Captive Vow

by Alta Hensley

  I tried to pick her up, but realized quickly there was no way I would be able to do so. Reaching under her lifeless arms, I struggled to drag her out. It was the only way to save her from being consumed by the flames.

  “Demi! Where are you?” I could hear Pope’s voice amongst the popping and crackling of the blaze. He was in the workshop! Was he hurt?

  “Pope! Pope!” The smoke burned the back of my throat as I screamed. “Your mother is with me. She needs help!”

  I felt his hands wrap around my body, and in one swift move, he picked me up and started to charge past the embers and the roar of the flames.

  “Your mother,” I said, pointing to the lifeless body crumpled on the ground, but Pope didn’t even pause. He only stormed ahead with full force.

  Behind us, a splintering beam came crashing down, causing a chain reaction of others to follow. I couldn’t tell for sure through all the smoke and flames, but it appeared that one could have fallen where Viv laid. Pope dove toward the exit, spilling us down to the ground. The red and orange flames were all around as Pope pushed me fully towards the escape, rolling both of us toward safety.

  Mere seconds from death, we crawled our way to safety and fresh air. Gasping for breath, choking against the pungent vapors still burning the back of my throat, I allowed the tears to escape my body as I realized I had just escaped my death. I had survived. Pope had survived. Relief washed over me as I felt Pope lift me up and carry me further away from the crumbling barn, but then, just as fast—absolute terror rained down.

  “Viv! Your mother! She’s in there, Pope. She’s in there.” I struggled to get out of his arms to help him rescue her from the burning building, but he held me tight.

  He shook his head, dark ash all over his face. “No.”

  “Pope!” I screamed, writhing my body against his hold to no avail. “Viv’s still in there! You can’t let her die. Help her!

  Holding me tight, he repeated, “No.”

  “She doesn’t deserve to die. No matter what! She is still a human being. She is still your mother!”

  “She asked to die. My momma asked to die.” The sadness in his eyes told me he had given up all hope of saving Viv’s life.

  Realization kicked in. The conversation on the porch. Oh dear God, this was Pope doing as she had asked of us. He was allowing Viv her wish. Her wish to die so Vivian would no longer exist.

  “No!” I screamed, no longer trying to break free from his grip, but not willing to accept his words. “We can’t just let her die in there.”

  “She asked for this. This was her wish. She begged me, Demi. She pleaded. My momma wanted to be put out of her misery. This was her doing. She started the fire. It was all her.”

  I shook my head in disbelief and wailed as the burning building collapsed behind me. “No, no, no, no, no…”

  I clung to his neck, sobbing as he walked toward the house. He then placed me down gently, and ran to the garden hose. Pulling it from its tightly coiled housing, he turned it on full blast and ran toward the burning structure. The absolute destruction of the workshop by the large pieces of wood smothering itself out helped aid Pope in his extinguishing of the flames. Even if he had changed his mind and wanted to run in and rescue Viv, there was nothing left to run into.

  She was dead.

  Burned.

  Turned to nothing but ash.

  I closed my burning, irritated eyes long enough to try to cope with the new level of madness. Chaos was all around. Death. Destruction.

  Sacrifice.

  I wheezed, every breath I took burned my lungs. I coughed and swiped at my streaming tears with the back of my hand. I needed to help him. I had to help put out the flames so they wouldn’t spread to our home… our home.

  Running to the kitchen, I filled large pots of water and ran them to the fire, pouring them onto the flames as Pope doused the fire with the garden hose. Repeating the steps over and over until I nearly collapsed from exhaustion, not stopping until the fire was gone. Nothing was left but a pile of charred wood, simmering embers, and gray smoke sifting out in small and curly billows.

  Eventually, Pope dropped the hose, took my hand, and led me back toward the house. “Christ! I’m so mad at you!” Taking me into his arms, he placed soft kisses in my soot-covered hair. “I’m furious!” He pulled away and glared into my eyes. “I could have lost you. You could have died! Do you get that? Why the fuck did you run into a burning building? What if I had lost you too?” He placed a soft kiss on my lips, stealing whatever breath I had managed to reclaim.

