“Let me get the story right. David is Jack’s younger brother, but he’s just like Cameron?” She finally gets it!
“Yes.” I look out the window but it’s dark. I can’t see Jack. “I think that broke Jack’s heart.”
“Thank you for telling me, Sophia.” My heart fills with a weird feeling. That was the first normal conversation I’ve had and I didn’t get in trouble.
They’ve been telling us the truth!
I’m really free?
I’m no longer a slave?
The overwhelming emotions bubble up my throat and it comes out sounding strangled.
“Oh no, my sweet girl,” Miss Ella cries. She grabs me to her and holds me tight and it’s only then I realize I’m crying. Miss Ella cries as well and it makes me cry harder.
“I’m … free?” I ask between sobs, the words coming out muffled against Miss Ella’s shoulder.
“You are! You’re free and safe! You’re safe with Miss Ella.”
“Thank you,” I whisper, the tears falling faster. I hold onto her tightly. It feels like everything around me is spinning. Inside of me it’s spinning – out of control.
After a little while I manage to calm down a little.
We’re both wiping the tears from our faces when Adam comes in. He freezes and I notice how his body tenses. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, we were just being silly women,” Miss Ella says. “Let’s eat.”
I get the plates ready while Miss Ella loads them with food.
Everyone is quiet as we start to eat. I can feel Adam’s eyes on me and after a while he asks,” Did you have a nice day, Sophia.”
I smile and nod. My eyes flit between Adam and Miss Ella and then I say, “I did, thank you for asking. How was your day, Adam?”
A stunned smile forms around his lips and he starts to laugh. “Did Nanna teach you that?”
Nanna slaps him against the shoulder with a dishcloth. “Don’t laugh at the girl! Someone has to teach the children proper manners.”
“Nanna, we’re not in the eighteen hundreds anymore.”
Miss Ella slaps him with the dishcloth again. “Are you calling me old?”
“I wouldn’t dare,” he laughs at her.
I can’t help but smile at them. It’s moments like this you can see they care a lot for each other. I’ve never had that.
Adam looks at me and his laughter dies. A look I haven’t seen before makes his eyes look darker, like storm clouds. “You look pretty when you smile like that,” he says in a hushed tone and it makes my cheeks feel warm. “Don’t do that fake smile anymore. I like it when you show us how you really feel.”
I nod and go back to eating my food. I suddenly feel very aware of Adam and it makes me feel awkward around him. There are so many new emotions and I don’t have names for them. It feels as if I died with the beating and now I’m getting a second chance at a new life.
Adam~
I wait for Sophia as she helps Nanna with the dishes. As my eyes scan her body, I notice how well she’s healing.
When she dries her hands, I get up. I kiss Nanna on the forehead. “Night, Nanna.”
She pats me on the arm and then I walk to the back door. I can’t pull Sophia everywhere. She has to learn to do things on her own. “I’m heading to bed,” I say. “You can come home when you’re done. I’ll leave the door unlocked.”
I leave quickly and I have to force myself to not glance over my shoulder to see if she’s following. It feels like I’m throwing her in the deep end of a pool.
I open the front door to my house and I go inside. I don’t even close it. I don’t want to push her too hard. I grab a pair of sweatpants I usually sleep in, and go grab a shower. I have to force myself to take my time and to not rush through everything so I can go see if she’s here already.
When I’m done with everything I could possibly do in a bathroom, I feel my stomach tighten with nerves.
I open the door and the first thing I see is that the guest bedroom’s light is on. I close my eyes for a moment as relief floods me. She did it on her own! I feel like a proud mother hen as I walk the short distance to the guest room. I tap the door lightly before I go in.
Sophia is sitting on the side of her bed. When she sees me she quickly plasters the fake smile on her face. Old habits die hard, I suppose.
I point to my mouth. “You’re doing the fake smile thing.”
The smile quickly drops from her face and she lifts a hand to her mouth. She touches her lips as if they feel foreign. I don’t think she even realizes that she smiles the second someone comes into a room.
