by Diana Fisher
Hot tears rolled down my blistering cheeks as his hand slipped under the blankets and rested on my hip. His body shifted a little closer, surrounding me in the scent of onions, garlic, beer, fish, and smoke. I wanted to gag. I wanted to throw up. He was her dad for Christ sakes. Her father!
As his hand slithered up my side and to my chest, I froze. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t let him … I had to. I had to for Sky and those girls. This was just … way too perceptible, but not the hand of the monster who I had been married to. This hand he was using was gentler, more caressing, and more loving than the hand he used on me as his wife.
Closing my eyes, I let his hand roam over my breasts through the thin cotton of the tank top as the soft moans came from him. His hardness pressed into my buttocks, and his raunchy breath swarmed around my neck and down my back. This was disgusting. This was her dad, and he believed that I was his daughter lying there. His thirteen-year-old daughter!
“You are filling out so nice. It’s been so long since I have seen you. You are just perfect. You know that, baby?” Lust filled into his voice as he pressed his dry lips to my bare shoulder. “I am just glad that you are here.”
Gritting my teeth, I nodded slightly as his hand finally moved away from my breasts and headed down to my shorts. That son of a bitch was going to get it any second. Any second. But the hand that was traveling into the waist of my shorts was something else that felt familiar. It wasn’t like I never had sex. I had a great love life with Kane, but this … me posing to be a thirteen-year-old girl lying there … almost as if this happened to me before.
“Nice. Very nice.” His fingers brushed against the short hairs at the crevice between my legs. “You are just perfect. Maybe we could just go away and—”
“Do you want to fuck me, Joe? Do you want to do that to your daughter? You sick bastard!” Turning over, I snapped my elbow back as hard as I could, catching him right in the nose. Blood sprayed out as he cursed loudly.
Scampering out of the bed, he held a hand over his nose which was pouring with dark red syrup. “Fucking bitch!”
“Oh. I don’t think that I am that, Joe. Maybe I am just a mother put into a position to do something to protect her daughter’s innocence.” Throwing the blanket back, I crawled out of the bed and smirked, watching the blood drip through and down his stained white and gray button down shirt. I got him damn hard, hard enough to feel the actual bones break, and seeing that blood coming from him was worth it.
“You’re crazy! I never should have left the kids with you.” Just as he tried to get to the door, I blocked him as I snatched the hockey stick out from behind the door.
Smiling, I looked it over while feeling the power in my hands. For Sky, I would torture him for a bit before I killed him. I would get every second of his roaming hands for that little girl.
“Ah, but you did and that is what is screwing up your plans. You just didn’t think that when you walked out on us that I would actually keep them, did you?” Reaching the stick out, I brought the head under his chin and lifted his look to me. “You actually thought that I was going to get rid of them so it would be easier for you to abduct your own daughter.”
“I didn’t want the kids! I didn’t want anything to do with them!”
“You wanted Sky!” Raising my brows, the anger was filling through my veins as I looked at the tears coming down his face. He was crying. He was crying, and I wished that I could get this on film for Sky, for Jordan, for everything he put us through. “You wanted that little girl!”
“I got that offer after I left. I got that offer about her later. I was hurting for money, Keri. You didn’t put any in the account! You fucked me over, and I had to do what I had to do! I owed them!”
Bringing the stick up in the air and back down as hard as I could, connecting with his right shoulder, the loud snap of bones echoed in the tiny room. A loud scream ripped through him as he fell to the floor. “I fucked you? You left us! You walked out on us! I stayed for those kids that you didn’t give a shit about! I let you hit me, treat me like shit, and … how can I forget that night you raped me, you sick bastard?!”
Bringing the stick up, I slammed it down on his back, making his scream in pain again. “Let me ask you this: when you walked out on us, what were you thinking?”
“You’re fucked up, Keri!” His cries became more enraged, and the pleasure was surging through my veins even more with each word.
