by Alta Hensley
“Why? Why? Why?” I said more to myself than to him.
“Well, we have to make it look like she’s you. When we burn this store to the ground, and that woman’s body is in it, they will assume it’s you. No reason not to.” Nolan yanked me up some more. “We’re doing you a favor. You don’t want any loved ones or friends to be worried about you and spend the rest of their lives searching and wondering. They’d never find you, of course. We won’t even be in the States. But this is having mercy on them. This way, they can just grieve for you and then move on.”
The sound of a tooth being torn from flesh made my stomach convulse, and I vomited all over the counter I was propped up against by Nolan.
“Fuck,” Nolan said as he pulled me away from the mess.
“Yeah, it’s a pretty gnarly sound and sight,” Derrick said as he continued to yank each tooth out. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head. Flaying her skin to peel her fingerprints off will go faster. There’s only ten of those.”
I struggled to make any sense out of what I was witnessing, hearing. Teeth… flayed skin… fire. Oh God. Fire. They were going to set GiGi’s Garden on fire… My body gave up, and Nolan allowed me to fall to the floor as I started to keen. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle and a rag.
“I don’t think our audience is appreciating your skills,” Nolan said as he poured the liquid inside the bottle onto the rag. “Time for you to take a nap then. And when you wake up, this entire scene will just have been a nightmare. Next stop… Ireland.”
As the rag was placed over my mouth and nose, the last thing I saw was my vomit dripping from the surface of the counter. The last thing I heard was the sound of cartilage being ripped in pieces. The last thought I had was that I was being kidnapped, and everything about my life was about to change forever.
Chapter Six
Monet
It was the sound of dripping water I focused on first. Drip after drip—slow and steady. My eyelids were still heavy, and something deep within my soul resisted the urge to open them. There was a reality on the other side I didn’t want to face.
So, I’d rather focus on the drip, drip, drip.
Safer.
No.
I wasn’t safe. I was far from safe.
My fingers were numb. I couldn’t move my arms. I couldn’t pull my wrists apart. My shoulder blades burned. I was cold.
Fuck…
I was naked.
I had no choice. I had to open my eyelids. I could no longer hide behind their security.
With a slow flutter, I blinked against the dim lighting of the room I was in. It didn’t take long for me to become aware of my new reality. I was completely naked, my arms tied behind my back, lying on my side on a bare mattress in what appeared to be a cellar or basement somewhere. Definitely not in my store, which was the last place I remembered being.
Awkwardly sitting up, I groaned as the pounding of my head and the severe ringing in my ears nearly forced me to lie back down, but my stomach roiled at the musty smell of the mattress. I tried to pull against my restraints, but quickly stopped when the flare of pain in my wrists where the rope had rubbed them raw had me realizing there was no hope. My feet were free from any kind of binds, which meant I could still walk… run… kick. But even though the room was dark, there was enough light shining through a very narrow window against the far wall up toward the ceiling to show I had no place to run to. There was no one in the room to kick. I was alone in a basement. Naked. Sitting helplessly with my wrists bound behind my back.
Fuck.
Nolan? Derrick? The memories of my shop, and everything that had happened before a rag was placed to my face, came flooding in, my stomach roiling harder as the sound of teeth being pulled played in my head. It had been… horrid. They’d said they’d not killed the woman, but this? They definitely did this. Those fuckers did this to me.
As if my thoughts were the theatrical cue for their entrance, a wooden door at the top of a flight of stairs opened. Two figures, who I already knew were my kidnappers, walked down the stairs with heavy-booted feet.
“I figured she would be waking up,” Nolan said when he reached the bottom of the stairs and looked at me.
I wanted to conceal my nudity, but I also didn’t want to give the men the satisfaction of knowing just how uncomfortable I was. For some reason, I felt keeping my pride, and head held high would help fight against my situation. The additional light from the open door exposed more of the basement. Besides a few boxes or such tucked into the darker corners, I could tell there wasn’t much around me. It was not much more than an empty, cold, dank basement with a cot covered by a thin mattress in one corner for my sake. The door they entered from appeared to be the only way in and out, and the small window up high was the only one in the entire room.
