by R. Linda
She smiled and handed me the plates to set the table, but before I could walk into the dining room, Ray bellowed, “Where’s my damn breakfast?”
I froze. I couldn’t walk in there. We had to have the table set when he walked into that room and the food had to be brought in a moment later. We were late.
“Lucy, go,” Kat hissed behind me as she flipped the last pancake onto a plate and called to Ray, “Coming, dear.”
I shook my head. But she nudged me with her elbow and pushed me into the dining room.
“What took so fucking long?” Ray stood to his full height, squared his shoulders and towered over me. The plates shook in my hands as I set the table, careful not to get too close to Ray.
“Had a little trouble with the pilot light this morning,” Kat answered sweetly before stretching up to kiss his cheek. I shuddered and tried not to gag. “Lucy, can you grab the coffee?” She set the pancakes down in the middle of the table and turned to me. Her eyes held a hint of warning. I was skating on thin ice.
“S-sure.” I darted back into the kitchen in full freak-out mode because I hadn’t made the coffee yet.
“Whoa,” Hendrix grabbed my shoulder when I crashed into his chest. “Relax.”
“Coffee. I haven’t made the coffee,” I cried. Ray didn’t like to be kept waiting.
“Relax. I got it.” Hendrix rubbed his hands up and down my arms to calm my nerves. I leaned against him and sighed in relief before he stepped back and handed me the coffee pot. “No fear, Lucy. He’s like a shark. He can smell it.”
Taking a deep breath, I returned to the dining room and poured Ray a coffee.
He lifted his cup and smelled it, his eyes narrowing on the black liquid. He sneered, grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled until my head was tilted back. I winced in pain but didn’t make a sound. “Drink it,” he growled and poured the scalding hot coffee down my throat until I choked.
I coughed and sputtered, tears rolled down my cheeks as the liquid burned my throat and spilled down the front of my chest. I clenched my jaw to keep from making a noise and waited until he shoved me at Hendrix. “You’re a slob.”
“Go and get her cleaned up, boy. You need to work on this one.”
And with that he sat at the table and ate his breakfast with Kat, while Hendrix wrapped his arm around me and escorted me to the bathroom.
Only then did I cry properly. I lunged for the sink and turned on the cold water, scooping it up with my hands and drinking as much as I could to ease the searing pain in my throat.
Hendrix appeared after a few minutes with a new dress for me and switched on the shower.
“Are you okay?”
“No.” I cried harder. I could hardly talk, the pain was excruciating. “Guess he knows I didn’t poison him.”
What did I do to deserve this?
Hendrix reached for me and pulled me into his arms. “I’m sorry, Lucy. But, I’m going to make this right somehow.”
Hendrix
THINGS HAD BEEN almost easy for the past couple of weeks since Ray nearly killed me. He hadn’t lashed out violently toward any of us again since the incident with Lucy and the coffee, and for that, I was grateful. I was glad the girls weren’t receiving beatings, but he was still as fucked up as ever, making us do things that none of us were comfortable with. Of course, we did whatever we were told, or at least we pretended to, so it kept him happy. Lucy copped it the most, though.
Ray still wasn’t entirely convinced that Lucy was the right one, so he made her prove it day after day. At first, it was awkward and I felt terrible for how uncomfortable she was. Hell, even I was uncomfortable with the whole thing, but I knew what to expect from Ray, so I just dealt with it. Years of dealing with what was expected made me develop a thick skin. It was easy enough to ignore the feelings of unease and push through whatever Ray wanted me to do, knowing that if I did it right, it would be one less bruise on my body. But Lucy wasn’t quite used to it yet, and I honestly didn’t want her to be.
The more time I spent with her, the more time I spent trying to figure out a way for her to escape this hell alive and unharmed. As much as I wanted that for her, she had different ideas. As the days wore on, she slowly became used to what he expected, even catching him off guard some days by proving her love for me. As much as it clearly pained her to do so, if Lucy took the initiative to kiss me or to tell me she loved me, Ray was much calmer and less inclined to force anything else.
