Chris nodded and turned his attention back to Paige for a moment. "Then why isn't she ready?" His voice was cold and Paige tried to hide the shiver that ran through her. How someone could make their voice sound so utterly devoid of human emotion was beyond her.
"Well I was but she... Well, she escaped..."
Chris nodded thoughtfully before turning quickly and punching Terrence straight into the face. "You mean you made a mistake you worthless sack of shit!"
Terrence crumpled to the floor and Chris drew back and began to kick the man who had curled into a ball in front of him.
"You have one fucking job! One job and you nearly destroy it all because you thought you could get to her before I did?"
Paige watched on horrified as Terrence was reduced to a blubbering, bleeding, pleading mess. The women in the room cried out in terror and horror as Chris continued to beat him until Terrence stopped moving.
Paige closed her eyes as tears seeped out from below her eyelashes. Why had Aidan left her here to face this? He could have taken her with him and not left her to be subjected to all of Chris's wrath.
He stopped and watched the still man on the floor for a moment. His face was flushed red and his eyes had taken on a type of calm that Paige had only associated with psychopaths.
He whirled back to Paige with a smile on his face. "Bella, will take you to be prepared now..." Chris lifted his hand and gestured to a woman to step forward.
Paige tried to follow her movement but the man who held her hair jerked her head back, preventing her from having a good view.
"I want her ready for my private chambers. You have one hour." Chris's voice was cold once more. He gestured to Terrence's badly beaten body on the floor. "Have the mess taken away and the floor cleaned... I don't want any of the girls slipping in the blood."
He turned and stalked away without a backwards glance. The man that held Paige by the hair, slowly urged her to her feet by tugging her hair upwards. Paige winced as they twisted her arms up behind her back a little higher. The cut on her arm was beginning to throb. She was certain that several more of the stitches had probably split and there was a trickle of warmth running down her arm.
They tugged her across the floor past where Terrence lay. Although Paige had thought he was a dick and she had wanted to hurt him. She hadn't wanted to see Chris do what he had. That had been horrifying and seeing Terrence lying so still Paige couldn't help but wonder if he was alive or not...
They dragged her out through a set of double doors on the far end of the room and down another long and seemingly empty corridor. This place was like a maze and Paige couldn't help but wonder that even if she did get free how would find her way out.
They followed the smaller woman he walked ahead of them into a room with a huge pool that was sunk into the middle of the floor. Paige found herself being released so abruptly that she collapsed onto her knees on the hard tile floor.
The men stood to one side and showed no sign of leaving. Paige drew her arms around her body and shuffled in towards the corner in the room. There was no way she was getting in any bath naked with the guards standing watching.
The other woman seemed to sense her discomfort and fear. She leaned against one of the guards and whispered something into his ear. He seemed to pause for a moment as though contemplating her request before nodding. He gestured to the other man to follow him from the room. Soon it was just Paige and the other strange woman.
Paige watched her carefully. Her eyes darting back and forth from the woman to the door as though contemplating what it would take to make a break for it. The woman approached Paige slowly, she lifted her hands as though to show that she meant no harm. But in Paige's terrified mind that meant nothing.
All she wanted was to get back to Will. When she saw him again she planned on telling him how sorry she was. That she had been wrong to argue with him. Paige regretted leaving him on an argument and getting back to him so she could tell him how she felt was vitally important to her now.
"I'm not here to hurt you... I'm a prisoner like you... I'm Bella and you must be Paige."
Paige nodded. The woman crouched in front of Paige. Her silky black hair was drawn away from her face in a high bun and each time the lights hit it just right Paige could see the blue highlights light up in it. Her brown eyes were filled with compassion and kindness and something else lurked beneath the surface. It was there one minute and gone the next but Paige was almost certain of what it was. It looked like pain.
"I need to get out of here..." Paige whispered, her voice hoarse with fear and pain.
The other woman shook her head sympathetically. "I know you think you do, but women here only get out one way... When another man buys you... And that can either be a blessing or a curse."
Paige shook her head in an attempt to stop the tears from clouding up her eyesight. "He's waiting for me... I belong to another... I don't belong here... Chris took me out of a vendetta... He wants me dead and he plans to kill me... I have to get back to Will"
The other woman took Paige by the hand and helped her to stand. She led her over to a bench at the opposite wall and took a seat beside her. Gently she tended to Paige's arm, cleaning and quickly suturing up the wound with the medical kit from below the bench.
"Where did you learn to do that?" Paige asked. Her curiosity about the woman beside her winning out over her fear.
