Caged

by Shanna Ehrlich

Stopping by the house for lunch he blended up a protein shake and switched into basketball shorts and a white tee shirt for a quick workout. That was another thing the job was taking away from. He no longer had time to work out, or if he was being honest, he lost the drive. All he wanted to do in his spare time was be with Annie. And at night when he wasn’t with her, he didn’t care to work out because it was no longer a priority. She was in love with him no matter how big his biceps were. But they would be going back to New York soon and Braxton had lost a significant amount of muscle mass. He didn’t want to go back weak. He wanted to show up with his girl, strong and ready for anything.

  Braxton worked out like he did in the pre-Arizona days, until his shirt was soaked with sweat and his muscles burned from expansion. He’d forgotten how powerful a long workout could make him feel.

  Heading back to the kitchen for a much needed glass of water, he stretched his arms behind his back, enjoying the strain. He downed the glass in two gulps and was filling up another when his phone began to vibrate. There were only four people who knew the number to that phone and he always answered for each and every one of them. This time it was Trevor.

  “Hey. Everything okay? I thought I told you to take the day off.”

  “Did you do it?” he yelled. “Did you screw her? I swear to God Cage. If I betrayed her, over and over again, so you could whore yourself out.”

  “Stop,” he interrupted. “What are you talking about?”

  “Just tell me you’re in love with her. That it was a big mistake and you regret every moment.” Trevor was irate. His breathing staggered he could barely form a sentence.

  “Calm the fuck down! I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

  Trevor took a breath. Braxton could hear the heavy heave as he exhaled. “Did you sleep with Sara?”

  This time it was Braxton’s turn to be irate. “What? No. Hell no.”

  “Then why is she saying you did?”

  “Did she tell you that? She’s fucking lying Trevor. Don’t you dare go tell Annie anything that lying whore told you.”

  “So nothing happened? She made it all up?”

  “Not exactly,” he told him while taking a seat at the table. This was a story he wanted to forget and hoped he’d never have to tell. “Back in New York, at the house party after Annie left with you, I was pissed. I wanted to do something stupid to hurt her. So I tried to sleep with Sara. I’ll admit to that.”

  “What happened? Tell me everything. I can’t fucking believe you.”

  Braxton wasn’t keen on the way Trevor was talking to him, but he understood the place his anger was stemming from. And to be honest, he no longer thought of Trevor as just an employee. Somehow along the way he had turned into a friend and Braxton wanted to tell him, wanted to confide in him this secret that had been eating away at him. “We didn’t fuck. I promise. I took her upstairs, we made out a little, shirts came off, but then I uh, I,” it was his saving grace, but almost too embarrassing for him to admit. It had never happened before. “I couldn’t get it up okay. All I could think of was Annie and how much I hated her and loved her at the same time and that only made me hate her more. Sara tried to help. When it still wouldn’t work she may have made a bitchy comment and I may have backhanded her and told her something along the lines of how she would never compare to Annie, or Bethany is what I called her at the time, and that I was only using her because she was so lowly and disgusting that I knew it would hurt Annie more than any random chick could.”

  “Jesus Braxton. Do you always have to be such a dick?”

  “I also threatened if she ever told anyone I’d fucking kill her, so it looks like I wasn’t as big of a dick as I needed to be since you somehow know. When’d she tell you? Was she having a fucking lapse in judgment after seeing Annie yesterday?” He didn’t have his gun on him, but was so upset he physically ached to hold it in his hand. He wanted to imagine what it was going to feel like to shoot a bullet through her fucking skull.

  “She didn’t tell me.”

  Braxton’s heart froze. It literally felt like it stopped beating while he waited to hear what he knew was coming.

  “Annie did.”

  “No. She texted me this morning. Just a few hours ago. She didn’t know.”

  “She did Braxton. Sara told her yesterday.”

  “Fuck.” He had never been more nervous than he was in that moment. “Did she not believe her?”

  “No. She believed her alright.”

  “What aren’t you telling me.”

  “God, please forgive me,” he whispered before continuing. “You’ve already been punished Braxton. That’s why she didn’t mention it to you.”

  “Spit it the fuck out Trevor.”

  “She slept with Keith.”

  The line went silent. Both men holding their breath, waiting for one of them to break first.

  “Trevor. You better be fucking lying, and if you are, and this is a joke, I’m going to get on a plane to New York right now and rip every limb from your body.”

  “It’s not a joke.”

  Braxton let the phone drop to the floor while he grunted deafeningly and overturned the table. Only it wasn’t enough. He threw everything he could get his hands on, smashed chairs into the wall and even broke one of the cabinet doors right off the hinge. A part of him didn’t believe it, no matter what Trevor said, and he had to know for sure, no matter how self deprecating it would be.

  Running down the hall and into his bedroom, his laptop sat atop the unmade bed. Kneeling on the floor he opened the computer and pulled up the recent audio recordings of every bug he planted. He stopped listening to them weeks ago, there was no longer a point, but it didn’t mean they stopped working. That they weren’t recording every little thing that went on in that house. He rewound until right around early afternoon, when Sara stopped by. He heard her walk in, heard her lie, and heard his girl’s heart break when she found out. It was almost enough to make him forget about why he was listening in the first place.

