“Don’t...” She tried to talk but he tightened his hold until she coughed. Tears forming as she reached for his wrist, not trying to fight him, but begging for him to stop.
“I just have to break you a little today, Thalia, once there’s a crack you’ll be at my feet soon. She dies, you’ll know it’s your fault for being such a disobedient little cock slut,” he kissed her forehead and she tried to plead, to beg him not to, “and the next time I take a girl, you’ll behave for me. Won’t you?!” He didn’t wait for her answer. He just stood up, grabbed the remnants of the tape and the bar and walked towards the door as she gasped for air.
“PLEASE!” Thalia lunged for the door, but he shut it and she heard it lock. She slammed her hand onto it and screamed against the metal, “PLEASE, MASTER! I’ll be good! I’ll be good, I swear I’ll be good! KATHERINE! God, I’m so sorry! I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”
She collapsed to the floor, sobs wracking her until she was coughing against the lingering bruised feeling in her throat. Minutes ticked by, and the raw, tearing sensation in her chest was worse than all the bruises and welts and cuts. She stood and slapped her hand on the door again, yanking at the handle and then it suddenly gave and she stumbled back.
Marcus was on the other side, the knife in his hand dripping bright, red blood to the concrete. He took a step forward and she grabbed her hair as the impossible flashed in her head, “Oh my God, no, no, no!”
“This,” he held the knife up, the blade edge wet, “is your fault.” He moved forward, grabbing her by the hair to drag her back into the room. Something snapped inside her and she twisted and brought her knee up into his ribs as hard as she could. He let go of her hair in surprise and she went for his eyes, the knife clattering to the floor as he grabbed her wrists to hold her back.
“WHY?!” She screamed, trying to get to his eyes, to tear him apart, but with his hands distracted she brought her knee up hard between his legs. He shoved her and she fell back, but he dropped to his knees, growling. She landed hard, and screamed at him again, “She didn’t do anything! She wasn’t a part of this!”
“You. Did. This.” He bit out the words between groans, and she got up and tried to kick him in the face, but he grabbed her foot and yanked her towards him. Her head cracked on the concrete when she fell and he was on top of her, choking her, her pulse pounding behind her eyes. “How many times did I tell you to behave?! How many times?! I am NEVER letting you go, Thalia. If I have to kill a girl every time you defy me to get you to finally submit to me, to finally accept what you’re meant for? Then so be it. All that blood is on -”
Her hand had landed on the knife when she’d flailed, her fingers wrapped around the textured handle on instinct, but she had consciously chosen to drive it into his neck. The blade sunk in easily until she felt it grind against bone. The sensation made her shudder, and his eyes went wide. He choked, grabbing at his throat, his fingers finding the knife and he looked confused. Blood was everywhere, all over him, all over her, and spilling out of his neck at a rapid pace. For a moment he just looked down at her, time frozen as his brows pulled together, and then he slumped to the side. A horrible, choking, wet sound coming out of him as she pushed herself back from him. Her hand slipped in blood and she scrambled away and stood up, walking backwards as he slowly stilled and the terrible noises stopped. Thalia jumped when her back hit the wall, Marcus was on the floor. He wasn’t moving, the pool of blood spreading under him. She couldn’t look at him anymore. Turning, she yanked the door open and slammed it behind her. The key was still inside the lock and she turned it and yanked it out, testing the door once to make sure it was locked.
Clenching the key in her palm she turned around and finally saw the space. It looked like a small warehouse, but it was empty. Windows lined the top, edged in frost, and she thought she could see her breath in the air. The doors weren’t airtight and it couldn’t be above freezing, but it didn’t matter. She had to find Katherine. “Ka-” She cleared her throat, “KATHERINE!” A small office was on the other side of the space and she ran across. There was a sleeping bag on top of a cot, the toilet, the shower, a table covered in... pictures of her? Thalia picked one up and thought she might be sick. It was outside of the pub they went to in London. Her hands shook as she pushed more of them aside and looked through them. How did he have these? The possibilities tore at her before she snapped back to herself and walked back into the open space.
