Twisted Obsession

by Keta Kendric

  “Sorio wanted to ensure that I never ran again. He did the evilest thing you could do to a person. I’d hidden myself out in Galveston, Texas, on the beach. When I was brought to him, in the house at the farm, I was in a thin yellow sundress. His sinister grin was what greeted me when I was shoved into the living room with him. I had no idea at the time what the farm was but found out it was where I’d be kept from now on.

  “Sorio stared at me as I stood at the door with tears streaming down my cheeks. He stalked towards me like an angry bull. I backed away from him until the wall stopped me, but I continued to inch back, hoping I could force my body through the hard wood to get away from him. He rushed me, and before I could scream, his big hand was around my neck. His hold was so tight I couldn’t breathe as he lifted, inching me up the wall.”

  With her fist clutched into tight balls, a visible tremble edged over her body.

  “My feet teetered on the floor as I stretched my body to give me leverage to ease the stress on my neck and to get oxygen into my lungs. Just when the pinpricks of blackness narrowed my view, he eased me down a notch, but maintained his tight grip on my neck.”

  She shook her head and bit into her bottom lip in an attempt to decrease the impact of reliving the incident.

  “That’s when things went from bad to worse. He poked out his tongue and eased his face closer to mine before he allowed his nasty wet tongue to inch up and over my cheek. I couldn’t believe what he was doing. I was no longer concerned about the hand he had around my throat because his other hand was sliding up my leg and inching my dress up.”

  “Fucking hell no!” I blurted out, shaking my head. My outburst had stopped Regina from talking, and we sat staring at each other for a long while before she started again. She clenched her eyes shut, making them tremble as wet droplets stuck to her lashes.

  ‘I’m going to fix this running away shit so your ass never runs again. I’ve been wanting a taste of this pussy, and now you’ve given me the perfect excuse I need to take it.’

  “I was in such shock at his words and what he’d done that I couldn’t think straight enough to fight him right away. I froze until he took a tight hold of my crotch area, hurting me. My blaring screams didn’t stop him. None of the men that worked for him saw fit to help me. Since the front door of the house had been left open, there was no way they didn’t hear me screaming. I refused to believe that Sorio would follow through, hoping he’d only gone that far as a means to scare me. However, the crazed look in his eyes and his actions revealed that there was nothing inside of him warning him that what he was about to do was wrong.”

  This was one of the first times in my life I was afraid to hear something. Regina was about to confirm some shit that I didn’t want to hear, let alone believe. I stood, jarring her for a moment, then I started to pace. My fucking hands had begun to shake with rage, so I calmed as best I could before I retook my seat. I was determined to sit through this when all I actually wanted was to have Regina pause her story, let me go and kill three or four people, so I could come back and have enough control to sit through the rest.

  “The sound of my panties ripping registered before the impact of them being yanked from my body. I begged him. I begged so hard. I fought him. I fought as hard as I could make my body fight, but my efforts were useless. He picked me up, one hand around my neck and the other gripping my crotch. He lifted and slammed me to the hardwood floor. The jarring impact took my breath and trapped me in pain. I couldn’t make myself function, and it felt like he’d broken my entire body.”

  This shit was killing me, so I couldn’t imagine what it was doing to Regina having to tell me about her living nightmare. She was shaking hard enough that she made my body vibrate, but she found the strength to continue.

  “I gasped and choked, unable to breathe. When he started kicking me, the best I could do was protect my face and head. Each blow was like he’d taken a bat to my body, loud, fleshy, almost an unnatural brutality. One kick caught me in the side of my head, and all I could hear was bells chiming. Before long, my eyes started to crawl to the top of my head, and I welcomed the sense of floating away. I prayed to pass out. I prayed to die. I prayed that he’d kill me. He must have noticed me drifting because he stopped, not allowing me to get away from him. I was too weak and out of it to even fight him as he stripped. I managed to turn away from the sight of his erection, not wanting to believe that my own cousin was evil enough to do such a thing.”

