by T L Swan
My eyes search his. “Is your job here to keep me alive?” I ask.
He swallows nervously.
“Because they cut my main artery. I could have died,” I whisper.
He frowns as he wraps my arm back up. “I know and I’m sorry. I don’t know why they did that, but it’s my blood we gave you. You don’t need to worry.”
“Do you know who I am?” I whisper.
He keeps his head down and turns to attend to my food. “Yes,” he murmurs.
“Can you help me?” I whisper.
His eyes flick to the window and he looks at something above the windowsill. I frown. Fuck, I’m being filmed. I nod softly to acknowledge what he has just told me. Ok. Shit.
He takes the lid off my meal and with shaky hands gets out some salt and pepper.
“Can I get you anything else?” he asks softly.
“Diet coke,” I ask hopefully.
He smiles. “You want some diet coke?” he asks, surprised.
I nod and give him a stifled smile. If I’m going to get out of here alive he is my only chance. I need to make friends with him.
“I don’t have any here now but when Carl takes over I will get you some and bring it back.”
I nod. “Are you staying in the house here?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “No, we are doing shifts watching you.”
I nod and bite my bottom lip as I think. I gesture to the camera with my head. “Is the monitor in this house?” I whisper with my head down away from the camera.
“Yes,” he replies.
“Are there others elsewhere?” I whisper with my face away from the camera again.
His eyes meet mine and he shrugs. “Not sure,” he mumbles.
God, like me he has no idea what’s going on!
“I will be back with the diet coke,” he says as he moves toward the door.
“Can you stay with me for a while?” I whisper. “I’m scared.” My eyes search his for compassion. “Please tell me who you are working for.”
“I can’t, Natasha. I’m sorry.” He sighs.
“I have money. I can give you more money than what they are paying you. Please,” I beg.
His eyes flick nervously to the windowsill again and he shakes his head. “Stop talking to me or they will punish you,” he whispers angrily.
My heart rate picks up. “How?” I whisper. “How are they going to punish me?”
“Carl has permission to do what he wants with you if you give us a hard time.”
I step back from him in fear.
“And you know what he wants,” he replies flatly.
Tears fill my eyes. Oh god, I’m going to be raped by that animal.
“Do you understand what I’m telling you?” he asks.
I drop my head and nod and I hear him quietly leave the room. I sit at the table someplace between life and death, evil and hell. They are going to rape me and film it to torture Joshua with the footage. That’s why I’m being kept alive. My nightmare is real. What if it’s more than one man like in my dream? Nine. Oh fuck, I close my eyes in fear. I have to get out of here. Adrenaline starts to pump the fear through my blood. I walk into the bathroom and close the door behind me and start to pace back and forth. Cameras, cameras, I need to check for cameras. I start to search the ceiling and walls, what does a camera even fucking look like? I get up and stand on the vanity so I am closer to the ceiling. I can’t see anything. I run my hand around the inside edge of the mirror and I walk into the shower and check out all the tapware, nothing. I have to check out the one he told me about in the other room so I know what I’m looking for. I walk back into the other room and glance at my dinner sitting on the table. I need to act normal so they don’t get suspicious. I sit down slowly at the table and start to eat my lunch while my brain is running at a million miles per hour. What do these idiots want? They want to torture Joshua… so they are going to torture me and make him watch.
Well I’ve got news for them. Like hell they are.
My knee bounces nervously as I think. I need a plan. My eyes widen as a new idea comes to my brain. What if they lure Joshua here with the pretence of rescuing me and then kill him? Am I the bait?
Fuck. Think, Natasha. Think.
Two of the televisions that were not on before start to roll and I pick up my lunch and move to the bed to see what is coming on. These assholes are trying to fuck with my head.
Fury ignites deep inside me. If anyone is going to be fucking with anyone’s head around here it’s going to be me.
