by M. G. Morgan
I knew he was a monster but all of his actions so far suggested he wasn’t anything like his father or brother. Of course I could be wrong.
I could only hope I wasn’t.
“Carrie, are you going to join us, Father will not be pleased if the first course isn’t on time.”
He turned to face me once more, his expression utterly devoid of any emotion.
It was strange, how could he mask what he was feeling so utterly and thoroughly? It wasn’t something I could do, my emotions were always plain to see on my face and in my eyes.
Nodding, I followed him down the stairs. On one arm he linked Naomi and once again he offered me his other arm.
I contemplated refusing him once more but something he’d said to me rang true. I needed to know who to trust, without allies I wouldn’t last on the island.
And though I wouldn’t really trust, Andy, I could pretend to. At least that way it would allow me to test whether I could manipulate him to my own ends or not.
And if I could, then finding a way off the island wouldn’t be as difficult as I’d first feared.
Chapter 7
Dinner was a painful experience, sitting between Dom and Taylor wouldn’t have been a choice I would have made had I been given a choice in the matter.
Pushing my food around the plate I tried to keep my gaze down and away from the beady eyed stares of my captors.
“Are you going to eat that or play with it?” Taylor asked, an exasperated sigh escaping him as he slammed his napkin down on the table.
“I’m not particularly hungry,” I said, meeting his gaze for the first time since I’d arrived at the table.
“But you need to eat, Carrie, especially if you want that babe of yours to grow to be big and strong… We wouldn’t anything to happen to it because you were too stubborn to know what was good for you?”
He smiled at me but it was a cruel twist of his lips that left me feeling cold.
Taylor it seemed was determined to keep on taunting me. The enjoyment he got out of it was sick and perverse yet I knew he was practically feeding on my fear and discomfort.
“I enjoy playing with my food,” Dom said, leaning in over me and whispering against my ear.
I jerked away from his hot clammy breath and shot him a disgusted look.
“Stay the hell away from me, or so help me God it won’t be my foot I jam in your family jewels the next time, it’ll be a knife.” I gritted the words our between clenched teeth.
Dom grinned at me, his eyes lighting with excitement.
“Promises, promises. I like a woman who fights for her beliefs, it makes life far more interesting…”
He stared at me as though I’d finally done something interesting and I groaned inwardly at my mistake.
Dom’s life revolved around how much pain he could inflict on his victims.
But I’d spent far too much time being used as a pawn in other people’s games to become his victim.
I couldn’t imagine there were many people willing to stand up to him, let alone actually threaten him.
He reached out and brushed a stray strand of hair back behind my ear.
Without thinking I slapped his hand away, the sound of skin on skin contact echoed around the suddenly silent room.
Dom smiled, a look that instantly reminded me of his father. But while his father had some level of self control I knew Dom had none at all.
He moved fast, jerking his chair back so that it toppled across the tiled floor. I tried to dodge him but he fastened his grip around my throat and dragged me onto my feet before slamming me back against the table.
Plates and glasses crashed to the floor around us as he pinned me on my back against the heavy wooden table.
“Dom, enough, you’ve proven who’s tougher…” Andy’s voice filtered through to my ears but Dom’s grip tightened on my neck cutting off my air supply.
My mind flashed back to the moment on the jet when he’d tried to choke me into unconsciousness then.
I fought against him, my hands scrabbling at his arms, my nails tearing bloody gouges into his skin and still he smiled at me.
Lifting my hand away from his on my neck gave him a better grip on me. But there was nothing else I could do, I needed a weapon.
My hands sought along the table beneath me until my fingers closed around the top of a salad fork.
Jerking my arm up, I brought the fork down against his arm, the tines burying themselves through the fabric of his jacket and straight into the flesh of his muscled arm beneath.
Dom howled in agony, releasing me so suddenly that I slid into a crumpled gasping mess beneath the table. He staggered back a few steps and I watched as he grabbed the fork and tugged it from his arm.
Blood dripped down his sleeve, forming a growing puddle on the floor beneath his feet.
“I’m going to kill you…”
He reached for his belt, whipping it off as he reached beneath the table and attempted to grab me by the hair.
I scampered backwards as Taylor’s booming voice cut through the commotion.
“Enough!” He roared, his voice reverberating through the room.
I crouched beneath the table and Dom’s black stare bore into me before he finally withdrew.
“You behave like a pack of animals, all of you,” Taylor continued, “get out from under there you ingrate.”
He sounded furious and I crawled to the edge of the table and pulled myself out. My neck ached from Dom’s second attempt on my life but I glanced across at him and felt a small sliver of satisfaction as I spotted the blood dripping down his arm.
Taylor appeared in front of me before I had the chance to push up onto my feet.
“I should have known bringing you here would be nothing but trouble but I foolishly thought after our little chat today that you would see sense…”
“You couldn’t have expected me to just let him kill me,”
“I expect you to remember what you are here, Carrie Ashcroft, you’re leverage, just another weapon to use against you husband. If you’re injured, maimed, or die here I really don’t give a fuck. As long as he believes we have you he will do what I want.”