  “I thought you were in there.” I paused and looked over to what had now become Viv’s grave. “I thought Viv was in there. I wanted to save you both.”

  He pulled away and started examining my body. “Are you hurt? Do you have any burns?”

  I shook my head and attempted to assure him that everything was all right. But my breath came in shallow, rapid gasps. My mind fogged and my vision began to give way to darkness. I faintly heard Pope call out my name.

  When my eyelids opened, I was aware that time had passed. The setting sun shining through the window cast shadows along the walls. I was lying in Pope’s soft bed, staring into the comforting, loving brown eyes I had grown to love.

  “Hello, sleepyhead,” Pope whispered as he leaned down and kissed my forehead. “You nearly scared me half to death.”

  I tried to talk, but the burn in the back of my throat radiated with pain.

  “Don't try to speak right now,” Pope ordered.

  I struggled upright, my muscles weak and my head still spinning.

  Gently, Pope placed his hands on my chest preventing me from sitting up any further. “Just rest right now,” he soothed.

  “Why? Why?” I started to cry, mourning the death of my captor, my friend, my enemy. I hated her. I loved her. And now my heart broke in two as I cried over her death. “Why?”

  “You know why. She asked for this.”

  “But you said no. You said no!”

  “She kept begging me. She pleaded with me. My momma cried and asked for my help. You know she wanted it all to end. She needed me to understand. I had to understand.” Tears welled up in Pope’s eyes. “My momma was so sick, and the darkness that was Vivian was eating her alive. She begged me to allow her to die. I had to. I had no choice.”

  I wiped at my tears. “She started the fire?”

  He nodded.

  “Were you in the workshop when she did?”

  He nodded again.

  “It was Viv who started the fire?”

  A single tear escaped his eye. “I held her as the flames engulfed the room. I held my momma in my arms as the smoke suffocated her enough to cause her to pass out.”

  “Then you left? Left her there to die?”

  He nodded again. “Until I heard you calling out. I couldn’t see you, but I could hear you.”

  “She’s gone…” I said the words out loud as if hearing them, saying them, would somehow make it more real. Everything seemed so surreal, as if I was floating in a fog. Like I was caught in an eerie afterworld. A world where Vivian Montgomery had no control over me. A world that I could no longer remember.

  “And Richard?”

  “My mother did as she said she would. Viv contacted him pretending to be Vivian. She stood in the workshop by my bench with the phone in hand. I watched her as she faked a southern accent and told Richard that it was all over. That Pope and Demi had married, and all was good. His mission was over. She ended it. She ended it all.”

  “Maria and Luis are safe.”

  Pope nodded as he sat on the bed and wrapped his arm around my shaking body, allowing me to place my head on his chest. “Right now I want you to get some sleep. Your body is in shock.”

  “Stay here with me. Please.”

  He kissed the top of my head. “I’ll never leave you.”

  I smoothed my hand under his shirt, enjoying the feel of his skin against my palm. “Pope, I was really scared. I thought I wa
s going to die. I thought you were going to die.”

  He whispered into my smoke-filled hair, “I’ll never let anything happen to you like that again. I will always protect you, and I’ll make damn sure you never feel that fear again. You will never be the victim again.”

  I stared up at Pope as he tucked the blankets tighter around my body. His face still dirty from the fire, his eyes shadowed with exhaustion. “Being here in your arms, with the entire nightmare of Vivian over, I’ve never felt so safe, but I have never felt so sad as well.”

  I began to cry softly against his warmth. It was over. It was over…

  He rested his cheek against the blonde and dirty curls of my head. “You’re safe. I’ll never let anything harm you again.” He whispered the soothing words as he placed soft kisses along my forehead. “You need to get some sleep. We’ll talk more when you wake up.”

  Shivering, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to relax against the warmth of his body. I was so tired that I could no longer prevent my mind from shifting hazily between reality and the nightmare of the fire. I fought the weight of my eyelids to look up into Pope’s worried eyes.

