by Adams, Evie
After maybe an hour, the boat slowed down, and we rode slowly for another twenty minutes, I could feel the sunlight peering through the horizon, and coming through the sheet very slowly, like a candle lit in the next room.
Finally the boat stopped, and I was pulled up, and set on a dock, with hands still on me, guiding me. I could hear the small waves lapping at a shoreline, and the side of the boat, and finally I was pushed forward, I froze when I felt no hands guiding me, I didn’t want to fall in the water, but an arm wrapped around my waist and made me walk forward, slowly as my legs felt for the dock and the land.
We walked this way for another few minutes, on what seemed to be a nice well-worn gravel path, then a door opened and I was pushed inside and my hands untied, then the door shut again on me. I pulled the sheet off and untied the gag and blindfold to see what horrors awaited me now.
I was surprised to see a normal, if sparse, lake cottage. It was one square room, with two blocked off bedrooms, with only sheets for doors, a wood stove, and a table, set right before two windows overlooking a great big lake, with mountains in the distance. My eyes took it all in, and were delighted at a sumptuous breakfast spread of fresh oranges, cantaloupe, strawberries, blueberries, grapefruit, waffles, pancakes, flan, and gallons of coffee and juices. I quit being scared for a moment and ate as much as I could, as fast as I could. I had no idea I was so hungry, I was too busy being terrified, and even though the thought that the food or drink was drugged entered my head, I didn't care, I was starving.
“That's not very lady like of you,” A voice spoke through one of the curtains behind me.
I froze, my mouth was too full to talk.
“I can see you're going to be difficult, Anna. But now that you're here and know you belong to me, maybe you won't run away anymore?” He laughed out loud.
I couldn't believe what he said. He faced me and I couldn't speak, could barely stand, the dark eyes, handsome face, and cruel laugh staring at me.
“You have no idea how long I've waited to see that look on your face.” He came closer. “Ever since that night you kneed me and left.”
“You!” I screamed at him. “What are you doing here? And how dare you kidnap and bring me here?”
“I knew you wouldn't be begging and pleading for your release, but I figured you'd understand a little quicker.”
“I'd never beg anything from you.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“What the hell am I doing here and what the hell are you doing here?”
“I guess I'll have to explain. Disappointing really.” He sat down and paused before starting, staring at me. “I hate explaining myself. I get rid of people who make me do it, but your case is different I guess. The first time I saw you I knew I wanted you. I tried to win you in the civilized way, I offered all that I had, I was polite, I pretended I cared, and you rejected me. So, I made a new plan. I made a donation that I knew would change the arc of that boy Tommy's career and arranged an opportunity here. If you hadn't followed, I would have arranged something similar for you. But here you were, falling into my lap.”
“You did all this?” I couldn’t believe it.
He paused again and smoldered as he looked at me. “You will not interrupt me again until I'm finished. Is that understood?”
I nodded.
“So, here you are. You belong to me. You can run, but it's dangerous out there for you, a city girl and all.”
“You've kidnapped me, for what? Look, just send me back, and I won’t tell anyone. I think you’ve made a real big mistake if you think I’ll stay here against my will.” I told him in my best steely voice.
“I don’t make mistakes, and that is exactly what you’ll do. But I think you’ll come to like it.”
“Like it?” The lake and the mountains and food were all beautiful,- and so was he- but this wasn’t the way things happened. This was criminal. “I’ll kill you or myself before I stay here willingly.”
“First, I'd never allow you to kill yourself. Not with all it took to get you here. Second, you could try, but I don’t think you’ll succeed and I don’t think you want to anyways.”
“If this is some sort of plan to date me or marry me, you’re going about it the wrong way,” I tried to joke, this was all so crazy.
“Let’s be clear, I don’t date and you will not be my wife. It's clear to me that you don't want a meek little man to be your lap-dog. And it's very clear to me that I don't want to be that man. I tried that already, you said no. So, we'll have this, until I get bored with you and send you home. You are my captive, that's all.”
I went to slap him or scratch him, he grabbed me and held me, I moved my knee up and he pushed it away. “No more of that.” He said and leaned in, and kissed me hard again, penetrating my mouth with his tongue. I bit his lip, but he seemed to almost like it, he smiled and swooped me up and carried me over to the bed.
He held both my wrists together in one hand as he leaned over me. I struggled, but his grip was too tight. “I've been dying to see how the rest of you looks, even when you're not wrapped up in bed sheets you're wrapped too tight.” He untied the clothes I had on, my sleeping clothes, and ripped them open.
I screamed and tried to struggle, but it was no use. He bent down and kissed my neck and on down, down, until I was on fire. “I want you,” He said softly.
But if strength couldn't stop him, something else had to. “You'll have to rape me against my will. I hate you.”
