I’ll be the last thing they see as they take their last breath... every last one of them.
Eventually, I climb out of bed and stretch my sore muscles from the night before. Luca couldn’t decide on the perfect angle that he wanted, and my performance wasn’t meeting his standards.
He worked us both as his demands grew harder, take after take, as if he was trying to prove a point. His disdain for me was apparent and it had only grown stronger since the first time he forced me in front of the camera.
I don’t bother getting dressed, leaving on my short shorts and thin tank top. Luca keeps the house hot enough that you can walk around naked and still break out in a sweat. It keeps us comfortable while we’re on set, but Luca doesn’t give a shit about our comfort.
It’s all about the show.
I haven’t interacted with any of the other kids here, except Daisy, since that night. It all made sense now, why they were all here. They were taken from their old lives, just like me, and brought here to start a new one. We lived our lives in the spotlight, behind the lens of a camera.
We were all held captive here, running circles in Luca’s pornography ring. There was no way out for any of us and everyone had accepted their fate.
Lily’s hate for me finally made sense. Her and Kai used to be the stars of the operation, making the movies that paid off the most. Lily started to enjoy it too much. She resembled the cum guzzling sluts you can find in every adult porno.
She completely lost her innocence; she craved the dick and that wasn’t what they wanted.
After a while, Lily became too attached to Kai. She clung to him like a leech, but he wanted nothing to do with her. She was just another girl he was forced to fuck. Lily meant nothing to him.
He continued to shut her down and shrug her off until she begged Luca and his men to make more movies of them. She did everything she could to get close to him.
And then everyone decided it wasn’t worth it. They put her in check and let the other guys have their turn with her and that’s when I came into the picture.
Lily hated me and she blamed me for how things turned out for her. After Daisy told me her story, I felt for her, but it changed nothing.
She was still the used-up whore and I was the innocent princess.
I tried to avoid the other kids as much as possible, but Daisy wouldn’t leave me alone. As much as I hated it, I needed her more than I realized. I needed Gavin and Lily too, even if Lily and I would never see eye to eye. I didn’t think that I needed friends and maybe they never were my true friends, but they were the closest thing that I had at the farm.
We were all wearing the same pair of shoes in a fucked up, alternate universe that formed the alliance between us.
Twisting my long curly hair on the top of my head, I wrap a hair tie around it and head downstairs for breakfast. Hopping off of the last step, I land in the empty hallway. I set off down the hall, toward the dining room when I hear voices coming from one of the rooms.
I pause and glance over at the door.
Luca’s office.
Cringing at the thought of him, I quickly wipe the disdain from my face and shake the tension away. Holding my head high, I begin to march back down the hall. As I pass Luca’s office, I come to a halt when I hear his voice.
Kai’s voice.
Standing flush with the wall, I hold my ear near the crease of the doorway. Kai speaks loud enough that I can hear him crystal clear through the door.
“No fucking way is that happening,” he barks.
Luca laughs. “You fucking fool. It’s not working between you two anymore. You decided to have a weakness and she’s basically a corpse.”
My eyebrows pinch together in confusion as I chew on the inside of my cheek.
“She will not be with anyone else,” Kai argues.
“Have you seen the way the boys look at her, Kai?” he questions. “Their dicks get hard at the thought of her. She has a lot more potential where you’re not concerned.”
“I hope you need blind actors for your videos because I will be removing all of their eyeballs with my own fucking hands.”
I bite down on my lip hard and fight against the smile that pulls at the corners of my lips.
I’ve missed him, this part of him.
“Kai, you’re not to touch any of them.”
“And they’re not to touch or look at what is mine,” Kai growls.
Luca sighs. “I’ll give you one chance. You get her to come around and she stays. You fail and they all get to take her for a test drive.”
Disgusted by Luca, I cringe as I take in everything he says. Neither of them says my name, but I know well enough to know that they’re talking about me.
Luca has noticed the wedge that I drove between Kai and me. He can see how distant and detached I’ve become. He made me this way.
The perfect little princess is broken and flawed.
I’ve become a threat to their business, a liability to their product. I’ve given them my body, but not my mind and it’s reflecting in my performance.
They’re ready to replace me.
They’re ready to separate us.
This entire time, I’ve shut Kai out and he’s not to blame. He’s their puppet and he’s not the one who deserves my coldness. I’ve been fighting the wrong person all along.
Chairs slide across the hardwood floor in Luca’s office and heavy footsteps grow louder as they near the door. Spinning on my heels, I sprint down the hallway and run back upstairs to my bedroom.
Sitting on the edge of my bed, I pick at the skin around my nails nervously. I skipped out on breakfast and we’re expected to eat our three meals every day. Someone will notice my absence and I will pay for this.
The clock beside my bed ticks loudly as each minute passes. The wait is driving me mad.
Standing up, I begin to pace across the room when someone knocks on my door. I freeze in place, sucking in a breath.
I knew this would happen.
Staying in place, I don’t go to the door, I just stand and stare. A few moments of silence pass before the knob slowly starts to turn. Holding my breath, I brace myself as the door is pushed open.
