Monster: A Dark Arranged Marriage Romance

by Vanessa Waltz

  “I don’t like the sound of that. Where are you?”

  “Next to a shipping truck. God only knows what’s in there, but I’ll survive.”

  Static crackled on the other end. “Evie, listen to me very carefully. You’re not taking part in this. Give the phone back to Jett and run out of there.”

  “No. I’m hanging up.”

  “Don’t you dare. I’m picking you up right now. Give me the address.” After a long moment of silence, he gave a rough sigh. “Evie. Honey. You need to do what I’m telling you. You have no idea what you’re involved in.”

  My mind blanked.

  Drugs or guns. Based on the truck, probably the latter.

  “I’ll be fine. I’ve done this before.”

  “I don’t want to fight. I just want you safe. Tell me where you are.” He sounded scared, and it dampened the urge to hang up on him. “Evie, the address! Now!”

  A lump lodged in my throat. “I’m not even sure where we are.”

  “Describe what’s around you.”

  “A sleazy motel beside a Five Guys.”

  “Okay. Stay on the line. I’m coming to get you.”

  “Why bother?” I wiped my eyes, struggling to compose myself. “You hate us. I understand why. I do, but this marriage isn’t fair for either of us.”

  “You think I hate you?”

  “My world doesn’t revolve around you,” I shot, throwing his cruelty back at him. “Your words. Remember?”

  “Evie, we’d just fucking met. I had no idea what to make of you. I’m sorry.”

  “What about what you said before I left? You know me now, but I’m still not good enough for you. I’m just a biker bitch to you. You don’t want your DNA contaminated with mine, so you’d rather I get knocked up with a stranger’s baby. You have done nothing but hurt my feelings.”

  “Evie…Evie, you’ve got it all wrong.”

  “I don’t fucking care. I’ve put in so much effort trying to understand you! Have you done the same for me? Of course not. You think a credit card is all I want in life. You think I’m a gold-digging whore.”

  “Jesus. I never thought that!”

  Not good enough. “I’ll call in a couple hours.”

  “Don’t hang up!” he shouted, blasting my ear. “Evie, I’m sorry. I am. I want you to come back. Let’s talk about this. Please, Evie. You have to leave. I’m begging you to walk away.”

  I was torn by the life I’d left and the dream Tony had demolished. The white picket fence with a doting husband and two-point-five children seemed forever out of reach. He didn’t want that with me, and who could blame him? Keeping him tethered to me was selfish.

  Hurt squeezed, deep inside me.

  “You’re the one that needs to walk away. We’re done.”

  “No, Evie—”

  I hung up, and a hot tear rolled down my cheek. Better to end it now before I got even more involved with a man who couldn’t love me.

  Who didn’t want me.

  Who kept secrets from me.

  I breathed deeply, waiting for the wave of catharsis. Instead I battled a fierce urge to cry. Wasn’t ending it supposed to make me feel better? Tears blurred my vision. My chest ached. I’d fooled myself into thinking Tony and I would work. It was only a matter of time before he tossed me aside like my mother.

  Dad clung to the metal railing as I climbed to the second story. I wiped my eyes before I reached the last step, hanging behind Dad.

  My father chatted with man in his fifties, who wore a suit just like Tony’s. My heart squeezed painfully. His unremarkable features would’ve made him blend in a crowd. His smile was pleasant, almost self-effacing, but it failed to touch his gaze.

  I handed Dad’s phone back, and winced as mine rang. The vibration buzzed into my purse like an angry insect.

  “Let’s go, Evie.”

  He and Creep strode inside the room.

  It took an age to move. My limbs refused to budge, and the knot in my throat swelled. I fiddled with my jeweler’s loupe, sliding the lens in and out of the case.

  Gunner nudged me into the seedy hotel room with an en suite kitchenette. Legion guys packed the right side. An assortment of hard-eyed men and bikers seemed to be with Creep.

  Dad gestured to the coffee table piled with aluminum bricks. Legion members counted cash as Dad motioned me toward the gems on a silk cloth.

  “Go ahead, Evie. Take your time.”

