by Emily Rose
Marcus looked down at him and he was silent. It was the longest time I had seen him not have a comeback right off the bat since I met him.
And he inhaled. “You remind me so much of my brother, your father,” he said and then grinned wickedly, “Drake was always so strong. Nothing ever got to him. It’s really too bad that he didn’t get to meet you before I sliced his throat from ear to ear,” he said.
A sob broke out of Kelly as if the thought of Drake’s death shattered her and I realized that she had truly loved him.
Marcus was horrible. He was sick and twisted. I was suddenly so angry with him that I felt my hands clench into fists at my sides and my jaw locked into place as I stared daggers into him, hoping that somehow, he would drop dead.
“But that’s old news and now I finally have you. You were the final piece to my puzzle, Miles,” Marcus said.
This was so wrong. This man had brainwashed his children into becoming exactly the way he wanted them to be. He had turned their souls black, extinguishing the light that could have been there. He turned their beauty into pure darkness without even caring one bit what it was doing to them mentally.
It angered me and made me sad. It made me wonder who Kevin, Dare, and Lila would have been if they had gotten away from this devil of a man.
My heart broke at these thoughts and tears filled my eyes, but I refused to let them fall, because then I thought about Miles.
He was the only one of them left that somehow turned his darkness into beauty, who somehow found the strength to ignite the fire in his soul despite the blood that ran through his veins. Marcus was the devil, but Miles was the fallen angel he had casted out of his kingdom.
He had stripped Miles’ wings and threw him to Earth, leaving scars on his skin, and Marcus thought that was it. He had nothing to worry about.
He was wrong.
Miles Conrad would get his wings back.
And when he did, he would burn Marcus’ world to ashes.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Lesley
My mind felt numb, everything about what my heart used to feel now only felt emptiness as I stood there, wondering with fear what might happen next.
“Well, I guess we should probably get out of here,” Marcus said, looking around the room at everyone like this was all just some kind of sick game.
And to him, it probably was.
I was unable to do anything as Kevin stepped forward, grabbing Miles by his arm and forcing him back to his feet before he turned him toward the door. That was when I saw his eyes.
They met mine and what I saw in them only made this so much harder.
He was telling me goodbye.
But I couldn’t get my feet or my mind to work. I stood like stone, debating what I should do next.
Before I could make that choice though, Marcus spoke from where he looked down at Luke still laying on the ground.
“We might as well take this one too. He’ll be a problem if we don’t,” he said.
Fear scorched my heart and I started trembling, because even if I could somehow come up with a way to get out of here, I knew that Luke wouldn’t. Miles definitely wouldn’t and most likely, we would all end up dead.
And that was what scared me the most.
There was absolutely nothing I could do to stop any of this from happening. All I could do was stand there, waiting and watching. My heart started racing and my breathing came fast as I watched Kevin step out of the house with Miles in tow. Marcus sighed heavily and then leaned down, grabbing Luke by his arm before yanking him to his feet roughly.
He groaned in pain and tears filled my vision. Our eyes met and I could literally see the pain in Luke’s eyes, even if he was too weak to fight Marcus off as he forced him toward the exit behind Kevin.
This was really happening.
They were really going to take Miles and Lucas.
My eyes glanced toward Lila and for the first time since this started, she lifted her gaze to meet mine. I begged her with my eyes to stop this, do something, say something.
And I knew she heard me, because she slowly shook her head as if to tell me to keep my mouth shut and don’t do anything stupid. I looked away from her to meet Dare’s gaze, but like Lila, he didn’t seem like he was going to step in to stop this either.
But I had to do something. I couldn’t let them walk out of here without any kind of fight.
So with my head spinning with how quick my heart was racing and my body trembling with the amount of fear that coursed through it, I moved.
“Lesley!” Lila whispered in a voice that would have been a yell if it hadn’t been for the two men standing right outside, but I was already on the move.
Dare tried to catch me as I darted past him, but I jumped out of his reach and stepped outside.
First, I saw that Luke had already been put into the SUV and Kevin sat in the front passenger seat, while Marcus was just now opening the back door for Miles.
I didn’t think. I just went with the first thing my mind told me to do. Sprinting forward, I saw Miles glance in my direction a second before I jumped onto Marcus’ back.
“Lesley, don’t!” Miles said, but it was too late.
Marcus hit the ground with me on his back, but he was quicker than me and stronger. I was thrown to the side, smacking into the side of Miles’ Chevelle hard enough to knock the breath right out of my lungs. Pain erupted throughout my body and I moaned.
But he wasn’t done, and he got back to his feet before anyone had a chance to say or do anything at all.
I had barely caught his gaze in time to see the anger that flared in his eyes as he reached down to grab a handful of my hair, pulling me to my feet before I even had a chance to get my lungs working again. It felt like it only took Marcus a few seconds before he slammed my head against the hood of the Chevelle with enough force that I didn’t even have time to feel the pain from it before everything around me went completely black.
****
The first thing I felt was the slick sheets that covered my body and then I felt the headache.
