Conrad

by Emily Rose

  Slowly dropping back into my chair, I glanced over at Marcus to see that he was glaring at me with so much hatred that I should have been dead and I knew at that moment that I would pay for opening my mouth, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel any regret over it. I would do it again, even if it meant putting more blood on Miles’ hands.

  The guy with the mic rushed into the cage and stopped the fight. All around me, I heard the crowd grow eerily silent as they waited for the verdict. For the first time since I walked into this room, I could hear my pulse in my chest as I also waited.

  Miles was still on top of the man and breathing hard, but his hands were back at his sides when the man with the mic kneeled down. I watched him press two fingers into the other fighter’s neck, checking for a pulse. And then he waved his hand up in the air. It didn’t take a genius to know what that meant.

  He hadn’t found a pulse.

  The crowd roared in frustration, but I didn’t pay attention to that. My gaze was locked on Miles as he slowly rolled off the man as if it took everything for him to do just that and hit the ground on his back. I could see his chest rising and falling in harsh breaths as he looked up at the ceiling. I wanted to see his eyes, so I could try to see what was going through his head, but there was no way I could from this position.

  And I didn’t have time to anyway, because suddenly, I was yanked to my feet when someone grabbed a handful of my hair. I cried out in pain and tried to fight him off, but it was no use as he dragged me through the same door I had seen Miles walk out of.

  “I told you to fucking behave, Lesley!” Marcus said with pure rage.

  I tried to get a good look at my surroundings, but it was hard with Marcus dragging me across the stone floor. Finally, he stopped and I heard what sounded a lot like a gate coming open a moment before he tossed me inside a room.

  I hit the stone floor hard enough to leave cuts in my hands and knees, but I ignored that and turned onto my back just as Marcus slammed the gate closed, locking it in place.

  He glared at me through the bars. “I was going to let you live like a fucking princess, Lesley, but you just won’t listen, so now you can live like the slut you’ll soon become,” he said and then turned away, vanishing from my sight.

  My heart was racing and my fear spiked again, but once I heard the other door we had come through slam closed, I heard a voice.

  “Lesley, is that you?”

  I stood up quickly and rushed to the gate, grabbing the bars with both hands as tears filled my eyes, “Luke?” I said and gazed around the dimly lit hallway.

  I couldn’t see him, but it sounded like he was in the room to the right of mine when he spoke again.

  “You’re really here?” he asked.

  My voice cracked on a half cry half smile. “Yes, I’m here.”

  I heard what sounded like chains hitting against metal bars and then he spoke, “Gosh, Lesley, I thought you were gone. I was so out of it and when I woke up, I was here. But you were gone, and no one would tell me anything,” he said.

  My heart ached, because I knew exactly what he meant. “I know, Luke. I’m okay. I’m here now and we can figure this out better if we are together,” I said.

  “I don’t even know how long I’ve been here,” he said.

  Leaning my forehead against the bar, I answered. “It’s been 3 weeks and two days. I’ve been keeping count by watching the sunrise and sunset in my room,” I said.

  Luke didn’t say anything for a long moment, but it was enough time for another noise to distract me from our conversation. It sounded like the door I had come through opened again and I turned to look in that direction. From this angle, I couldn’t see the door and it was too dark to see much else, but I could hear more than one set of footsteps. A moment later, Marcus came into view, but he wasn’t the reason my breath stalled. It was the person beside him.

  He was bloody, bruised, and clearly, too exhausted to fight Marcus off as he opened the gate across from me and shoved Miles inside before slamming it. He hit the ground hard and stayed there as Marcus locked the gate, vanishing back down the hallway without a word.

  My heart picked up and I grabbed the bars with my hands as tears welled in my eyes over the look of him. “Miles, are you okay?” I said once I heard the main entrance door shut.

  I could barely see him, but there was enough light to see that he laid on his stomach, using his arms as a pillow. His face was turned away from me and he was breathing evenly.

  “Miles?” I called again.

  I hated this. All I wanted to do was go check on him, wipe the blood off his skin, and I couldn’t do any of those things. The gates between us made sure of that.

  Miles still didn’t answer me, and it was clear that he just couldn’t speak. My tears fell gently down my cheeks and I slid down the bars, keeping my hands on them until I hit the cold stone floor beneath me. Without taking my gaze off him, I leaned my forehead against the bars and just cried.

  I cried for him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Lesley

  I laid on the stone floor in the center of my cell and stared up at the ceiling, which was made of even more stone. It was so quite inside this dungeon. There was a toilet and something along the lines of a bed, which I never used to sleep in. There also wasn’t a single window, so I had lost track of how long it has been since I arrived here.

  Every so often, I could hear Luke move in the cell beside me when the chains he wore scraped across the stone floor.

  Miles, on the other hand, still hadn’t spoken. Like me, he laid on the floor as well and I was pretty sure he was asleep. I had no idea for how long, but it felt like he’d been sleeping for days. I didn’t bother him though. It was clear that he needed whatever amount of rest he could possibly manage in this hellish nightmare.

  My chest lifted and fell in even breaths as I thought about everything from the moment I met Miles to this moment right now. It felt like nothing would ever be the same. I would always see the world, people, differently.