  He gazed down at me and whispered, “You’re safe. You’ll always be safe.”

  19

  Tension released from my bones and the nightmare of the fire seemed to fade away as I luxuriated in the lavender scented water in the antique bath tub I had quickly grown to love. With my eyes closed, I allowed the shoulder deep water to take away the aches and pains.

  The wooden floorboards creaked as Pope knelt down behind me. “Let me help you wash your hair.”

  I swallowed hard. The tenderness from someone who just hours ago had lost his mother in a horrendous fire spun the emotions inside me to chaos. Such power, such strength, and now showing such compassion. Rather than wallowing in his own misery. The sweet aroma from the steaming water helped me relax as his strong hands began to massage my scalp, gently scrubbing away the smoke and grime.

  “Just lean back and let me do this. Let me take care of you,” he soothed.

  Firm and gentle, the same hands that had just saved my life. The same hands that had just comforted me until I cried myself to sleep were now caressing their way to my very soul. I closed my eyes and moaned as he pressed against my temples, while raking his fingernails along my scalp. A waterfall of warm water cascaded over my head, followed by a rag softly dabbing at my closed eyelids.

  “You’re beautiful, Demi.”

  I opened my eyes and turned my head so I could stare into Pope’s eyes. “I’ve never had anyone do this to me… I mean… for me.”

  His lips brushed my hair, and he whispered in my ear, “You deserve to be taken care of.” He continued to wash and rinse my hair, making my muscles melt right along with my heart.

  I reached up behind me and wrapped my hand around Pope’s neck. “I think there is plenty of room for two, if you want to join me?”

  “This is for you. I want you to relax. I already showered and got some rest while you slept.” His voice was as calm as I felt, even as a heavy sadness still rested on my heart. I was so sad. So relieved. So happy. So many conflicting emotions.

  I missed her.

  I was happy to see her get what she deserved.

  I mourned her.

  I relished a sense of victory.

  It was just Pope and me, and that made me happy.

  I was so fucked up. So, so fucked up.

  “Do you think I’m a monster?” he asked softly. “For allowing her to die?”

  I shook my head. “You’re not a monster. I could never think that. You’re a survivor and nothing more.”

  “You wouldn’t have done it though. Even after all she did to you, you were still trying to save her.”

  “Yes. I was still trying to save her.”

  “Why?”

  “It was Viv lying on that floor. My friend.”

  “My mother.” Pope took a deep breath. “Which is why I allowed her to follow through with her plan. She wasn’t planning on telling me or you after we both said no. I think she thought I would still be asleep. But when I walked in on her pouring gasoline all over my shed, she pleaded with me to understand. She wanted to die and become one with the earth she loved so much. She wanted her sickness to end. She was in so much agony.”

  “I know,” I whispered. “It took so much strength for her to do what she did. For what you did.”

  “And now we move on. We have no choice but to move on.”

  I wasn’t sure what moving on meant. How do you move on after terror has dominated every inch of your being?

  “Viv would have wanted us to move on,” I agreed.

  His hands made their way to my shoulders and began to work the same magic he had done on my head. Pope’s hands continued to stroke, the movements unhurried, lingering, stretching over my collarbone down to the tops of my breasts in slow easy circles.

  “Your body…” his voice rasped.

  Over and over, he ran his calloused hands along my breasts, barely grazing my nipples with each pass. Tingling and fire grew within my core, my pussy longing for more.

  I needed the pain to go away. The confusion had to end. Anything but this. Anything to overpower the darkness.

  His momma had just died.

  This was wrong.

  But nothing about our lives had ever been right.

  The need, the hunger, the passion building as the warm water washed over my skin. A bolt of sensation shot through me as Pope caught the sensitive tip of my nipple and gently pinched. My gasp no longer able to be contained.

  As if the gasp was Pope’s green light, he continued down along my stomach. His fingers sliding their way to my bare sex—as Vivian had dictated it to be so. Without hesitation, he cupped his hand around my mound and slid his finger between my needy lips. Finding my clit, he rubbed softly. Coaxing my pleasure, rather than demanding it.

