by Lydia Kelly
I shouldn’t have been staring; I shouldn’t have given him a second thought. He had kidnapped me, taken away my life and identity with one hit of his car and one split decision. I knew he was no better than the men downstairs who didn’t have half a care for the woman they had in their upstairs bathroom. But I needed something to hold on to. Some shred of hope that I would survive whatever they had planned for me.
Kaden’s bright green eyes danced over my face and body, showing curiosity but no emotion. “You’re blonde.” I couldn’t tell if he was asking a question or making a statement.
“You’re perceptive.”
“Was that sarcasm or a compliment?”
“I’ll call it an honest remark.”
Kaden’s eyes laughed at me but his lips pulled into a frown. “Get dressed.”
He handed me a clean pair of jeans, now my only pair, some cotton panties and a t-shirt, presumably one of his or possibly Ray’s judging by the size.
“I want my own clothes.”
Kaden didn’t say anything, just crossed his arms and stared at me.
Give me my clothes, I signed to him.
“Sorry, darling. No can do. Get dressed.”
I turned away, setting my jeans and shirt on the edge of the sink and picking up the underwear. I raised one foot slowly, careful not to let the towel drop or crush my ribs, and slipped the panties up to my ankle. But my lack of food and water had left me shaky and standing on one leg quickly caused me to lose my balance. I caught myself on the sink, cringing and gasping in pain.
As soon as I stood up and started to make my second attempt, Kaden was standing in front of me.
“Do I have to do everything for you?”
“I’m not asking you to do a damn thing.”
“Yah, well, if I didn’t you’d still be struggling to make it up the stairs.”
Because there are so many other places you should be right now, I signed.
“If you have something to say then you should just say it,” Kaden told me as he grabbed my hands.
I glared at him but eventually shook my head. I had nothing to say to him.
“I thought so.” He pushed my hands aside and then knelt down by my feet, stretching the underwear out so I could step in.
I closed my eyes and instinctively clenched my thighs together. I felt his fingers run up my calves and over my knees, flames licking my skin in their wake. When they got to my thighs, I couldn’t allow them to continue. I grabbed the cotton fabric and tugged it from his fingers. His hands seized my wrists and squeezed hard enough for me to give up the fight with the panties and jerk my arms away from his grasp. My underwear, along with my towel, fell to the ground and I inhaled deeply as my vulnerability was exposed.
Kaden stood up slowly, his green eyes taking their time to examine my naked body. His face was close to mine when he finally spoke. “Well, well, you really have nothing to hide now, do you?” His fingers twirled my damp hair and I trembled as he placed the curl on my naked shoulder, the back of his hand grazing the top of my breast.
“Now don’t fight this time and it will be over quickly.”
I looked past him, blinking away the tears. He dropped to his knees again and I felt the underwear being pulled up from my ankles and his fingers wrapping around my thin bones. His breath was warm on the damp skin of my inner thigh and he made no attempt to conceal what he was doing. His hands worked their way up the back of my calves, lifting the panties. I felt a jolt of arousal deep within me. This should not be happening! My head screamed at me to fight him off, not allow him to touch me this way. But my body was waiting to see where he would go next, waiting to see what he would try.
I kept as still as I possibly could, my breath coming in shallow pants. Cool tears rolled down my cheeks and heat rose from my legs where Kaden touched me. Why couldn’t this be over? Why was he torturing me this way? Apparently it wasn’t enough to nearly kill me and then capture me before bringing me to this sordid house. Now I had to be humiliated.
Kaden’s fingers grazed the back of my thighs. I looked down to see his lips pressed firmly together, his eyes focused on the task. He was so close to my naked and bruised body. His hands climbed until they reached the sensitive area just below my buttocks and then hesitated. My breath caught in my throat as I suppressed a sob and closed my eyes. His touch heightened my senses and the site of his handsome face taking such care to degrade me was overwhelming. I prayed that he would release me. Slowly and confidently, his hands spread my legs and his fingers met between them.
“Please,” I whimpered as I felt one of his fingers start to press inside. Please stop? Please continue? I’m not sure what I was begging for at the moment but I knew I couldn’t take much more.
His finger remained inside of me while his other hand firmly held the back of my leg. I opened my watery eyes to see him staring up at me. He plunged deeper. I cried out, first from the shock and then a second time from the shock of the pain in my ribs as I inhaled sharply.
Before I could even attempt to recover my composure , Kaden had the elastic band of the panties around my hips. I couldn’t look at him as he moved behind me and helped me with my bra, lifting my arms and maneuvering the straps over my shoulders. His hands didn’t linger this time and he gently pulled the bra around my sore and blackened ribs. He set my hand on his strong shoulder so I could brace myself against something stable and then slipped on my jeans. The oversized t-shirt was last and Kaden rolled the material up so I could get my head and arms through. It hung halfway to my knees but it smelled fresh, a welcome change from the foul stench of blood and mold.
Once I was completely covered, I finally allowed myself to look at him again. Kaden stared at me and nodded, clearly proud of the job he had accomplished, as if dressing a woman was now some sort of prestigious achievement.
