The car lurched forward, bumping over the rails which held the gate in place. Then she heard it close with a resounding bang. The car moved ahead slowly. One curve it went around then the car went in another direction around another curve.
It was taking a while to get where they were going and Gwen knew it wasn’t any hospital. There were no gates keeping anyone from an emergency room parking lot. Not one.
Something else was happening to her. Something awful. Something which would end not only her life but Steele’s and Arsen would go to prison.
Why can’t things just work out? Why can’t things go right for just one minute? One break? One little break in the chain of crap she’d had to deal with since Allen White took her from her apartment?
Gwen laid perfectly still as the car pulled to a stop. She crossed her fingers that she’d been wrong. The woman turned the radio down then shut the car off.
Gwen felt the cool, wet wind as the woman opened then closed the driver’s side door. Her shoes crunched against the gravel of the parking lot or whatever it was she’d stopped in.
It took a long time it seemed to Gwen for anyone to come back to the car to get her. Maybe the woman had forgotten about the too weak to speak woman in her back seat.
Maybe she was picked up by a senile woman who shouldn’t be driving in the first place. She placed Gwen on her back and that made it harder for her to move than when she was on her belly.
She tried to pick her head up but she couldn’t. She couldn’t even get her eyes to open. Then the sound of two sets of feet crunching the gravel she heard faintly. They got closer and closer.
They stopped right by the car.
* * *
“Yeah, it’s her,” a man’s voice said. “Where’d you find her?”
A woman’s voice filled her ears.
“On the road, you fucking idiot. Get her out of there and then we have to clean the car so there’s no evidence of her in my car.”
Gwen knew the voices. She knew it was not her fate to save her friend and her friend’s new boyfriend. It must be her fate to end up back in Allen White’s hands.
Her fate to end her life at a mere twenty-one years old at the hands of Allen White and his partner Anne Sinclair.
Gwen felt the air swoosh past her head as the back door opened. Her limp body was picked up by Allen, no doubt. The sound of gravel crunching under shoes she heard again.
She wanted to cry, but her body had no water to make tears. She wanted to scream, but her body had no strength to do that. She wanted to live, and that was a thing her body seemed to not want either.
All was against her. All was over. All was lost.
He placed her on the bed with broken springs. The one he’d chained her to a few days before. He didn’t bother to put the chains on her that time. He and Anne knew she didn’t have the strength to go anywhere.
* * *
“Get the bleach and I’ll get the vacuum cleaner and we’ll get busy on the car. My daughter called me and she’s waiting for me at my house. She was excited and said she had a surprise for me. I hope it’s a nice purse of a pair of expensive shoes. Her husband makes a lot of money and every once in a while she surprises me with some expensive gift. She’s thoughtful that way. I raised a good girl,” Anne said as they left Gwen near death on the bed.
Concentrating on taking in slow breaths, Gwen tried not to fall asleep. She had to hold on. Had to try not to die.
Hope should be long gone, but she found she couldn’t give it up.
* * *
I have got to hold on!
* * *
For Fortune Part 12
* * *
ARSEN
The hours had passed at a snail’s pace as Arsen and Beth waited for her mother to arrive at her home where they were waiting for Anne Sinclair. They sat on the sofa, leaving space between each other.
“When I found the tapes, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Beth told him.
Arsen ran a hand over his face.
“It’s hard to believe after all this time the woman still has those. I thought I’d destroyed them all.”
“Seems three made it without you finding them. It seems my mother was adept at hiding things.” Beth stood up and went to look out the front window. “Where is this woman?”
“She made my life hell for a number of years, Beth. She changed me. Well, your father and you did too, but Anne really changed me,” he said as he looked at his watch. “It’s been hours. Where do you think she is?”
“No telling. I can’t say I know the woman anymore. I had no idea who she was and what she was capable of doing until I found those tapes and then when I found the files she kept on the women in your life that really freaked me out.” She went back to her place on the sofa.
Arsen barely saw the former Beth under the years of cigarette smoking and obvious alcohol abuse. The glass of vodka in her hand was a constant thing since they got into her mother’s house at six that morning.
She sipped at it, but it seemed she needed to hold the glass more so than drink the alcohol it held. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, the dark roots showing.
Arsen was surprised to find he had absolutely no residual feelings for the girl who was his first love. It seemed the way things ended had really cauterized the wound she left in his heart all those years ago.
* * *
“I’m really glad you told me about this, Beth. You have no idea how much this shit was going to cost me. Your mother has a knack for fucking up my life. This time would’ve been beyond devastating.”
She ran a finger around the rim of her short glass.
“How did you leave her if she had so much control over you?”
“It wasn’t easy and I have the scars to prove it.” He looked away at the memories he tried hard not to think about.
“Tell me, Arsen.” Beth pulled her feet under her and looked at him with a sadness to her eyes he didn’t remember ever seeing in them before.