The woman shot Paige a wide smile. "I was a nurse, long before I came here... I haven't lost my skills and Chris lets me tend to the injured whenever possible..." She broke off as though remembering something too painful.
Paige put her hand on the other woman's arm. "How did you get here?"
The other woman lifted her tearstained face to Paige. "I was taken two years ago. I've been here ever since... My fiancé was working on a case... It involved Chris and as punishment for Aidan shooting Chris in the shoulder he had me kidnapped and brought here..."
Paige froze. It was a coincidence. It had to be, there was no other way around it. There was no way the woman sitting beside Paige knew the Aidan that she did. It wasn't possible. Things like that only happened in the movies...
"What was his full name?" Paige asked her hands beginning to tremble.
The other woman stood and slowly began to strip Paige out of her clothes. Paige tried to stop her, but the woman lifted her hand and indicated the passing of time. "If we don't get you cleaned up Chris will kill us both immediately... But he'll let his guards have us first."
Paige began to help then, stepping out of the ruined summer dress and leaving it discarded on the floor as she climbed into the warm water. "Please tell me what his full name was?"
The other woman shot Paige a confused look. "What does it matter? It was a long time ago... I have no idea what has even happened to him..."
Paige gripped her hand tightly and stared up into her brown eyes. "Please?"
"Crantree, Aidan Crantree."
Paige gasped. Her body going cold with shock. It had to be impossible. She remembered back to the instance outside her apartment building when Chris had held her hostage with the gun. He had spoken as though he knew Aidan, as though he knew him intimately... Now it made sense. Crazy sense but at least it made some of the more obscure pieces fall into place. Aidan was behaving so weird because of what Chris had done to him and the woman he loved.
"I've met you fiancé... He's part of the reason I'm in here..." Paige let the words out in one shaking breath.
The other woman paled visibly. Her hands flying to her mouth and tears appearing in her eyes.
"You know Aidan... How is he? Is he alright?" She sounded so eager to know the answers. So hopeful.
But Paige wasn't sure how to answer. How could she explain the way Aidan was behaving? How could she say that he had left her in here on purpose... And all for a case... How could she tell her how cold and hard he had become?
Paige opened her mouth to answer, but one of the guards chose that moment to poke his hea
d in the door. "What's taking so long... You need to get her ready, Bella..." His tone was filled with warning.
Paige had nowhere to hide. She contemplated ducking below the surface of the water but her inability to swim hadn't improved with age and she was left with no choice but to stand there and try and conceal her nudity from his greedy gaze with her hands. The door slammed shut once more and Bella grabbed Paige's arm.
"Please, you have to tell me how he is? I haven't seen him in two years... I knew he wouldn't be able to come for me... It's too impossible but knowing that he is here... That he is nearby..." Tears filled her eyes as she looked off into the distance. "I don't know how to describe it..."
"I don't think he ever got over you... It seems to affect him in everything he does..." Paige tried to answer as diplomatically and honestly as possible. There was nothing else she could do. She had to tell the truth and the truth was that Aidan was messed up.
Bella nodded and gulped back a happy sob. "I just can't believe he is here... Perhaps when he comes here to save you, I'll get to see him once more..."
Paige shook her head, "Don't count on it."
Bella paused and shot Paige a confused look. "I don't understand what do you mean?"
Paige sighed. "He's the reason I'm still stuck here... He came in after me... Or I don't really know what he was doing in here... But he found me and wanted to know what I had found out... Like did I know where the women were held and well because I didn't he left me here..."
Bella looked shocked. Her face paled even more and she sat back on the edge of the floor near the pool. "That's not possible... That doesn't sound like Aidan at all..."
Paige shrugged. There was no way she could comment on that. She didn't know the Aidan that Bella knew. But equally, Bella, didn't know the Aidan that Paige knew. It was a complicated situation. Made even more complicated by the fact that if Paige could have gotten her hands on Aidan in that moment she would have tried to kill him. Leaving her here to face what she was going through was beyond cruel.
Bella absentmindedly handed Paige a sweet smelling bottle of liquid. Paige held it for a moment and stared at the contents unsure of what to do with it. When Bella realised that Paige wasn't moving or attempting to use the liquid she flicked her full attention to her.
"It's like a type of shower gel stuff... Chris insists that all the girls that go to him smell like that stuff..." Bella wrinkled her nose as Paige pulled the cap from it.
She lifted it to her nose but she could already smell it. It was sickly sweet and it made Paige want to gag. As far as she was concerned there was no way she was rubbing that stuff on her skin...