Those were the better days.
Those days were bittersweet. I was glad for those days because we all suffered less. He was almost happy. I hated those days at the same time because Lucy was becoming too accustomed to the way Ray wanted things. There was a coldness in her eyes and in her voice. She had lost all emotion and feeling. She was simply being.
I was in the workshop changing the oil on the car of a regular customer when Ray told me to go and get the girls because he had a job for them. Frowning in confusion, I stripped off my work clothes and washed the grease from my hands before heading into the house to get Kat and Lucy. Kat was busy making a cake for afternoon tea and Lucy was in the basement washing clothes.
“Hendrix!” Kat spun around surprised to see me in the house. I had been working a lot the last couple of weeks. Apparently, customers had been noticing my absence, so Ray insisted on me being in the shop all day every day to keep up appearances.
“Um, Ray wants you and Lucy in his office,” I told her slowly, watching as her eyebrows furrowed. She was clearly as confused as I was. He never let her into the shop in case someone saw her, and now he was risking Lucy being seen too.
“Why?” she asked, her voice quivered slightly in fear.
“Don’t know. I’ll go get Lucy,” I said as I walked back out of the room to let Kat clean up before going to meet my father.
“Lucy,” I called as I walked down the dark and musty stairs.
“Hi.” She smiled sadly at me when I reached her.
“Ray wants you and Kat in the office,” I told her, waiting for a confused expression or a sign of fear to cross her features. But nothing.
“Okay.” She nodded her head in agreement easily. No questions asked, no fear or worry in her voice. Just okay.
“You okay?”
“I'm fine. I’ll just finish this load and go clean up.”
“You go. I’ll do this. Meet me by the door,” I said, squeezing her hand gently. I hated seeing her like this, like everything was normal. It wasn’t normal. It was fucked up.
She walked up the stairs while I continued piling the sorted clothes into the washing machine before adding soap and turning it on. The machine rumbled to life and began filling with water. I stood there for a minute, listening to the machine as it spluttered and made gurgling sounds. It sounded like it was going to die soon.
Ignoring the groaning machine, I trudged back up the stairs and met Kat and Lucy at the door to the shop. They followed me silently down the small hall to the workshop. Peering my head around the corner, I checked the coast was clear before quickly ushering them into the office just to the left.
Ray was already seated with his legs kicked up on his desk. He folded the paper he was reading and placed it down on top of the computer keyboard before glancing at all of us. I glanced warily at the paper. The last paper I saw him reading in the office detailed how Lucy was the senator’s daughter.
“Thank you, son.” He grinned. It was creepy. Sly. He had something planned.
I nodded my head in acknowledgement and stepped back toward the door.
“Stay, Hendrix. This concerns you too,” he said.
I gulped in fear, trying to swallow the lump forming in my throat. I had no idea what he had in mind, but judging by the look on his face, it wasn't going to be pleasant for us. For him, maybe, but definitely not for us.
“I’m having some furniture delivered,” he said, leaning forward and folding his hands across his lap. Okay, that wasn’t out of the ordinary, particularly with the amount of furniture th
at had been broken when he’d thrown me into it.
“It will need to be set up in your room,” he continued, turning his gleaming blue eyes on Lucy.
“Yes, sir,” she answered instantly with a smile, making me cringe at how it came so easily to her now.
“But you will need to clear your room out of all your furniture first. Take everything. I want your room bare by the time the delivery gets here.”
“Okay, sir,” she answered again with a smile that failed to hide her confused frown.
“Is Lucy getting new furniture?” I asked him, wanting to know why we had to clear the room completely. I couldn’t see him being that generous.
“In a sense, yes, but the delivery is not for her,” he answered cryptically.
“So...?” I tried to work out what he was saying.
“I am setting Lucy’s room up for something else. You’ll be moving downstairs into Kat’s old room with Lucy, and Kat will move into your room down the hall,” he sighed, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Okay,” I answered, slowly looking to Lucy for a clue as to how she felt about this while trying to work out what the hell he was planning. I didn’t understand what he could need Lucy’s room for or why he was making me move down to the basement with her.