  I lined up my scale, scope, tweezers, and loupe, taking them out of the bag my father brought. I’d never felt a silence so thick with tension, broken only by the incessant buzzing in my purse.

  You’re not safe.

  A biker wearing a strange patch sat in front of me, his legs spread. Jeans wrapped his thighs. Silver teeth winked from a wide mouth, his hawklike nose dominating his tanned face. Shaggy black hair covered his head, as wild as a wig. His hollowed gaze drank me in like I was a treat he wanted to suck on.

  “What’s your name, sweetbutt?”

  Dad looked up, glowering. “That’s my daughter, and you’ll keep your fucking eyes off her.”

  He lifted both hands in surrender, his grotesque smile stabbing my gut. “Just making conversation.”

  I dug into my purse, brushing my vibrating phone. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I picked through diamonds. Still silence. I stabbed the call button and shoved it deep inside. Then I turned my attention to the gems, but the dim lighting made it impossible to analyze them.

  “Dad, I need more light. I can’t see.”

  “There’s a lamp in my room,” suggested Creep. “It’s next door.”

  I’m not going anywhere with them.

  I beseeched him silently, but Dad never spared me a glance. He motioned toward Gunner. “Go with her.”

  “Sure thing.”

  I packed my things, fighting the urge to pull the hem of my leopard-print dress down my legs.

  The biker stood, six-something towering feet of formidable strength. Gunner wasn’t tiny by any means, but next to him, he was a midget.

  My heart shrank.

  Creep wrapped the diamonds and crammed them into a box. I flinched when his possessive gaze met mine. It swelled a ball in my throat. I couldn’t breathe without it aching. I followed Gunner and Creep next door.

  “Sorry for the mess.”

  Creep cleared the table littered with drugs and flipped on the lamp. He slid the gems and their silk wrapping underneath it. He sank into the couch, his suit melting in the faded black fabric. Creep patted the cushion beside him.

  “Have a seat.”

  No thanks. I kneeled on the floor.

  “You’ve done this before,” he commented mildly. “Many times, yeah?”

  I couldn’t quite place his muddled accent.

  “Maybe.”

  His attention never wavered, as though I were the most valuable object in the room. He rubbed his chin and stared.

  I picked up a diamond with tweezers and held it under my loupe. I spun it in all directions, frowning at the feather breaking the surface. My mouth thinned as I spotted a broken culet. I moved it back and forth from the lens. Unpolished girdle. Facets that didn’t overlap. Clouded. Worthless.

  I set it aside and examined another.

  Same thing.

  My hands trembled as I worked through the pile, praying to find one that wasn’t shit. Sweat beaded on my upper lip as I combed the stack of low-quality diamonds. A weight settled over my chest.

  Gunner tapped my shoulder. “Evie, are we good?”

  Not even close.

  I exchanged a look with Gunner. Judging by his whispered “fuck,” he got it loud and clear.

  “I need to talk to Dad.” I bolted upright, jabbing through my purse’s contents. Light from my cell flared through the screen. Tony was still on the line.

  Angry voices erupted through the wall. Suddenly, Dad burst in, his face flushed.

  “You’re five grand short,” he snarled at Creep, who slowly stood. “Evie, what�
��s the appraisal?”

  “The diamonds are crap. They’re cloudy, the cut quality is horrible, and many of the stones aren’t eye clean.” My ears pounded as Creep’s stare drilled into me. “So I’m going with ten—ten thousand.”

  “What’s this?” Dad bellowed, charging into the biker at Creep’s side. “You time-wasting piece of shit. I ought to blow your head off.”

  “Relax, Jett. The coke I gave you makes up the difference.”

  “The deal’s off!”

  Creep’s crooked smile stabbed my heart. “If I were you, I’d take the hit and move on.”

  “You tried to rip me off. Fuck you. “

  Dad yanked me into the other room, which was chaotic. Drugs and money were stuffed into bags.

  “Let’s go!” Dad roared, shoving his way through. “We’re done here.”

  The door flew open.

  My back smacked the wall as Dad flung me aside.

