by Laura Morgan
I wondered if he might never stop, but then realised how when he did, it wouldn’t mean the end of my punishment, only the start of whatever the next phase of it might be.
“You think you can convince Nico to finish with me and I wouldn’t realise it’d come from you? That I’d believe he’d decided it all of his own accord after all the times he’s told me no and always meant yes?” Calvin asked, his voice that eerie kind of calm again. I shook my head, trying again to buck him off me. “After all my warnings, you still had to push me, didn’t you? Daddy’s little princess always gets what she wants, doesn’t she? Well, not this time,” he added, and I went into fight mode when he then leaned forward and put his hand around my throat.
I thought he might be about to throttle me, but I was wrong. It was far worse than that. Calvin slipped the belt around my neck and pulled, tightening it with a snap to my tender skin. I struggled for air and gasped hurriedly, desperate for more. My head throbbed and all I could hear was the thudding of the pulse in my ears. I tried to scream, to call for Tobin again, but it was no use. Calvin was slowly strangling me. I could feel myself growing drowsy from the asphyxiation and when he finally released some of the tension, I wanted to feel grateful, but couldn’t. I knew what was coming next.
With a grunt, he had my hips tilted up off the floor and he was inside of me. I let out a garbled cry, struggling to believe it could be happening, retreating inside of myself in a bid to block it all out. To block him out.
It was no use. Calvin had all the control and we both knew it. He was calling all the shots while I could do nothing but lay there, powerless to stop him from raping me while slowly suffocating thanks to the belt still wrapped tightly around my neck. “Hmm, you’re tighter than she was,” he groaned, almost appreciatively as he took me, dipping in and out of my trembling body without a care for my pain. “I fucked Dita like this, too. With my belt around her neck, choking her until she passed out while I took what I wanted and then left her to come around in her own time. She’d wake up later, covered in my cum and sore from my beatings, but she never told a soul what I’d done. We both knew I’d do it again. I think, deep down, she enjoyed it. That she riled me on purpose so I’d take her over and over.” Calvin told me, but I couldn’t reply. I could barely process his words thanks to my fuzzy head and I slumped down against the cold and hard floor, losing my fight against him one tight breath at a time.
Calvin didn’t stop fucking me, going slow at first, as if he were enjoying himself, and then suddenly he was pounding me harder and faster. I’d been so sexual with Tobin over the couple of days before that I figured I was wet enough that he seemed to take me easily, even though I was far from welcoming, nor did I enjoy the intrusion. I was also surprised that it didn’t hurt—not that it felt at all pleasurable being violated by him. He wasn’t as big as Tobin though and part of me wanted to laugh and call him a pencil dick, but the tightness around my throat was still blocking my voice as well as constricting my airway, focusing my mind back on the strangulation to my neck rather than the invasion at my waist.
A few more hard plunges and Calvin suddenly slowed. He didn’t lose control of himself or the belt for even a second though and I cursed him for being so used to taking women by force. I wondered how many others had fallen prey to him. How often he’d done this same routine in the past. “Will he still want you after you’re broken, Dahlia? I doubt it. When I’m done with you, you won’t ever let another man touch you again. All you’ll be able to remember is the night I ruined you.”
“No,” I managed to groan, and I tried again to scoot away, but a sharp pull on the belt stopped me in my tracks without Calvin having to so much as say another word. He tightened it further and then I felt him pop the buckle pin into one of the holes, securing it a little more permanently on ‘choke’ mode.
“Do you like that, princess?” he teased as he withdrew and flipped me over onto my back. My nose was still throbbing, as was my head, but I could still see him readying himself to fuck me some more and I began writhing, lashing out, and kicking with every ounce of strength I had left in my already sluggish muscles. “It’s okay, fight all you want. I like it,” he added with an evil smile as he ran his hand over my pussy, stroking my folds before pinching my clit roughly.
I hated how weak I was. How he’d caught and punished me so easily. I cursed him and vowed to have my revenge. I would find a way to murder the sick son of a bitch if it was the last thing I did.
“What the fuck!” I heard from across the room a second later, and then there was suddenly a ton of commotion. It had to be Tobin, I knew it, but I also knew I was in no position to try and help him. Scrambling back, I hit the side of the bed and tried desperately to get the belt undone from around my neck. I couldn’t see what I was doing and knew in my panic I was taking longer. My fingers pulled and fiddled with the buckle, taking forever to find the right way, but eventually I managed to pull the long pin from the hole. I then threw the damn thing across the room, sucking in breaths at such a rate I felt I might pass out from the oxygen overload.
All the while, Calvin and Tobin were beating the shit out of each other on the floor beneath the huge window. I pulled the robe around myself, regardless of knowing it was fruitless, and watched in horror as the pair of them fought like two men hell-bent on killing each other. I screamed and shouted as best I could, begging them to stop, but at the same time I wanted Tobin to do it. I hoped he would win and end it for all of us.
Tears streamed down my face and time seemed to slow as I continued to watch. When Calvin was on the ground and lay there panting for breath, seemingly bested, Tobin finally stood and stared over at me in shock.