“Do you feel better?” Was he joking? What was there to feel better about?
“Relatively speaking.”
“Come on, then. You’ll want to eat something, I imagine.” He sighed, an annoyed look on his face, and opened the door.
“If I’m such a burden to you, then you should let me go.”
“I believe you’ll be worth more than the effort it takes me to make a tuna sandwich, Blondie. But how much is yet to be determined, isn’t it?” So he was after money. Money I had and I was more than willing to give it up in return for my freedom.
“If you want money, then I can get that for you. Just take me to a bank and I’ll empty my account.”
“Give me a number.” Kaden crossed his arms in front of his chest.
I thought back to all the checks I had received for graduation, my trust fund which had kicked in on my twenty first birthday and had yet to be touched, and the bribes my father had given me for staying out of trouble.
“Twenty five,” I finally answered.
“Twenty five hundred? That’s not going to last me very long considering I have to split it three ways.”
“Thousand. Twenty five thousand dollars.”
He stopped and turned around, eyeing me with the same suspicious look he had given me downstairs. “What is a hitchhiker doing with that kind of money?”
“If I can get it for you, why would it matter?”
“Tell me, what makes you think you are in any kind of a position to be asking questions?”
I looked at the ground. I was in no position to be asking anything. But I didn’t want him to know the truth. If I told him where all the money came from, he would know I was connected to people who could give him much, much, more. No, it would be better to lie, let him take what I had and leave me be.
“My parents passed away and the twenty five thousand is all that’s left of my inheritance.”
He walked back to me, raised my chin with his hand and, once satisfied that I was looking at him, signed his response. L-I-A-R
I flinched and looked away again, furious at myself for thinking the plan would work. His long fingers wrapped around my arm
and started leading me out of the bathroom and back downstairs. We reached the living room where Ray and the small guy sat at the table. My possessions were still strewn about.
“What did you find out?” Ray stood up and walked over to me.
Kaden shook his head, turning it slightly toward me so I could read his lips.
“Nothing, she can’t say a word.”
Ray frowned and gave me a disgusted look. “So, do some of that signing shit with her.”
“I will when it’s worth my time.”
Why was he doing this? He knew the truth yet he was keeping it from the others. My limbs began to shake as I realized he was hiding my secret for a reason. What that reason was, I couldn’t imagine, I didn’t want to know. I turned back to Ray.
“Well, genius, it was your plan to bring her here instead of leaving the bitch on the side of the road with her friend. You better make this inconvenience worth my time.”
“If she won’t talk, I’ll get her to scream,” Kaden said, his devilish smile sending shivers up my spine. Without another word, he walked me out of the room.
Chapter 4
Kaden did exactly what he said he was going to do. He sat me down in the kitchen and made me a tuna sandwich. I hated tuna. I hated the smell and the look of it. I hated that it could be kept in a can for years and never turn bad. Would that happen to me? Would I be kept here for years and never turn bad? I didn’t think I was as lucky as a can of tuna and certainly wouldn’t survive if I didn’t eat so I begrudgingly picked up the sandwich and took a bite once he set it in front of me.
After I had choked down the last of it, Kaden took my plate and tossed it into the sink. He leaned back against the counter and stared at me from across the room.
“You want to tell me who your parents are?”
I shook my head.
“Do you want me to guess?”
I glared at him. I was telling the truth, I signed.
“Shit���” Kaden mumbled something about my handicap as he walked from the room. I sat there, unsure of what to do. I could call out his name but Ray would realize Kaden had been lying. As much as I disliked Kaden, I hated Ray even more. The man had been prepared to kill me in cold blood. Not a crime of passion, just a crime of convenience. I believed him capable of it.
Kaden returned with a piece of paper and a magic marker. “Write it down.”
I picked up the pen and removed the cap. I didn’t lie.
“Bullshit,” Kaden spat at me.
I shrugged and sat back in my chair. In a flash, his hand was at the back of my head, gripping my hair and forcing my face down to the table. His lips came into view as he turned my head towards them.
“Write the fucking names, Raleigh!”
He pulled me back up and released my hair. My jaw clenched in anger but my hand gripped the pen in submission.
Clive and Meghan Winters
I pushed the paper away from me and threw the pen on the table. At least part of what I had written was true and if he did any research at all he would learn that my mom and her husband had been killed in a car accident. My father’s name would remain a secret until forced from me or discovered by other means.
Kaden took the paper and walked into the other room. A few moments later, I felt the floorboards shake as the front door closed. It didn’t even cross my mind that Kaden would leave me alone in the house. Timidly, I stood up and walked around the corner, relieved to see Kaden standing in front of an open closet. I watched him pull some linens and a quilt from the top shelf. Then, as if he could feel me staring at him, he turned around.
“You can ask me why if you want.”
I was curious but didn’t expect an answer that I would like. “Why did you lie to them?”
“The more I know, the less I’ll need them. Ray’s foolish and acts before he thinks. His brother will follow him into anything.”