His words sank in and I started to climb to my feet but he wrapped his fist in my hair before I could stand straight.
Pain burned in my scalp but I fought back the urge to let him see how much he was hurting me.
“Father, she was protecting herself, she’s simply spirited and Dom did overstep his bounds. You’ve told him…”
“Shut up, Andrew, if I have to listen to one more second of your simpering bullshit I’m going to kill you too.”
Taylor dragged me in against him and stared down into my face, “I want her out of my sight.”
His fist crashed into the side of my face and the world swam in black silk and silver stars.
Chapter 8
“Carrie,” a voice called to me but my head felt as though it was stuffed with cotton wool.
I fought to open my eyes but only one of them responded.
Lifting my hands panic washed over me as soon as I realised I couldn’t move them.
“Carrie…” The voice called to me again and I fought against the ropes binding me to the bed.
“Don’t fight, the more you fight the tighter they get…”
It finally dawned on me who was talking to me, Rosa’s voice was filled with worry and I stared up at her with my one good eye.
The other side of my face felt as though it was twice the size it should have been and every time I tried to open my eye fully pain blared through my head.
Taylor had hit me, his punch practically causing my eye to swell shut.
“Rosa, what happened?”
“They brought you up here and…” she trailed off and chewed her lip as she returned her concentration to the ropes.
“Rosa…” There was a warning in my voice and she glanced over at me, the fear in her eyes unmistakable.
“He’s going to co
me back, he wanted you tied up, wanted you to wake up and be terrified knowing he was coming back for you.”
Her words sent a wave of nausea racing through me. There was only one of the Banks’ men who would want me tied up.
“It was Dom wasn’t it?”
She nodded and returned to the ropes, her small fingers pulling and tugging at the binding.
I swallowed back my fear.
If he came back and I was this vulnerable…
That thought alone was enough to make me want to fight, to kick and lash, to scream out at the ropes holding me down.
Instead I muffled my distress, burying my face against the side of the pillow that was caught against my arm.
“Rosa, please hurry…” I didn’t want to panic her, rushing her was a bad idea and yet I couldn’t shake the panic that was threatening to overwhelm me.
I needed to get free. I wouldn’t be his victim, not now, not ever.
And if he came back I would be waiting for him… I was going to finish it once and for all.
Dominic Banks would be sorry for ever messing with me.
“There!” Rosa said triumphantly as she finally freed the knot and the ropes loosened their grip on my arms.
Sitting up I didn’t waste any time and immediately started on the ropes he’d wrapped around my ankles.
“Where did he go?” I asked as I untied the first knot and started on the second.
My fingers were numb and clumsy as I fought with the ropes.
“I don’t know, he had you brought in and tied to the bed and then they left. He didn’t look too happy.”
Freeing my other ankle I kicked my legs over the side of the bed and sucked in a deep breath. My head swam with colours and it took all of my strength to stay holding onto the side of the bed and not fall onto the floor.
“You don’t look so good,” Rosa said, dropping onto the bed next to me.
The movement of the mattress was enough to send my stomach tumbling in knots into my shoes and I hopped up from the side of the bed and careened into the bathroom.
Gripping the door frame I fought to keep my stomach in check as I waited for the world to stop spinning.
My stomach settled and I sucked in a deep breath as the spinning of the room came to a halt.
What the hell was wrong with me?
Was a punch enough to really put me so out of whack?
It was completely possible, it just depended on how hard Taylor had hit me and whether I had a concussion or not.
“Rosa, we need to get out of here, if he comes back for me…” I trailed off as another wave of nausea washed over me.
This one had nothing to do with my possible concussion and everything to do with the revulsion I felt over Dom.
If he came back before I got out then I wouldn’t stand a chance, I wasn’t exactly in any fit state to fight back against him.
Rosa stared at me with wide frightened brown eyes. It was uncanny just how much she had her father’s eyes.
“They’ll find us if we try to leave,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper.
“We can’t stay here, it’s too dangerous.”
She swallowed hard and I could see tears glistening along her eyelashes.
The door burst open and I jumped, the movement sending my head spinning once more.
Jerking around to face the intruder I half expected to see Dom or even Taylor but it was Naomi framed in the doorway.
Her face was a mask of rage as she stared at me and I gripped the doorframe in an attempt to keep myself upright so I could face her.
“Andy says you need to come with me, it’s not safe for you here tonight…” she said, her voice dripping with anger and bitterness.
“And why would he care?” I said, as Rosa crept behind me, her small fingers digging into my waist as she hid behind me.
“How the hell should I know? I’m just doing as he asked, but hey if you’d much rather stay here and deal with Dom once he comes back you’re more than welcome. Personally I think you and he would enjoy your time together.”
Her words sent a chill down my spine and I remembered the look she’d given me earlier. It was entirely possible that this was nothing more than a trap.
