Sweet Jayne

by K. Webster

  Hope, that useless emotion, isn’t so useless after all.

  My eyes meet the terrified ones of my sister.

  Kasey Grant.

  Older but still my baby sis.

  No fucking way.

  But what sets my world on fire with rage and utter confusion are the other sets of small eyes. A boy, no older than seven or eight clutches on to another child, a toddler, also a boy. And Kasey, holds a bundled up infant to her chest.

  What the fuck is happening?

  “It’ll fill up fast,” I yell at Kasper. Of course I know this. Logan drilled it into my head for three fucking years to keep me in line. Icy water, funneled in straight from the lake via six gigantic pipes, would drown innocent people—people I love—in a frigid tomb within twenty-seven minutes.

  And we’ve already wasted too much time.

  “Donovan, take the baby. You’re tall enough to keep her dry. Hurry. Kasey, get Tay out of here,” I instruct, my teeth beginning to chatter. “Amethyst is somewhere down here. You have to find her, Kasper!”

  At the mention of her name, he hands me the flashlight and then splashes away calling for her.

  “Come here, baby,” I coo. Van’s frightened eyes light up when he sees me.

  “Mamma, I scared.”

  His sweet voice is music to my ears and I reach for him. “I know, sweetheart. We’re going to go someplace dry.” He lets me pull him into my arms and I squeeze him tight. I inhale the scent of him that I haven’t allowed myself to think about or obsess over for several months.

  All part of the plan.

  Even if it nearly killed me in the process.

  “Climb on my back, Tay,” Kasey says, her voice calm despite the terrorizing sound of the water rising quickly in the basement. She hands Kassie to Donovan who wears a stunned expression on his face. But as soon as he has her in his arms, he holds her against his chest high above the water.

  He starts out of the room and toward the stairs with Kasey right behind him. I hold the flashlight beam in front of me to lead the way.

  “MOTHERFUCKER!” Kasper’s voice rings out above the rushing water that nearly deafens us.

  “What?” I call out to him in the darkness and quickly sweep the light across the watery abyss.

  “She’s stuck! She’s fucking cuffed to a goddamned pipe!”

  Panic ripples through me but I remember the key is still on the floor in Logan’s bedroom. “Stay with her, Kasper! I’ll be right back with the key!”

  When I make it to the stairs, Donovan is waiting for me. His hand reaches for me and he helps me out of the water. The six of us climb up the stairs, shivering and the kids whimpering. As soon as we’re at the top, I set Van to his feet.

  “Donovan, take him and get them out of here. Don’t let him out of your sight. Promise me!”

  He scowls at me. “You’re not going anywhere!”

  Pushing past him, I run to the bedroom and snatch the key. When I return, he’s clutching Van’s tiny hand and glaring at me.

  “I can’t let you go back down there, baby.”

  I give him a quick peck on the lips. “Too bad, I can’t let her drown. We’ll be right out.”

  He growls but I’m already bounding down the steps. I put the flashlight between my teeth and jump into the frigid water, which is already much higher than it was when we first came down here. In another fifteen minutes or so, it’ll be completely filled with lake water.

  “Kasper!” I cry out around the flashlight.

  I don’t see them.

  Shit!

  “Kasper!”

  His head emerges from the water and he’s frantically tugging at the pipe. Amethyst is nowhere to be found. Diving under the icy water, I swim to where I can see her arm attached. She’s clawing at her wrist as she attempts to free herself, bubbles of air rushing from her with her panicked exertion.

  With the key in hand, I work to unlock her. She wiggles and I lose my grip. The stupid key flutters to the floor. I clutch onto the pipe and launch myself to the floor to search for it. My palm flits over the carpet for a few seconds until I grasp onto the metal. Once I have the key back in hand, I float back up to where she’s attached.

  She’s stopped moving and her body goes limp.

  The banging as Kasper attempts to pull the pipe right from the wall echoes beneath the water.

  Hang in there, Amethyst.

  As I work to unlock her again, my mind is back on this morning. When everything went to hell.

  “Nadia?” a soft voice calls out, pulling me from my nightmares.