“He forced me,” was all I could think to tell him, hoping to God he didn’t think what he’d seen going on between me and his cousin was consensual, and Tobin rubbed his bloody hands on his jeans in a bid to clean them up.
“I know, Dahl. Of course I know,” he answered, much to my relief. “Call the police, babe. This sick fuck needs to be put away.”
“No fucking way,” Calvin groaned, clearly having heard him. With a sudden second wind, he clambered to his feet and sucker punched Tobin in the gut. As he doubled over, Calvin then shoved him and I watched in horror as he lost his balance and fell backwards—right through the huge bedroom window.
I screamed with all my might as the glass shattered and gave way as though thinner than paper beneath Tobin’s weight. He went right through it and was gone less than a second later. I charged forward, running to the window without even thinking about what Calvin was doing. I had to check on Tobin. To see if he’d fallen to his death or had survived the fall. I hoped and prayed for the latter.
He was lying on the gravel below, the security light illuminating him like some awful spotlight. But, he wasn’t moving. Not choking on pained breaths or groaning in agony. Tobin was perfectly still. As though dead. I wasn’t close enough to check his breathing either, so all I could do was stare down at him and hope he might wake up and charge back in the house to save me a second time.
I was still screaming his name when Calvin grabbed me from behind and thrust me back down onto the hard floor. He’d found more than just his strength again. He was ready to pick back up where we’d left off, but I wasn’t going to let him just take it a second time. Delivering a kick to his groin, I took his second of shock to bolt for the door Tobin had thankfully left open.
I was going too fast though, and before I knew it, the ground had slipped beneath my feet and I was falling face first down the hard wooden steps. I tumbled over and over, bashing into the walls, bannister, and stairs as I fell down them. Every contact was agonising, making me cry out as I toppled downwards. I wondered how could I have been so foolish? Why had I thought I could win? I had been so wrong, and now I was paying the price for it.
Chapter Twenty-Six
When I came to a stop, everything hurt. Even breathing was agonising and I couldn’t move. Looking around, all I could make ou
t were blurs, and I peered up the stairs at the blackened figure of my torturer. Calvin was standing at the top and he began to descend slowly, clapping his hands and laughing to himself.
“I don’t know why you’d think you could run. But thanks to you being a fucking clutz, it looks like this is going to be even easier for me to take what I want and leave you to die, Dahlia. Oh, imagine the headlines… ‘Lover’s quarrel turns to joint murder’ or perhaps he’ll be accused of raping you and throwing you down the stairs to your death before committing suicide. Maybe I’ll go with that option when I’m setting the scene,” he told me, and I could do nothing but lie there in my crumpled heap and listen to his vile words.
I was going to die at Calvin’s hands. That much was clear. If Tobin wasn’t already dead, he soon would be too. I wanted to fight him. To reach out and push my fingers through his eye sockets or grab his balls and not let go until they were nothing but mush, but I could do nothing. My body was broken and wouldn’t move no matter my internal pleas, and I could feel myself going into shock, the pain numbing me inch by inch.
I cried out as Calvin lifted me up into his arms when he reached me, the movement only showing me exactly where I was hurt. My left ankle was screaming at me, as was my right arm. My vision was so blurred I could barely see a thing and I didn’t know why. I had to assume it was the pain still reverberating through my nose from where he’d probably broken it in his initial attack, or perhaps a blow to the head I’d endured during my fall down the stairs.
Holding me in a fireman’s carry, I had my head resting on his shoulder, watching the shadows in a daze as he took me into the living room. The place where Tobin and I had made such amazing memories together. Calvin was going to ruin it all by turning our place of hope and wonder into somewhere tainted by evil. A tear escaped me as I mourned the memories I was no longer going to make there. The life I was no longer going to live. And the man who was no longer going to spend it by my side.
Calvin put me down on the sofa, ignoring my tears and garbled pleas for help and mercy as he opened my robe and inspected the flesh at the tops of my thighs. I groaned, trying to move away, but he pushed down on my already roaring ankle to remind me who was the one in control, relishing in my cries.
I felt dry as a bone as he forced his fingers inside of me, the pain searing my core as he thrust them up into my sex. He tried putting his whole fist in, but I was too tight, so he opted instead to let three of his fingers violate me, almost punching their way up into me in a bid to make me hurt somewhere else. Somewhere new. A pain all of his own doing.
I panted in shallow, steady breaths, trying to block out what was happening, and let my head fall to one side, staring across the room in a daze.
There was a blur over by the doorway, but I didn’t let myself hope it was Tobin come to save me a second time. He had to either be dead or still unconscious out on the driveway. I figured I must be seeing things, but then Calvin suddenly stopped what he was doing and turned away.
I then heard a great thud and a voice suddenly calling my name.
I couldn’t place the voice, but knew I’d heard it before. It was soft, like an angel, and I looked up to see my sister standing over me. Dita was stunning. I knew then that she’d come to watch over me in my hour of need. That had to be it.