  For the rest of the afternoon Annie was silent. The only noises being the chimes of text messages which Braxton remembered as the ones they exchanged. He knew she seemed off in that text conversation. Short with him for no reason. Well apparently she had a pretty good fucking reason.

  Braxton fast forwarded a few hours later when he heard her leave the living room and go upstairs to shower and change. After that he heard nothing. Everything was silent until Keith came home. This was it, the point of no return, but he had to hear. Had to know.

  What he heard broke his heart. He hadn’t cried since he was a little boy, but he wanted to cry then. She told Keith she loved him, that she would never find a man as good as he was and then she begged him to make love to her.

  Braxton reached for a small trash bin by the end table and purged the protein shake he drank earlier as the recording continued. It went on all night. Their sounds of sex, her moans, their passion. He could hear it all. After the third round began he paused the recording. Couldn’t take it anymore. He had the answer he was looking for.

  Braxton stood and contemplated the walls of the room like they were going to give him answers. His world was spinning out of control, his mind becoming less and less coherent. How could she? She believed the worst of him and got back at him in the cruelest way possible.

  Hurling his fist toward the wall, he didn’t flinch when he broke through the plaster to hit wood. He was numb, could no longer feel anything. She took that away from him. His heart was shattering, breaking into a million pieces and dissolving into nothing. She ruined them. Everything they had together, all the trust they built, gone. It was like when she left New York, only worse because this time she did it out of spite, to break him, to put him in his place.

  A dark cloud loomed above him. If she loved him, truly loved him, how could she do that? She should have stood by him no matter what, and instead, she betrayed him. Took everything caring and tender he had to offer and stripped it from his so
ul. All their promises, they meant nothing now. He was done trying. Done playing nice and doing things her way. He was going to make her hurt; was going to show her exactly what he planned from the beginning.

  Deep breaths heaved from his chest as he let the notions engulf him; take him over completely until any form of compassion had left his body and he was filled with only hatred. He already had everything in place. It would be so easy. Her life she held on a pedestal for all to believe was perfect and true was about to crumble.

  After finishing her room, Annie lugged the rest of the boxes downstairs to start on the kitchen. Propping them against the wall she looked around to see what she would take. There was nothing she really needed. Nothing that was hers and hers alone. It was all things she and Keith acquired together. A Keurig he used to make her coffee every morning, a food processor, a mounted TV, a vase filled with fake flowers, an electric wine opener. At one time these were all things that seemed important to her, and now they were all reminders of the life she just gave up. She didn’t want any of it. Didn’t bother putting any more boxes together. She was done. Ready to start her new life and face the future; one that seemed bright and exciting yesterday, and now bleak and dismal.

  Her worst fears had become prominent. He cheated on her. Had it only been a one-time thing or was this the life she could expect from here on out? After thinking about it she realized he never promised to be faithful. That was something he only made her promise. She just assumed his faithfulness went hand in hand with his love. He loved her so much, never in a million years could she imagine him cheating on her. That made it even worse. She felt deceived, played. She gave up her sweet and caring husband for a man who would sleep with her friend just to hurt her. Well two could play that game. And even though she never planned to confess to Brax, it still felt good knowing she got her revenge.

  Finished with packing Annie went upstairs to shower. She took her time, enjoying the warm water as it cascaded down her body. Slowly she massaged her fingers into her scalp, letting all her pent up tension seep away through every firm press. Lifting each leg onto the step, she shaved every square inch and when she finally stepped out of the shower she felt like a whole new person. Like she had washed away her sins and his, and was finally ready to start her new life. She wanted to call him. Now was the time. She was finally ready to talk, ready to tell him she left Keith. He would be so happy.

  Most of her clothes were packed, but she had set aside her favorite pair of black shorts and a purple tank. It was the same outfit she wore when they went to the underground club, when she first decided she wasn’t going to push him away any longer. It was symbolic of her current feelings.

  After dressing she brushed her teeth and combed out her wet hair. Her phone sat on the counter in the bathroom and she eyed it wearily, debating if she should call or text. He was probably working, but this was news he’d want to hear. Pulling up a recent text conversation she began to type, telling him to call her when he had a chance, but before she could press send, she heard a door slam from downstairs. Was Keith home? Did he come home for lunch? Without finishing her text Annie locked the phone and made her way downstairs. “Keith,” she called out. “Keith is that you?”

  There was no answer and Annie began to slow her descent while goosebumps broke out down her arms. Something wasn’t right. She could feel it; the tension in the air thick and suffocating. Stopping mid-step, she scanned the living room and over toward the kitchen, her heart pounding in her chest. Someone was in her house. Something was about to go down, the butterflies in her stomach told her as much. She should call the police, was still holding her phone in her hand, but instead she called the one person she thought could actually save her. The person who would do anything to keep her safe.

  Her hand shook as she brought the phone to her ear, listening to the sound of the first ring. The utter silence of the house echoed the chime and then followed with the sound of a vibration. Over and over, the phone rang and something else vibrated.