  I crack my eyes open to see an angel staring down at me. My entire body aches and burns from Logan’s ruthless attack. After he raped me and forced me to watch as he did so, he’d shoved me to the floor and forgotten about me. I was in and out of consciousness as he made breakfast, went downstairs to visit Kasey and the kids, like he does every morning, and then as he dressed for work. He never offered to un-cuff me or feed me or anything. Hell, he didn’t even speak to me.

  “Nadia, oh God,” Amethyst murmurs as she kneels beside me. “What has he done to you? I’m going to get you out of here!”

  I’ve come-to enough to realize it’s already too late. He’ll see her on the video feed. Logan doesn’t leave loose ends. Amethyst’s fate is about to match that of Kasey and I.

  “Go! Amethyst, you have to leave right now!” I croak. “He’ll come back!”

  She shakes her head as she helps stand me on my feet. “Let me grab you some clothes and we’ll leave. Together. End of story. I’ll call Kasper once we leave.”

  Time ticks by way too fast as I beg for her to leave. She ignores my pleas and shoves items into a bag.

  “Where does he keep the handcuff keys?” she questions.

  “You mean this handcuff key?” a deep voice booms from the doorway.

  We both jerk our gaze to see Logan’s giant body leaned against the doorframe. I’d expected to see rage or hate, but instead I see amusement. Just like that first day I came to see him for information. The day he’d easily lured me into his house, hit me upside the head with the butt of his gun, and I’d woken up in the basement to Kasey tending to my wound.

  “You’re a monster,” Amethyst hisses and her eyes skitter around in search for something.

  “Semantics,” he said with a shrug. “Do you really think you’re going to save my pet, hero girl?” he taunts and aims his gun my way. “I don’t think so.”

  “I should have burned your car with you inside of it!” she snaps.

  His eyes darken and his jaw clenches. I know the look—the look right before the devil emerges.

  “Logan, I’m not going anywhere. Just let her go,” I plead in a calm voice hoping to distract him.

  Amethyst makes a dive for her purse which jolts Logan into action. She’s barely retrieved a knife from it when he tackles her to the floor.

  “Stop!” I screech and throw myself at him. My arms are still cuffed but I have to try and help her. Everything happens quickly. He rips the knife from her grip, shoves her away, and then yanks at me by my hair. The cold bite of the metal pierces the flesh on my throat and I feel blood trickle down.

  “You’re going to do exactly as I say or I’ll cut her to fucking chunks right in front of you,” he snarls as he quickly moves to his feet with me in his grip.

  “Just run,” I choke out. “Run!”

  The knife is pulled away from my throat and an instant later pain bursts from my thigh as he slices it across the skin.

  “Chunks...”

  Amethyst meets his glare with a teary one of her own but doesn’t try to move, clearly heeding his warning. “Kasper will come for you. He knows I’m here.”

  His breathing is heavy behind me and I know he’s furious. “So fucking what. He’ll find nothing. Nadia won’t speak a word of it. I’ll toss you down there with Kasey and things will keep going as planned. Nobody will miss you.”

  She flinches, like she’s about to attack, and he slice
s at my flesh several more times. I scream in agony. When I start choking on my sobs, he tosses me face first down onto the bed so I can’t see her.

  “Over there,” he barks out.

  I hear a shriek and soon he walks to the other side of the bed, clutching at her hair.

  “No, Logan! Don’t do it!”

  He ignores me as he wrangles her into his guillotine contraption. She fights him off but he manages to slam the wood down over her neck. Our eyes meet and hers are tear-filled yet angry.

  “It’s my fault. Leave her alone and punish me, Logan, please.”

  He ruffles her hair and grins at her. “Your lucky day, hero girl. Nadia over here wants to take your punishment. She’s kind of a masochistic bitch like that. Haven’t laid a heavy hand on ‘ol Kasey in months. I’d never been with someone before who begged for such intense pain and humiliation. If it wasn’t so fucking fun, I’d deny her simply for the fact she so desperately craves it.”

  In a way, he’s correct. I’d always felt responsible for losing Kasey. For nearly a decade, I’ve blamed myself. The punishment he doles out, though, feels like retribution for all the years she’s had to suffer while imprisoned by him. If anyone deserves his rape and beatings, it’s me.