Groaning from the pain, I rolled onto my back and kept my eyes closed as I tried to remember what happened, but nothing came to me.
My mind was so foggy and the headache wasn’t helping either.
“I see you’re finally awake.”
I heard his voice and my heart shot to my throat. I sat up quicker than I should have, but pushed the dizziness and pain aside as I looked toward his voice. That was when I saw him. He sat in the far corner of the large room with a glass of something that looked a lot like whisky in his hand. The window beside him reminded me of a castle and I glanced around the room to see that the whole thing reminded me of some kind of chamber.
The bed I laid on was huge and the frame nearly reached the ceiling. It was also made of what I thought was stone. Black stone. Thin, black material hung around me, gently blowing in the breeze that came in from the window. There was also a black piano in the corner of the room and a very large black rug, which covered the dark gray stone floors. Directly across from me, I saw a stone fireplace, which wasn’t lit, and there was also an old looking wardrobe on the other side of the bed. There was even a bookshelf filled with so many books covering one entire wall.
All of it, everything about the room I was in reminded me of some sort of medieval castle, like a vampire would live in. It was dark, it was made of stone, and it was meant to be a prison.
I knew this the moment I saw him sitting calmly in that chair next to the window. He clearly wasn’t worried about me getting out of here, which only made my fear triple. Suddenly, I remembered everything. I had been trying to save Miles and Luke from Marcus, but he had knocked me out. At this thought, my heart skipped and I glanced around quickly, trying to figure out how to get out of here before Marcus killed me.
“You might as well get comfy. You aren’t going anywhere anytime soon,” Marcus said before he took a long drink of the whisky, emptying the glass and then
sitting it on the dark table that sat next his chair.
“Where are Miles and Luke? Where am I?” I asked and then glanced down at my clothes only then realizing I wasn’t wearing what I had been before. Instead, I was wearing a really short slick black dress that was more like something you’d get from Victoria Secret and my breasts were completely free of a bra.
My stomach twisted and I felt sick at the thought of being so exposed to whoever changed my clothes, and I could only pray that it hadn’t been Marcus.
Or even Kevin.
Slowly, I covered my breasts with my arms and glared at him. “Where are my clothes?”
He lifted his gaze from the empty glass and I wanted to shiver at the look he was giving me now, but I forced my body to stay as calm as I could.
“They had blood on them, so I figured you’d appreciate clean ones,” he said, elegantly shrugging a shoulder.
“I was fine with my clothes,” I said with more bravado than I thought I’d have right now.
Marcus pulled the corner of his mouth up in a grin. “I like you, Lesley. You have this power inside you and I admire that.”
“Well, I don’t like you,” I said honestly.
He smirked and then lifted his glass as if to say “cheers,” before he responded. “You are a brave girl. I can see why Kelly loves you, even if you aren’t my daughter. It’s really a shame that I had to go back on the promise I made to her to not touch you, but she’ll understand I’m sure,” he said.
“Where’s Miles and Luke?” I asked again, ignoring his previous statement about my twisted stepmother.
Marcus stood up and I moved back, but he didn’t come toward me. Instead, he walked over to an old wooden table that was pushed against one wall and grabbed the bottle of whisky that sat there before pouring another glass.
“I wouldn’t worry about them. I’m sure you’ll see them both again,” he said and then sat the bottle of whisky down, keeping his back to me and taking another long drink.
I tried to contain the fear I felt during this time, but it was hard. I had no idea when or if I would ever see outside these walls again. I had no idea where Miles and Luke were or if Luke was even okay. I was trapped in this nightmare and all of it was controlled by the Devil himself.
“What is going to happen to me?” I asked, even if hearing the answer scared me beyond words.
Marcus took a deep breath and then looked over his shoulder to meet my gaze. “If you behave, nothing. You will simply live here instead of with your dad and Kelly. But if you don’t, well, then it could get really bad for you and I don’t want to hurt you, Lesley,” he said.
Swallowing the thick knot of fear that had formed in my throat, I stared into his eyes and tried to figure out the exact moment in this man’s life that flipped the switch in his mind, turning him into this unstable, cruel human.
“You’re crazy,” I said bluntly.
He smirked, “All powerful men have some form of crazy in them. It’s what makes them dangerous, sweetheart.”
I couldn’t believe this man. He was completely insane and it should make me fear him more than I did, but there was something about his insanity that I strangely felt comfortable with, because that part of him reminded me so much of his nephew.
Miles was insane just like him, but that darkness he inherited was just as powerful.
“What did it? What turned you into this… this devil?” I asked.
Marcus blinked slowly and then steadied his gaze on me. “I was born this way.”
“You speak of the Cross bloodline like they’re Gods. Like they have always been known for their insanity,” I said.
He laughed once, “I prefer to call it power, but yes, they have been known for that.”
“How old are you? Are you the last Cross left other than your kids and Miles?” I asked, trying to glean as much information out of him as I possibly could.
I could use it to find a weakness somewhere that could help me bring him down when that time came.
And it would.
I had to believe that.
“I’ll be 41 in a few months and yes. My brother was set to inherit this place, but you already know what happened to him, so it went to me after his death,” he said.