“How was your nap, Sleeping Beauty?” Derrick asked with his arms crossed against his chest and a smirk on his face. The shadows of the room hid his eyes, but I had no doubt the man had a twinkle in them as he asked the question. It was clear he was finding my situation amusing, and I fought the urge to spit in his direction.
“Where am I?” I asked, surprised to hear how raspy and shaky my voice was. It betrayed me in my quest to show strength. Regardless of how I sounded, however, I refused to cry and plead for them to let me go. Something deep inside me told me it would be no use.
“We told you what the plan was,” Nolan began. “Ireland.”
“I’m in Ireland?” Damn my voice for cracking and barely coming out as a squeak. I also tried to ignore the way they both seemed to take in every inch of my body as I helplessly sat with my chest forced into greater prominence due to the fact my arms, my wrists were tied behind my back. “How did you get me to Ireland? Why?”
“Again,” Nolan said, “we told you why. Alana likes you. We give our sister whatever she wants and needs.”
“But getting you here was a pain in the ass,” Derrick cut in. “You are heavy for a tiny thing.” He chuckled in the most maniacal of ways. Yes, this man was enjoying this. Asshole.
“Where’s Alana?” I asked, feeling she would help me. She wouldn’t allow this. No way would she let her brothers keep me tied naked in a basement. Hope filled my terrified heart. There was a chance. Alana was my chance.
“She’s coming with Cal and Rogan soon. Leo went back to get them and fly them over. Derrick and I flew you over first with the supplies needed to start getting busy and fixing this place up and making it livable. But our main focus is, we need to make sure you are on the same page with us.”
I shook my head in confusion. “Leo?”
“Our pilot,” Derrick answered. “And the poor bastard who had to help us carry your heavy ass.” His laugh returned and at that moment I swore I would stab his eyeballs out if I ever had the chance. Stripping me naked and tying me to some cot in a fucking basement was one thing. Talking about my weight? Well, that was going too fucking far!
“So.” Nolan took a few steps toward me and then squatted so he was at eye level with me. “Let’s talk about getting on that same page, shall we?”
“You can’t do this,” I said calmly. “People will be looking for me. You can’t just kidnap me and think you’ll get away with this.”
“But we already have,” Derrick said. “Gotten away with it. Your store went up in flames with a poor body inside. Burned to a crisp.”
“They will know it’s not me. DNA…” I managed to say, images of a well-appointed laboratory running through my head. “They’ll find DNA and know it’s not me.”
“Nothing we didn’t consider,” Derrick said with a smirk and a shrug. “It’s not like on TV. I removed the teeth and fingerprints just in case the fire didn’t consume everything. But, even if there is an investigation, they won’t solve it within an hour of prime time. All those tests take weeks. We’ve already gotten you out of the country and by the time forensics putters about preparing samples and running them through their equipment, the oth
ers will be here as well. Even if they announce the body found in the fire was not Monet McKnight, it won’t matter. They’ll never track you to Ireland.”
Nolan smiled. “In other words, you being declared murdered or just missing is fine with us. We don’t give a fuck how it looks. The point of the matter is you are dead to all in the USA. You are nothing but a ghost now. A ghost living in purgatory with us.”
I took a deep breath to try to calm the raging fear threatening to consume all rational thought. I had to come up with a way out of this situation. I was in a foreign country, somehow smuggled here unconscious by a man named Leo, and now these brothers wanted to strike some kind of deal. Twisted, fucked up, demented, and bizarre were not strong enough words to describe the hell I was now in.
“So here is the deal,” Nolan said in the most professional manner. “First option is you say no and refuse what we are offering. In which case, we kill you. We can’t have you here hurting Alana. And if she thinks we forced you to come, are forcing you to stay here, or that we are the bad guys we truly are, it will devastate her. My brothers and I won’t allow her to feel we are anything less than the heroes and good guys she believes us to be.”