  She curses at him but he ignores her to dig around in his chest of horrors. Once he pulls out the ball gag and anal hook, I start screaming to distract him. I hope to God those are for me and not her.

  Again, my cross to bear. Not hers.

  When he makes his way to me, I let out a gasp of relief. I try to go to my happy place—to my Donovan—but I can’t take my eyes off of Amethyst’s terrified ones. Stay with me. Focus on my eyes. We’ll get through this together.

  Logan does what he does best, all the while with Amethyst watching in horror, and soon I’m ready for his next act.

  “Now watch me punish her, hero girl. You did this to her by trying to save her. Look into her pretty brown eyes and see her pain. Pain you rained down on her. Fucking watch, bitch.”

  She sobs and I try to tell her with my eyes it’ll be okay. When I hear his zipper go down, I close my eyes for a brief moment. For one second I try to grasp at Donovan. But when she starts screaming, I have to look at her.

  Fire rips through me as he pushes his dick into my dry pussy. The metal ball at the end of the hook presses against his large cock through a thin membrane inside of me. This isn’t the first time I’ve endured this type of brutalization so I breathe and focus. Anything to keep my mind off the pain.

  Blue, silvery eyes.

  I love you, Donovan Jayne.

  “Fuck,” Logan grunts behind me and snatches a handful of my hair. “Always such a good slave.”

  Amethyst is shuddering as sobs wrack through her. All I can do is pray he comes quickly. He doesn’t try to get me off. His only goal is to savagely fuck me to torment her.

  A few moments later and his heat fills me. My entire body relaxes in relief. He’s done—he’s fucking done. When he pulls out of me, he drags me by my hair and tosses me into the floor. I can hear her screaming at him but everything is hazy and confusing. My eyes roll back in my head but I can feel him tying my knees together with rope.

  I black out before I even know what he plans to do with her.

  Click.

  I snap out of my daze the moment the key unlocks the handcuffs. My fingers quickly release her and together, I swim us to the top. Seconds have passed but time is dripping slowly like molasses from a tipped jar. As soon as we hit the surface, I gasp for air.

  “K-K-Kasper, she needs help,” I chatter to him.

  His strong arms steal her from my grip. The water has risen more and I can’t reach the floor anymore. I’m not sure he can either because he’s struggling to get her back over to the steps. Eventually he’s able to set her down.

  “Ames, babe, stay with me!”

  My life is a lie.

  A goddamned fucking lie.

  For ten years I hated a woman who just risked her life to save Amethyst. It’s bullshit. All of it. And Logan has been at the root of all of it. His utter fuckedupness. His abusive, asshole, controlling ways.

  I laughed.

  I fucking laughed when I found out Nadia got what she deserved.

  What a nightmare.

  “Breathe, Ames,” I murmur against her lips as I blow another huge breath into her lungs.

  She makes a gurgling sound, so I quickly turn her head to the side. After a croaking cough, she spews the water she’d swallowed.

  “Oh gracias a Dios,” Nadia murmurs from behind me.

  “Nadia,” Amethyst rasps. “You’re okay.”

  Nadia starts laughing, an incredulous look on her face. “Yes, you loon. You’re the one we were worried about. Thank God you’re okay.”

  “Come on, the water’s still rising,” I grunt as I scoop Amethyst’s weak body into my arms. We climb the stairs, and as soon as we emerge into the hallway, Nadia runs toward the back of the house. I wait for her to return, which she does shrugging on a robe, before we head out of the house.

  We’re just passing the living room headed toward the door when an infuriated voice roars at us. “Where the hell do you think you three are going?”

  I snap my gaze over to lock eyes with the wild, enraged ones of Logan. He’s leaned against the wall, a twelve gauge shotgun pointing at the couch, his chest heaving with fury. His face is hardly recognizable now that it’s twisted into a psychotic red scowl. Kasey sits with the older boy in her lap. Donovan is next to her holding both the baby and the toddler. Both are soaked on the bottom half of their bodies. While my sister seems distraught, Donovan seems three seconds from murdering Logan with his bare hands.