It was empty. It was so fucking empty.
Against the outside wall of the room she had been in was a table and she moved over to it, hoping there was another building, hoping she could get to Katherine in time. A laptop was set up with huge speakers attached, and she hit the space bar to wake it up. As the screen woke up she waited to see some clue on where he had Katherine, but she just found a desktop covered in video files. Double clicking one she saw a small room with a mattress. Her heart stopped when a dark haired girl was tossed onto it, her hands up as she begged. The sound was off. Thalia pressed the volume up button and the girl’s pleas blasted out of the speakers, begging the man that walked into view not to hurt her, to let her go. The man slapped her and she buckled, her short dark hair flaring out around her pixie like face. Thalia dragged the video tracker forward and the girl’s screams ripped out of the speakers, and realization dawned on her as she rushed to pause it, to stop the screaming. The screaming she had heard. That had been the screaming.
“No!” Thalia grabbed her hair, the key digging into her palm as she backed away. It had been Katherine. It had to have been Katherine. Katherine had been screaming. She was about to turn away from the horrible laptop with the frozen image of the girl being whipped bloody, but then she saw something behind it, and she slammed the lid. There was a cell phone tethered to the laptop with a USB. Yanking it out, the screen lit up and she swiped the screen only to see the phone unlock without a code. The phone looked brand new. A few standard apps, no photos, no text messages, the contacts empty. She pulled up the keypad and prayed it could make international calls as she dialed in James’ number. The phone was ringing and ringing and ringing - voicemail. She heard his incredible voice saying his name like he had the first night they’d met. James. She screamed and hung up.
“Dammit, James, please...” She whimpered as she started to shiver, but she couldn’t go into the little office that was a shrine to his obsession with her, and the only other shelter was the strange storage room he’d kept her in. Where Marcus was. She dialed again - voicemail. Again - voicemail. Again -
“Who is this?!” James sounded exasperated, but the second she heard his real voice, and not the professional calm of his voicemail she started sobbing. Sliding down to the floor she curled forward, holding the phone tight as she tried to breathe. “Oh my God, Thalia? Baby? It’s you. It’s you, right? Baby, please, talk to me, please -”
“James, it was - he -” she couldn’t talk through the choking emotion in her chest, on the other end of the line she could hear James shouting at someone, and then he came back to the phone.
“We know Marcus took you, we know. Baby, please, are you safe? Are you -” alright? The unspoken end to the sentence hung between them and she pressed her face into her hand, trying to talk. But that wasn’t a question she could answer. Instead she grabbed onto the first panicked idea to make it to her lips.
“Katherine! James, it was Katherine! He hurt her, he said he hurt her, but I can’t find her. I can’t find Katherine anywhere, it’s empty. It’s so empty, and the screams were a video. They were a fucking video.” She screamed through her teeth and rocked as she felt herself starting to break apart, but James’ voice yanked her back.
“Thalia, Katherine is fine! He did hurt her, she was with a doctor, but she’s here. He left her on the sidewalk! God, can you -” there was a voice near him, a man’s voice, and then James’ returned. His voice so full of shock and hope and surprised joy, “Wait, baby, stay on the phone with me. They’re tracking the phone to where you are.”
Katherine is fine.
The words sank down through her mind until her sobs calmed. Katherine is fine. Where had the blood on the knife come from? Katherine is fine. Marcus had lied to her? He had lied. To make her submit. To make her call him Master. To try and break her. Katherine is fine. “Katherine wasn’t here? She was never here?” Disbelief made her voice sound hollow.
“No, baby. She’s safe. I -” the strain of emotion in James’ voice pulled her focus back to him. Away from the realization that her reality had been built around a lie since the moment she’d woken up in this nightmare. “Can you tell me what happened, baby? How did you get away?”