“I’m not the one who is fucked up, Joe. You were the one who was in here a minute ago, touching your thirteen-year-old daughter!” Bringing the stick down on his back again, I heard a loud snap, but I didn’t care. I was too far gone, and he was going to pay for touching his own little girl. “When you took every cent out of my account, what were you thinking? I wouldn’t be able to keep the kids and I would give them up?” Reaching down, I grabbed a hand full of his hair and lifted his head, making him look at me. “Huh? Did you plan to sell her off before or after you walked out on us?”
“You’re sick, Keri!” The tears rained down his face, mixing in with the blood, causing a spray of fine crimson mist with each breath he took.
Dropping my hold, I stood and held the stick like Kane taught me when we had our family day. “Do you know that Jordan is damn good at playing hockey just as well as he does in school? Do you know that he stays up late at night after I check on him just to get some more studying in?”
Nodding, I felt the tears trickle down my cheeks. Redemption for them, right? Swinging with all my might, I connected with his face as the blood splattered over the light tan carpeting. “He is so smart that I can’t help but be proud of him, but you don’t give a shit about him, do you? You just want the little girl.”
“Stop! Just stop!” Covering his face, he cried. He actually was crying. Nothing had been more satisfactory than to see him bawling like a baby. He deserved it. He deserved to shed those tears. His own kids shed plenty because of that man. It was his turn now. It was his turn to hurt and feel the pain deep inside. “Please, Keri! Please stop!”
“I want answers, Joe! For each one that I don’t get, I will make you pay.” Resting the stick head on the floor by his face, I smiled while holding back the vomit. This was my chance. I had him right where I needed him. With him being this weak I could find out where Alicia was and leave my message for Sky. Someone would figure it out and save her. I just hoped that it wouldn’t take them too long. “The blonde, Sky’s friend, do you know where she is?”
“I didn’t have anything to do with that!”
Striking him across the face, I watched the blood pool on the carpet, along with the few teeth that fell out. The cries came harder and the pain deepened. Bringing the stick down hard on his back, I heard the breath rush from him in the last cry he was able to get out. “Don’t lie to me! You are not in the position to lie to me! Where the fuck is the blonde that was taken Monday?”
“Stop. Please … please. Stop and I will tell you.” Sobbing, he eased onto the floor, lying in his own blood and spit. Urine scented the room, and I cringed. Another thing that I made him do. I made that bastard piss himself.
“Where is she?”
“They have her with the rest of them. They are being kept at a secret location here for training, and then they are going to take them to Mexico for the final leg of the training before they are sold off to their masters.” Struggling with his breathing, he reached out, his hand trembling and the pain holding him down on to the floor.
“Where is this place? Where are the girls?” My heart slammed hard in my chest. He knew, and he was going to tell me everything. Now, I just had to figure out how to get a message to Kane and let him know. He would be able to call his people to go and find Alicia, along with the other kidnapped ones.
“They are kept in this place north of town. North. I don’t know where. It’s hidden. It’s in the woods, and there’s a barn with a basement in it.” Just as his fingertips brushed my ankle, I spun the stick in warning for him to g
ive me every last bit of details. But when the whines came out and nothing more, my chest clenched down hard.
“Not helping.” Lifting the stick, Joe cried out, begging for me to put it back down.
“Please, Keri. It’s George’s farm. It’s Justin George’s farm. That’s all I know, Keri.” He rattled off an address as he cried some more, and I managed to get the gist of what he was saying.
“I have just one more question.” Digging my fingers into his hair, I lifted his head and looked at him in his bloodied, swollen, and barely recognizable face. “Is George the one who is selling the girls?”
“No. We are just using his farm. That’s all, Keri. He wanted one, but I don’t know if that trade happened. Please, Keri. Something’s wrong with me.” His syrupy, cakey gooped hand wrapped around my wrist as the beady eyes fought through the sheets of blood to look at me.