  “Game’s over, Logan,” I say through clenched teeth, wishing for my gun that’s in the holster on my belt.

  A guttural rattle in his throat, much like a lion about to devour his prey, echoes in the room as he stalks over to the armchair across from them to sit. “This game doesn’t end until I win. I’ve been playing this game for a long time, Ghost. You don’t get to fucking waltz in here and change the goddamned rules.”

  I glare at him and grit my teeth.

  “Come here, son.” He motions for the older boy to come to him. And shockingly enough, he yanks himself from my sister’s arms and runs to Logan. Logan pulls him to his side and kisses the top of his head. “This is Taylor or Tay as the girls like to call him. He’s your nephew. We named him after your best friend and ‘ol Donovan’s brother. Kase always had a thing for him until he blew his head off, you know.”

  “Enough of this.” A growl rumbles from me. “You don’t have to hurt anyone. Let them all go.”

  His eyes blacken. “Nobody is going anywhere. In fact, I want you to sit your hero bitch down right at your feet and keep your arms crossed in front of you where I can see them. And Nadia, my pet, I want you at my feet,” he seethes, “where you belong.”

  When none of us moves, he waves the barrel of the shotgun at the couch. “What, do I need shoot their fucking brains out for you to obey one simple command?”

  At that, I slowly lower a shivering Amethyst to the ground. Nadia hugs her arms to herself, water rivulets dripping from her and splashing to the floor, as she makes her way over to Logan. Once she’s seated, Logan pets her. Fucking pets her.

  “Perfect. Now,” he says and cracks his neck. “As I was saying. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I took your sister. Someone responsible had to look after her. Your dumbass stepdad traded her for sex, Kasper. Let Donovan’s dad fuck her for payment. If you ask me, that shit’s messed up. Taylor was smart in smothering ‘ol Frank’s ass.”

  I gape at him in shock. “You’re a fucking idiot…”

  “No, you’re a fucking idiot. Dear old Donovan and I covered up their father’s death long before Taylor killed himself. He’d asked his brother in his suicide note to come clean about it to the newspapers. To reveal how fucked up his family was. He also wanted to make sure I kept her safe. And I did. She’s
been safe ever since.”

  I tear my gaze from him and glance over at my sister. She hugs the small boy to her and her chin quivers. Last time I saw her, she had black hair. Now, her natural strawberry blonde hair is cut into a cute bob. Her face is free of makeup making her look every bit as young as she was the day she was taken. But gone is the disdain for the world. The hurt and hate for things others had taken from her. Now, my sister has purpose written all over her face.

  “Did you know about this?” I choke out to Donovan.

  A muscle in his neck twitches with anger. “What the fuck do you think?”

  Logan laughs. “No, dumb shit didn’t know I stole his precious girl right from under him. He kept sending her to me over and over again. Every time I’d see her succulent lips, I’d imagine them sucking my cock—”

  “Logan, the children,” Kasey hisses.

  He meets her glare and has the sense to look ashamed. “Sorry, Kase. This shit just pisses me the hell off. We had a good thing going until the fucking cavalry showed up.”

  I roll my neck on my shoulders. My hands twitch to snatch my 9 mm and put a bullet through his skull. But I can’t risk him hurting my sister.

  “Anyway,” Logan continues, his hand reaching out again to stroke Nadia’s soaked hair. “This little doll shows up on my door step wanting to see the file I’d promised. She’d seen my tattoo in the process. Said it reminded her of one she’d seen long ago. When realization and the utter betrayal sunk in, she tried to run. But, my sweet girl here…” He yanks on her hair and she cries out. “She’s got the shortest damn legs. Never made it very far before I dragged her ass back into my house and knocked her upside her pretty little head. That night she finally got her wish. She found your sister.”

  “Stop,” I cut him off. “What do you want? I’m already tired of hearing your bullshit story time. Money? Donovan has plenty. I’m sure he’d give you whatever the hell you need to get out of town. You’ve been found out. You can’t hide all of us. Eventually, people will come looking. So what the fuck do you want, asshole?”