by KL Donn
“Please, stop. Please,” she begged the woman. She just smiled at her and continued carving Kennedy’s body with her curved knife. At the fresh slice brought down her leg, she bit her lip so hard she could taste the coppery blood as it traveled down her tongue.
Sweat broke out all along her body, making her shiver from the draft coming through the walls. She had no idea where they were or how long they’d been there. She knew that Emily was a floor below her; she could hear her crying every once in a while. One time, the man had gone down there and Emily screamed her name so loud that she feared he was going to kill her just to spite Emily. To her horror, he’d come back up and stormed into the room, ripped the knife from the woman’s fingers and started carving her breasts on each side. Then he’d taken off his belt, forced her to lay on her stomach and whipped her back mercilessly; so hard he’d torn the skin.
Her fight was leaving her. Hope was dwindling. What was the point? No one knew who they were or that it was two of them rather than just a man like they all initially thought. And now they were in some secluded cabin. She only knew that because at first, she’d tried to scream as loud as she could, but when no one came, she started to give up.
She was done begging. Done crying. If she were going to do die, she’d rather it be quick. Unfortunately, these two seemed to like drawing the pain out. Making her suffer. She’d learned that the more she struggled, fought, and begged, the more they relished it. So just maybe if she stopped, they’d kill her? End her suffering once and for all.
With her thoughts swirling and her doubt climbing, it wasn’t long before she started losing consciousness. She fought it as hard as she could before the darkness swallowed her, watching the sick smiles of satisfaction on their faces while she slowly closed her eyes.
Hearing footsteps coming closer to the closed door, Kennedy tensed and waited. When it slammed open hitting the wall, she jumped, rattling the chains wrapped around her wrist and ankles, holding her naked to the wall. As he stalked closer to her, she tried to memorize every detail in case they were rescued. Standing at nearly six feet tall with dark, short cropped hair and the meanest, darkest eyes she’d ever seen, a shiver of fear snuck its way up her spine. He had an average build, not bulky like her brothers, slightly smaller than Ty she thought.
It was the way he moved that terrified her— tense, coiled, restrained anger behind his soulless eyes. His jaw was set at a hard angle and lips curled in a cruel smirk; she was terrified. When he revealed his hands, he had an oblong piece of wood in one and a thick, folded leather strap in the other.
Kennedy wasn’t sure which terrified her more, the leather strap or the piece of wood that looked like one of those wooden mixing spoons. As he came closer, he let the strap fall to full length before cracking it like a whip making her jump again. When he was near enough to touch her, he wrapped it around her neck twice before pulling both ends so tight she felt her air supply start to be cut off. He was slow at first and she had a noticeable change in her breathing, then he pulled more forcefully and she felt her eyes bulge and blood rush in her ears. Each time she started to see black spots in the corner of her vision, he would let go just long enough for her to take a full breath, then he would start all over again.
At first she had struggled, pulled on the chains, trying to shake the strap loose from her neck when he would let go. Then she started to feel weak; it seemed like hours later, but it was probably only minutes. Feeling the life fading from her body, she stopped shaking from the cold. No longer fighting as he tightened the strap, she let it happen and said a prayer for her parents to find peace. She spit in his face just as he tightened it for the last time and she lost consciousness, thinking it was the end. How wrong she was.
·٠•● ●•٠·
Creed awoke to a strangled, pain-filled moan piercing the night. At first, he hadn’t been sure what it was but quickly realized the sound was coming from Kennedy. He got up, kicked Linc in the gut yelling, “Wake up, fucker,” as he ran up the stairs with Linc hot on his heels.
Seeing her struggling on the bed like her hands and feet were tied to something, her blankets on the floor from her fight, he gently slid his fingers up her leg whispering to her, “Sunshine, I’m here. You’re safe. Come on back, girl.” As his fingers reached her waist she jolted, back arching off the bed and emitting an ear-piercing scream making both him and Linc cringe from the pain in her cries. Her fear and pain were a living, breathing thing in the room. He could feel it as easily as if it were his own.