He let go and the desire left his face and eyes and voice. “I won't rape you. When I fuck you it will be because you want it, because you want me as much as I want you. I promise you that.”
“That will never happen, believe me.” I told him.
“We'll see.” Is all he said and walked out.
So, I was safe from rape anyways and all the things I had imagined, but I was still a captive.
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CHAPTER 6
So, she hates me, but that can change. And she insists she'll never desire me, but that isn't true. Her eyes and her body betray her there. She wants me now, but she can't admit that to herself. And she thinks all the worst of me. I would tell her the truth, of why she's really here, but I'm not completely sure on that yet either, but I can be sure she is in harm’s way out there. But she's not ready to hear all of that, and I'm not ready to tell her. Part of her desire is because I'm the bad guy.
Out of the cabin, there was the lake, glistening, crystal, pure, vast. It defied any descriptions, nestled in under the mountains, cold clear water, like a mirror when the sun is rising in the early morning. A few hundred yards away were the main cabin and a few satellite ones. It was time to see the Don, he should be up by now.
Sal was coming out as I was about to enter. “Morning.” He said.
“How's the old man?” I asked.
“Not good, but no worse than yesterday or a week ago.”
The Don had been ill for years, but the last 6 months he had taken a turn for the worse and the last month refused all medical care. He was supposed to be gone already, but he held on.
“Who's the girl?” He asked.
“Nobody.” I told him, and had a pang of jealousy there. Sal was my half-brother. I never knew Sal growing up, he lived with father while me and Michael lived with Mom. We knew him a bit, but his mother did not like us, so he didn't either. It's entirely possible he was jealous that the Don showered more affection on us during visits than him, but at the same time, I was jealous he got the normal family life here, while Michael and I went to boarding schools and all the rest, mingled with the upper crust while he and they would never be a part of that world. But they had the Family, which meant loyalty and love instead of the viciousness of the rich. Maybe a different sort of viciousness, an honest cruelty.
Everyone in this family had done jail for murder, theft, robbery and all sorts of things. In my other family, nobody ever went to jail, if they did it was for something white collar like
insider trading or financial malfeasance- which was just another sort of robbery and theft, but stealing a car got you 3 years, stealing millions from poor pensioners got you a year of country club white collar jail. Then we had Uncle John who liked young girls and took vacations to Thailand and the islands out there so he wouldn't get caught. He was a child molester, but with enough money, it wasn't illegal. In this family a guy like that would have been killed, and the remains never found.
Another cousin from my other family was the founder of a shipping company. He made a habit of living on the islands, and the custom there was to have your daughter deflowered by the local rich man- which he was. When he died, there were hundreds of people claiming they were his heirs- illegitimate children of his deflowering virgins hobby- and they were probably right. The fight over his billions was a lawyers dream. My brother and I were even left some money, but I turned it down rather than get into that fight. The islanders needed it more than me. That was my legitimate family, the Morgan family. The Marletti’s were criminals and thieves, and degenerates, but somehow they were better human beings.
Sal would be in line for being the Don if I was out of the picture. He may still be since he was in this family his whole life and I was not officially until three years ago. The head of the family isn't always passed down to the oldest son, usually it's the best son, but if an uncle or someone outside the family proper is a better suit, then the captains choose him. The family was run more like a business than a family nowadays. I was smart, successful, clean as far as a rap sheet, but maybe too handsome, too interesting, too successful, too flashy to be able to run a mob family. Or too soft like a lot of them thought. I continually had to prove my ruthlessness here, just like when I worked on Wall Street, but most of these guys would learn a thing or two about ruthlessness if they had spent time with the people I did in my other life. News is bad for business, so if they wanted someone quiet, that would be fine too, and Sal would be the right choice.
But I did want it. I wanted power, respect, to tread that line between decency and criminality. I didn't need it, but I wanted it.
I went in and father was lying in bed, my heart stopped for a minute because he lay in the sunlight, and the man next to him was a priest. But Dad smiled and said something to the priest, who walked away past me. Father motioned for me to take the seat just left vacant by the priest. He could see the worry in my face and told me,
“He comes every few days now prepared to give me my last rites, but I humor him, annoy him. Your Uncle Carmine sent him, the one who was briefly a priest before he broke our mother's heart and left the priesthood. He didn't realize what celibate meant I guess. The priest here asked if I wanted to take confession, I asked ‘Why?’ ‘So you may be forgiven’ he said. ‘Don't I have to reject Satan for that?’ I asked. ‘Of course’ he said. I told him ‘Now isn't the time to make any enemies,’”
I laughed.
He hit my knee with his hand, gently, “Don't laugh, I stole that joke from someone else, can't remember who right now, but I always liked it, and hoped I could use it one day. Another thing off the bucket list I guess.”
