All the hope I felt when Ream walked through that door was gone.
Ream’s fingers squeezed my arms and I felt his breath against my ear as he spoke, “She’ll let you go. You walk away alive.”
“You trust her? You think she’ll let me go?” I broke free of his grip and whirled around in his arms. “It’s not over. What are you saying? Ream, damn it. You can’t …” I couldn’t even get the words past my lips. How could he even consider staying with Alexa. For what … my freedom? My life? How could I live every day knowing he was with her. Forced to stay.
“Kat, listen to me.” He glanced up and his eyes narrowed, and I suspected Lance and Greg were moving in on us. “Go home. And you won’t say one word to anyone about what happened to me. We will disappear from here and it will end. This isn’t a request.”
I trembled so badly that I thought I’d collapse. He couldn’t mean that. Deck and his men, they did this kind of thing … he got Emily out Mexico. He’d help—
“She’s been planning this for years.” He grabbed my arms and shook me like he knew exactly what was going through my head. “Kat—years. She’s thought of every contingency … fuck, she had years to think of every contingency plan. We end this now. All of this ends right now.”
I stared up at him for a while, at least it seemed like a while and probably was because I could hear Alexa clearing her throat and the click of her high heels as she strolled toward us.
“And what makes you think she’ll just let me live? That she won’t kill me the second you’re out of sight.”
“’Cause she gives me proof, and if she doesn’t, I will never be hers.”
I wanted to scream that he wasn’t. That he was mine, but the words were locked in my throat. I was stubborn and I’d fight for us with my last breath, but I wasn’t stupid. Ream and I wouldn’t escape past Greg and Lance.
“One more thing,” Alexa’s words sent a chill straight through me.
Ream jerked. “Alexa. Our deal.”
She smiled. “Oh, it’s just a little reminder to the little princess as to whom you belong now. And what will happen if she ever opens that luscious mouth of hers. I promise, she won’t be hurt and then I’ll have Greg drive her back to the city.”
My heart pounded so fast I felt as if it would break through my ribs. The gleam in her eyes sparkled with pleasure at whatever she had planned.
Greg walked up and took my arm; I instantly reacted, trying to break free, feeling as if a noose was tightening around my neck.
“Go with him, Kat.” Ream’s words tore open my insides. There was nothing in his voice that was alive. It was like a frost had settled over him and numbed the blood running through his veins.
But I did what he asked and walked quietly beside Gregg, with Ream and Lance behind me, and Alexa’s stiletto heels clicking, leading the way.
***
I writhed. I struggled. Fought. I shouted and I even resorted to begging. I knew it wouldn’t stop what was about to happen. Nothing would and yet, remaining silent … I couldn’t do it.
But Ream never fought. His face stoic and emotionless as Lance secured him to the wooden post, hands cuffed to a ring above his head.
Greg had his arm locked around my waist and his other hand was clamped around my wrists so tight I could no longer feel my hands.
Alexa strolled around the post like a cat stalking her prey, her long graceful strides, nothing like the girl Molly who she had pretended to be. “This is for her, Ream. To pro
tect her. I’d hate to have to have her killed. She’ll see the truth in my words once we are done here.”
“I won’t fucking say anything, damn it. I swear.” But as I said the words, I knew they were a lie. Alexa saw it too. She knew what Ream meant to me. She knew what I was like; she’d been watching me and everyone else for months. There was no question I was lying because I’d hunt her down and kill her myself if I had to. I’d never leave Ream, and I’d do whatever it took to get him back.
“I suspect you will the first chance you get. You’ll call Deck and then maybe the police, but I will show you what will happen if you do.”
She walked over to the far side of the room, and Lance pulled a string which flicked on a light bulb above his head. It felt as if I’d been hit in the stomach as the air left me, and I choked back my horror at the array of weapons that hung on the wall. “No. Please. Don’t do that to him.” I sagged in Greg’s arms as the devastation at what Alexa was going to do tore a hole through my stomach.