So what was he planning on doing, ransoming me for the highest price and keeping everything for himself while the other two did the grunt work?
With his arms full of bedding, he started to walk toward me. “Does it upset you that I’m using you this way?” His smile dripped with contempt.
I shook my head. “Use me as much as you want. Just promise to let me go at the end and I’ll play along with any game you want me to.”
“Is that an invitation?”
“No,” You disgusting asshole.
“Well, just so you’re aware, Blondie, you need my protection just as much as I need your silence.” He was standing within an arm’s reach and if I hadn’t been in such pain, I would have slapped him. I needed nothing, especially from him.
“You should learn to appreciate me and stop glaring like that.” He shoved the sheets and quilt into my chest and I reflexively raised my arms to catch them before they fell.
Appreciate him? Appreciate had too nice a connotation. I felt as if I was in his debt because of what he had done. I certainly wasn’t grateful for anything.
“I don’t need your protection,” I said as he stepped around me and opened a door. I peered inside and saw a staircase leading down to a dark room.
“After you,” he waived me down and I hesitantly took the first few steps. It wasn’t becoming any easier to see in the gloom of the basement, so I turned around to make sure Kaden was following me. His face was nothing but a shadow with the light of the upstairs on his back. His jaw was moving but I couldn’t read his lips and with a frustrated groan, I continued down into the darkness.
There was only a sliver of light left when I reached the bottom of the stairs. I felt the cold pavement beneath my feet and smelled damp air, but beyond that, there was nothing. As soon as Kaden made it down, he nudged me out of the way and walked to a wall behind the stairs, disappearing into the darkness. Within seconds, a bulb above my head flickered and produced a dim glow, weak enough to leave a few corners of the basement in the shadows.
I looked around. There were no windows on the grey cinderblock walls, just old pieces of broken furniture leaning precariously against each other. A leak from the kitchen floor had stained the ceiling and dripped into a puddle on the floor. A black fridge was backed into one corner next to an old wash basin.
Kaden pulled an old, stained mattress from the wall, throwing it to the floor in the middle of the room. I dropped the bedding and knelt down beside the mattress, cautious to not hurt my ribs. The bed was dry but it had a strange smell. At least it was better than the floor. I started unfolding the sheets and fitting them to the mattress, wondering what Kaden was thinking. He wasn’t helping me, but stood at one end of the bed with his arms crossed at his chest, just staring at me as I worked.
“What now?” I looked up at him once I was done.
His green eyes narrowed and his muscles flexed.
“Nothing.”
“Am I just supposed to stay down here?”
“Did you want to come upstairs? Maybe play a board game or watch a movie?” He smirked.
He terrified me as much as he intrigued me. I knew this man was dangerous and I wanted nothing more than to run away from him. But our scene in the bathroom kept replaying in my head. He so easily could have taken me, thrown me on the ground and forced himself on me completely. But he didn’t. Either he didn’t want to or he had stopped himself. Maybe he had been worried that Ray and his brother would hear. But if that was the case, why hadn’t he tried anything since they left?
“Can I have my things back? I’d like to brush my teeth.” I could still taste the tuna.
Kaden nodded toward the stairs and watched as I curled my feet beneath me, rolled onto my toes and stood up without bending my torso. He followed me up the stairs and trailed me into the bathroom. He stayed outside as I brushed my teeth and used the toilet, not letting me close the door all the way.
I stared into the mirror. The toothpaste scrubbed away the taste of the tuna and the grit of the previous day but it couldn’t take away the feeling in the back of my throat. You know tha
t slight choking feeling where you are afraid you will burst into tears at any moment? It had been there since I woke up in the trunk of the car and had yet to go away. My hair had dried into lose curls which hung around my face and neck. I hadn’t worn my hair curly in years, relying daily on a straightening iron to smooth it out. My face was bruised along the hairline, above my right eye. My lips were still cracked and my cheeks were pale, but the look suited me at the moment. It exemplified everything I felt, everything I was thinking: scared and hurt, defeated and defenseless.
I turned away from the mirror and walked passed Kaden, back down the stairs to the entrance of the basement. I turned to him before I opened the door.
“Are you going to lock it behind me?”
“Yes,” he answered plainly and without any sign of guilt.
“What if I need something?”
“You can wait until dinner.”
I won’t be hungry, I signed as I turned away from him and opened the door, slamming it behind me as I walked down the stairs. I kept the light on as I crawled into my bed, sleep finally pulling on me, begging me to let it take me away. I fell asleep watching the ceiling boards produce light clouds of dust as Kaden paced the floor above my head.
Chapter 5
I felt something brush against my leg and opened my eyes. I sat up, startled at the pitch black of the room, blinking furiously and trying to remember if I had turned off the lights. I hadn’t. I felt heavy fingers searching for my leg in the darkness and I panicked. I kicked frantically and made contact with something warm and soft. Kaden hadn’t felt like that when he had been holding me outside the car. I was about to scream for him to stop when I was startled by another set of hands groping my shoulders and wrapping around my neck. I started to scream but the hands tightened and my voice was lost in my chest.