But why bother? She knew what Dom had planned for me, he’d left me tied up…
It would have been far easier for her to just leave me to my fate at the hands of her soon to be brother in law.
“Fine, but where I go, Rosa goes.”
Naomi’s expression turned black and she glared past me to the young girl cowering at my back.
“She’s none of your concern,” Naomi said, her voice low and threatening.
“She’s staying with me, Naomi, whether you like it or not. And if you turn me down then I’ll take my chances with Dom.”
She smiled like the cat who’d gotten the cream, her eyes lighting with happiness and surprise.
It made her look much younger.
“Great, I’ll tell Andy you’re an idiot.”
“And I’ll tell Dom that you and your fiancé had planned to spoil his fun. That it was you who cut me out of the ropes, you who told me how to escape…”
Naomi’s face fell, her happiness disappearing and she glared at me once more.
“You know what he’ll do to me…”
“I can imagine, so the choice is yours. Rosa stays with me, or I tell Dom everything.”
“Fine, like I give a crap what that brat gets up to. When he finds out what she’s been up to he’ll deal with her anyway,” Naomi said, placing way too much emphasis on the word ‘he’.
I wanted to ask her who exactly she meant but there really wasn’t any time. I didn’t want to hang around and wait for Dom to come and find me, my threat had been just that, a threat.
If she’d left us behind I wasn’t going to stick around and tell him the truth. He was far too volatile to tell him anything.
“Move it, before he comes back and catches us anyway,” Naomi said, gesturing to the door.
I didn’t need to be asked twice, grabbing a jumper from the back of the chair I tugged it on over my head and wrapped my hand around Rosa’s, her fingers entwining with mine as I raced out the door after Naomi.
We crept down the first set of stairs and I could just make out the sounds of raised voices coming from somewhere below us. I couldn’t make out what was being said but whatever it was I had a feeling I was involved.
Following Naomi down a long carpeted corridor the baby kicked and my hand automatically went to my stomach, my hand pressing gently against the place where I’d felt its movement.
I would get out of this, I would save us both and then I would make the Banks pay for everything they’d put us through.
Chapter 9
Naomi pushed open a door at the end of the corridor and ushered both me and Rosa inside. The room was just as lavish as every other room in the house.
It was larger than the one Dom had set me up in and I stared around the space in awe.
Andy hadn’t been kidding when he’d said the house had been restored to a high standard.
“You’ll be safe in here, the door is reinforced with steel, nothing human is getting through that door without an invitation or a key.”
I turned to thank her but she’d already disappeared back out through the door. It clanged shut behind her and the unmistakable sound of a key turning in the lock met my ears.
Racing towards the door I slammed into it. They’d been so quick to reassure me of the fact that I wasn’t a prisoner here and yet now I was locked into one of the bedrooms in the house.
My stomach rolled uncomfortable as I rattled the door handle but it refused to budge.
If I was locked in then I was at their mercy and that wasn’t acceptable. The very last people I wanted to be at the mercy of was the Banks. It was bad enough being stuck on the island but at least when I’d had some freedom, there was a chance I would somehow discover a way to escape.
“Open the
door!” I shouted, the sound of her laughter infuriating me.
“You’re safer this way, Carrie, I thought you’d be happy. Dom can’t get his hands on you in there.”
“If this was just about keeping me safe you’d have given me the key.”
She laughed again, her high pitched girly giggling grating on my nerves.
“Clever clever, little, Carrie, always poking her nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
A terrible thought washed over me and my heart beat accelerated in panic.
“Naomi, Andy knows about this doesn’t he? This was his idea…”
There was a pause and I felt my heart drop into my stomach as I waited for her answer.
If this was her plan and no one knew we were even here…
I trailed off, the house was huge it would take time for people to find us locked in here, assuming anyone even bothered to come and check on me.
“He knows…” she said finally, the words gritting out from between her teeth. “You should leave things alone, if you try and win him over you’ll have more than Dom to worry about.”
“Naomi, you’re welcome to Andy, this is not what I want. All I want to do is go home, if you helped me then you wouldn’t have to worry about anything, I’d be out of your hair for good.”
I could practically imagine the cogs in her brain turning as she mulled over my answer.
“Nice try,” she said finally and the sound of her walking away left me feeling cold.
Turning back to face the room I stared at Rosa. Her face was streaked and blotchy and I could see the tears resting on her lashes.
“They locked us in?” she said, her voice small and frightened.
“It doesn’t matter, we’ll find a way out of here. Start testing the windows,” I said, crossing the room to the nearest set of closed windows.
The glass rattled in the frame as I fought with the latch but it refused to budge.
Glancing over at Rosa I realised she was having the same issue.
Staring around the room, my eyes came to rest on the chair sitting agains the wall.
Andy had done an excellent job restoring the house to its former glory. He’d been so thorough that the glass wasn’t double glazed. I could break it.