“You two have been in a relationship long enough now that the next logical step is moving in with each other. Don’t you think?”
He was seriously fucking nuts. If by relationship he meant forcing Lucy to pretend she cared about me and was happy being trapped in a house, then yes, we’d been in a really fucked up relationship for a couple of months.
“Yes, of course. I think that’s a great idea,” Lucy agreed easily. She didn’t seem freaked out or put off by the idea. In fact, she seemed almost relieved at Ray’s suggestion. I knew she had developed an attachment of sorts to me. Those few days after Ray had nearly beaten me to death proved that. She never left my side.
“Great, then start moving all your furniture out and swap Hendrix’s and Kat’s rooms around. I want my woman as close as possible. Kat, when the furniture arrives, Hendrix will assemble everything, but I want you to design the room, make it suitable.” He smiled at her. It was strange to see him so relaxed and almost happy.
“Make it suitable for what, exactly?” Kat asked cautiously.
“The baby, of course.” He beamed at her like he was delivering the best news in the world. The baby? “Okay, go on, get out of here. Hendrix, you wait here a second,” he said, dismissing the girls who both hurried out of the office looking worried. A baby. Who the hell was having a baby? Kat? Please, no! I hoped he wasn’t planning on abducting a baby now. He couldn’t be that screwed in the head.
“You okay with that, son? Are you ready for it?” he asked in a concerned fatherly way. I was so lost. I had no idea what was really happening and couldn’t tell whether he was serious or not.
“Ready for what?”
“To become a father, of course,” he answered simply. “Lucy is a wonderful girl and will make a great mother; once you’re married, of course.”
“What?” I couldn’t mask the shock in my voice. It was one thing for him to expect her to be mine, but it was an entirely different level of fucked for him to expect a marriage and a baby.
“For fuck’s sake, boy. Have you not listened to anything I’ve said over the years?” he shouted, and before I could react, the back of his hand connected with my face. I stumbled back slightly and took my palm up to my cheek to sooth the sting.
“You will marry Lucy. And you will give me a grandchild. It’s all I have ever asked of you. That is all I want. If you can do that, I will be very happy. Now, get the fuck out of my sight. You have a proposal to plan, wedding to organise, and a baby to make.”
I left his office and stumbled down the hall in a daze. Kat and Lucy were already shuffling things around Lucy’s room downstairs. This could not be happening. I knew to expect it, but I didn’t think he’d force the issue. I just kind of assumed he would let things happen at a natural pace—not that anything was natural about this situation—but a wedding and baby after a couple of months was not normal in most circumstances.
I thought I would have more time to prepare or plan for this, but I didn’t. I had to figure it out as quickly as possible. A proposal and a wedding were easy enough to fake. Not like he could bring a real minister in here to perform the ceremony. It would just be him saying a few non-binding words. But a baby? That was a completely different story. That was something we couldn’t fake our way out of. Maybe for the first couple of months, but eventually he’d start asking questions and demand to know why Lucy wasn’t pregnant.
I knew one thing though. I was not forcing Lucy to have a baby. No fucking way in hell was that going to happen. Not here, not under his roof, and not with me.
“Hendrix, you look green. Are you okay? What did he say?” Kat rushed over as soon as I stumbled downstairs into the room. I looked from her to Lucy and felt like I was going to throw up.
“A baby,” was all I managed to choke out.
“Yes, but how? What? I… I don’t understand,” Kat mumbled.
“Lucy and I have to have a baby,” I said. Kat gasped in shock at my words while Lucy’s eyes filled with tears. I couldn’t lie my way out of this one. The only way to fix this was to get Lucy out of here.
“Hendrix, please, I can’t do that.” Lucy was shaking violently. “I will do anything he asks me to do, but I won’t have a baby because he wants me to. Don’t make me do it, please?”