“Voltaire,” I told him.
“What?”
“Those were Voltaire’s last words, so they say. A French writer from the 18th century.”
“Voltaire. Yeah. You’re too smart to be my son. Did you know he fixed the lottery? The king ran numbers to finance his wars, and Voltaire fixed it, made him a rich man, rich enough to write books.”
“I did know that. You and he would have got along well I think.”
He leaned in to whisper, but he was too weak to get his body completely over. He always did that when he wanted to tell me something important, like we were conspirators, “So I'm told I might get another thing off the bucket list too? You've brought some woman here with you? Might I get grandchildren in the near future?”
“Maybe from Michael, I'll call him and ask for you. This woman hates me right now.”
“Right now. That's OK, sometimes it's more fun if they hate you at first. Like your mom did me. How is Michael by the way?”
“Good. He’s good. I'm not sure the Senator can come here though to see you.”
“State Senator,” he corrected. “But hopefully more soon, Lieutenant Governor I guess. I know he can’t come visit someone like me, and I don't care, I'm greedy and selfish as a dying man has the right to be. I can't see him or any grand kids he gives me, but you and yours I can.”
“You sound like a Jewish mother right now you know that?” He laughed, and coughed.
“I'll bring her by to see you, maybe tomorrow.”
“OK, send the priest back in, I want to annoy him some more.”
I agreed and left. When I got back to the cabin. Anna was asleep. I thought of waking her, but instead just watched her sleep. Puffy cheeks, breast rising and falling, mouth slightly open, she looked lovely and vulnerable. I wanted her, but I could wait. I had to wait.
But I wouldn't wait that long.
She would come around, one way or another. Hopefully tomorrow because my cock ached for her, and whatever she said, her eyes ached for me. Tonight though, we would both have peace.
I slipped into bed beside her and listened to her breathe until I fell asleep. I smiled thinking of how pissed off she'd be if she woke first with me next to her.
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CHAPTER 7
I woke with a smile on my lips from the dream I just had. Something about running through the woods and swimming in the lake with a handsome stranger. But it went away when I opened my eyes and saw that face 6 inches from mine. The face of my captive and kidnapper and maybe rapist next to me. Peaceful, almost angelic sleeping, but still, a monster underneath.
A crazy thought of stabbing him entered my mind, but knew I couldn't do that. But I could run. I snuck out of bed carefully and crept to the door, careful of every squeaking floorboard and got to the door. I opened it and was out.
The lake shimmered under the sun coming up between the mountains, but I ignored it. Behind the cabin were woods and a locked gate, no way. I decided quickly that I had to follow the shoreline of the lake and sooner or later there would be some house or cabin or road or highway. There had to be.
Before I got 200 feet, I heard the cabin door open and footsteps on the porch. I jumped into the water, up to my ankles and realized that didn't help anything, my feet froze in the cold, stinging water. He came running, and his eyes were dark as midnight, and his face had a dark anger on it.
“Jesus Christ woman, do I have to tie you to the bed so you don't escape while I'm sleeping? Is that what you want?”
“You wouldn't.”
“I wouldn't before this morning. But I wouldn't have hit you before this morning either and it's taking all I have not to right now. And what the hell do you think will happen if someone finds you and grabs you?”
“You'd go to jail.”
“Only if you lived long enough to tell anyone.”
“Then do it now. Why wait if that's what you want?”
“I wouldn't have to trust me. It would be . . . never mind.” He looked down, away from me as he spoke, in a low voice without anger. “Just know there are worse things than me waiting for you out there. Much worse.”
What the hell did that mean? It was some trick of his. “Worse than a woman-beater, rapist, kidnapper?”
“Yes. But I haven't hit or raped you yet. I should though, any other man in my position would do that to his woman.”
“I'm not your woman, I'll never be.”
“That's where you're wrong,” He said and stared at me until I had to look away from his smoldering eyes, “You are mine, until I get bored with you. You should know that by now, if not you will soon. Come on out of there, eat some breakfast, unless you want to clean up in there now.”
I didn't have many options, so I walked over to the shore next to him and let him help me up. When I was out and walking past him, he slapped my as
s, hard. I yelped and looked back at him, wanting to slap him, he smiled which infuriated me even more. “What was that?”
“I won't hit you. Today. But if you behave like a child I will spank you like one.”
I walked ahead of him, into the cabin and took a seat on the couch. He followed and walked over to the wood stove, throwing a cast iron pan on top of it and proceeded to crack eggs into it, and add cheese and vegetables and I'm not sure what else but it smelled amazing and I was impressed he could do anything other than be an asshole. His concentration was fully on cooking, and making those wonderful smells. When he was done, we ate. And it tasted almost as wonderful as it smelled. “What is this?” I asked.