I watch as the two screens light up and I frown at them. What is this? I can’t make out where they are. I watch the one on the left and then I see Birgetta walk past carrying a basket of washing. My eyes widen in horror. This camera is from inside Joshua’s house and that’s his lounge room. My eyes instantly flick to the other screen. Oh my god. My stomach drops. That’s our bedroom. These people have been in our house. My heart starts to pump heavily and just when I think it can’t possibly get any worse I see myself walk into the room. I watch myself slowly get undressed. Oh my god, how long has this camera been in our room? Joshua walks in and starts to talk to me and I laugh out loud. I run to the remote control box and start to scramble through, looking for the right remote. I point them all frantically at the screen as I try to turn up the volume, and I finally find it.
Joshua comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my chest. “Tell me how you want to be fucked tonight, my precious girl?” he whispers darkly as he pulls my hair to one side of my neck to give his mouth greater access. He cracks his neck hard.
I hold my hand over my mouth in horror, oh god no.
With my mortified heart thumping though my chest I watch as I drop to my knees and pull his pants down and start to take him in my mouth as he holds onto the back of my head tenderly.
“You’re the one who’s getting fucked tonight, Stanton,” I purr. I start to deep-throat him double time and his head throws back in pleasure as he starts to ride my mouth hard, his hands gripping my hair at the back of my head.
I drop to the bed in shock. How long? How long have they been watching us having sex? This is horrifying.
“On your knees,” Joshua’s voice purrs. “I need to slide my cock into the beautiful tight cunt of mine.” His fingers go to between my legs as he prepares me for his onslaught.
Oh my god, I put my hands on top of my head as I watch Joshua stand behind me as I kneel on the bed and with both of his hands on my shoulders slowly slide into me.
“You’re so hot,” he growls. “I’m going to blow inside you so damn hard tonight, my precious girl.”
“Give it to me,” I whimper. “Every last drop,” I breathe. He bends over the top of me and kisses me aggressively.
For some sick reason I feel my arousal start to lift. God. I drop my head in dismay at this situation. What the hell is going on here? This is messed-up mind-games shit. My eyes flick back to the screen and we are hard at it, Joshua’s beautiful body riding mine hard. God, so hard. I never realised how rough we are.
“I can feel you contracting around me, presh. Can you feel how deep I am baby?” he purrs as he continually slams into me. One of his feet is now up on the bed to give himself better leverage, his jaw is hanging slack and his body has a shimmer of perspiration all over it. I have never seen anything quite so erotic or more beautiful.
“Oh god, Josh. Harder,” I whimper as he pushes my shoulders to the mattress to get deeper. He is slamming into me so hard that I find I am holding my breath watching and my insides are starting to liquefy just watching us. With one, two, three hard pumps he holds himself deep inside me and I scream into the mattress in orgasm. I hold my breath as I watch him lie tenderly next to me and swipe the hair back from my face and kiss me gently. We lie close, kissing passionately for a long time, and I can’t look away.
“I fucking adore you, my precious girl,” he whispers as he holds my face between his two hands.
I smile and kiss his chest
. “That’s good because I love you Joshua Stanton,” I reply.
I drop my head as I gasp for air. I feel like I can’t breathe. Oh my god.
I stand furious. How dare they violate us like this. How long have they been filming us? What have they seen? I pick up my water jug and throw it at the back of the door in rage and it smashes to pieces.
“You assholes!” I scream. “I hate you! I fucking hate you!”
Just when I think the situation can’t get any worse the door opens in a rush. Oh no, it’s Carl. My eyes widen and I run to get away from him but he grabs me by the hair and drags me over to the glass on the floor.
“Pick it up,” he yells.
“Go to hell,” I snap. He slams my head hard three times against the wall and I scream in pain.
“Stop it,” the young medic calls from the door.
Carl puts his face right into mine as he rips my hair. “Get on the floor and pick up the glass before I cut your throat with it.”
Fear fills my every cell and through my tears I drop to my knees and slowly pick up the glass. When I have handed him the last of it, he kicks me hard in the stomach on the way out the door and I fall to the floor in a ball as the air is pushed from my lungs.