“Dahlia?” Kai says quietly as he pokes his head into the room. His eyes find me, and a small frown plays on his lips. “What are you doing?”
“Uh,” I choke out and clear my throat lightly. “I was just getting ready to lie down.”
“Your bed’s over there.” He points in the opposite direction. He narrows his eyes as he crosses his arms over his chest. Kai takes a few steps toward me, shutting the door behind him. “Do you want to try this again?”
My heart races in my chest as I gulp and give him a small nod. “I didn’t go to breakfast,” I admit quietly. I have no reason to lie. “I was waiting for someone to come get me.”
Kai walks closer until he’s directly in front of me. Reaching out, he runs a hand under my chin and tips it up until I’m staring into his soft brown eyes. “No one is coming to get you,” he assures me.
“I heard you and your father downstairs. He doesn’t want us together anymore.”
“Fuck,” Kai says under his breath as he takes a step back. He closes his eyes as he runs his hands roughly through his messy hair. “I don’t know what all you heard, but—”
“I heard enough,” I interject.
His eyes flash open as he looks down at me, his lips pursed. “You heard everything?”
I shrug, taking a step toward him. “I heard all that I needed to hear.”
His body grows rigid as he continues to stare at me with his mouth slightly agape. His eyes are clouded with unease and uncertainty.
I take another step toward him and reach out, grabbing both of his hands. “I was wrong.”
“Wrong about what?” he questions as he glances down at our hands.
Biting my bottom lip, I’m filled with regret as his eyes search mine for answers.
“I was wrong about you and whatever th
is is between us.”
Cocking his head to the side, he stays silent, waiting for me to continue.
Taking a deep breath, I squeeze his hands softly. “You’re not the enemy here and I’ve been treating you like you are. Luca is your father, I grouped you in with him and his men when I shouldn’t have.”
Kai frowns slightly at my admission of the light I’ve been seeing him under for the past few months.
“I shut you out just as quickly as I let you in. It was hard to distinguish the difference between what they were forcing between us and what has always been there between us.”
I open my mouth to continue when Kai grabs the sides of my face and crushes his lips against mine. He’s greedy and I let him take everything I have to give. Running his tongue along my bottom lip, he coaxes my mouth open and I submit.
I’ve always been his, even when I thought it was all a game and for show.
It was never a game to him.
“I failed you,” I whisper against his lips. “I shut you out when you were what I needed the most.”
Kai pulls away, gazing down at me. “Dahlia, you owe me no apologies. This whole thing is completely fucked... but this, whatever this is between us, it’s the only thing that makes sense anymore.”
“I know,” I whisper as tears fill my eyes. “I promise, I’ll do whatever I have to do.”
He’s all that I have.
“Just trust me, okay?” He gives me a small smile. “Trust me and I can keep you safe.”
“Okay.” I nod, smiling up at him through my tears. He doesn’t hesitate before capturing my mouth with his. His kiss is gentle, but the pain underneath it bruises my lips and my heart.
I trust him with more than just my life.
I trust him with everything that I am.
Kai
WINTER TURNED TO SPRING, which then changed to summer. The sun had begun to set earlier in the evening and the air had become chilled. Summer quickly became fall and we were all still here.
My father tried to flip the script on us and have me and Dahlia separated. His plan backfired and we collided into each other.
Or did his plan work?
Whether it was reverse psychology or not, he drove us closer together. It doesn’t matter if he just played us like the skilled manipulator that he is. He shoved us both in the right direction.
In the end, we are just his puppets, but with our strings deeply entangled, we are unbreakable. We’re trapped in an endless loop of chaos, but his threats could never touch us now.
Our current position started out forced, but over time, it became our new normal. Luca’s threats that day shined a new light on the reality of our lives and how crucial Dahlia and I were for each other’s survival.
In her, I found love. At a young age, after everything I’ve lived through with Luca, love was never a possibility. It didn’t exist in my world.
Not until Dahlia fell onto my radar.
Not until she was handed over to me like a prized piece of treasure.
But that’s exactly what she was and that’s exactly how she deserved to be treated.
She’s a delicacy and she taught me how to care for something so rare. In the end, she taught me how to love.
The mere thought of being separated hit me like a tidal wave. I couldn’t fathom the idea of what Luca or the other men would do with her. She’s mine and I needed to make that clear.
Dahlia heard my father’s threat and reality drove its fist straight into her chest and squeezed the life back into her heart.
The moment that I saw her, when our fates were undecided, that’s when I knew how tightly she had me wrapped around her. That’s when I knew how much I loved her.
And that’s when I realized how much she loved me too.
Luca expected us to work together, in front of the camera like we already were, but this time it was different. It was uncomfortable until we truly found each other. Only then did our surroundings fade and everything fell into the background.
It was just us. No one else mattered. We ignored the fact that we weren’t alone, that our moments were shared and caught on tape. But we didn’t let that take away from how special the moments between us were.
It was fucked up.
And it still is.
We’re fucked up.
But we’re fucked up together.