“It’s okay, Lucy.” I wrapped my arms around her and whispered in her ear. “I won’t let it happen. It can’t happen. I’ll get you out of here. You and Kat. You’ll be free somehow. I’ll figure it out.”
“How? You can’t possibly—” Kat started, but I cut her off.
“I’ll figure it out, Kat. This is not happening. Understand?” My voice was loud, and stern. I think I startled her a little because she stepped back and ducked her head.
“Sorry. I just… it’s too much. I don’t know what to do anymore. I hate this so much,” I apologised to the both of them.
“It’s okay. Come on, we better do this quickly before the… before the furniture arrives.” Lucy winced and pulled out of my arms. She began picking out the few dresses and other items of clothing she had from her closet while Kat and I began stripping the bed and shifting the furniture.
Lucy
“HENDRIX, WHAT ARE we going to do?” I stood in the centre of our new room, twisting my fingers nervously and staring at the bed. Ray had taken all the spare blankets and pillows that Hendrix had been using on the floor of the other room so we’d have to share a bed.
“We’ll figure it out.”
“How? He wants a fucking grandchild. That is so messed up! I can’t do it. I won’t do it.” I paced the room, pleasantly surprised that it was slightly nicer than the one I’d been shoved in when I arrived. This one at least had a shower, and a rug on the concrete floor.
“I know. I won’t either. We’ll try to put it off as long as possible and then maybe tell him you can’t have kids?”
“And then he’ll kill me because I’ll be of no use to him.” I leaned against the wall and sank to the ground, hugging my knees to my chest. “He’s insane. He can’t possibly believe I’d give him a grandchild. No child deserves to be raised in this house.”
“I know.” Hendrix fell to the ground beside me and held my hand. “I don’t know what to do. But for now, we play along until we can come up with a plan.”
“You said it yourself, he’s too smart. He’s always one step ahead.”
“We have to catch him off guard. He’s human. He’s bound to make a mistake at some point.”
“Hopefully before he realises that I’m not and will never get pregnant in this house.” I leaned my head on his shoulder and yawned.
“You should get some sleep. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?”
“Baby furniture.” I
cringed at the thought. What the hell went through Ray’s head? Everything about this was so twisted and screwed up. I stood up, grabbed a nightgown from the cupboard and walked into the tiny bathroom to change.
When I returned to the room, Hendrix was lying on the floor with his hands behind his head. “What are you doing?” I asked, padding over to where he was and looking down at him.
“Going to sleep.”
“Hendrix, you can’t sleep there. You’ll freeze.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“Get in the bed.”
“No. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“I don’t want you to freeze to death on the ground. Get in the bed. Besides, if he checks the cameras, don’t you think he’ll be pissed if you’re on the floor?” I stretched out a hand to pull him up.
His hands came to rest on my waist. “You sure?”
“Yes. As sure as I am that he’s watching us right now. I mean, it’s our first night ‘living together’, so…” I trailed off. I had no doubt that Ray was watching like the sick, perverted freak that he was, and if we didn’t at least appear to look in love there’d be hell to pay, and I didn’t want that. I’d gotten quite used to the almost peace over the last couple of weeks and didn’t want to ruin a good thing by screwing up.
“You’re probably right.”
“So… Showtime?” I wound my hands around the back of his neck and pressed my body against his.
“Showtime.” Hendrix nodded once and tightened his arms around my waist.
I pushed up on my toes and pressed my lips to his. If I were honest, it was getting much easier to kiss him and act like a girlfriend. We’d grown so close over the weeks, that sometimes I let myself believe that it was real. That we were in a relationship. And Ray was nothing more than a figment of my imagination.
Hendrix’s hands grasped at the back of my shirt, his fingers grazed the skin on my lower back, setting my nerves alight. I stepped back and pulled him with me until the back of my knees hit the bed. My lips parted, and his tongue met mine, in slow, languid movements, devouring me. I gasped in a breath and reached for the hem of Hendrix’s shirt.