“We’ll start light, shall we, Ream? To warm you up to the idea. Doesn’t matter about scars now, does it? I don’t mind them. It will be a reminder as to who you belong to.” Alexa plucked a long coiled whip off the wall and walked back toward Ream. She ran her fingers along his tattooed back then down his spine to his jeans. She leaned close so her breasts were up against him, and I saw her whisper something in his ear.
Ream never moved. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t react. Nothing.
She laughed and then walked away a few feet before she turned and the leather whip uncoiled and sliced into Ream’s back.
I screamed, fighting against Greg’s relentless hold. “Ream,” I choked out. “No. Please, I swear I won’t say anything. Please.”
There wasn’t even a glance my way as my words went ignored and Alexa brought down the whip again. Then harder again. And again. He never moved. His back muscles flexed when the whip hit, almost as if they were trying to run away, but the muscles bounced back only to have it repeat over and over again.
Alexa nodded to Lance and my eyes widened in horror as he walked over to the wall and grabbed another weapon. It had several feet of long strands and at the end of each one was something shiny. Shudders racked through me as I watched Alexa take the weapon from Lance.
“You see, Ream came here knowing full well he was exchanging his life for yours.” She walked around the post, the whip dragging along the cement floor behind her. “And he wouldn’t risk your life by telling anyone or coming in here guns blazing. You know why, princess … because I have extra insurance.”
She raised the whip over her head, and this time Ream did flinch as the weapon launched across his back. His fingers curled into the wood and his body stiffened, and I heard a controlled groan escape his mouth. Blood dripped down his back from whatever was on the ends of the strands of the whip.
“Alexa, I swear I’ll never say anything,” I sobbed. And now I meant the words. She loved Ream, in her own sick, disgusting way, and she was abusing him, hurting him just to prove a point. To make certain I’d never forget the images of this in my mind.
And she was right. I wouldn’t. She engraved them in me.
Alexa raised her arm and the sound of the whip hitting his flesh echoed in the room. It was as if I could hear his skin splitting open.
It came down on him again and again until he collapsed. All his weight hanging from his arms secured to the ring on the post.
Ream. Oh God. Ream. No.
My eyes tore away from Ream as Alexa stepped in front of me. I hadn’t even noticed her. But when she held out her hand holding the whip with Ream’s blood dripping off the strands I couldn’t stop myself as I raised my head and glared at her.
“Fuck you, bitch.” I spit in her face.
Suddenly Greg’s arms released me and I saw Alexa’s arm rise with the whip ready to hit me with it.
“Do it, and I’ll never be yours.” Ream’s voice tore through the room in a loud bellow. I didn’t even think he was capable of talking after what she’d just done to him.
Alexa lowered her arm and before Greg could grab me again I ran to Ream.
“Get her,” Alexa said, her tone as if I was a pesky rodent who’d escaped her trap.
I banged into the post, my trembling limbs barely able to support me as I used the structure to hold me up.
“Ream.” I was careful not to touch his shredded back as I cupped his head in my hands. Choked sobs and fresh tears streamed down my face. I could smell the copper scent of his blood and the perspiration of his ravaged body.
“Go, Kat.” His voice was broken and raspy, as if it hurt him just to speak two words.
“I love you, baby,” I cried then pressed my mouth to his quivering lips. They just touched before I was suddenly torn away.
Greg’s arm looped around my waist, lifting me off the ground, and then he headed for the door.
“Ream!” I screamed. “Please. No.” I didn’t give a crap about looking weak or if I begged. Nothing mattered except that I was being torn away from Ream.
Greg’s hand reached out for the doorknob just as it flung open and hit him square in the face. He staggered back and dropped me. I fell to the floor and went to scramble back to Ream when I looked up at the gun pointed at … I turned my head. Pointed at Alexa.
“My love. I told you to wait in my room. You’d see him soon enough.” Alexa’s voice held a slight uneasiness to it as she slowly started walking toward the door. “Do not act foolishly. You know what will happen.”
“Don’t move.” The girl with the gray eyes held the gun with one hand, steadily pointed at Alexa.
“Sweetie. What are you doing? I’ve cared for you. Given you everything you’ve ever wanted. We have been like … sisters.”
