“Dr. Hawkins, I promise I know what I’m doing. You contacted me and my team because you know our reputation. We recover victims of kidnapping with a much higher success rate than the police, and I also know how these guys work. They’re not going to damage the girl when they can still get a payday.” Jake ran a hand behind his neck, obviously doing his best to sound comforting, but the man didn’t know what he was dealing with.
“We’re already too late for that, and I told you already, he won’t ask for a ransom. He has more than enough money.” James grumbled, feeling his temper rise up through the chill that had filled him. He had to stay numb, cold; this had to be business.
Because if he let himself feel anything he was going to lose it.
“You don’t know that -”
James slammed his fist down on the desk, and the man’s eyes widened. It brought him some small satisfaction to see the surprise on Jake’s face that James usually caught across a negotiating table. James knew what the fuck he was doing, and he wished he didn’t know exactly what Marcus had already done to Thalia. Instead of arguing with Jake, James just flipped his laptop open where the email he’d received was still waiting.
The email had been run through a hundred proxy servers across the globe, the return email was gibberish, there was no note, just the audio file. James clicked it and walked away from the desk. He fought the urge to cover his ears, or scream and throw something like he had when he’d first heard it.
Thalia’s voice bled out of the speakers, at first begging him not to do it. His voice responding, her whimpers, the sound of a bed creaking as she struggled, his groan and her gasp when he started. Her crying, pleading, his low moans, his twisted words.
Jake closed the lid of the laptop.
“It’s not done. There’s more.” James felt hollow when he crossed his arms across his chest and turned around to face the man who supposedly knew more about this than he did.
“Is this the only one you’ve received?” To be fair, Jake did seem shaken. He had probably thought this was some money fueled snatch and grab out of Katherine’s million dollar neighborhood. His expression told James he understood better now.
“Yes. It’s the only one.” Cold. Stay cold, James.
“And you’re sure that’s -”
“Thalia.” Her name was like razor blades in his mouth. “And yes. I know what she sounds like.” James let the weight of that comment sink in with Jake the mercenary.
For enough money you could buy just about anything. Cars. Buildings. People. Even teams of mercenaries to get the girl back that you bought from a psychopath and his sadistic brother when the same psychopath kidnapped her. Again.
“We’ll move fast.” The look in Jake’s eyes told him that he might finally have a clue about what the fuck was happening here.
“You need to. I know her. She’s going to fight him, she fought him before. She’s going to fight him because she’s strong, and because she knows I was proud of how hard she fought last time. And - and because she knows how much I hate him. She won’t submit.” Panic was a dim presence somewhere in his mind, somewhere under the cold reason he needed to function. He brought his stare back to Jake, “Money is not an issue. Understand? Fucking find them.” James felt the earlier rage, the earlier agony, threatening to rise up inside him again. He couldn’t lose it right now. He had to find them, and when he did he was going to bury Marcus alive and stand on top of the fresh dirt until he heard the screaming stop.
Chapter Twelve
The door opening woke Thalia and filled her with dread, but as she pulled herself back to consciousness her body was too weak to react much. At least the fuzzy feeling of cotton in her head had faded, but her mouth was drier than ever, and her stomach ached with hunger. She’d forgotten that he only fed her when he was happy with her. Marcus walked towards her, the padding of his bare feet on the concrete drawing closer. “Thalia, I’m going to uncuff you. Don’t do anything stupid.”
He reached over her and with a ratcheting sound of metal her bruised wrists were free. She pushed herself up, drawing her legs close as she moved to the corner of the bed against the wall. The welts on her backside screamed at the contact, but she stayed against it. His eyes slid over her exposed skin, and she dug her nails into her arms to fight the urge to put more space between them, to burrow into the goddamn wall.
“Here. I’m sure you’re thirsty.” Marcus leaned down and picked up a plastic cup of water. He held it out to her. Her dry mouth screamed at her to take it, but she couldn’t. He could have done any number of things to it. “Thalia. Take it.”
“I’m fine.” She tried to pull her legs tighter to her chest.
“I know the side effects of what I gave you. You need water, drink it and we can talk.” His voice was level, and she wasn’t sure how many hours had passed since he had left the room but his temper had cooled. How long had she been missing? “Don’t make me force you.”
She flinched and reached out to take the cup, her fingers brushed his and she jerked the cup back so quickly it spilled over the edge. The first sip was incredible, and in a moment she had drained the cup. Tainted or not, at least her throat didn’t feel like sandpaper anymore.
“Good girl. I want to talk with you, can you behave?” His blue-gray eyes bored into her, and she reluctantly nodded. “I need you to accept that no one is going to find you here. You’re mine. I went to a lot of trouble to get you back from him, and I am your Master.”
“No.” Thalia denied it on a whisper, and she flinched in preparation for him to hurt her. He growled instead.
“Thalia, just fucking behave! Do I need to teach you another lesson? Would you rather I have this talk with Katherine?” The mention of Katherine’s name was like barbwire scratching her insides.