Rolling over, I reach across the bed for her. The sheets are still warm, but her spot is empty. Opening my eyes, I blink against the bright sunlight shining through the window until my vision adjusts. I scan the room for any sight of her, but she’s gone.
She never leaves without me.
Hopping out of bed, I quickly slip into a pair of black basketball shorts and nothing else. The bedroom door is already unlocked and opens with ease as I pull on the knob. The hallway is empty as I step through the doorway and there are no signs of Dahlia anywhere.
I jog down the hallway, bypassing the other closed doors and bound down the stairwell, taking two steps at a time. The downstairs hallway is just as empty, but unlike upstairs, it isn’t silent. Voices echo down the hall, coming from the dining room.
They know better than to be that loud.
The voices get louder as I storm toward the dining room. The faint sounds of Dahlia’s laughter mixes with the other voices and rings in my ears. A breath I didn’t know I was holding escapes my lips as relief floods my body.
With the door slightly ajar, I shove it open without giving them a fair warning. The girls gasp in surprise and four sets of eyes land on me. Dahlia’s face falls as my gaze locks in on hers.
I was relieved when I heard her. Her laugh was forced, but you have to be alive to be laughing. Now, I’m just pissed.
She shouldn’t be roaming these halls without me.
She was careless and she knows that. It’s written all over her face.
“What are you doing in here?” I demand, keeping my eyes trained on hers.
She stares at me nervously as she gnaws on her bottom lip. “I—uh—I came down to eat.”
“Chill the fuck out, Kai,” Lily scoffs. Daisy gasps and her and Gavin quickly glance at Lily. “You’re the one who forgot to put the leash on her.”
Narrowing my eyes, I quickly divert my gaze to her. “I’m sorry.” I shrug with sarcasm dripping from my words. “Did that train they ran on you last night scramble your brains? They fuck you hard enough to make you forget how insignificant you are here?”
“They fucked me harder than you ever did,” she quips and cocks an eyebrow at me.
Dahlia is on her feet before I can get another word out. All of the color has drained from her face and her eyes are staring anywhere but at me. She rushes past me, quickly enough that I’m grabbing air as I reach for her arm. She runs out of the room without a second glance.
Gavin and Daisy both stare down at their plates as Lily’s lips curl upward into a cocky grin.
Slamming my palms onto the table, I lean over until my nose is just barely touching hers.
“Stay the fuck away from her,” I warn her. “If you so much as breathe in her direction, I will rip out your throat and feed it to the pigs with my bare fucking hands.”
Lily’s body grows rigid as her face hardens. She glares at me with her eyes cold as I stand upright. I leave the room without another word, in search of Dahlia.
I don’t need Lily’s acknowledgment.
She heard me.
I don’t expect to find Dahlia in my room, but her small form is visible on the bed, curled up in a ball underneath the comforter. She hasn’t stayed in her room in months, so mine has become hers.
Softly closing the door behind me, I turn the lock and quietly pad across the room to the bed. Pulling back the covers, I slipped underneath them and lay facing her back. She appears to be asleep and she doesn’t move as I inch closer to her. The moment my bare chest touches her back, her breath catches in her throat and throws off the steady rhythm.
She acts like she’s unaffected, b
ut she gives herself away. Without saying a word, her body responds and speaks for her.
She’s mad at me, but I don’t care. I slip my arms around her and pull her flush against me. Breathing in her scent and feeling her soft flesh against mine has my dick growing.
It’s shameful, given the circumstances, but again, I don’t fucking care. She knows what she does to me and I can’t deny that.
I won’t deny it.
And I certainly won’t hide it... not from her.
Dahlia’s mind fights against her body, but she relaxes in my arms instantly. She can’t deny what I do to her.
“I didn’t like that,” she whispers, staring straight ahead.
“I know,” I agree, breathing against the back of her neck. It’s not a lie.
“You were no better than them,” she sighs in disappointment.
Her words are like a swift blow to the chest. I have no respect for Lily and she’ll never deserve my kindness. But, Dahlia... she deserves so much more. Her admission, viewing me like she views them, it hits me hard and cuts through me, down to the bone.
“I know,” I whisper.
Dahlia quickly rolls in my arms to face me. Her bright green eyes glisten as she searches mine. Reaching up, she takes my face in her soft hands. “You’re better than that.”
I fight the urge to tell her the truth, to tell her she’s wrong. Yet, the selfish part of me wants to accept her words, to believe every single thing she tells me.
Staring back at her, I watch as a single tear slips from the corner of her eye. I quickly catch it on my thumb, wiping it away.
The selfish part of me accepts. If she thinks that I’m better than that, then I will be.
“Don’t do that again,” she commands. “Lily might be a bitch, but she’s in.”
Confused, my brow furrows as I frown at her. “In what?”
A small smile plays on Dahlia’s lips as her face lights up. “The plan to escape.”
Fuck no.
My face falls and I open my mouth to argue, but she quickly shuts me up. Her lips crash into mine as she greedily steals my breath and my words from me. And then she pulls back. “Before you argue, let me explain,” she breathes against my lips.
Entangled Chaos (Entangled Duet Book 1) Page 6