I quickly did the numbers in my head and I couldn’t believe it. “You were only 13 or 14 when Kevin was born?” I said before I could stop myself.
Oh, God. That… that was horrible.
“Kelly is 3 years older than me. I was 13 and she was 16,” he said.
Staring at him, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This was so wrong. It was so very wrong. They were just kids. My stomach twisted at the thought of this happening to kids, even if it was Marcus and Kelly. At that time, they weren’t what they are now.
They couldn’t have been.
“But… how?” I stuttered, trying to picture this actually happening to someone so young.
He watched me, intently studying all of my reactions the same way Miles would do and it made goosebumps rush across my skin. Not the kind I wanted, but the kind that told me that my body knew something wasn’t right here.
“Kevin was the result of a rape, Lesley. We didn’t plan on having a baby at that age, but we were forced to have sex and she got pregnant,” he said.
I felt sick and dropped my gaze from him. I had never heard of anything so horrible in my life and I realized that Marcus’ childhood must have been filled with so much pain. It was no wonder he had flipped the switch in his mind. I couldn’t even imagine being a father at that age. I hadn’t even had sex and I was already going on 17.
A part of me felt bad for him, but another part of me feared him even more now. Like hearing what he went through made his insanity even more deadly.
Marcus stepped away from the table and that brought my gaze back to him. At first, he just watched me, sending chills over my body, but then he started walking forward. I scooted back on the bed again and pressed against the headboard, still covering my breasts with my arms as he continued forward, tilting his head to the side ever so slightly.
Something Miles also did.
“You’ve never done it,” he said in a low, deep voice that only reminded me of Miles again.
I blinked with my heart in my throat and remained silent. I had no idea what he was trying to say, but I wasn’t sure he was actually trying to say anything to me at all. I had the feeling that he was speaking his thoughts out loud, unaware that I was hearing all of them.
Marcus didn’t stop coming forward and the closer he got, the quicker my heart raced, kicking my body into a flight or fight mode. He had reached the edge of the bed when he grabbed the sheets with one hand, gently pulling them until they fell off my knees, revealing my bare legs to him.
“I can see it in your eyes, Lesley,” he said.
I didn’t have time to respond before Marcus grabbed one of my ankles with a single hand and yanked me forward, so that I slid across the bed as if I weighed literally nothing. The dress I wore slid up to my stomach and that was when I saw that I was wearing black panties, but that thought was pushed away with the fact that he now stood directly between my legs, so close that I could actually feel what was beneath the pants he wore.
I sucked in a sharp breath at the contact and looked up into his blazing eyes as he braced each of his fists on either side of my head, hovering several inches above me.
“You make it so easy to see right through you,” he said before lifting his right hand off the bed and placing it on the bare skin of my side.
Shivering, my heart skipped and I wanted to pull away, but I was frozen beneath him as he slowly started rubbing his fingertips down my side, watching his own hand. That was when I felt the goosebumps that followed the path of his hand and I hated that he was able to get such a reaction out of me. It made me sick that his hands were on me, but still, I laid frozen with him between my legs.
“Do you want to know how I know you’ve never been fucked, Lesley?” He whispered withou
t lifting his gaze from his hand.
I didn’t answer.
My voice had locked up and my stomach continued to turn circles. My body started shivering and my chest lifted in quick breaths.
He didn’t wait on me to respond though.
“Because…” Marcus went on and then lifted his gaze to mine before he pushed his hips forward, so that I felt his hard dick press into the material of my panties.
I sucked in another sharp breath and held it.
“You do that,” he finished before a slow grin pulled at the corner of his mouth and then he pulled away, leaving me in shock on the bed.
I stared up at the ceiling and tried to get my lungs working again when I heard what sounded like a large door coming to a close.
And then it clicked, locking me in this chamber. That was when they came. The tears, they slid slowly down my cheeks, coming to rest on the bed.
My life was not mine anymore, because the Devil had marked it, even if I didn’t have the visible marks on my skin, but I knew that my soul would forever have the number 666 carved into it.
CHAPTER TWENTY
3 weeks later
Lesley
Dear World,
It’s been three weeks since I went… missing. The only way I know this is by watching the sunset and sunrise each day. I haven’t seen the outside of these walls in what feels like years and I still haven’t seen Miles or Luke. I have no idea if they are even here or if… they are even alive. I want to believe that they are, but I don’t know. Marcus was here the first night I was brought to this location, but I have not seen him since then. Each morning, a woman comes into my room and leaves me breakfast. She comes back at lunch and dinner. I don’t know who she is, but I keep trying to figure it out. She won’t answer any of my questions though. She just looks at me and walks out. I have no way of communicating with the outside world. No phone. No internet. Nothing. I spend every single godforsaken day in this… this cage, and I’m not sure how much longer I can just sit here and do nothing. I feel so scared all the time, but not for myself. I’m scared for Luke… I’m scared for Miles. Gosh, just writing his name makes an ache burn in my heart. I miss him more than I ever imagined I would.