“Who have you been talking to online? Why Sky? Why was she a target? What do they want with her?” More questions and not enough answers. I needed to know why she was the prime target.
“I don’t know! I told you all that I knew! Let me go. Let me go and I will disappear.”
“Sure.” Standing up, I sucked back a breath. If Justin George wasn’t involved in the abductions, then who was? Was this farther than I imagined it to be? Bringing the stick down on his back again as hard as I could, earning another crack of bones. I took a step back and assessed the stout body. The hot tears ran down my face, cleaning the blood from their paths. “I don’t think so, you sick bastard. This is for Sky.”
Striking him across the face a few more times, I brought it down on his back a couple more times until I realized that he wasn’t moving anymore. Hell. I killed the bastard with my son’s hockey stick. He deserved it. He deserved to die for touching what he thought was his daughter.
“You fucked with the wrong woman. And you chose the wrong girl to touch.” Dropping the stick next to him, I let out a breath. For what the man had done to his children, this was worth it. Plenty worth it. Now, I had an address where the missing girls were being held, and I needed to get it to Kane. He would be able to save those girls, and I might have a chance to see my kids again.
“You just had to stick your nose where it didn’t belong, Keri.” His voice sent a chill down my spine and filled my bare feet with concrete shoes.
Turning around, the tears singed my eyes as the air slowly leaked from my lungs. The fear paralyzed every single muscle in my body. How could he do this? How could he…?
“What? Are you really surprised, Keri?” The evil smirk slid across his face as he brushed his fingers down my cheek to wipe off some crimson spray.
“I trusted you.” My heart hammered hard into the muscles surrounding it, battering everything in its way. How could he do this? How could he do this to little girls? What kind of monster was he?
His mouth came down on mine, taking it for his own amusement, urging the empty contents of my stomach upward. I tried to pull away, to turn my head away from him, but he held me there. He made me stay put so that he could violate my mouth.
Pulling back, he wrapped his hand in my hair and tugged it downward, bringing me down to my knees. “How much did you miss me?”
Chapter 31
I could barely move. My body hurt so bad. The thick blood blanketed my skin, and I knew the end would be coming soon enough. A few times, when the pain sent me into another world in my mind, I wondered if I would ever get the chance to see Alicia.
The last thing that I remembered was when he bent over me, giving me that look again. That look that I saw in my nightmares when I was a kid. His body leaning over mine and his face close, his breath warming my chilled skin, and that deep lust in his silvery gray eyes. It made me sick.
As I lay on the cold and damp dirt floor, I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want to breathe anymore. I wanted it to end. I wanted it all to be over with. My body just couldn’t take another beating. Not again. I had been chained up, tortured, beaten, and starved. And I hadn’t even seen any one of the girls yet.
If I had left the address there, he would see it and move everyone. Then, what chance would I have to save those girls? Instead, I managed to dig into the torn flesh of mine for blood to leave the message, one that Sky could decipher. I just hoped that someone would find it and go to Kane. After all, he was the one who was keeping my kids safe.
What if Kane had taken the kids and went on a vacation or a trip to help heal the damage that I caused? No. Kane would figure it out. Kane had to have known by now. I hoped that he did, and hope was all I had. I wasn’t going to last much longer at this rate, and these girls were going to be moved soon. If he didn’t figure it out, Ben would never see Alicia again.
The startled gasp stung my raw skin even more. My heart skipped a beat, feeling the warmth slipping up behind me. There would be no way I could hold up for one more beating. I couldn’t take any more. I was broken already. I don’t even know how long I had been there anymore. It was complete darkness. Complete black.
“Sky?” Her weak voice trembled through the air as the tips of ice cold fingers ran over the damaged skin of my arm. “Sky. I’m here. I’m right here. It’s me.” Her salty tears dripped down, igniting the fires through my abused flesh. The pain was so searing, I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t fight. I just laid there while the salty waters scorched my flesh. “Hang in there. Keri will come for us. She will. You were absolutely right about her, Sky. She will come for us.”