  But I couldn’t say that I would change anything, because then I wouldn’t have met Miles and despite my situation with Luke, I needed Miles.

  He meant too much to me.

  They both did.

  I had to stay strong for them, because if I learned anything from being here, it was that Marcus didn’t want the girls he sold to be damaged. The men were the ones who paid the price, which meant he would continue to hurt Luke and Miles. And if they were down, then I needed to be the strong one.

  No matter what.

  I waited for the fear I usually felt to rear its ugly face, but it never came. My heart beat steadily and my breathing came normal. It was like my mind, my body, was adjusting to all of this and none of it fazed me anymore. I expected the worst when it came to dealing with Marcus, because he loved the torture.

  And we were just the souls he had collected, so that he could play his sick games. He would do everything to break us.

  As these thoughts ran through my head, I laid there and promised myself that I would never let him break my soul. I was stronger than him. Luke was stronger than him, but even I knew that we weren’t the ones Marcus needed to worry about.

  Miles was. He was the strongest. He was the bravest. He was Marcus’ blood and he had the power to burn his world to the ground.

  He was the real threat and Marcus knew that too, which was why he would work harder to break Miles before he wasted time on either Luke or me. And I could only hope that Miles fought harder than he had ever fought before to make sure that didn’t happen.

  Marcus couldn’t win, because I wasn’t sure what I would do if he did.

  I heard the main door open and sat up quicker than I should have. Dizziness washed over me and my heart picked up just a bit, but I pushed it aside and waited for whoever had opened the door to come into view. Footsteps filled the hallway, seeming to echo louder with the silence, and then I saw him.

  Kevin caught my eyes for a second bef
ore he looked toward where Miles laid on the ground, still completely ignoring the fact that Kevin stood right outside his cell.

  “Get up,” he ordered and then begun unlocking the gate with the set of keys he held in his hand.

  I made a mental note to keep my eye out for that set of keys and watched Miles slowly get up. He acted as if every part of his body ached and I could see a slight limp as he walked toward the gate just as Kevin pulled it open.

  “Don’t move,” he said.

  Miles stopped right outside the door and steadily watched Kevin as he turned toward my gate. Our eyes met and a chill ran down my spine at the look he was giving me as he unlocked my gate as well and then spoke.

  “You too,” he said.

  “Where are you taking her?” Luke asked suddenly.

  Kevin didn’t even look in his direction when he responded. “Don’t fucking worry about it and keep your damn mouth shut,” he said.

  Swallowing hard, I got to my feet and stepped out of the cell. For a split second, Miles lifted his gaze to mine and I caught his eyes. This was the first time I had seen them in what felt like forever and I fought back the urge to hug him, because all I saw in his gaze was exhaustion.

  The rage in his eyes was gone. The pain wasn’t even there. It was like he was completely numb and there was nothing left of him.

  And it broke my heart.

  “Walk,” Kevin ordered us.

  Miles waited, watching me and I realized he wanted me to go first. Swallowing back the urge to attack Kevin and hug Miles, I started forward. I could hear them behind me as we headed out the door and stepped back into the room with the fighting ring.

  It was empty and so silent that I could hear my heels echo across the large room as Kevin directed us back through the double doors, taking us into the room with the “C” carved into the floor and then he pointed to go up the stairs.

  My heart flipped inside my chest, but I held my head high, climbing the stairs with Miles and Kevin behind me. My hand slid across the smooth, shiny wood of the railing and it seemed to take forever before I reached the top. Stopping there, I glanced over my shoulder to see Miles come to a stop a few feet behind me and then turn his head sideways as if to ask Kevin where he wanted us to go next.

  Kevin didn’t respond though. He bypassed us and went straight up to a set of double doors. These doors were different than the others I had seen. Engraved into the dark wood, I saw the same “C” that was on the floor. The only difference was that the snake wasn’t wrapped around the letter, but instead, the door handles were shaped into two snakes. I didn’t have to ask to know whose room was beyond the doors, because it was pretty clear that it was Marcus’.

  I stood back several feet as Kevin lifted his fist and knocked once on the door. A second later, it opened and a young woman stood in front of him. She wore a black dress that was a lot like mine, heels, and her black hair hung straight over one shoulder. I knew she couldn’t be much older than me, which made me wonder if Marcus did “test” his products out before he sold them.

  This thought made my stomach twist into a knot and I crossed my arms over my chest as if they could somehow cover my bare skin.

  Marcus came into view then. He wore his usual black suit and tie, except his black hair wasn’t slicked back this time. Instead, it looked as if he had ran his fingers through it with gel, making the black strands stick up a bit and it was at that moment that I realized his hair was a lot shorter than Miles’, whose hair usually hung over his forehead.

  This thought caused me to glance over my shoulder at him. Like I expected, his hair hung over his forehead in sweaty locks, but that wasn’t the only thing I noticed about him. I also saw that his skin also looked sweaty and pale. He was bracing himself on the side of the stair rail and my heart picked up with panic.

  He was clearly struggling to stay upright. My eyes caught his again and now that I had some light to see them with, I instantly noticed that his pupils were so large that the blue and green color was almost completely blocked out.