“Jesus! You have me here, isn’t that enough?!” Thalia looked up at him and she saw him struggling with his temper, but he took a slow breath.
“I do have you here, and I’m not letting you go. It will take me a bit to get another house set up, but we can live anywhere you want. I know you like the west coast, do you want to move there? Do you want to live in Nevada again? I remember you were born there.” He sat on the edge of the bed, leaving a few feet between them.
“I want to go home.” She bit her lip and looked away from him.
He growled, “Stop saying that.”
“I WANT TO GO HOME.” She screamed it, and he stood up and paced away from her. His frustration with her visible in the tension of his back, the way he shoved his hands into his hair to grip it at the roots. When he turned back to her she dug her nails into her arm to suppress the urge to scream at him again.
“Get off the bed. Get on your knees, Thalia.” He moved next to the bed and she gritted her teeth against the urge to cry. For a moment she thought about just refusing, knowing he’d drag her off the bed if he had to. He popped the knuckles on one of his hands and she relented, scooting forward on the bed in tiny movements until her feet could touch the floor. He pointed at the floor where he wanted her and she slid into a kneel, the bruises on her knees lighting up. It created such strong flashbacks to the first time he’d had her that her heart rate doubled in an instant.
“Let me make your situation very clear, because nothing else is working. You have two options.” He held up two fingers to make his point as he towered over her. “You can be respectful and obedient, and we can be together like we were supposed to be, and you know that I can make you enjoy it. I can make you happy.”
She wanted to shake her head, but instead she just looked away from him. Not sure if she could handle another outburst of his rage. He continued talking, his voice infinitely colder.
“Or, you can continue to be an ungrateful little slut and I will still have you, I will still keep you, but I’ll start your training over. I’ll break you. And you’ll still call me Master eventually. You’ll still beg for me. So, what do you want to do, Thalia?”
Her heart sank. She knew that Marcus
was serious, he’d never let her go willingly, and he’d already proven he still didn’t care if he hurt her or not. She was ruined either way, but she wasn’t the only one involved. Thalia forced herself to speak, “If - if I obey you, will you let Katherine go?”
“Why would I do that?” Marcus tilted his head as he looked down at her. She almost raised her eyes to his but caught herself.
Yes, she remembered his rules.
“Please,” she took a breath and swallowed her pride and any trace of hope inside her, and she called him what he wanted, “Master, please let Katherine go. You can send her back to James, you can have her tell him not to look for me, to leave me behind, whatever you want. I’ll write a letter to him if that’s what you want, just let Katherine go, don’t hurt her again.”
“That’s right. You do like to write letters, don’t you? Or would you rather send him an email?” His hand gripped her chin painfully, and he snapped her neck back so she looked up at him. “Yeah, I got your little email months ago. You used my name, told me to leave you alone.” His fingers dug in to her skin, and she winced. “But you’re mine. Always have been. I found you, you were meant for me. Just me.” He held her gaze for a moment and then he released her.
Thalia took a shuddering breath. She could survive Marcus. She had before, and she was better prepared now. Katherine? Pampered, spoiled, ridiculous Katherine? She was pretty sure she wouldn’t recover. “Please. Let Katherine go and I’ll tell James that. I’ll tell him I’m -” she swallowed over the urge to throw up the water, “- yours.”
“I’ll think about it.” Marcus glared down at her. “Let’s see if you can behave first.” He paced away from her, pushing both of his hands through his hair. He let out a bitter laugh and faced her again, “You’re just so ungrateful! Did you forget everything? I fucking protected you from Anthony! You don’t even know what I protected you from. If you had seen what he did to other girls, girls just like you, you’d be begging at my feet to stay with me. You’d be thanking me on your knees. You think Anthony controlling the chair long distance was bad? It was nothing. And the only reason I let him do that was because you tried to fucking run! You broke my fucking door with a mixer!” His temper spiked, but he laughed again and walked back and forth across the other end of the room. Thalia had her fists clenched in her lap, wishing she could disappear into the floor, or faint, or anything to not have to listen to him anymore. Could she will herself to pass out?
“You don’t know what Anthony would have done to you. You have no idea, Thalia. He liked to suspend girls from the ceiling, have them bound so tight they couldn’t move, and then he’d whip them, flog them, shock them with that electricity shit. Just to see how long they could take it before they blacked out. And, fuck, if you had seen Beth?” He laughed to himself and grabbed his hair again.
Thalia’s head was spinning; Anthony had always terrified her more than Marcus. At least now she knew why. Anthony was a vicious sadist, but Marcus wasn’t far behind him. “Beth?” She whispered, simultaneously curious and afraid of his answer.
Marcus faced her. “Beth was the last girl Anthony and I trained together. She was this tiny little bronze skinned blonde; he grabbed her when we were working in California. I picked her, of course, I knew she could be submissive, but she was feisty. Had a mouth on her just like you, but she fought a lot harder than you.” Thalia felt herself bristle at the strange insult. Hadn’t she been the only one to break the door? Hadn’t she tried to run? Hadn’t she fought him? Refused him? Left with James even when he commanded her not to?