  My hand slapped against my forehead. No! No! Fucking no! were the words roaring inside my head. I didn’t speak, knowing that there was nothing I could say to ease the pain Regina had suffered. I’d done some fucked up shit in my life. I’d taken pleasure in killing people. I’d had fucked-up shit done to me. But this shit Regina was revealing was another level type of fucked up.

  This was the type of shit that fucked up your mind for good. I didn’t want to believe that she’d been through this traumatic experience, but I forced myself to accept her story anyway. It explained a lot about her strength and ability to deal with situations that would have the average person running and hiding.

  “When he climbed on top of me, I fought, but my body and mind didn’t know how to coordinate with each other anymore. I screamed when he rammed into me. God, it hurt, like he was stabbing me down there. I kept screaming, my voice ripping from my throat as sheer horror ripped my body apart. Nothing I did helped. I believed Sorio wanted me screaming. It all played into his sick punishment. He didn’t use a condom, Ansel. The sick bastard didn’t use a condom. His taunting words made it that much worse.”

  ‘I can’t believe this shit. I broke into this tight pussy. A fucking virgin. You are a fucking virgin. I can’t believe it. This is even better. I’m the first one to break this pussy in. You like that bitch. You like that!’

  “He yelled and taunted me the whole time and kissed my face like I wasn’t his cousin. Like I wasn’t screaming my head off and struggling to get him off me. I wasn’t a virgin like he’d assumed. My second year of college and my curiosity had taken care of that. But, I let him believe whatever he wanted. All I wanted was him off me.”

  “Fuck, Regina. Fuck,” I whispered, too low for her to hear it. This fucking story was a motherfucker to digest. My throat was so tight that I couldn’t swallow. My vision had fallen out of focus, and I couldn’t see straight anymore. This shit was ripping away pieces of my heart with slow, deliberate tears. My green eyes had gone black. I was ready to kill any motherfucker that resembled Sorio.

  “About halfway through it, I stopped screaming. I stopped fighting. I let rage consume me. It was all I had left. I wasn’t strong enough to fight him, but I vowed that I’d find a way to kill my cousin if it were the last thing I did.”

  My body shook at this point, haunted by that same helpless sensation I’d experienced when I couldn’t help Aaron after he’d been shot.

  “After he raped me, I knew that I was broken, ruined, too messed up to have a normal relationship. The gutted remains of my soul clung to my body. Hope was the thread I used to knit myself back together. Rage was the fuel I used to go on and not succumb to my despair. Hate carried me through the darkness.”

  Her lips quivered, and she pinched them together to still them. She attempted to keep her pain from seeping out, but nothing could keep the amount of pain emanating from her contained. Her finger tapped lightly at her left ear.

  “At first, it was a constant ringing, an elongated siren in my ear that never stopped. I’d gotten enough experience to make my own determinations on most medical issues. I didn’t have to seek out a doctor’s opinion to know that I’d lost some hearing in my left ear. The physical evidence was unmistakable. Sometimes when people talk to me from the left, I have to tilt my head to hear them clearly.”

  Her eyes opened when my hands slid down her arms. She glanced up at the pity that I failed to pull from my face.

  “Don’t look at me that way Ansel. You’re the only person that knows, and I
told you because I expected you wouldn’t pity me. That you would tell me to use it to make myself stronger. That you’d understand better than anyone. I sense the horrors you’ve suffered throughout your life mirror my own. I notice the way you look at me with understanding.”

  She was right, but I wasn’t myself with Regina. I became someone else around her, for her. The spark had been ignited the day we met, and now it had grown into a flame that I hadn’t bothered to put out. I prayed for the power to take this pain away from Regina, but knew it was hers to bare.

  I’d noticed her slight head tilts and had assumed it was something she did, like a tick. Finding out what it really meant ripped my heart from my chest. I didn’t want to accept that she’d been beaten so brutally that she’d lost a part of one of her senses.

