Fragile Innocence

by Dani René

  Pain courses through me and tears spring to my eyes. He’s never hurt me. Why is he doing it now? I didn’t mean to make him angry. “I didn’t—”

  “Yes, you fucking did. Acting like a little whore in front of me. You think I don’t notice how you wiggle your tiny little ass? Those perky little tits are always on show. Pointing directly at me.” He hisses the words in my face and I wince. Spittle from his mouth dots my cheek and the stale smell of beer and cigars has my stomach rolling.

  I try to shake my head, but I can’t move. His hold on me is too tight. The tears I was holding back spill when I blink and he leans in, licking my cheeks.

  “Mmmm… So delicious. I’m going to taste every part of you. I bet you’re as sweet as you look, aren’t you, my baby?” His other hand gropes my breast, squeezing and mauling it.

  “Please—”

  “Shut it! Don’t you fucking speak. Do you hear me?” He doesn’t wait for my answer. Instead, with one strong hand, he grasps my yellow summer dress and rips it from my body. The tattered material is in shreds, not covering me any longer, but instead leaving me bare to his filthy leer.

  He pulls me up and drags me over to my bed. Throwing me down like a little rag doll, I bounce and pray someone will help me. That perhaps my mother will wake up and hear. Maybe she’ll be able to distract him or something, anything. But that doesn’t happen because he grips my ankles, pulling me to the edge of my bed until I’m bent over.

  My blue cotton panties are pulled down and a deep animalistic growl vibrates from his throat. “So perfect.”

  I hear the belt buckle and terror grips me in its fist, holding me steady so the man I once called daddy can violate me. He reaches in front of me and I shiver with trepidation.

  He shoves my panties into my mouth and hisses in my ear. “Don’t you make one fucking sound, little Snowflake. You’re so pure, so beautiful, and you’re easy to break.” Suddenly burning pain zaps through me, igniting fiery agony between my legs, but when I scream the sound is muffled with the material in my mouth. He grips my wrists in his large rough hands, engulfing me as he holds them behind my back. I can’t fight back. There’s nothing I can do. Nobody can save me. I have to endure.

  I am strong. I am strong. I am strong.

  “You like that, slut? You’re no longer pure, but you’re still my Snowflake, aren’t you?” His hips slam into my ass, pushing me against the edge of my bed. His heavy weight pins me in place as he takes something I held dear. Something I was meant to gift the man I loved one day. Fluid runs down the inside of my thighs and I realize my virginity has been robbed from me when I wasn’t ready to give it. Fragments of me slowly morph into tiny pieces of the snowflake he’s just crushed and as they fall to the ground I vow I’ll survive.

  I am strong. I am strong. I am strong.

  Without warning he pulls out of me and warmth coats my back and my ass. “So pretty and white against your skin. I’ve marked you, sweet girl. You’re a whore now. Do you understand me? You are mine. My filthy tainted whore.” With that, he leaves me in my room. The blood trailing down my thighs stains the carpet below. One day it will be his blood. One day I’ll make him feel the pain I’m going through.

  Charles. The monster from my nightmares.

  Carter

  Once we’d kicked in the door to the apartment my blood runs cold. It’s empty. The fucker got away and I’m fucking angry. Red blurs my vision. Nothing else matters because he has to pay. I don’t care how. All that matters now is that he gets what he deserves.

  “Where the fuck is he?” My growl is low, menacing, and I don’t even recognize my own voice. There’s nothing that can compare to the fear and anxiety racing through me right now.

  “We’ll find him, Carter. My men tracked his phone here. He must be using a burner.” Bennett pulls out his phone and hits dial. Stalking through the empty apartment, I find a suitcase and once I flip it open I heave. Inside are photos of both Katherine and Ella. But not the Ella I know now, the one from all those years ago. The girl who had everything ripped from her. The girl who was ruined by a monster.

  My heart tightens in my chest, leaving me breathless. “Bennett.” The tension radiating through my body is like a coil, tightening so much I’m sure when I snap I’m going to hurt everyone and everything in my path.