Seeing Linc from the corner of his eyes crawling into bed beside her, rubbing his fingertips gently across her skin, he met Creed’s eyes telling him, “Sing to her.”
Thinking back to the ambulance ride when they rescued her, it had just been a spur of the moment thing. He remembered his mom singing it to him when he was young, in one of her sober moments. Nodding his head, he crawled in on the other side of her.
Tracing the word sunshine on her bare stomach repeatedly in an effort to soothe her, he buried his head in her shoulder close to her ear and started to sing. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray, you’ll never know dear how much I love you, so please don’t take my sunshine away.” As he finished the last note she jolted up in the bed, startling Linc so much he fell out of it.
“Sunshine?” he questioned as Linc’s head popped up.
Looking around the room, he could see her eyes were haunted. Whatever she’d been dreaming about had been bad. He wished he could take the pain away from her, make her whole again, and in that moment, he vowed to show her how much she meant to him and his brother.
“You didn’t come. You always come. But you didn’t, and he kept doing it and I couldn’t escape.” She started crying so hard her entire body was shaking. Not sure whether to touch her or not, he tried running his fingers down her hair when she shook him off and screamed, “Don’t touch me!” before getting up and running to the bathroom, slamming the door shut. He’d never been so confused before or felt so helpless.
·٠•● ●•٠·
Shaking on the cold tile floor of her small bathroom, Kenny felt like her world was coming apart again. She’d waited so long for someone to rescue her from her mind. From her living nightmare. And now that they were here, she couldn’t seem to accept their help. She felt dirty and used like trash. She wasn’t worthy of the help they so desperately wanted to give her.
When she woke up from her latest nightmare, she’d been more scared than when she was locked in her head. She’d never once had someone there to wake her up, to help soothe her fears, and now that she did, she couldn’t help but push them away. Tainting them with her filth was something she didn’t need, nor want to do.
The tears wouldn’t stop flowing and her body was shaking so hard she felt cold. She knew she had to get up but dread filled her at the thought of facing them right then. She was dirty and needed to be clean. Turning slightly, she adjusted the shower to the hottest she could stand and slowly stripped from her t-shirt and shorts. Jumping in, the water burned but it helped wash away the unclean feeling she had after every nightmare. It helped to ease some of the shivers still trying to wrack her small body.
Grabbing her loofa, she slathered on her coconut body wash and started scrubbing her body— head to toe. Turning tan skin to bright red, washing away the filth lingering from her nightmare. Every time she had one, she would shower and scrub until her skin was so raw and red it was numb. She embraced the numbness because she didn’t have to feel anything else anymore. If she didn’t have to feel, then for a little while, she could pretend to be normal again.
Pretend.
Yeah, she could pretend.
Until they returned and she was immersed again.
·٠•● ●•٠·
Pounding. A never-ending, relentless pounding was going off in her brain like a drum beat. Thump, thump, pound. Thump, thump, pound. It didn’t stop and she was too exhausted to make it, so she lay there as t
he cold water poured down on her now freezing body like little pricks of ice shattering the glass that was her skin.
Thump, thump, pound.
Thump, thump, pound.
Crash!
Lifting her head as the door was slammed in she stared blearily as Creed, her dark night and Linc, her smooth as whiskey hero came crashing in amidst splintered wood.
Too tired to move, she lay her head back down and closed her eyes as the water was turned off and the room went silent. She listened to their harsh breaths. Counted their heavy steps as they looked around for the towel she didn’t have in there and waited as one of them placed their hand on her head and the other went in search of something to dry her with.
“Oh, Sunshine…” Creed trailed off. She loved the sound of his voice. It was dark like the finest of chocolates. Smooth like the most luxurious silk. It calmed her in ways she never knew a voice could.
“Creed, I’m so numb,” she whispered, her voice cracking at the end. As if she’d swallowed shards of glass.