“I’m proud of you,” I say, but I stay by the door. I want to give her space to spread her wings and she won’t do that if I’m smothering her. “You made a choice tonight, all by yourself. You could’ve visited at the main house or come home. Good for you making your own decision.”
Her lips pull into the soft, genuine smile and it lights up her eyes.
“I’m heading to bed. I’ll see you in the morning. Sweet dreams, Sophia.” This will be the first night she sleeps alone since she came here.
“Good night, Adam,” she whispers shyly. A smile tugs at my mouth. Another small victory.
As I walk to my room, I feel lighter. For the first time since we saved Jack and Sophia, I actually have hope for them.
~*~
I wake up at the crack of dawn. Sleeping late is the one thing I can’t do, my whole day is messed up then.
I get out of bed. As I get to the bathroom, the door opens and Sophia comes out.
Fuck, she’s naked. I stand like a dumbass and blink the last of the sleep away. She’s not self-conscious at all! Her eyes drop to the morning wood I’m sporting and things get uncomfortable real fast.
I turn around and rush back to my room, closing the door behind me. I look down to the bulge in my pants and I will the damn thing down.
When I open the door again, there is no sign of Sophia. I go to the bathroom and go through my morning routine.
I’m not used to having someone in my house. It’s going to take some getting used to.
I open the door and I can’t help but glance in the direction of Sophia’s room. She comes out at that moment, but thankfully she’s wearing a dress.
“Morning, Adam,” she says. “I’m going to go to the main house. Miss Ella said she’s going to show me how to make muffins today.”
I stare at her way too long and she drops her eyes and starts to walk down the passage. I clear my throat and quickly say, “Sophia, before you go.” She turns back and with an innocent face, she waits for me to speak. “You can’t walk around naked anymore. That’s not the right way.” She frowns and her eyes drop to the ground again. I quickly add, “People will feel uncomfortable. You only get naked in front of the person you love. It’s something you keep for them.”
She tilts her head in the way she does when she’s thinking. “Should I wear the dresses all the time then?”
I slap my hand against my forehead, realizing I never got her something to sleep in. “Wait there.” I quickly go to my cupboard and I take out some of my older shirts. I go back to her and hold them out to her. “It’s not the best pajamas but you’ll be comfortable in them.”
She takes them and holds the bundle of material to her chest. She bites her cheek, her eyes peeking shyly up at me.
“What’s on your mind?” I encourage her to talk.
“Ahh … you said I should only be naked in front of the person I love.”
“Yeah,” I say when she says nothing else. I’m not sure where she’s going with this.
“What is love?” The question is blunt, without any emotion. It takes a few seconds for me to realize what she just asked me. I’ve never been asked that. All the slaves I’ve dealt with before knew about love. They came from a background where they have experienced it before they were forced into slavery.
“Uhm …” My mouth opens and closes a few times. I really don’t want to gi
ve her the birds and bees talk. “Love?” My voice cracks on the one word and I sound like a teenager.
She takes a step closer to me and it only makes this awkward moment worse.
“There was this one slave,” she starts to talk, “she was with us for a short while. She didn’t survive training,” she explains but then goes on. “She came from a farm and late at night she would tell us about the farm and her family. A couple of times she said that she missed her mom and dad, and her horse. She said she loved them. She cried a lot.” Sophia scrunches her nose and then says, “She was very sad and angry that she couldn’t be with the people she loved anymore. I remember feeling bad for her and thinking that I never want to love anything the way she loved her mom and dad and horse. She would’ve survived if she didn’t love them so much.”
I rub the back of my neck as her words hit deep. To Sophia love is a weakness! I shake my head and say, “Love is not a weakness, Sophia. Just because that girl died it doesn’t mean she was weak. She died because she was strong. She wouldn’t let them break her. She fought to the end and that was a brave thing of her to do.”