  “Fuck.” He hisses the word and turns on his heel, talking to someone on the phone. I need to get back to my woman. She needs me. Until we can find this fucker I’ll spend every fucking second of my time by her side.

  When my best friend joins me in the bedroom again I notice the dark expression on his face. When I first met Bennett, he was a kid who was constantly stoned and fucked anything with tits. He’s changed a lot over the years, but the one thing I won’t forget is what he looks like when he’s got murder on the brain.

  You see, my best friend almost killed someone once. We were out clubbing one night when we stumbled by a couple having a go at each other. The woman was crying and the man had just laid into her. Bennett walked up to the guy and punched him square in the jaw, knocking him out. Although, he didn’t stop there. He straddled the twat and kept punching him. His fists were bloodied when I finally pulled him off.

  That night was the first and only night I saw him lose control. It was the only time I’ve ever been afraid of the man who was like a brother to me. And now, when I see him, I recognize the danger and rage in those green eyes. It’s as if someone else has taken over his body.

  “I’m going to find that fucking piece of shit and when I do, he’ll never be able to walk again. That I promise you.” His voice drips with venom and as it coils around me, I feel the warmth, and I know he’ll do anything to keep Ella and Kat safe. And I’ll never be able to thank him for loving her as much as I do.

  Bennett helped me free Ella by giving her something she didn’t know she could feel.

  Pleasure. Love. Affection.

  “We need to get back to her.” I cut a glance at him and he nods. He’s not listening to me. Well, he is, but his mind is elsewhere. That faraway look in his eyes is evidence that this is affecting him more than he’s letting on. “Bennett.”

  He looks toward me.

  “We’ll find him.”

  “I know. I’m just…. fuck… I don’t know. I feel like I failed you, like I failed her.” That’s something we have in common. I’ve had this instilled into me since I was a child. When you do something, do it with pride. Give your all and now that we’ve lost Charles, I feel that failure too.

  “You haven’t failed either of us, mate. We’ll find him. Don’t doubt.” We head to the car and once we’re inside I pull my phone from my pocket and type out a message to the woman who’s found herself engraved in my heart. Letting her know I’m on my way.

  “I should tell you something,” Bennett utters then, his voice tentative, and my chest tightens.

  “What?” As soon as the question leaves my lips my best friend places a hand on my shoulder. Turning, my eyes meet his. I have a bad feeling he’s about to deliver a resounding punch to my gut.

  “He knows where she lives. When I was there she received a ‘gift’.” He lifts his fingers, creating air quotes around the word as he spits it like venom.

  Pulling out my phone, I dial her number again. It feels like the millionth time I’m calling. Each ring drags me into the depths of hell. Fear forms a lump in my throat, and my chest aches painfully.

  As soon as I hear her voicemail every nerve in my body alights with agony. He’s got her. He must have. “We need to get back to Ella, right the fuck now.”

  He pumps the accelerator until we’re tearing through the ground toward the exit.

  My best friend knows how to drive like a fucking maniac, and I’m glad he’s with me. I would’ve probably killed myself trying to get to her apartment, because the only thing I see now is red. Blood. Flowing from that evil fucker’s body. My hands coated in it because I’ll make sure he doesn’t survive.

  “We’ll get
her, Carter. I won’t tell you to calm down, but just know I’ll help you. There’s nothing I won’t do for you.” He glances at me, and when his eyes turn forward, he whispers, “For her.”

  Casting a glance at him, I realize his feelings for her are deeper than I thought. Even though we’d spoken about our pact, we didn’t seal the deal, but this has made it clear. “I know you love her.”

  He doesn’t respond because it’s not a question. We pull up to the sidewalk and we both jump from the car before it has time to stop. Making our way inside the building, I find the security guard sitting at his post reading The Evening Standard. Reading a fucking newspaper.

  “Has anyone gone up to Ms. Carmel’s apartment?”

  Dragging his eyes from the article to me, he shakes his head.