“One day just before my graduation day, I came home to the apartment she’d rented us. I had a few of my final grades and brought home the papers with them on it. It struck me when she commented how well she’d taught me. And how great it was going to be when I became a lawyer and could support her, finally.” He stood and walked to the window.
“So she was planning to leave my father then and marry you?” Beth asked.
He shook his head.
“No. She told me she would never divorce your father. He was the person she stood behind to show the world she was a normal woman with a normal family. Not the freak show she hid from most people.”
“Then why did she think you were going to support her, Arsen?” Beth re-situated herself on the sofa and took a tiny sip of the vodka.
“No idea. She used the shit out of me. In all ways. I mean all of them. I suppose she thought because she rented the apartment, that was taking care of me. The fact was, I didn’t need her to do that. I had a job at all times. I could’ve taken care of myself with no problem.”
“Then how did she justify that?” Beth asked with confusion riddling her face.
“I don’t know. How does anyone know what goes on in the mind of an insane person?” Arsen went back to sit down.
“Sure you don’t want something to drink, Arsen?”
* * *
He shook his head, making his dark, silky hair which had grown to his shoulders, bounce off them.
“No, thank you. So getting back to how I left. She was away for the week. You know back home with you guys. I had overheard her talking on the phone to one of her friends how she’d built me into the man I was becoming and what a great investment she’d made in me. Like I was a damn animal she had trained.”
“That’s when you decided you wanted no more of life with her?” Beth asked.
He nodded.
“Yes. So I left. I rented an efficiency apartment and went to a different BDSM club. I found a young woman there who later
became my first sub. I have to admit I was hard with her. I had learned from the hardest and that’s how I treated her.”
“Oh, Arsen.” The disapproval in Beth’s voice made him flinch.
“Anne came to my apartment once she was able to track me down and she found the poles I had purchased. She put them to good use on my back as she tried to beat me back into submission. I wouldn’t go back to that though. No matter how many times she hit me, I wouldn’t go back. She eventually gave up. Or so I thought anyway. I had no idea she would go this far to punish me for leaving her.”
Beth got up and left the room. Arsen could hear her getting sick in the nearby bathroom. It made his stomach knot. He paced around the room and wondered why he’d said so much to her.
She didn’t have to know all of it. But somewhere deep inside him he was glad she knew her mother now. It was Anne’s time to be found out. Just as she had made sure his private life had been made public.
Beth came back in with her face shining from the water she’d splashed on it. “Sorry.” She sat down. “I just couldn’t stomach it any longer. She is my mother after all.”
He nodded.
“I suppose I shouldn’t say any more about her.”
“Probably best.” She laughed a little. “All this time we thought she was so into church. Were we fools?”
Arsen sat back down.
“I finally met the one for me and Anne is threatening that relationship as well.”
“The one for you? A new submissive?” she asked as she took another drink of the vodka.
* * *
“No. Not a sub. A real woman. An equal to me in all ways. And in some areas, she’s far superior to me. My body, mind, and soul love and need her. She will be the mother of my children someday. If I can get this legal crap off me then I plan on making that woman my wife.” Arsen’s eyes drooped a bit at the corners. “If she’ll have me, of course.”
Beth fidgeted in her seat.
“She’s a lucky girl, Arsen. I was an ass back then. I can’t tell you how many times I thought about what happened and wondered why I reacted the way I did. I still can’t tell you exactly why. I am sorry though. Not that I expect forgiveness because I don’t deserve it. And after finding out what my mother did to you, I really don’t deserve it.”
“I allowed it. I allowed it all. No one held me captive. I came back to that apartment day after day. And as far as forgiving you. I hadn’t. But I do now. I see no reason to hold hate in my heart any longer. You were a kid. I can’t hold you responsible for what your father did to me.”
Beth looked away, tears filled her eyes.
“I don’t deserve your forgiveness.”
* * *
He scooted over and gave her leg a pat.
“Sure you do.” He took the glass of alcohol from her hand and placed it on the coffee table in front of him. “Let it go, Beth. I see you clutching that glass like it’s a lifeline. You don’t need it. Whatever you're holding on to, let it go. I forgive you. If you’ve done other things to hurt people, let that go to.”
Beth ran her hand over his meticulously kept beard.
“You turned into such a gorgeous man, Arsen.”
He drug his knuckles across her cheek.
“Beth, you’re more than you’re showing right now. You said you have a husband and kids. I think it’s time you step up and take charge of yourself and get it together for them and yourself. This part of your life is over. Done. You can’t go back a change a thing. But don’t let it take the rest of your life from you.”
* * *
“What’s her name?” she asked him.
His eyes sparkled. “Steele Gannon. She’s sweet, kind, and at times stubborn. And I love her with more than I knew I had in me.”
“Does she know she’s the luckiest women in the world?” Beth asked with a smile.