“I didn’t. I can’t leave. He’s locked in the room though. I have the key.” She turned and looked at the door, afraid any moment it would open and he would come out. “Can you please come get me, I need to leave, I need to get out, but there’s snow and there’s no clothes, and -” Panic clenched her chest tight until she couldn’t breathe, air whistling into her lungs.
“Thalia! Thalia, baby, breathe. Please!” Voices around him again as he pleaded with her over the phone, concern etched in his tone, “They’re not far from you, maybe twenty minutes. I’m coming, they are going to bring me to you, baby, please breathe.”
“James -” she choked out his name as she tried to do as he asked, but she couldn’t get enough air to say everything she wanted to. To beg him to forgive her, to beg him not to hate her, to tell him she was sorry for being the reason for all of this – and to beg him to get here soon, to hold her and let her sleep in his arms, to still love her.
“Thalia, are you safe? Are you safe enough for the next twenty minutes until they can reach you?” He turned from the phone and shouted at someone, “You can bloody wait, the helicopter isn’t even here yet!” His voice calmed when he came back to the phone, “Baby, I need to know you’re safe. They need me to leave the phone line open so they can get to you as quickly as possible, which means we both have to set the phones down, and leave them on, but I’m getting on a helicopter to fly to you. Just tell me you are safe, it will be an hour, maybe, before I’m there. I just need to know -”
“I’m safe. Please, just hurry?” She forced the words out even as the chill set in her skin, and she heard him groan in frustration.
“I am. As fast as they can get me there, and you won’t be alone. The people I hired to find you were close already, they should be there soon. The leader is Jake. They’ll keep you safe until I can get there.” A voice by him again and he muttered, before speaking up his voice gentle, “I have to set the phone down now, baby. You set yours down so it stays on the call. I love you. So much. I’m on my way.”
“I love you too.” She spoke through chattering teeth, and held onto the phone a moment more as she strained to listen to the sounds of people shouting at other people. Then there was quiet for a moment – and someone picked up the phone. A man’s voice, American, and she flinched away from it. “Ms. Reynolds? Thalia. Are you still there?” He paused, waiting, but she didn’t want to talk to him. “It’s okay. I can see the line’s still open and that’s good. You don’t need to talk to me, we just need the line open to get as close as possible to your location. I wanted you to know they are about ten minutes away. So... can you tell me if you’re injured?”
She huffed out a laugh, not wanting to even imagine how bad she looked. A chill shook her and her teeth chattered again as she curled up tighter on the floor, folding forward to try and conserve her body heat.
“I’m sorry, that was a stupid question. Are you -” He started to speak again and she sighed and set the phone down on the floor, pushing it away from her so she could wrap her arms around herself to stay warm. There were probably some of his clothes in the office area, but she couldn’t stand to have anything of his near her, much less touching her. Her mind tortured her with every decision she might have made differently had she known Katherine was safe.
But what would the outcome have been? Could she have ever hoped to get as lucky as she had with the knife if she hadn’t attacked him over the idea that he’d killed Katherine? If he hadn’t had it out, in his hand, to show it to her?
Her body shook with the cold, her muscles jerking as the frigid temperatures got to her. That room had somehow been warmer, maybe because it was closed off? There hadn’t been a scrap of light when he turned all the lights off. Thalia felt the exhaustion wash over her as the last of the adrenaline in her system faded.
She had dozed off when the sound of a door opening jerked her awake. Fear blanketed her and she sat up sharply as six men in black military gear poured through a door, guns in their hands as they rushed in. Thalia pushed herself to her feet and stumbled back.
“Holy shit.” One of them froze, mid-step and they were all looking at her. The urge to run was strong, but James had said he sent them. Her stomach turned, and the cold made her shiver again.