  “None that I’ve seen. I’ve been here all day,” he responds calmly. But then again, there is a back entrance which is part of the fire escape. If he’d taken his eye off the camera for even a couple of minutes, he wouldn’t have seen someone come and go. Knowing that Bennett’s dad is in on this only makes me angrier. He’d have access to this whole building with a snap of his fingers.

  Heading to the lift, I push the button for the car. Every second that ticks by has my body aching, thrumming with vengeance and revenge. My blood is hot, boiling like heated lava ready to erupt.

  “That fucker needs to die. If he set one hand on her,” I hiss at Bennett, who’s vibrating with emotion beside me. As the doors slide open, I’m already inside pushing the button for the seventh floor when Bennett steps inside.

  The car inches up and so does my blood pressure. I can’t deal with this. I’m like a grenade. Ready to blow. And I’m going to blow so hard all over that sick fuck he’s not going to know what hit him. But killing him is going to be too fast for him. He needs to suffer.

  Bennett’s voice rips me from me daydream of blood. “Meet us here. We need your special services.”

  “Who was that?” I question as he hangs up and we step into the hallway.

  “A friend. He knows how to clean up a mess.”

  I’ve always known my best friend had a few nasty acquaintances, but now I know it’s true. The door to her apartment is closed, and there are no sounds coming from it. I knock twice and wait.

  Nothing.

  Not a fucking sound.

  “Step back,” Bennett utters in a tone that tells me I better move or I’ll be on my way out as well. He lifts his leg and kicks the door in without breaking a sweat. The living room is empty but what has my senses heightened is her phone lying on the floor near the sofa. The water glass that’s shattered on the floor and the sound of nothingness.

  No whimpering, no crying, just nothing.

  Rushing into the bedroom I find it empty. She’s just fucking gone. Adrenalin kicks in, racing through me like a drug, coursing through my veins, alighting it with fierce urgency.

  “Yeah, they’re not here. Can you track it?” He’s quiet for a little while, then responds again. “Good. Send me the location immediately. Can you get there?”

  Walking through the apartment, her scent is everywhere. That soft, orange blossom perfume she loves. That I love. I do love her. My heart is full and it’s because of her.

  Nothing in my life has ever mattered enough. It’s been an ongoing chore to feel anything. But when she walked into my life, into my mind, she stepped into my heart as well.

  “We found her.”

  Glaring at my best friend, he offers a smirk. It’s not a cheeky one. It’s one filled with revenge and satisfaction.

  “Then what the fuck are we waiting for?” Grabbing her phone, I pull the door shut, well, as much of it that will shut. We head to the stairwell and race down to the ground floor. Thank fuck for my cardio every day.

  Ella

  Cold. I feel icy cold. It hurts to open my eyes, but I try anyway. It’s really dark. I’m naked, that much is clear, but it’s the familiar ache between my legs that shoots fear through me. Did he hurt me? I suppose there’s nothing I could do to stop him, because as soon as my eyes open, I realize why my muscles are aching.

  He’s got me attached to a spreader bar. My wrists are cuffed along with my ankles to one black metal bar that has my ass and pussy offered to him like an offering. A sacrifice to the Devil himself.

  I’m no longer afraid. I’ve endured pain before. I was strong enough to escape him once. I’ll do it again. Somehow, I’ll find a way to get out of this and I’ll make sure he feels pain. Not just any pain, but I want to watch him bleed.

  I don’t know how much time has passed, but Carter hasn’t found me yet.

  It’s too dark to see anything and I have no way of telling where I actually am.

  “My Snowflake is awake. You look beautiful like that. Only your best features are visible.” A voice that sends ice running through my veins comes from somewhere behind me.

  “Why are you doing this? Why hurt me again?”

  A dark chuckle is the only response I get. I didn’t think he’d be able to explain why he’s such a sick fuck, but I won’t stop until he lets me go or kills me. I feel the heat of him behind me. The rough, calloused fingertip that runs down my spine has me shuddering in revulsion that once again I’m at this man’s mercy.

  “You know why. Because you’re my whore.”