  The knowledge led me to believe that she wasn’t telling me the full extent of the brutality she’d suffered. The marks on her body revealed more details. Her wounded gaze reflected the pain she’d endured. She’d condensed three years of her worse nightmare into a short story. Her voice reined in my attention.

  “After that day, I could hardly stand to look in Sorio’s face. Each time was like reliving the horror he’d inflicted upon me. Each time I faced him, it pulled at that tethered thread of hope that strung me together. I still cry about it. I still get angry about it. I pray that I’ll someday be able to live peacefully with it, but I haven’t reached that point yet. When the memories haunt me, I fight them, but they still win. He’s dead, and he still beats me. His abuse remains alive within me. I force myself to think around the mental pain and the phantoms of the physical pain as well.”

  She glanced at me and kept her gaze pinned on mine. She’d done a good job of keeping herself from crying. However, she’d managed to turn me into a fucking piece of stone. I sat frozen as images of her abuse swirled in my brain. I’d heard and seen horrendous shit. However, listening to what had been dumped all over someone you cared about was a humbling eyeopener.

  Regina’s story had clawed its way into me, raked out my insides, and ripped them apart. She didn’t want pity from me, and I’d do my best to treat her like the strong woman she’d become. But how in the hell was I supposed to be the pillar of strength she needed when all I wanted was to kill every last person that knew Sorio had raped her?

  “They spared no expense when it came to medical supplies and equipment. I had access to them all, so I’d fixed a syringe for Sorio. I filled it with Propofol. I still have it. Each month, I’d refill the syringe, ensuring the drug was always fresh. My plan was to give it to Sorio, knock him out and throw him into the incinerator. Over the years, I had multiple chances to exact my revenge, but each time I faced him, all I could think about was him on top of me and invading my body. I’d chicken out, too shaken to do anything except take his taunts and flee from his presence.”

  I could take this part of Regina’s story better, her plotting to kill that motherfucker.

  “After four months at the farm, I found out that I would be given breaks every six months like I’d earned paid time off or something. The first thing I did on my first break was go to an escort service. I couldn’t wash the ordeal with Sorio from my head or off my body. So, I did what I stupidly assumed was the next best thing.”

  A crease lined my forehead. Whatever she’d done, couldn’t have been good.

  “I wanted someone to come after him and wash him away from my body, to screw him out of my system. That’s when I discovered that I didn’t experience satisfaction from sex anymore, but it didn’t stop me. I wanted the ghost of his presence inside of me gone, and I didn’t care what I had to do to make it go away.”

  “I’m so fucking sorry, Regina,” I blurted, unable to hold back any longer. “It just occurred to me that this is why you wore jeans all the time. Then my sweats. If I’d known this—”

  “You didn’t do anything wrong, Ansel,” she assured me. “You’re the first man that has gotten me to enjoy sex again. You have no idea what it means, that I can still enjoy it, after what he did.” She squeezed my hand. “You’re not going to stop, are you? Because of what I’ve revealed to you?”

  “Ansel,” she called when I took too long to answer.

  “No, I won’t stop, but you have to tell me, Regina. You have to tell me when I take shit too far. I was mad as hell when you spoke that damn safe word, but now...”

  “Ansel, I don’t want you to think that I’m so broken that I can’t handle what you have in store. I’m a lot stronger than I may look or even act sometimes. I’ll let you know when something is too much.”

  I nodded, pulling my lips into a tight knot as her story continued to blow my damn brain apart. Cradling her into my chest, my hand moved with gentle ease up and down her arm.

  “Regina,” I called, keeping my tone light and gentle.

  “Yes?”

  “Who else knew about what that motherfucker was doing to you?”

  A knowing expression appeared on her face when she lifted her head and glanced at me.

  “I’m not telling you. You’re going to find them and kill them.”

  This woman knew me a hell of a lot better than I assumed she did. “Fucking right. Anyone that sits around and allows shit like that to happen doesn’t deserve to be breathing. I need to kill somebody, Regina.”

  She placed her head against my heaving chest. The tremble in her body remained, indicating that her distress over having to tell her story remained.