Help me, someone please help me.
Adrian
My eyes flick to Nicholas in the front seat as Cameron drives us to Corcoran Penitentiary. We are worried sick. Joshua has been in prison for nine days and has refused to see us. We have driven the hour and a half each day to the prison only to be turned away. What’s going on with him? Why won’t he see us?
The boys are going through the case notes and following up every lead that we can but without knowing if Joshua is ok we are all struggling. I have offered Jesten a role to stay on and help us. He was due to go back to Australia yesterday but his input and insight into Allender has been helpful. And, besides, I hate to admit it, but I actually like the guy. He’s uncultured and rough and raw and brutally honest, qualities that we so desperately need at this delicate time when we don’t know who to trust. Cameron refuses to even look at Jesten but Nicholas thinks we need him. If it comes down to giving evidence against Joshua we will need him on our side. Joshua’s court case is next week. We haven’t even been able to see him to try and prepare him for the trial. Today we are pulling the psychologist card and Nicholas is demanding to see him. He can’t refuse a psychologist and half an hour later the three of us sit in a private room as we wait for him to be brought to us by a guard.
“Why is it taking so long?” Cameron asks quietly.
“He would be refusing to come out of his cell,” Nicholas replies calmly.
I rest my elbows on the table and put my head in my hands. “Oh god, my heart is breaking for him. They won’t hurt him will they?” I ask.
“Shut the fuck up,” Cameron snaps, annoyed at my suggestion.
Nicholas smiles broadly at our interaction and I smirk in return. “What?” I ask.
“You two are like an old married couple.” He smirks.
“Oh god.” I wince. “I’m hoping my husband is hotter than him.”
Cameron screws up his face. “Don’t even go there. Are you trying to make me sick?”
The door opens with a clang and we all sit speechless. Joshua is led in in foot chains and handcuffs, his eyes cast down. Oh no. Cameron stands so quickly that his chair falls back and hits the ground. I gasp when I see his face. Joshua is black and blue. He has a large cut over his right eye with stitches in it and a cut cheekbone and lip. He has grazing on his forehead.
“Dear god,” Cameron whispers as he grabs his brother in an embrace.
I hold my hand over my mouth in shock, I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was never this. Nicholas turns his anger immediately onto the guard. “This prisoner needs to be moved to protective custody.”
“No.” Joshua snaps.
“Yes!” Cameron demands.
The guard’s eyes flick between us. “I will make you an appointment with the office to prepare the application,” he replies to Nicholas.
Joshua falls into the seat. “Joshua,” I whisper as I grab his hand across the table.
“Are you ok mate?” Cameron asks gently as he puts his hand on his brother’s forearm.
Joshua nods. “I’m fine,” he replies in a monotone.
“Why won’t you see us? We have been out of our heads in worry. Who hit you?” I ask.
“It’s ok, just a fight in the gym,” he murmurs.
But it isn’t ok. For him to be this messed up he was fighting more than one person. Are they holding him down to beat him?
“We are going to get you out of here, I promise,” Cameron whispers, terrified.
He nods and gives us a sad smile.
“Joshua, you need to accept your visitors. It’s unfair to put them through this without speaking to them,” Nicholas scolds.
Joshua just stares straight through Nicholas. “Is Bridget ok?” he asks.
I shake my head. “No, Joshua, she is not. We haven’t let her come down here to see you but she is coming tomorrow and you will see her. She can’t take much more,” I snap.
He nods, as if ashamed that he has put us through this.
“We have some leads,” Cameron says gently. “We are going through all of the security footage now and things are progressing. We will have some answers this week. Won’t we?” Cameron says nervously as his eyes flick to us.
I nod. “Yes, and your court case is next week.” I smile hopefully. “And then you will be out of here and we can try and…” I pause, I was going to say get over this nightmare but I know Joshua is never going to get over this.