“Even though we are the fucked up villains in this story,” Derrick added.
“But she doesn’t know that,” Nolan continued as if his brother hadn’t spoken. “So, if you decide to fight us, scream, escape, reveal the truth in any way, we will kill you. It’s not a threat but an actuality.” He paused, allowing the time for his words to sink in.
“Refuse what? What are you offering?” I pulled up my knees to my chest, the first time I had moved since they entered the cellar.
“As Derrick mentioned, you are dead. Dead to all who once cared about you. But we are offering a rebirth.” Nolan stood as if his legs ached from being in a squat for so long.
“I’m not fucking dead!” I snapped. “You are both sick! Sick!” My chest tightened, and the panic was being replaced with fury. “You can’t do this!”
Derrick took Nolan’s place in the squat before me. His eyes locked with mine. “We already have. The sooner you accept that, the better. My brothers and I were born into one of the most powerful Irish crime families in the world. We aren’t good. We aren’t decent. And we don’t follow the rules of your ‘proper’ society. So yes, we can, and will, do whatever the fuck we want.”
“But we do love our sister. We want her happiness more than we want anything else. We also want her safe and protected, which is why we picked up and moved to Ireland. We can’t risk her being killed like our father and mother were. We have a lot of fucking enemies, and our enemies are Alana’s as well, no matter how innocent she is in all this. So my brothers and I decided enough was enough and we were going to give it all up. The crime. The killing. The bloodshed in the name of vengeance. Our great-grandfather’s farm is out here in the middle of nowhere and the perfect place to start new. Our own rebirth.”
I tried to wiggle my fingers but couldn’t feel them. It was just the reminder I needed that I was held captive by these men who, for a split second, didn’t seem so bad. “I don’t see why I’m here. I have nothing to do with that life. I own a shop. I just want to be left alone.”
“Alana will need help. She is a broken bird without the ability to fly. So, we are bringing you here to help her. We know she can’t do all that is required here on her own.”
“Required?” I asked.
“This land is a piece of shit,” Derrick said with a slight chuckle as he stood. “But it’s our piece of shit, so we need to fix it up.”
“Exactly,” Nolan said with a nod. “And it’s going to be a lot of work. The four of us are going to try to work and live off the land like our family once did. Which will leave Alana alone a lot, and though the house isn’t anywhere near as bad as the rest of the place, we don’t see her being able to keep the house up on her own.”
“So you fuckers kidnapped me to be a housekeeper? A cook? You kidnapped your sister a friend? Are you fucking kidding me?” I shouted. My voice was absorbed by the thick earthen walls, and somehow I seemed to be the only crazy person in the room. The brothers were both so calm and acted as if what they were thinking was absolutely sane.
“Call it what you want, but yes,” Nolan said evenly.
“She seems to be more like a foul-mouthed sailor than a sweet-hearted bride,” Derrick said with a laugh.
Nolan rolled his eyes and punched his brother’s arm. “Shut up.” He then returned his stare toward me. “You may not like this situation, but it is your situation whether you like it or not. We aren’t asking. We aren’t suggesting in any way. You will either live here with us under one roof, functioning as part of the family, never revealing to Alana how or why you are here other than the fact that you want to be here, or we will kill you.”
“To act as your bride?” I asked, shooting daggers with my eyes at Derrick. “Is that some sick way of saying you’re going to be… what? Demanding your husbandly rights?”
“Actually,” Derrick said, with his face growing serious, the smile he’d maintained since the beginning of this conversation slipping away. “No. If you agree to our terms, you will get your own room, and we will leave you alone. We won’t expect anything from you”—he paused and took a long hungry stare at my body—“sexually.” His lips slowly turned up, his smile returning as he lifted his gaze to mine. “Unless you want it, that is.” And then came the laugh I was growing to detest.
“We won’t lay a finger on you as long as you keep our sister happy,” Nolan added.