“I think she does.” He winked and chuckled. The sound of gravel crunching in the drive had him jumping up. “Is that her?”
Beth ran to the window.
“Yes! Quickly, go hide and make sure you have that recorder on.”
* * *
God, I hope this works!
* * *
GWEN
Lying on the mattress, barely breathing, Gwen managed to pull her eyelids open when she heard a noise near her. Allen had several bags of some clear liquid and an IV stand with another bag strung up on it.
“I’m going to get you better, Gwennie.” His voice was cheerful, and he was smiling.
She closed her eyes and wondered what the hell was happening.
* * *
Not sure how much time had passed, Gwen woke up and felt so much better she couldn’t believe it. Her arm was immobilized, and she looked at it to find it secured to a board and an IV was running into it. She moved her head to find Allen sitting there.
“Hi, sleepyhead.” He got up and came back with a bowl and a spoon. “I have some soup here, if you care for some.”
She nodded. Allen helped her sit up in the bed and gave her a bite of the soup.
It hurt to swallow, but she managed and before she knew it, she’d eaten the entire bowl of chicken soup.
“Thank you,” she managed to say.
Allen smiled and went away only to come back with something to drink. He put the straw to her lips, and she took a sip then he yanked it back.
“Not too much or you might get sick.”
She nodded.
“What are you going to do with me?”
“Let you go after I get you better. See, I’m going to be leaving town after I do what I’m going to do for someone. I’ll set you free then.” He looked at her with a frown. “I’m sorry about all this. You are an innocent person in this. I should’ve never taken you. I’m sorry.”
Her head was spinning. He was going to let her go, but then she remembered his plans for Steele.
“Allen, what about Steele? She’s an innocent in this too.”
“Yeah but taking her will hurt Arsen and that’s what I want to do. Sorry about her. You’ll get over it though. If I’ve learned anything it’s that people get over stuff.” He gave her another sip of the drink which she found tasted like apples.
“It that apple juice?”
“Yes. I know it’s your favorite.” He gave her a little pat on the shoulder. “I listened to you when we were talking all those times.”
* * *
Gwen found a little shine in his eyes and thought she might be able to use any affection he had for her to her advantage.
“So I overheard some things you and that woman said to each other. Want to tell me what all happened between you two?”
“Anne Sinclair is the woman behind everything. She came to see me while I was in prison. She gave me the idea to start talking about God and using that to impress the parole board. Then when I got out she found me again. She told he how Arsen deserved to be punished for what he’d done to us both.”
Gwen nodded. “She was his master or whatever they call it, right?”
“Mistress. Yes, she was. He ran away from her or something like that. After she put him through college and made him the man he became, he left her flat.” Allen stood up and left the area then came back with a chocolate bar and another pillow.
He propped it up behind Gwen and gave her the candy.
“Thank you,” she said and took a bite of it. “Please, go one with your story, Allen.”
Taking his seat again, he said, “Since I was the only case he ever lost, I think he was punishing me for my mistake. So I think it’s perfectly acceptable for me to punish him.”
Gwen took a sip of her drink and tried to think of a way to convince Allen that Anne was using him. She took the straw from her lips and said, “I guess you’re too close to see it for what it is, but that woman is using you, Allen.”
His eyebrows cocked in surprise.
“I don’t think so.”
She nodded.
“I can see it. You should really thi
nk about it. And I heard what she did to you. Are you into that kind of thing?”
He shook his head.
“No. But she has this way of making you think you are. You know?”
“No.” Gwen looked down and tried to look as sad as she could. “I hate she hurt you like that, Allen.”
“You do?” he asked. “After all I’ve done to you?”
* * *
“I forgive you, Allen.” She looked up and caught his eyes. “I want to help you get out from under her. I can see the writing on the wall, Allen. She means to toss you under the bus when everything goes down. She doesn’t want to have you as a loose end.”
He looked worried.
“You might be right.”
“I think you and I should pay her a visit,” Gwen said. “Has she told you where she lives?”
With a shake of his head, he said, “No, she hasn’t.”
“Hmm. Wonder why not?” Gwen eyed him carefully. “How about you let me take a shower and freshen up a little then we go find her? We can Google the bitch and give her a surprise visit. Bet she won’t be expecting that. Then you can set her straight how you will not be her patsy.”
Allen smiled. “You know what, you might be right. I think I will pay her a visit.” He got up to help her up. “Let’s get you all cleaned up and pay her a visit. I’m done being her whipping boy!”
* * *
Thank God! Finally, a break!
* * *
STEELE
As Paul pulled up behind Detective Fontaine at the address they’d found for Beth, Steele rolled her window down to listen to what was said.
Fontaine rang the bell of the small, blue, wood-framed home with toys littering the front lawn. A tall, pot-bellied man with a large bald spot on his head and light brown hair around the bottom of his head answered the door.
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