“Alicia?” I tried to move my wrists, but with them secured with zip-ties behind my back, it was impossible. The lava pooling in my shoulders, the stiffness assuring me there was more damage to those muscles and joints than I could even think of.
“Keri?” The chain dragged a little as I heard a quick hiccup. She was chained? “Keri? I thought you were Sky.”
“Alicia, it’s me. It’s me.” Struggling to get up, I felt my knee pop again and I went back down to the dirt. The sharp shooting pain was going up and down my leg, but getting to that one girl was all I needed. “Did they hurt you? Did they touch you?”
“Keri, please. Help me. Please, help me.” Her chain jingled again, and then another gasp as if something closed in around her neck. Could she be chained around the neck? How in the hell did they have these girls locked up?
I couldn’t give up on her. I had to get to her no matter how bad it hurt. Sliding myself toward her voice, I cried silently from the pain. What the hell was a little more damage to my body? It wasn’t like I would live for another couple of days. Her body brushed against mine. She was completely naked and ice cold, shivering with her teeth chattering together. “I’m right here, Alicia. I am here.”
“Please, take me home. Please, save me.” Her soft whines dug into my soul and sutured together part of my pain, just enough for me to push my body a little more.
“I’m trying. Just, please, stay strong and don’t fight them. Let me fight them. Let them take their anger out on me. Just don’t fight them.” Feeling her hand on my cheek, I leaned into the gentle touch.
“I’ll try. I will, Keri.” Cuddling close to me, I winced in pain by the contact of her skin against my raw and grated flesh, but there was no way I was going to push her back. She was Ben’s little girl, and the reason why I was there.
A hand came down on my hair, pulling me backward. Her cries echoed in the room as I was being pulled away from her. My body screamed as it scraped the floor. Finally, I was tossed into a warm room and hauled to my feet. Standing there, I waited for what was going to come. As long as this was happening to me and not the girls, then it was worth it. I just wish I could have found out how the girls were being held in that dungeon of darkness. If I was able to spring one, they could run for help, seeing as my coded message wasn’t helping.
“I like to have dessert tonight, and I do believe that you are going to be dessert, my love.” His voice shot through me as he chuckled that disgusting familiar one that I only thought I dre
amt about. “Shall we relive old times, Keri?”
The water turned on; scalding hot water that ripped and sliced at my raw flesh. As much as I wanted to drown in the basking hot waters that were searing my flesh from my bones, I had to resist. I had to stay above shore in order to keep him occupied, to get one of the girls freed so I could have another plan on getting them all to safety.
“Ah. You remember what I told you before? Pain, and then I will give you pleasure. As I will now. You are filthy, and I need to get you cleaned up. I don’t like my girls dirty.”
“If I did whatever you wanted, would you let Alicia go? Would you let her go?” Clenching my teeth together as hard as I could, I fought against the darkness and hung on to any life there was left inside of me.
The hiss came out as he squirted the cold liquid soap onto me. My skin burst into flames as the pain was so bad, my one knee rejected my weight and sent me down to the cold floor. When would this end? When I would I just let go? If I could get Alicia out of there, then I could just die then. Alicia first. I had to get her out of there. But as the scrubbing scathed my skin, ripped and bit my flesh, the hopes were dying, just as my body was.
After my wonderful shower of the steel scrubbing my skin clean, I was walked to another room, my body picked up only to be slammed down on something hard. My arms were released from the zip ties, but raised above my head and locked down in clamps. Then, my legs were spread apart and clamped down at my ankles.
“Oh, Keri. Why do you have to make this harder than what it is?”
“What do you want?” My shoulder … The separation of the muscle or something. Maybe a broken bone. The pain…
“You.”
“Then why the little girls? Why are you doing this to them?” Adjusting my body, I managed to bring the hot, white pain down to a dull roar, but there was no way my shoulder would ever be the same again.