“Then why the fuck am I naked?” I snapped.
“Because if you say no,” Derrick said, leaning in. “We will have all the fun with you we want until we discard your used and abused body where it will never be found.”
I swallowed back the scream ready to be unleashed and cursed the tear that fell.
Derrick placed his fingertip on the single tear and swiped it from my face. “Save your tears, Monet. Save them for if you decide to say no.”
“And if I say yes?”
“Then you live. And hopefully, you’ll be happy,” Nolan said. “My brothers and I are men of our words. No harm will ever come to you as long as you care for our sister as we do. We plan to make this family estate a place to call home. You won’t be our captive. You won’t be our victim. That much we promise you.”
“But Alana must never know,” Derrick warned. “And you trying to escape, or you doing anything but cook, clean, care for Alana, and somehow find a life on this land will land you in a shallow grave.”
“It’s a lot to take in,” Nolan said. “We understand that.” He began to walk toward the stairs. “Which is why you have until tomorrow morning to decide. Alana will be here, and we won’t risk her seeing you unless you are full of smiles and hope.”
Smiles and hope.
Smiles and hope.
Were these men serious? How the fuck would I ever again manage to smile or to hope?
Without saying anything else, they both left the room, closing the door firmly behind them.
Alana was a broken bird, they said.
I was a ghost in purgatory, they said.
Rebirth.
Rebirth.
“Wait!” I screamed. “Don’t leave me down here! Come back!”
I waited, desperately hoping they wouldn’t make me wait and stew on my decision. I didn’t have a decision. I was a dead person. I was nothing but a shell with but one chance to survive by doing as they asked. I couldn’t fight these men. I couldn’t fight this new life. My decision was made for me, and I didn’t need to spend any more time in this basement to figure that out.
I sat there and listened but heard nothing. “Please!” I screamed. My body ached. I needed water, food, sleep, and my sanity to return. “Don’t fucking leave me down here.”
As the door to the basement opened and a bright light flooded in, I knew.
I knew what I’d chosen.
Rebirth.
Chapter Seven
Monet
I stood in the middle of the room, staring at the lace curtains and the floral wallpaper. Everything about the kidnapping had been a whirlwind. Despite having to accept there was no escape—not if I didn’t want to risk dying or harming Alana—I was still struggling to wrap my head around everything. Was I crazy? Had I really agreed to this? Well… it was either this or being used and abused and left to rot in some shallow grave.
Last night, I’d been treated to Alana’s scream of delight as she, Cal, and Rogan had climbed out of the truck. Derrick had nudged me down the porch steps, Nolan following as we greeted them. Alana had run over, wrapping her arms around me, hugging me hard as tears of happiness ran down her face. I’d managed to smile back simply because there was not a single ounce of forced joy from the young woman. Her brothers might be capable of playing their parts, performing in this crazy, insane play I’d agreed to star in, but Alana’s joy was pure. Our happy surprise had been brief as she was tired from the trip, but with the dawn, I knew my life rested on my ability to convince her… to convince them all, that I was happy to be part of this little family.
I walked over to the bedroom window and pulled at the wooden frame until I was able to slide the pane of glass up. Sticking my head out, I looked around at my surroundings. Since I’d been completely unconscious when arriving, this was the first time I’d had a chance to see the land I’d now be calling home.
Leaning out the window, I inhaled deeply. Amazing how the very air was different from one day—one location—to the next. Instead of the dank, earthy breaths I’d drawn in the dark basement, breaths tainted with fear, here, in this room, I could feel the sun on my face and every lungful of oxygen was fresh, clear, and filled with a floral scent. Looking down, I saw there was a lattice beneath my window, willowy green branches twisting through the slats. Hundreds of yellow roses covered the trellis, and I could hear the faint buzz of bees as they flew from blossom to blossom. I could easily imagine the climbing roses supplying nectar for the bees who would, in turn, provide honey for their queen. It all belonged to a cycle of life that in a normal situation would have had me excited about being here.