  It took her longer than it should have to realize what was happening and the phone slipped from her hand at the same time he emerged from behind the corner. Their eyes locked from across the room and she could tell this was not a friendly house call. She’d seen that look before, just prior to when he choked her out in the back room of the club. He knew what she did, the fury etched so prominently on his face, it might as well have been written in sharpie.

  Instinctually she took a step back, continuing to hold on to the rail for stability. She was fleeing in the opposite direction she should, nothing upstairs could save her, but it was the only place to go to get away from him.

  Braxton watched as she backed up the stairs. He let her retreat, let her think she might be able to get away. He wanted to beat her, punish her. If he was wearing a belt instead of his gym shorts he would have taken it off and whipped her with it until she could no longer walk, could no longer cry from each strike because her body would hurt so constantly it wouldn’t matter if he were hitting her or not. That’s how he felt. That’s what she did to him and she deserved to feel the same. He wanted to take away every piece of her being until she fully understood who she belonged to, who owned her, who had control over her, who could kill her, hurt her, in the blink of an eye.

  As she watched him while backing away, she could see the evil taking over his features. Every soft plane of his face now etched in stone. She didn’t know what to say, if she should say anything at all. He stood still in her living room, angry and brooding, and then was taking off after her, jumping over the couch like a panther in pursuit. Annie wasted no time panicking and turned to run as fast as she could.

  Looking over her shoulder she saw him gaining on her, he had already reached the stairs, and when she turned forward her foot slipped on one of the steps. Bracing herself for the fall she continued moving, half crawling as she pushed back up to stand and that’s when he reached her, held on by the back of her hair and threw her to the ground, her chest meeting the few steps she had left to go.

  There was no more running now. His heavy body straddled hers as he held on to the back of her neck, squeezing and pressing her face into the fibers of the carpet. She could barely breath and let out a cry as she pushed back against him, trying to free herself from his strong hold.

  “I hate you. I hate you,” he told her over and over again, pressing her face down further into the carpet. “I heard you. I heard it all.”

  Tears overflowed down her cheeks from her worthless struggling. For every ounce of strength she used, he fought back twice as hard, nowhere near close to exhausting himself. It was a power trip. He was showing her who was in charge and was letting her struggle until she came to terms.

  Her limbs giving out, she sobbed into the carpet as he hovered above her. When he recognized she had given up, he pulled her to standing, dragging her up the rest of the steps and down the hall.

  “Stop Brax, please,” she tried to twist from his grip, but he held firm. She didn’t know where he was taking her, what he planned to do, but something was screaming inside her it was going to be bad. She could only imagine.

  They reached her room and he shoved her forward, a hard push to her upper back and she fell face first on the bed.

  Twisting, she crab walked back to get as far away from him as possible, pressing against the headrest like it might magically detach and allow her further recession.

  “Is this where you fucked him? Right here?”

  She didn’t answer and he began destroying the room, pulling every photo off the wall, shoving her empty jewelry box to the floor, ripping each drawer from the dresser and tossing it into the wall until dents and holes scattered the once flawless paint. He was like a tornado of anger, doing damage to everything he came in contact with and Annie trembled with fear at the knowledge she would be next.

  “Answer me damn it,” he screamed, standing on the bed and ascending forward in two large strides until he was towering above her. Crouching down to
eye level he squeezed her chin between his thumb and fingers, applying excessive pressure. “Is this where you fucked him? Where you chose to throw away everything we ever had?”

  She still didn’t answer and he knocked her head back into the headboard, startling more tears from her eyes.

  “Don’t make me ask you again.”

  Somewhere between his temper tantrum and the growing ache on the back of her skull, Annie recognized she would not be getting out of this unscathed. He was making an authoritative play, trying to scare her into obedience, but she would not go down easy. He slept with her friend. He deserved everything he got. He might be able to hurt her physically, but she was not the weak one here. Verbally her words could be just as brutal. “Yes Brax, is that what you want to hear?”

  She squirmed beneath him. Her hands pressing and flailing against his outstretched arm in an attempt to free herself from his hold. With no release, she continued her verbal attack. “This is where I fucked him. Where I made love to him. Where he held me and kissed me. Is that what you want to hear?” she asked again, only louder this time.

  His hand was now shaking against her chin, his fingers digging in deeper. A vein appeared on his forehead, thick and pulsing. He could kill her in one easy movement. Break her neck before she ever realized what was happening. If he didn’t love her, she would have been dead already. He was holding himself back. Trying not to hurt her like he wanted.

  “I told you I was going to cum without you last night.”

  And with that final blow, he broke. “You bitch, you fucking bitch!”

  He grabbed her by the strings of her top and tossed her away from him. One of the straps broke and she flew further than intended, landing on top of the end table and knocking over a lamp. It crashed to the ground as she tried to find her footing and fell along with it.

  Braxton didn’t waste time going after her and looped his arm in a choke hold around her neck, pulling her into a standing position. “You have no idea what you did.” He squeezed his arm tighter and she clawed to get free. “I want to kill you. I hate you. I will fucking ruin you.”