  “You don’t need to kill anyone. You’re sympathizing with me. I sense that you know my pain. That you’ve suffered my pain. Allow yourself to experience something other than pain and anger. We are two people that have been marred by the circumstances of our past, Ansel. We have so much in common that us coming together can’t be a mistake.”

  Her words edged away a bit of my tension.

  “Neither one of us has parents. I sense that your pain was as intense as my own, to the point where your anxiety makes you commit violent acts. The woes of our pasts left their marks, and although they aren’t necessarily good scars to have, they have taught us the true definition of strength. How to survive. How to overcome impossible situations.”

  I’d never had more respect for another individual than I had right then for Regina. She had divulged to me her harshest truths. A situation that would have killed a weaker being. Now, even at her most vulnerable, she’d called on the provision of strength she owned to soothe my stormy mind.

  I eased my body down, taking her along with me when I stretched out on the couch. I would be the strength she tapped into when she needed it, not the other way around. I cast my gaze at the ceiling, and I folded her into my chest until her trembles subsided into smooth, deep breaths.

  I wasn’t going to let this shit go, and I think Regina knew it. It may not be next week or next month, but I would hunt down every last person that knew, saw, spoke of, and talked about what Sorio did to Regina. They were going to meet the Reaper. Their souls already belonged to me. They just didn’t know it yet.

  36

  Ansel

  We ended up spending the night on the couch because I refused to turn Regina loose. I didn’t go to work because I wouldn’t let her out of my sight.

  After breakfast, I followed her around the house like a stalker, genuinely concerned about her state-of-mind. Countless times she’d repeated that she was fine, but I didn’t believe her until the light returned to her eyes, the warm smile returned to her face, and the sparks of lust that ignited her body when my gaze fell upon her, started to flicker.

  I wasn’t a sentimental person. Therefore, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do for Regina other than be there for her. Her revelation yesterday had ripped my brain apart and squeezed my heart into a tight wad that I couldn’t uncrumple. Neither of us mentioned her story because I got the impression that she’d gotten it off her chest and was done with it.

  While she read, I sat next to her on the couch and feigned interest in something on televis
ion.

  “Ansel,” she called in a soft tone while reaching up to set her book reader on the coffee table.

  Her soft hand rested on my forearm. The story allowed me to realize that I cared about Regina a hell of a lot more than I was willing to allow myself to believe. Her story, the jagged pieces she’d revealed, had burrowed so deeply that it stirred my dormant soul. If Sorio weren’t already dead, I’d find him and torture his ass every day for the rest of his life.

  “Ansel,” Regina called once more.

  “Yes.” I finally glanced her way.

  “Can I kiss you?”

  A deep crinkle fell into my forehead.

  “What?” I asked, surprised by her request. I squinted. What was happening in that pretty head of hers?

  My mind still hadn’t wrapped itself around what she’d divulged. Regina had taken my bombshell on the chin like a champ. However, it was the atomic bomb she’d dropped on me that kept my body bustling with tension. Now, she was asking to kiss me.

  “You don’t let me kiss you or touch you unless it’s a command from my Dom.” I didn’t miss the teasing tone she’d used. The lines of our D/s relationship were blurred. Hell, she’d run an eraser straight up the middle of it. Those fucking normal days as she called them were sneaking their way into our lives whether I wanted them to or not.

  “You said we could be regular people sometimes. So, can I kiss you?”

  She was right, but her behavior confused the fuck out of me. I didn’t do normal, so I was about as lost as a man could be. I glanced at her, realizing something. Neither of us was normal by any stretch of the word. She was a doctor who’d been held captive and escaped her cartel family. I was an ex-military, gunrunning, serial killer with a knack for business. Her soft tone lulled my attention.

  “I don’t want to think about him, Ansel. I don’t want to give him any more time than I already have. I needed to get it all out of my system, mend my past so my future would have a chance to heal,” she expressed like she’d been plugged into my thoughts. “Being around you has been my therapy. You make me forget. You make me forget about it all.”