And Beth had fought harder than her?
“We had her two weeks and she was still spitting at Anthony, calling him every name under the sun except Master.” Thalia couldn’t breathe as Marcus walked towards her, towering over her as she imagined the girl fighting back against someone as terrifying as Anthony. Whoever Beth was, she was brave. Marcus continued, “Anthony wouldn’t let me take over, he wanted to be the one to break her. And so you know what Anthony did to her? After he did all his normal stuff? After he tied her down all day and all night with a blindfold and ear plugs so she went through sensory deprivation?”
She felt sick, shaking her head against the idea of Anthony’s hands on that girl, of what he’d done. She suddenly didn’t want to hear the rest of the story, she didn’t want to hear what he’d already said. She wanted to curl into a ball and go back to the dream of her and James in the hotel. Even more she wanted this to be some Inception level bullshit and she’d wake up, in James’ bed, and all of this would be a horrendous multi-layered nightmare.
Marcus grabbed her hair and bent her head back, snapping her eyes to him, his words hissed at her, “He waterboarded her, Thalia. You know what that is?” She knew but she couldn’t speak, she was crying again, he continued without her response. “Anthony tied Beth down, covered her face and poured water over her so she felt like she was drowning. We used that shit on enemy combatants and they cracked easier! And each time he took the towel away he’d ask her how she should address him. She started off cussing at him. Brave little bitch.” He laughed. He actually laughed. Thalia’s stomach dropped.
“Please stop. I don’t want to hear -”
“I tried to get him to stop, I did, she was just screaming and crying, wasn’t even begging him to stop anymore, but he wanted to hear her call him Master - and she wouldn’t. So Anthony didn’t stop until she stopped screaming, until all she did was cough out the water and gasp for air and stare. He never liked it when they stopped reacting.” Marcus’ eyes burned into hers, his intensity scaring her in a new way.
Thalia was crying and trying to turn away from him, but he just fisted her hair tighter. They were both evil. Both of them. Just different levels of hell. That girl. That poor girl. They’d hurt so many girls. “Please stop.” She begged, but he kept talking.
“He didn’t just break her, Thalia, he fucking shattered her. She was gone. Nothing he did after that got a reaction, she was empty, hollow. And he wanted to do that to you, he told me that he wanted to do that to you.”
Thalia choked on a sob, Marcus terrified her, Anthony terrified her. The idea that Anthony had wanted to hurt her like that made her sick. Marcus’ false protection was no better, but there wasn’t enough in her stomach to throw up.
“But I didn’t let him, Thalia. I kept him away from you because he wanted to shatter you just so that I wouldn’t want to keep you. He wanted to destroy you because he knew we were meant to be together, and he wanted me to run his fucking business! You know why?!” He was shouting at her, and she shook as her adrenaline urged her to run. Run, get away from him, flee – but there was nowhere to go.
“No, I don’t.” She mumbled a response and tried to look away from his blue-gray eyes. He shook her by his grip in her hair.
“Because, after Beth, no one trusted Anthony. We lost so many customers because it was so obvious that she hadn’t submitted. That’s why I took over, because all of you submit to me in time. It just takes some convincing, it takes a firm hand and a knowledge of what you sluts need, and you -” Marcus laughed low and let go of her hair so her head dropped, “- you didn’t take much convincing at all.”
Shame washed over her. She had fought, dammit! She had fought until he beat, and terrified her, and turned her over to Anthony. And she had fucking survived it! Ailsa had told her THAT was what was important! She wiped her cheeks, glaring up at him, “You asshole, you fucking asshole! I can’t believe you’d -”
“I didn’t do that to Beth, Anthony did.” Marcus sharply cut her off.
“You were there, you let him -” The images in her head were shredding her.
“Shut up! He was in charge of her training, it was his choice!” Marcus sounded defensive, but she still pushed.
“THAT’S NOT TRAINING!” She shouted at him and he slapped her hard, snapping her head to the side. Her cheek burned, pulsing with her heartbeat, and she buried her face in her hands. She thought of Kalen and Maggie at
Purgatory. Guiding and fun and encouraging. The kind of training that let you become what you wanted to be, push your limits in safety. Then the pounding of her bruising cheek made her whimper.
“God dammit! Be obedient, Thalia. Remember your choices?” He sighed above her. “It doesn’t matter now anyway. Anthony tried to start things back up, but someone fucking talked and the cops showed up and took him and everything. The servers, computers, the accounts, everything.”
Marcus leaned down, his voice cold and ominous. “They came for me too, you know, but I saw them coming. I was way ahead of them. I had a girl with me, but she wasn’t you. She was never you. So I moved my money, left her there, left the house in the woods, and disappeared.”
“You took another girl? You said you wouldn’t -” Thalia met his eyes and she saw the rage behind them simmering. Of course he’d lied in his email. Why would that have been the truth?
Salvaged by Love (Thalia Book 3) (The Thalia Series) Page 18