“Thalia?” Another ripped a beanie off his head, sandy brown hair underneath as he held his hands up, keeping the gun loose in his hand as he scanned the room around her. When he took a step towards her she stepped back and he stopped. “You’re Thalia, right? My name is Jake, your boyfriend James hired us to find you. You have a lot of blood on you, can you tell me where it’s coming from?”
She shook and crossed her arms over her chest, glancing over at the room to make sure the door was still closed. Jake took another step towards her and she stepped back on instinct. She just wanted James.
“Okay, okay, Thalia. No one is going to move. Can you tell me where he is?” Jake glanced at the others who lowered their guns and stood still, several of them focusing on the floor, or the walls – anywhere but her.
“In the room. It’s locked.” She spoke and a shiver made her teeth chatter.
“Good, that’s good. Then let’s focus on you right now. Can I have one of my guys bring me a blanket for you? It’s really cold in here. Maybe some water -”
“No water.” The panic in her voice snapped out and she whined as a shiver took her again. “But a blanket, okay, a blanket.”
Jake grabbed the arm of the guy next to him and spoke quietly, but his voice carried in the emptiness of the warehouse. “Get her a blanket, and whatever food and stuff we have in the car. Let her pick something.” The guy ran back outside and Jake took a step towards her, putting his gun away and raising his hands up, “I’m not going to touch you unless you say I can, okay? I’m just going to move a little closer, alright?”
“As long as you don’t touch me.” She mumbled it as she watched the other man run back in with a gray blanket, the crinkling sound of wrappers inside it. When he got to Jake he stopped, and Jake nodded.
“I got this. Do a sweep of the building, make sure it’s clear. Update Brendan that we’re here.” The guy nodded and left the bundle in Jake’s arms before he whistled at the others who started moving around the walls. Jake took a few steps closer and Thalia fought the urge to back away, he sat down on the floor in front of her, about four feet away. Unwrapping the blanket there were snacks of various kinds, a few cans of soda. He slid those to the concrete and held out the blanket, when she didn’t move to take it he reached as far forward as he could and set it on the floor. Thalia eased herself into a kneel and grabbed the blanket, wrapping herself up in it. The thick wool cut the chill dramatically and she burrowed into it.
“Thank you,” she mumbled.
“You’re welcome. Can you tell me, Thalia, is that your blood? I’m not seeing any fresh, so I’m starting to think it might not be.” Jake opened a honeybun and bit into it before pushing the small pile of snacks into the neutral zone between them.
“I don’t think it’s mine.” She muttered, leaning forward for a pack of snowballs. Bright pink with coconut and marshmallow, and she knew inside would be the chocolate cake. She hadn’t eaten them in years.
“Good. Is it his?” Jake tilted his head, taking another bite of the honeybun and she tore the plastic on the snack cakes, nervous
to eat anything. To drink anything. Even though a can of coke was glinting, vibrant red on its side. Thalia looked up at him and nodded, and he smiled and laughed a little. “Guess he underestimated you, didn’t he?”
The edge of her mouth twitched, and she unclenched her hand around the key. “Here.” She held it out and Jake reached for it, careful only to touch the key. He turned and whistled and one of his guys came for it at a run.
“Grab Mike and go in that room. Make sure he’s restrained.” Jake spoke quietly and Thalia watched intently as the men moved to the door of the room. She stared at it, comforted by the fact that their guns were drawn.
This was where the bad guy always came back from the dead in horror movies.
The two men stepped inside the room and a moment later one came to the door and shook his head, before staring at her. She turned away from his scrutiny as Jake just laughed to himself. “So you killed him? Want to tell me how you did it?”
“Happy accident.” Thalia bit into the snowball and almost groaned with the pleasure of it. Fake, sugary, chemical sweetness and all the calories she’d been starved of for days. Jake laughed even louder and nudged a can of sprite towards her with his foot. She ignored the offered can and grabbed the coke. That only made him laugh again as he settled for the sprite.
Salvaged by Love (Thalia Book 3) (The Thalia Series) Page 23