  “Are you okay?” I asked him in a whisper.

  Miles blinked his eyes like he was having a hard time keeping them open and nodded without actually answering, but I knew better. This wasn’t him. There was seriously something wrong with him. I glanced down at his arms and that was when I saw it. On the arm that wasn’t scarred, he had what looked like a barely healed needle mark.

  They were drugging him.

  Fury burned through me so quickly that I barely had time to register it before I turned my gaze back on where Kevin and Marcus spoke to one another. My nails dug into the skin on my arms, bringing blood, as I forced myself to stay where I was and not attack them both with the first thing I got a hold of. The girl I had seen had disappeared and as Marcus opened the door more, Kevin looked over his shoulder at us.

  “Come on,” he said and vanished into the room.

  Clenching my teeth together, I stepped forward and kept my eyes forward as I bypassed Marcus, coming into the room with Miles barely managing to stand behind me.

  The door closed and the sound of it locking into place ignited a moment of fear in me, but I pushed that aside and took in my surroundings.

  Marcus’ room wasn’t much different than the room I had been staying in other than being a bit larger than mine. It also had a large fireplace and seating area. His bed was the same black bed frame, except the material that had been hanging around my bed wasn’t there. He also had silk black sheets as well and there was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. I noticed that the girl who had been at the door now stood next to a dresser, clearly scared out of her mind.

  “Lesley, my dear,” Marcus said before coming to stand in front of me with Kevin relaxing in one of the chairs next to the fireplace as if he were settling in for a good movie.

  I held his gaze and silently prayed for him to drop dead as I spoke. “What did you give him?” I blurted.

  Marcus’ grin pulled at his lips slowly and he leaned to the side just enough to look at Miles, who had leaned against the wall to keep himself upright, “I don’t know, but it seems to be working,” he said with a tiny laugh before he pulled his eyes back onto mine.

  The urge to stab this man directly in the heart with my heel and watch him bleed to death was overwhelming, but I was forced to stand still as he went on as if none of it mattered.

  “Do you know why I had Kevin bring you here?” He asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m sure it has something to do with one of your fucked-up mind games,” I said with every word drenched with the anger that burned in my blood.

  His grin never faded, and I knew he was enjoying every single moment of this horrific torture. “Well yes, Lesley. You would be right. I need to know something. I’ve been curious about it for a while now, but I need, I don’t know, I need that certainty,” he said and then pointed one finger in the air, making a circle with it as if he were giving the green light.

  I caught the girl out of the corner of my eye pick something up from the top of the dresser before she started walking toward Marcus slowly and with tears sliding down her face.

  “Tell me, Lesley. How much do you care about my nephew?” Marcus asked just as the girl came to a stop beside him, sticking her hand out where I saw that a needle laid in her palm. He slowly took it and then waved her off before holding the needle up between our bodies. "Do you know what this is?” He asked.

  Swallowing hard, my heart raced way too quickly and I was unable to respond as Marcus spun the needle between his thumb and pointer finger.

  “This little baby is something that’s craved among many people. It gives them a high like you wouldn’t believe and if they have too much of it, they either get addicted or they die. You can snort it, but the high is much better when it’s shot directly into the veins,” he said.

  Inside my chest, my heart pounded and I stared into Marcus’ psychotic gaze, but my voice was still frozen in my throat.

  And he
didn’t wait around for me to find it.

  “This is something called meth, Lesley. It’s highly addictive and fucking lethal. It can turn the best person into their very own worst nightmare. This isn’t what I gave Miles to sedate him, but I will not hesitate to shoot this into his veins. You can prevent that from happening though. All you have to do is give me a little tease. I want to see those full and extremely sexy breasts of yours,” he said.

  That was when I heard him. His voice sounded so completely off and full of exhaustion, but it was him. I would know that voice no matter what.

  “Don’t... do it, Lesley,” Miles said, struggling with each word as if he had forgotten how to speak English clearly.

  Marcus rolled his eyes without breaking his gaze from mine. “Aw come on. We both know you’d like to see them too, Miles,” he said.

  Finally, I was no longer numb. I could feel everything. The pain, fear, anger, all of it hit at the same time, causing my breath to catch in my lungs. Marcus leaned forward then, so that his mouth was right next to my ear, but he spoke loud enough for Miles to hear also.

  “You and Miles have two options. Either he can willingly take this little needle, or you can get naked. Your choice,” he said before he stepped away from me, placing the needle on the table closest to Miles.

  Tears swelled in my eyes and my fear tripled. Time seemed to freeze all around me, and it felt like my heart stopped beating for a solid minute.

  I turned to look at Miles leaning against the wall. He looked horrible and I knew that I had no choice. I had to do this. Slowly, I lifted my hand to push the strap of my dress off my shoulder, letting it fall freely.

  “Lesley, don’t,” Miles said weakly.

  My tears slid down my cheeks and I pulled the other strap off my shoulder, “I’m sorry, Miles. I’m so sorry, but it’s the only way,” I said, trying to ignore the pounding of my heart as the fear I felt turned into panic.