  Bikers poured inside, shotguns pointed in our faces. They prodded Dad, Gunner, Clyde, everyone in the room.

  Outnumbered.

  Outgunned.

  “The hell is this?”

  “A robbery.” The silver-tongued devil stood behind Dad, playing with the cheap diamonds. “Pro tip—bring more backup.”

  I opened my purse, hands shaking as I grasped my buried phone. It slipped from my fumbling fingers and smacked the carpet.

  Shit.

  Creep grabbed the phone. He ended the call, cutting off Tony’s shouting. Then he pulled a knife and slashed the phone’s casing. He fished out the SIM card and threw it aside.

  I ran for the door.

  A thick arm banded my waist, pinning me to an iron chest.

  “Ah-uh,” he chimed in a singsong voice. “You’re coming with me, pet.”

  You’re not safe.

  “Dad!”

  My father lunged for me, but four of them tackled him. They stomped on his face and shoved him against the floor, hitting him with heavy thuds that numbed my body.

  Creep dragged me next door. I yelled for Gunner, I shouted for my husband. My breath jerked back and forth as though Creep had stabbed me, and then he smothered my mouth with his giant hand.

  “Shhh. That’s a good girl. Relax. I’m not going to hurt you. Your dad…well, let’s just say he had it coming.”

  Hollowness gaped in my stomach. Terror filled the space where there was panic. The sounds of my dad’s beating dwindled to static. The ringing in my head drowned it out.

  I’ll never see Tony again.

  Nineteen

  Evie

  I’m grateful that I had a good life.

  Tony warned me.

  Did I listen?

  Creep manhandled me onto the couch. He’d imprisoned me in his iron grip and I was as limp as a rabbit in a wolf’s jaws, unable to fight. My pale hands twitched with the need to punch this motherfucker.

  He tutted as he rolled a palm over my shoulder, rubbing me with an intimacy that I’d only craved from one man. My gaze traveled along his crisp white shirt, stretched over bronzed skin to his hideously normal face. His brown eyes burned with a perverse intensity.

  Lead bottomed my stomach.

  “Let go of me.”

  “Shh. Be a nice girl.” My skin chilled where his unwanted touch skated up my arm in a nauseating caress. “Do you like drugs?”

  I shook my head.

  He fished through a side pocket, producing a vial. “What about fentanyl?”

  I clenched my mouth shut.

  “I’ll give you a taste. It’ll help you relax.”

  Pain shot into my teeth from my clenched jaw. I shrank from him as he produced a knife. He dabbed something onto the blade. The knife waved in the air as I shook with full-body tremors. The dull edge kissed my mouth. He slid the steel between my lips.

  I shoved his hand off me. The blade went flying, and I sprung from his lap.

  He yanked my waist.

  I slammed into the man’s bruising embrace. He cinched me to his chest, smothering my scream. His other arm pinned my elbow, and then a fierce pinch stabbed into my shoulder. I yelped as I glanced at a syringe protruding from my flesh.

  Oh my God.

  “Shut up and listen,” he began in a low, toneless voice. “You’ve been stolen to be used as a sex slave. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a pretty piece of meat. I don’t give a fuck how you feel about it. You may be married, have a kid, a boyfriend, car payments—fuck it. I don’t want to hear about it. I make a point to never like slaves, and I sure as hell don’t like you. Your only value to me is your body. I don’t want to hurt it, if I can help it.”

  No, no, no.

  Please God, no.

  “Fighting is pointless. It pisses me off and it disturbs the other girls. It upsets them when a new girl doesn’t behave. So you have two choices. I drug you, or you act like the sweet girl I know you are.” He thumbed the plunger, his horrible voice vibrating through my back. “What’s it going to be?”

  Oh God.

  Oh God.

  He slowly uncovered my mouth.

  I swallowed hard, shaking so badly my teeth chattered. “Tony Costa is my husband. He’ll torture you for this!”

  “Everybody has a brother or a husband or a father-in-law who will cross the ocean and kill me, and I’m still trucking along.”

  What do I do?

  He’d hurt me. The only question was—how much? What could I do to survive? I scanned the room for an escape, but men bigger than my father blocked the doors, and I had no hope of overpowering them.