“Kenny… Fuck. Ken… Sunshine, I gotta pick you up.” He sounded sad and angry about that. Like having to touch her tainted body was a bad thing. Lord only knew she hated it, so why wouldn’t they?
She was damaged goods now. No wonder they kept looking at her with pity in their eyes. Who would ever want to be around her, let alone touch such disgusting, vile trash like her again? Half the time she wanted to crawl out of her own skin, but never more so than right in this moment. The regret in his voice was loud and clear. He didn’t want to put his hands on her any more than she wanted him to.
She felt more than heard Linc come back in the room. They both seemed to have this air about them; when they left a room it became cold and bitter but when they were around it was filled with warmth and safety. She wanted to feel safe again. She wanted them to be able to make her warm again, but sadly, her spirit was too broken. How could they ever want someone like her? How could she ever be with someone after what had happened to her? She was a jumbled mess of regret and baggage that no one should ever have to take on.
“Kennedy!” Creed snapped at her. Forcing her eyes open, she gazed into his dark pools of heat. He was fired up and pissed off. Smooth Kenny, piss off the huge man. Great idea, girl. It sounded like… No, it couldn’t be... She felt a stirring in her gut to almost defy him. As quickly as it came, it faded away. For a moment, she felt like she could have the old her back. The defiant one; the girl who kicked ass’s and took names later. The one who was forever tormenting her brothers and had her dads wrapped around her finger. But like her old life, that girl was gone.
·٠•● ●•٠·
He could hear her mumbling, rambling about being dirty and tainted, that they looked at her with pity. When Creed heard the word broken he snapped at her, needing to get her out of her head. To understand that they were there because they wanted to be, not because of some misplaced feeling of sympathy. For a quick minute, he saw fire in her eyes and waited with baited breath for her to snap at him and tell him to fuck off the way he’d been told she used to do all the time.
He’d gotten so sick of hearing about the old her, about what she used to do, how she used to be. They hadn’t had the pleasure of knowing the happy Kennedy. They were tasked simply with making this new Kennedy happy. It was as simple and complicated as that.
She wasn’t who she used to be, and Creed didn’t think her family understood that as well as they needed to. They wanted the old her back, but what they weren’t accepting was that the old Kennedy was now a broken, scared, and scarred girl who was fighting to find her place in the world again.
She felt lost and alone, like no one knew what she was going through. Probably stuck in her head more often than not, and he could understand how she would feel like she was suffocating at home. How running might have been her only option. But after the previous day’s breakdown and telling them how she felt when they left had him more determined than ever to make her happy and whole again.
He and Linc both knew she’d never be the same girl she once was; she’d be a shell of her former self. Finding it hard to laugh, hard to trust, and more often than not hard to live. They were ready to help her through it all. He had no idea why they had both been immediately drawn to her but they were. As soon as she’d let them touch her when she wouldn’t let anyone else, he knew that they would have something special. He just hadn’t known what.
Watching Kenny now as she struggled to come out of her mind and fight her way back to reality, he was both worried and proud— worried she was slowly losing her grip and proud because she kept on fighting. Reaching a hand into the tub he gripped one of her arms as Linc grabbed the other, slowly helping her to her knees then feet. Seeing her wobble, Linc slipped in behind her sucking in a breath as he saw her back. Meeting Creed’s eyes he shook his head at him not to ask.
For now, he’d let it go. He didn’t want her anymore insecure than she already was. Knowing, though, that she still bore the marks from her torture left him reeling. They only knew some of her injuries, nothing about the actual lasting damage, though. He didn’t think any of her family did either. Or if they did, they didn’t understand just how it fucked with a person’s mind in the aftermath.
As they helped her dry off, her shaking never stopped or slowed; her fear was bone deep it seemed. Leaning down so he was eye-level with her, he waited until she met his stare. “Sunshine, we gotta get you warmed up, alright?” When he got no response his worry was amped up ten-fold. She’d been non-responsive with nearly every person she’d been in contact with since her attack except them. So the fact that she had basically checked out had him caused concern about where her mind was at.