Sophia meets my eyes and for the first time I see anger burning in her eyes. “She was brave to fight them and I was weak to obey them.” Her words are a bitter statement. She nods and turns around, but not before I see the flash of hurt on her face.
I rush after her and grab her arm. I scramble to explain myself better. “That’s not what I said, Sophia. You are not weak! A weak person just gives up, and you didn’t give up.” I cup her face in my hands so she will keep her eyes on me. “You did what you had to do to survive. You are so brave for surviving every day with those fuckers. You are so very brave, Sweetheart, for still fighting.”
Her eyes start to shimmer with tears and she takes a shaky breath. “You really think I’m brave?”
“I do, with all my heart.”
“I’m not,” she whispers. “I killed Tiffany to survive. I didn’t fight like Lucy did. I just killed her, just like she killed the others. Tiffany wasn’t brave and neither am I.”
I drop my hands from her face, stunned by her honesty. “You killed another slave?” I ask, shock rippling through me.
A cloud of guilt washes over her face and lowers her head. “I did,” she whispers with a sadness that makes me want to hold her. “Cameron said it was either me or her. He made me hold the gun and pointed it against her head and then he squeezed my finger until the gun went off.” As a tear rolls down her cheek, she wipes it away. “I had a choice. I could’ve let her shoot me, but I was too scared.”
Anger explodes in my chest until I’m left shaking as I try to contain it. They made her kill another slave!
I step right up to her and take hold of her shoulders. Her eyes dart up to mine and that’s when I spell it out for her. “You didn’t kill that girl! Cameron did! If I understand you correctly then he put the gun in your hand and he pulled the trigger, not you.”
She looks up at me, her eyes pleading with mine, and it eats away at my gut that she’s carrying around this guilt for something she didn’t do.
“But I had a choice. I could’ve let her kill me!”
I shake my head and pull her closer. I need to make her understand. “No, Sophia! That is not a choice! That is forcing someone to do something against their will. You had no choices in that hell hole.”
Her bottom lip trembles and a tear sneaks from her eye. “It’s the only life I’ve ever known. I didn’t know it was wrong, that it wasn’t normal. Why, Adam?” She places her hand on my chest and she takes a step closer to me. It reminds me of the night of the party, when she was testing her boundaries. “Why do people do that to other people?”
I let my hand slip behind her neck and I pull her against my chest, holding her tightly. Fuck, I need something to hold onto so I don’t go and kill those fuckers now! “They aren’t people, Sophia. They are monsters. It’s all for money and power. They have no sense of what’s good.”
“Not like you,” she whispers and her breath fans warm over my chest.
“Remember what I told you, we all have good and bad inside of us. Cameron and those like him chose to let the bad take over.”
“I don’t want my bad side to ever take over.”
I let her go and smile down at her. “You won’t, Sophia.”
“How do you know?”
I place my hand gently over her heart. “Because you’re so innocent in here.” I lift my other hand to her face and I brush a tear from her cheek. “Even though they did hideous things to you, you managed to protect your heart.”
A shaky smile forms around her mouth and it makes her look so beautiful with her eyes still shimmering with tears.
“One day you’re going to meet a man and you’re going to fall in love with him, and then you’ll give him your heart.”
“What if I give him my heart and he hurts it?” Her questions are going to kill me today. Somewhere something has changed in her. She’s on a path of trying to find herself, and I’m right beside her getting to see how she grows.
I place a kiss to her forehead and say, “If he breaks your heart I’ll break his neck. I won’t let anyone hurt you.” Her smile grows bigger and it brightens her face. “You make him work for your heart and your smiles.”
I turn to go back to my room so I can get dressed. “Let me put those on your bed so you can get going. Nanna is going to worry where you are.” I take the clothes from her and then watch her leave.
I need a moment to myself so I can deal with the shitstorm that’s busy raging inside of me. The closer I get to Sophia the more her past affects me.
Sophia~
“I think they’re ready,” Miss Ella says.