“You’re so beautiful,” I told her as she covered me up again and she took me in her arms, cradling me like a child against her chest. I gripped her tightly, feeling surprised how real she felt. “I want us to be together, Dita. Have you come to take me back to heaven with you?” I asked, feeling ready to give into the pain. To let the darkness wash over me and take me away. She shushed me, stroking my hair, and I relaxed into her embrace.
“Liev,” I heard her call, but I was already slipping out of consciousness. “Finish it, Liev. End him,” she said, and I had to wonder why an angel would command death, but didn’t ask. I knew why. He had to be her unfinished business. The thing binding her to our world. Mine too, so I was glad he wouldn’t survive, even if I also had to leave my family and friends behind to ensure it.
“With pleasure,” I heard the deep, heavily accented voice answer. Then there was a loud snapping sound followed by nothing but the panting of breath. Silence descended and so too did the last shreds of my conscious thought.
I breathed her in, my angel, soaking up the feel of her arms around me and the sound of her humming breathing. Accepting death, I then simply let go.
Epilogue
When I came around it was four days later and I was in a hospital bed. My body was indeed broken in many places, as I was informed the moment I awoke and tried in vain to move. The doctor told me I’d suffered multiple fractures and breaks, as well as the bruising to my neck from the strangulation by the belt and of course the whipping Calvin had given me with it. He waited until a nurse was present to discuss the rape with me, and I was glad to discover Calvin hadn’t left me with any scars or bruises there. I was assured a counsellor would also visit me, but I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want it to be real.
They also wouldn’t let my family see me until I’d spoken with a police officer about what’d happened, but I was too confused about the whole thing to give a proper statement anyway. She had no choice but to leave me to rest, promising to come back again later when I was feeling better.
Dad came through first, and he could barely look at me as he took a seat beside my hospital bed.
“Is Tobin okay?” I asked before anything else. I had to know, and began shaking and crying the second my dad nodded his head yes.
“He’s still in a medically induced coma after a considerable blow to the head, but the doctors say he’s gonna be fine. Did he fall from the window?” he asked and I nodded.
“Well, he was pushed,” I answered, groaning as a shot of pain stopped me in my attempt to reposition myself on the bed.
“By Calvin?” Dad checked, and I nodded. “What happened, Dahlia?”
“He raped me,” I croaked, and my usually so calm and collected father coughed on a sob and buried his face in his hands. “He had been messing with me for months, toying with me because I found out it was him who’d hurt Dita, but I had no idea he was going to turn nasty.”
“Then what?”
“Tobin found him hurting me and they fought. I thought he’d won, but then Calvin pushed him out the window and came back for more from me. I ran but fell down the stairs,” I answered, but wasn’t sure how to continue. Should I incriminate Liev in his part of Calvin’s demise? Should I tell him about my hallucination of Dita? I closed my eyes and saw her in my minds eye again. I inhaled, remembering her smell and the feel of her. So real, and yet it couldn’t have been, surely?
All of a sudden, realisation struck. She hadn’t been a mirage at all. She’d been real. Not an angel sent to take me to heaven with her, but a living and breathing person along with the man she loved and had run away with. Dita wasn’t dead. She’d been hiding from her abuser, but more than that, she’d run away from all of us and only returned when she knew I was in real danger. She wasn’t dead at all…
I knew I might never truly know her reasons for having faked her death, but I was going to honour the decision she had made to run from her past. From the club. From our father and brothers. From me. Whether I understood or agreed with her or not, the fact remained that Dita and Liev had saved my life that day and I owed it to them not to reveal their secrets.
“How did Calvin die?” Dad asked, breaking my thoughtfulness.
“I killed him,” I answered, and saw the doubt in his eyes. “Tobin had done a number on him and when he tried to take me again I guess I went into fight or flight mode or something, because I went crazy. Snapped his neck somehow and then I fell down and I guess I passed out.”
“Good story,” he answered, and I could tell he knew there was more to it than I was getting at, but he seemed ready to let me keep my secrets, for the time being at least. “That adds up. Tell the police the sam
e as you told me, okay?”
“Okay,” I replied, nodding.
Tobin was woken up the following day and while it was hard, we talked things through and left the hospital together a few days later. I had crutches and we were told to go home and rest, which was exactly what we did. We stayed at Dad’s place, neither of us wanting to head back to the new clubhouse quite so soon after our ordeal, but I was determined to still make it our home one day. To erase the bad memories and make new ones there, together.
The pair of us were inseparable after that, needing the comfort and security the other gave, and slowly we found our way back to being the happy, hopeful couple we’d been before Calvin’s attack. I told Tobin everything and let him read Dita’s diaries. He had to know all of how things had become so dangerous for us, even about Nico and his secret relationship with Calvin. Tobin was shocked to find out the truth, but was also too loyal to Nico to so much as threaten him with telling everyone the truth, and so we kept it our secret. We let my big brother have his life back and get himself ready to become a father and husband to two people who deserved to have all of him. We moved on, slowly and yet surely.
Calvin wasn’t going to win, and I was pleased when his death was deemed self-defence. I took the blame for murdering my rapist and promised myself I’d never tell anyone otherwise. That I would protect the secret Dita had jeopardised by coming to my rescue.