Patting her body dry with the towel he’d taken from Linc, he dropped it in the wicker hamper she had under the sink and slipped his shirt off over his head and onto her. He maneuvered the shirt as Linc stuck her hands in the arm holes. All this with still nothing from her. Sharing a concerned look with his brother, he sat down on the closed toilet seat and pulled her into his lap. Grabbing her brush off the counter, he handed it to Linc indicating for him to brush her hair.
“Well shit, when did I become the hairdresser and not the spa boy?” Linc tried to joke, drawing a smile from Creed but still nothing from Kenny.
“I’ve always been better with my hands,” Creed said while rubbing them along Kenny’s bare thighs. Her near nakedness was starting to affect his libido now that he knew she wasn’t in any physical danger. His heart rate increased as she cuddled into his chest, giving a small wiggle on his lap making his cock stir when he really, really didn’t want that to happen just yet. She didn’t need to be more terrified than she already was.
Closing his eyes, he tried not to moan out loud at what was a form of sweet torture when she melted against him as Linc finished brushing her gorgeous red mane of hair. It was silky smooth as it fell in waves around her, landing on his arm as he cradled her to him.
Cupping one arm around her back and the other under her knees, he followed Linc out to her room where he pulled her big blanket back and slowly climbed in with her as Linc dropped down on the other side, jostling them all.
“Couldn’t have been less graceful, could ya?” Creed asked, his voice laced with sarcasm.
“Nope. My body only knows hard and fast,” was his smart-ass retort, making them both chuckle.
Once they had the blankets surrounding them and Kenny firmly between their bodies, they watched as she closed her eyes with a look of relief crossing her features quickly. “Please don’t leave me again,” she asked as she fell asleep.
Kissing her temple, he promised, “Never again.”
“Wild horses couldn’t drag me away,” he heard Linc tell her while rubbing her pale cheek softly with the pads of his fingers.
·٠•● ●•٠·
Watching the waves lazily crawl to the sand before pulling back out to the surf, Kennedy felt a moment of relief. She didn’t fully understand the connection s
he held with Linc and Creed but after the previous night and waking up between them that morning, she felt relief. They’d stayed. She’d asked this time and they’d actually stayed.
She knew it wasn’t reasonable of her to hold it against them when they left because they had no way of knowing how much she needed them. But still, she held some anger for their going away. Which is more than she’d felt in months. For the first time since her nightmare began, she felt a tingling of hope start to bloom in her chest.
Crawling out of bed that morning, watching as Linc and Creed slept peacefully, admiring their similar yet different looks, she could almost feel her walls crumbling. Those men, those strong, capable men were there for her. To help her in ways they probably didn’t even know they were helping. A little over twelve hours in their presence and she felt her world shifting again. It scared the shit out of her at the same time as it was giving her the faith that she needed to face her demons.
Taking a sip from her coffee, she leaned her head back against the chair she was sitting in, watching as the sun rose and the pelicans dove for fish before it was too late. Observing the slow-moving fishing boats as their drivers tried to find the perfect spot for their daily catch. So much life around her, so much happening, she’d never truly enjoyed it since coming to Italy two months ago. And what a shame because she loved the Mediterranean. The air was fresh and salty, the sun was almost always shining, and no matter where she went everyone was happy.
So lost in thought, she jumped nearly spilling her coffee when she felt a hand on her shoulder. With fear in her veins, she looked back and up in the direction the hand was coming from and wilted in relief at seeing Linc’s smiling face until it turned to concern at the look on hers. Coming to kneel in front of her he gripped her knees, lifting an eyebrow in question.
“You just startled me is all.” She tried to soothe. Admiring the way his eyes seemed to laser into her mind to gauge her truthfulness. With his jaw locked and lips tight he looked angry, but it was those gorgeous chocolate eyes that told her he was simply worried about how scared he’d made her. Taking a chance she placed her hand on top of his, settling back in her chair, eyes going back to her peaceful view. But not before she saw the shock run across his features at her move.