  Pope used his other hand to cup my breast, while he placed searing kisses along my neck. I lifted myself into his touch, spreading my legs wider for his access. I needed more. I needed to feel him deep within me. I needed to be taken, conquered and mastered.

  “I need you,” he said huskily between the kisses along my flesh. “I need my pain to stop. I can’t fucking take the pain.”

  “Please… Pope… please,” I could barely get out. “I need the pain to stop too.”

  “Just us. I need it to be just us. Leave the fucked up world we live in behind us. Just us. Now.” Pope increased his pressure on my clit and rubbed my nipple in between his fingers, keeping a steady rhythm, driving my need to a boiling point.

  I couldn’t take it any longer. I grabbed his hand and directed his finger to the entrance of my pussy. Grinding my hips hard against his hand, I thrust his finger into my depths. Pope pulled his hand loose, only to drive his finger, plus a second one, back into my wanting sex. My hips shifted and rose, meeting each push of his hand. Water splashed everywhere as I desperately tried to quench the burning demand inside of me.

  “I want to feel you come around my fingers. I want to feel you,” Pope commanded.

  His strokes became harder. His pinches along my nipple grew in intensity, causing me to helplessly thrash beneath his touch. Every nerve ending pulsated, electricity coursed to my womb as I allowed a cry to escape my mouth.

  “Yes, baby. Come for me. Let yourself go.” His demand was punctuated by another thrust of his finger.

  I closed my eyes and allowed the pleasure to take over. Water splashed over the side of the bath as the satisfying feeling of completion overtook my body. My head fell back, and my hips convulsed as ecstasy exploded outward.

  Before the last wave of the incredible orgasm rocked my body, I felt Pope’s arms lift me out of the bath in one swift motion. The cool air heightened every touch, and my body hummed for more. He lay me down on a soft towel and quickly removed every item of his clothing that blocked his body and mine from uniting.

  He sat on the ground and pulled me o
n top of his body. “Straddle me,” he demanded.

  I did as he asked, wrapping my legs on each side of his hips, pressing my wet knees against his warm and dry body. He grabbed his thick cock with his hand and directed it toward my entrance. “Put me in you. Bring yourself down on me.”

  I grabbed his dick, placed it at my wet pussy, and slid all the way down. My breath caught as my body struggled to adjust to his size. Any discomfort from the stretch was replaced with pure pleasure when Pope parted my pussy and found my clit. He continued the sensual caress as I rode his cock. Rising up slowly, and then driving down with a solid force. The slow pass of his fingers over my clit sent a shiver down my spine. The shiver turned to a heat that burned to my deepest core.

  Pope’s gaze, so full of confidence and strength, never left mine. He didn’t hide the pleasure or passion he felt. He didn’t hold back his groans as I thrust myself onto his cock, taking him deeper and deeper with every movement.

  He pulled me against his chest and parted my lips with his. His kiss smothered my moans and captured my breath. He grabbed my hips with both hands and took control, increasing the pressure and building the speed, bringing me closer and closer to the sensation of pure bliss.

  He moved his finger to the tight entrance of my backside and pressed firmly. My breathless gasp was rewarded with him pressing his finger all the way into my taboo depths.

  I clenched around him as he pumped his finger in and out, releasing a hot desire from within me. Lust surged through me, my ass squirming… not away from the sensation but towards it as I leaned into his touch. Demanding more with my silent movements, he added a second finger past my tightly clenched rosebud. I couldn’t help but press back against the invading fingers. I cried out his name as he worked his fingers inside the searing heat of my tight channel.

  I saw him reach his hand and submerge it into a puddle on the floor, wetting his fingers with the oily lavender water from the bath. I bucked against his other fingers still in my ass, anxious of what was to come.

  I tensed. Hearing the words of Vivian.

  A good wife takes her husband’s cock in the ass without complaint. A dutiful wife allows her ass to be fucked often.