  A shiver of anticipation wracks my body. I know the pain that’s about to befall me. Can I survive this? Will Carter and Bennett find me? Where am I? There are too many questions running through my mind.

  I hear clinking of metal and panic sends a shiver through my body. The ache in my legs and arms has me biting down on my bottom lip until I taste the warm metallic flavor of blood. My stomach rolls as I heave, but nothing comes out.

  “Stop acting like a fucking child. You’re grown up now. You have a man who fucks you, surely. Or are there two of them, whore? I told you all those years ago, Snowflake, you’re mine. Always will be.”

  Suddenly pain prickles my skin, like tiny needles being pushed into my back, along my spine. I don’t know what it is, but something tells me this is going to hurt worse than I remember.

  Slowly heat trickles down my spine and I feel numb. Like he’s shot something into my blood stream because now I can’t feel hot or cold or pain.

  “Now to test this sweet little hole I’ve missed so much.”

  Without another word, I’m filled. Ripped open. Torn in half. Whatever you want to call it, that’s how I feel. Still there’s numbness throughout my body, but I know he’s penetrated me. I can’t say for sure with what. My head is spinning at a million miles a second.

  “Please.”

  “You can keep begging. You can scream. Fuck, I’d love it if you scream. I love hearing those little whimpers. They make my fucking dick hard.” A swat on my ass splinters over my skin and the feeling comes back with a vengeance. Heat trickles over my spine nearing my ass. I tense, but it’s no use. I’m tied up so tight that any movement is halted by the metal cuffs around my ankles and wrists.

  “Feel that, little one. Do you remember when you had me spill my coffee over my shirt?”

  The question has my mind racing through memories of when I was a child. A teenager eager to please him. And I remember vividly what happened that night. I was sixteen. It was after he’d first assaulted me.

  I’d come home late from school. He was in the kitchen. When he spun around not realizing I was there, we slammed into each other by accident and I knocked the cup of coffee he’d been holding. The whole mug splattered across his shirt and my face.

  He was so angry, he’d taken it out on me that night. He was particularly rough. His big, rough hand choked me while his cock was forced inside my dry body. He was unrelenting. I was about to reach the point of suffocation when he let me go, letting me breathe in much needed air.

  He laughed. Told me I was a good girl for taking it.

  “Tell me you fucking remember.” The words he spews has spittle flying onto my back, then more heat. The s
cent of a candle filters through the air and I realize it’s hot wax.

  As soon as I calm myself from the realization, pain jolts me back to the alert scared little girl as he pours the hot wax over my puckered hole. The sensitive area burns and tears form in my eyes.

  “Fucking little whore. You loved it, didn’t you? Did you think you can run from me?” The wax cools on my skin, leaving it tight and puckered. His fingers work my tight ring of muscle and I can’t stop myself from tensing. I’ve only ever been with Bennett and Carter. No other man has ever been in there, except for Charles taking what was never his to have.

  I’ve never trusted anyone to come near me. This man had ruined me until the two men I love saved me. My avenging dark angels. Closing my eyes, I picture them. Those devilish smirks, gentle and commanding touches. Love. Affection.

  I love them. I didn’t think I was capable of that emotion. My past hasn’t afforded me the luxury most women have. To trust a man. To really feel a man. But they’ve given me that and so much more.

  They healed me.

  They made me whole.

  Both men helped me see myself as a woman. And now, as I sit here chained, I realize that for the first time in my life, I’m in love. Not with one man, but with both.

  There’s nothing that can prepare you for when your life is about to end. As I lie here, I wonder why I didn’t just end my life years ago. It would’ve been so easy to let go and allow death to steal me.

  But I thought I was strong. I believed it. Even though I broke each time he came near me, I still held onto the fact that I survived each nightmare. When I was a broken, abused teenager, I could have done it. Taken a razor and sliced my wrists. The pretty red blood mixing with my bath water. I imagined it. So many times over those years I wondered why I even endured it.

  I was the silly little girl, the one too scared to fight him. The one too scared to scream, shout, or cry. But now that I’m chained up like an animal I realize I got my chance. I should have done something then.