  “Tell me, pet. How old are you?”

  Someone, help me.

  Tony. Anyone.

  His tone darkened. “I don’t like repeating myself.”

  “Twenty-two.”

  He made a pleased sound.

  Warmth shot into my muscle, and then a flood of disorientation swung me sideways. I sank into his embrace. My pulse rocketed with the sickening realization that I couldn’t move.

  “You said you wouldn’t!”

  “I lied, pet. Better get used to that.”

  No.

  Panic rioted within me as I went limp, as though snapped by a marionette.

  I plunged into an oblivious daze, sprawled over his lap. Such an unhindered feeling. My body had never been so relaxed. All my senses dulled with euphoria. My breathing slowed and my mouth gaped. My skin tingled with a medicated calm. My eyelids were so heavy.

  All I wanted to do was drift into oblivion.

  “All right. I only gave you a third of the full dose because I’m going to make so much money off you. This won’t mess you up too bad. If you’re a good girl and do what I say, I won’t drug you for the rest of the trip.”

  Trip?

  He lifted me. I sagged like a doll in his arms. He strolled through the room and into another with a bed and floor lamps. He dumped me on the mattress, where I rolled like a bag of oats, settling onto my back.

  I tried to stand.

  My leg responded with a feeble jerk.

  The dead-eyed monster loomed over me. He stole my wedding ring. He pulled my dress down my arms with a detached swiftness that recalled visits to the doctor. He dug at the clasp of my bra.

  “Please,” I begged in a hysterical voice I didn’t recognize. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

  “Don’t you?”

  He removed my bra. He sighed, the sound stabbing my gut. Dimly, I felt the tugging on my dress.

  Nausea pitted my stomach.

  This was wrong. I had to stop it, but I couldn’t move.

  “I don’t want to have sex with you.”

  The weight of that crashed into my chest. The man’s smile widened, as though my fear was more intoxicating than the idea of fucking me.

  “Whoever buys you gets to destroy your cunt. I don’t sample the goods.” His cold fingers singed my flesh as he seized my panties. He slid them off my ankles, his appreciative groan poisoning me.

  A vague terror coursed through
my veins, fighting the numbness coating my heart.

  He sat back and turned on a floor lamp, the white light bleaching the bed. He swiped his iPhone. “I’m taking some pictures of you. Then I’ll upload them. I suspect we’ll have a lot of interest.”

  What?

  He arranged my body in vulgar positions as he took photos, the clicking as degrading as his comments. He cupped my breasts and kneaded them, but I couldn’t feel any horror. All of that was muted.

  “Who are you?”

  “No need for introductions. You won’t see me for long.”

  “That’s right,” I growled, struggling to keep my eyes open. “Because you’re going to die.”

  He laughed, his hands gliding down my torso.

  “Tell me your name. I want to know who I’m killing.”

  He aimed a shot between my thighs. “I go by K.”

  “Where are you bringing me?”

  “A place where girls like you are sold.” K lowered his phone and cycled through photos. “Perfect.”

  “Sold? What the fuck—ow!” A sting pierced my arm. I met his gaze, pleading. “No. I don’t want it!”

  He sank the plunger.

  K blurred into flesh-toned colors as his arms looped under me and dropped me into something small, with sides. He shoved my head between my knees. The light zippered shut. My weight shifted as we swung upright, and then we rolled forward.

  Was I in a suitcase?

  Twenty

  Evie

  I’m grateful for sweet dreams.

  Where am I?

  Soft keys chimed from a piano. A harmonica played somewhere, accompanied by a ukulele. My eyes flared open to a vast ballroom packed with glamorous guests. Creamy linen and florals decorated the space. My gaze followed the trail of petals to my table, where I sat in front of elegant china, a glass of wine, and a flute of champagne. White lace wrapped my lap.

  I wore a wedding dress.

  What the hell?

  A man stroked my palm under the tablecloth. Tony was beside me, clean-shaven and gorgeous in his tux, wearing a darkly seductive grin. He brought my hand to his lips and kissed, the heat flaring across my knuckles.