“Try and what?” Joshua snaps.
“Try and find who did this,” I murmur.
His eyes find the floor.
Nicholas, who has remained silent, sits and watches Joshua., I can almost hear the diagnosis his brain is making.
“I would like to speak to Joshua alone please,” Nicholas asks.
Cameron’s eyes and mine meet. “Of course,” Cameron replies. He gets up and goes around to the other side of the desk and embraces his brother. I can see Joshua’s resistance melt and he drops his head to Cameron’s shoulder and relief fills me.
I give him a quick hug. “We will be back tomorrow, ok,” I say hopefully.
Joshua nods.
“You will see us, won’t you?” Cameron asks.
“Yes.” Joshua nods.
“Promise me,” Cameron pleads.
“Yes. Fuck,” Joshua whispers and I smile. There he is. He’s with us again. “You’re a pair of nagging bitches,” he snaps
“We are missing your cranky ass.” I smile hopefully.
He drops his head and smirks. “You’re so gay, Murph,” he mutters and I smile broadly.
“That’s why you love me,” I reply.
Joshua’s eyes flick to Nicholas as he raises his chin defiantly. “This is your first and final warning. You hurt him again and I hurt you.” My eyes widen. Oh my god, he did not just say that.
Nicholas clenches his jaw and his eyes hold Joshua’s.
“They are just friends, Stan,” Cameron mutters, embarrassed.
Joshua nods, seemingly appeased by the answer.
“I need to talk to Joshua alone please,” Nicholas reminds us.
“Yes, of course.” We both stand and leave the room and for the first time in nine days I feel relief.
Natasha
Days have turned into weeks, sixteen days that I have counted, although I don’t know how long I was unconscious for in the beginning. I’m in hell, I have literally been beaten into submission and have no doubt that he is the one who will kill me when given the word. I have never been so petrified of anyone in my life and as if my subconscious knows that this was my fear all along I haven’t been having nightmares at all. I don’t need to dream about terror any more. I’m living it. The six televisions are haunting me, four of news and the excessive reporting on this story, one of
our bedroom playing reruns of our sex and love-making and one that flicks through to different rooms in the house. I’ve even watched Bridget and Ben have sex. He’s smoking hot just quietly… not that I was looking. Somebody wants me to know that they are watching us. It’s a powerplay. They have control of my house and they have me hostage. Someone wants me to know that they are controlling this situation. They needn’t bother. I am fucking well aware of that. I can’t get out of here; I’ve tried everything I can think of. I’m trying to find a tool to cut through the plaster in the ceiling of the bathroom. I thought if I could get into the roof I could escape but I can’t even punch through it. I don’t know what’s behind it but it seems unbreakable. I sit and stare out of the window as my mind searches for an escape plan. How do I get out of here? I look at the ceiling and watch the air conditioning vents above. Why are they so small? This never happens to Bruce Willis—he can always fit into air conditioning vents. I’m trying to think of all the movies I have watched where people are taken hostage and break free to try and get an idea of what to do, but I’ve got nothing. Bruce Willis and huge air conditioning vents are the only ones I can remember. One good thing is that I’m starting to work out when Carl and the other boy are working. I hear a car pull up every twelve hours. Carl’s car is noisy and has a rattle thing going on and the other car must be a new one, with hardly a sound at all. And I also have found that whatever I ask for is delivered so I am trying to think of foods that have packaging which may come in handy in an escape. If only I could order a gun pizza.
What am I going to do?
My mind goes to my mum and Bridget. Poor Mum. She’s lost so much and now she thinks she’s lost me too. If only I could get a message out to them… think Natasha, think. What if I seduce Carl and break down his defences? Would he let me go? What about the kid? Maybe I could seduce him, but then. I close my eyes in pain, I couldn’t do it. I would rather kill them than sleep with them. My eyes go to the paddocks out the window as I concentrate.
Now there’s an idea. Kill them, but how do you kill someone?