I heard the shuffle of feet and saw Greg make his move. I jerked when the gun went off and Greg fell to the floor, blood seeping from the wound in his chest.
When I looked back at Alexa, she didn’t even seem affected by Greg’s death. She confidently took another step forward and reached out her hand. “Give me the gun. We will talk about this.”
The girl shook her head, and her blonde strands flowed back and forth over her shoulders. “No. You lied to me. You told me you’d never go after him if I stayed with you. You promised me. I did everything you wanted. Everything. Not once did I go against you and for what? So you could plan all along to go after my brother?”
I heard the clang of the ring hit the post and then Ream’s ragged voice. “Haven?”
I gasped. Haven. His sister? But she died … in the hospital.
“He belongs to me,” Alexa shouted.
The gun went off again and this time the bullet hit the floor next to Alexa. “Haven. You’d be dead in the street by now if Olaf hadn’t taken you from the hospital. Ream couldn’t look after you. We did. You’re family. Both of you are. And now we will have Ream back, don’t you see? We’ll all be together again. I did this for us.”
My gaze shot back to Haven and I expected to see her faltering under Alexa’s persuasion, but her gray eyes remained unwavering and fixed on her. “Maybe I would be dead by now. But that would’ve been my choice. Do you think I wanted to live with you? To live in a disgusting house where I was terrorized then raped. To be fed drugs like candy so I’d have to rely on Olaf for my next fix. To have to beg him for it. And you … you wanted to keep me like a pet in a cage—”
“No. That’s not true,” Alexa said, her voice now beginning to quake.
“And now you want to do the same thing to Ream. No, Alexa. I will kill him before I will allow you to torture him like you’ve done to me all these years.”
“Haven, I love you.” Alexa’s voice broke and I saw the realization in her eyes just before Haven said, “And you can die knowing I’ve always hated you.”
The gun went off.
I watched as if in slow motion as Alexa’s eyes widened and her hands went to her chest and then pulled away as she stared down at the blood.
Her blood. She looked back up at Haven, her mouth opening like she was going to say something. Then she crumpled to the floor.
I didn’t wait any longer as I staggered to my feet and went running to Ream. I’d forgotten about Lance and he dove for me. He was agile and quick, but Haven, whoever she’d become over the years, didn’t hesitate as she pulled the trigger again, and Lance’s hand just hit my shoulder as he fell.
Haven walked toward us, the gun still pointed at Lance now lying on the floor writhing in pain. Then she stood over him, and I saw him reach out his hand. She never said a word as the gun went off again; Lance’s body jerked then went still.
Haven crouched down and searched in his pockets then pulled out a key which she tossed to me. “Get him down.”
I didn’t pay much attention to her as I quickly ran the rest of the way to Ream. I stood on my tiptoes as I put the key in the cuffs that were latched to the ring in the post.
“Baby.” He was barely able to breathe from the pain. In shock, his flesh pale and body shaking violently.
As soon as his hands were free, he buckled into my arms, dragging me to the floor with him. “Haven.” I couldn’t carry him. I’d need her help to get him out of here.
When I looked up, she was walking back into the room carrying a red plastic gasoline container. She started pouring the liquid all over the place, the fumes so pungent I started coughing.
“Ream. Ream, we have to get out of here. Get up. You have to get up.” I wrapped my arm around his waist and felt him stiffen as the material from my shirt brushed up against his wounds. “Ream, damn it. Get. Up,” I yelled.
I tried to get to my feet, but my legs were weak and I didn’t have the strength to pick him up from the floor. Suddenly, Haven was on the other side of him and she looped her arm around him and we both hauled him to his feet.
“Haven.” His eyes were closed, but he knew she was there saving him. She was his twin, his other half, his angel.
She never said a word.
We half dragged, half carried him to the door. Then Haven stopped. She didn’t even look at me as she passed me her gun then reached into her pocket, pulled out a match, and struck it against the doorframe. It sizzled as it caught flame, the bright orange illuminating her indifferent expression. Then she threw it over her shoulder into a pool of gasoline.