I open the oven and peek inside. Heat slams into my face and I hear Miss Ella scold, “Not that close, Sophia! You’ll burn your eyebrows right off!”
I move a little back and then take the muffin pan out. I place it on top of the stove and frown. They don’t look like the batch Miss Ella made earlier.
“Oh dear,” Miss Ella says next to me. “Something went wrong.” She takes a toothpick and sticks it into the muffin. It comes out all gooey. “Child, how did you manage to burn it to a crisp on the outside but it’s still raw on the inside?”
I shrug, not knowing the answer. “Can I try again?” I ask, hoping I’ll get another chance.
Miss Ella points to where all the ingredients are. “Go right ahead, Child.”
I’m busy mixing the eggs when Tristan comes in. “Hey y’all,” he greets and then he goes straight for the batch of flopped muffins. He takes one out and I scrunch my nose as he bites into it. “Fuck, this is good. Just the way I like them.”
Miss Ella slaps him upside the head with a dishcloth. “Watch your language!”
“Sorry, Miss Ella,” he mumbles through a mouthful of muffin.
Diane comes into the kitchen and when she sees Tristan she freezes.
He sees her too and smiles at her. “You have got to taste this.” He walks over to her and before she can say no, he shoves it against her mouth.
Her eyes go huge and for a moment I see a flash of panic but she quickly recovers. She takes the remaining muffin from Tristan and then smiles sweetly at him. The next moment she shoves what’s left of the muffin right into Tristan’s face.
She starts to laugh and dart away from him, but he’s quick, catching her around her waist. He pulls her over to the pan and grabs another muffin, which he squashes against her cheek.
I can’t help but smile at their silliness.
Right then Jack comes in for his usual visit with us.
He stops to watch the two and I take advantage of the distraction. I grab a muffin and throw it at Jack. It hits him square in the chest and for a moment he looks shocked.
“Oh Dear,” Miss Ella squeaks.
Jack scoops the muffin off of his chest and then he throws it right back at me. It smacks into my neck and a burst of laughter explodes from my mouth.
We all rush for the pan and grab as many muffins as we can. I manage to get away with three and I scramble to get behind the kitchen table for cover. I don’t make it and a muffin slams into my back. I feel it sliding down and then it plops to the ground.
I duck behind a chair and quickly peek over the back of the chair. Jack has two muffins, one in each hand and a huge smile is on his face. He throws one at me and I duck just in time. It flies over my head and hits the wall instead. I quickly jump up and throw a muffin in the direction I last saw Jack.
The smile falls from my face as the muffin lands in Miss Ella’s hair. She pats the top of her head making a bigger mess and then she looks at me with a sly smile. “Oh, now it’s war!” She grabs the bowl of eggs and starts flinging them everywhere. One hits my arm and the other my stomach.
I start to laugh so hard that tears streak from my eyes. I sink to the ground and I lose my breath as the laughter keeps coming.
“What the hell?” I hear behind me. Through blurring eyes I see Adam come in, his mouth slightly open with surprise. “You’re having a food fight?” he asks.
An egg slams into his chest and I start to laugh all over. The look on his face is hilarious. “Nanna, you didn’t?”
I throw a muffin at Adam but he catches it, and then he stalks right at me. I scramble backwards on my bottom, but the laughter is slowing me down. Adam jumps at me and a shriek of laughter explodes from me. As Adam smears the muffin over my face, laughing just as hard as I am, I take the last muffin that I have and I shove it into his mouth.
I can’t keep myself up anymore and I sag onto my side, just lying on the floor and laughing. I have to cover my mouth so I don’t dribble all over the place. Adam sits flat on his backside next to me and it’s wonderful listening to him laughing.
My laughter starts to die, but then I see Jack laughing and I start up all over again. Jack notices and it makes him laugh even more.
“My stomach,” I complain while trying to breathe through the laughter.
Adam gets up and he pulls me up alongside him. I lean into him because my legs are still numb.
Saved By Him (The Monster Series Book 2) Page 9