Replacing the lid she handed the bottle back to Bella. "I'm not using it... I'm not going to be one of Chris's whores. I want out of this place and you're going to help me."
Bella immediately shook her head and stood. She grabbed a towel from the neatly folded pile on the bench. She quickly wrapped it around Paige as she stepped out of the water.
"I can't, he'll kill me and as strange as it may seem I don't want to die..."
Paige watched the other woman with sympathy. She had heard of people who had spent to long with their captors and had developed a type of feelings for them. Stockholm syndrome.
"As it is I haven't prepped you enough... You're not the way he normally likes his girls..." Bella attempted to fix Paige's hair by pulling it up into a high ponytail but Paige had other ideas.
"No. He'll take me as I am or not at all... I'm not his. I belong to someone else and I'm not going to dress and look the way Chris wants me too... I'm a human being, I don't deserve to be treated like this..."
Bella started to laugh, a high pitched giggling that made Paige even more uncomfortable. She didn't utter another word, just handed Paige a lace bra and pants set to put on.
Paige complied expecting more clothes to follow and when they didn't she felt the cold fingers of dread curling in her stomach... She was going to be presented to Chris in nothing more that her underwear... She had a feeling of what would happen but she refused to believe that it would come to that. She would find a way out... She would escape and get back to Will... She had to, there was nothing else she could do...
Bella led Paige from the room and back out into the clutches of the guards. They didn't so much as bat an eyelid at her attire, simply wrapping their arms around hers and tugging her down the hall.
"Be gentle with her, she has some injuries already that require a delicate hand..." Bella added as she watched the guards manhandling Paige.
Paige watched as Bella followed them. They made their way down to the end of the corridor and out through a wide open space with glass walls on all sides. The other sides of the glass was dark and Paige couldn't make out anything. They brought her through to another corridor and to a set of double wooden doors with a dark oak colouring.
Bella opened the doors and pushed them wide enough for the guards and Paige to enter. Chris sat at a wide oak desk, his feet propped up on the edge of the desk as he sat back with his hands behind his head and his eyes closed.
"Leave her..." He barked the order making Paige jump.
The guards threw her onto her knees and disappeared back out through the doors once more. They closed them behind them with a bang, leaving Paige, Bella and Chris behind.
Paige started to get to her feet but Chris's voice made her pause. "Please, don't get up, you're so much nicer on your knees. It suits you." His voice was filled with humour but there was something behind it, something cold and steely that dared her to disobey him.
Paige couldn't help herself. She was the one saying that he didn't own her... There was no way she could obey him... Half the time she didn't even obey Will and she loved him...
Paige stood and lifted her chin defiantly. Chris took in her pose and a small smile slid across his lips. It reminded Paige of the slithering of a snake and she tried to suppress a shudder of disgust.
He moved around his desk slowly until he stood in front of it. He watched her for a moment before moving towards her. Paige's fear overcame her and she turned and ran for the door but Chris caught her before she could even turn the handle.
He pressed her to the wood, crushing her body against the cold rough surface. "No one has ever outrun me yet, Paige, and you're not going to be the first to succeed." He whispered the words against her ear, his hot breath fanning across her face making her cringe.
He wrapped his hands into her hair and tugged her away from the door and towards a large wooden horse set up in one corner of the room. Paige struggled and fought against his grip but he just tightened his hold on her making her cry out in pain.
"Why isn't she properly prepared, Bella?" Chris asked as he pushed Paige across the wooden horse and held her in place with one arm. His other hand grabbing a metal cuff and clamping it around one of her wrists.
"Sir, I... Well... She..." Bella stuttered across her words.
Paige could hear the fear in her voice and she felt sorry for her. Bella was well and truly broken. She was utterly terrified of what Chris would do to her and Paige couldn't blame her for that.
Fear made Paige nauseous. It curled up through her body leaving her cold and trembling. She tried to keep her other arm out of Chris's reach but he laughed as he twisted her arm down and clamped it with an identical cuff to the one adorning her other wrist.
He dropped to his knees pulling two more cuffs from the base of the horse and attaching them to Paige's ankles. She struggled and fought against him but she was pinned, and there didn't seem to be any sort of escape.
Chris moved around to the front of the horse. He grinned at Paige as she stared up at him with eyes filled with tears. She wanted to wipe the smug look from his lips but she was trapped. He pulled on the opposite end of the chain, tugging Paige's body higher up onto the horse and causing her legs to lift from the floor. She was suspended across it and there was no way to escape.
"Bella, what have I told you about stuttering? Clear concise
answers only please." Chris's voice was soft and Paige knew that usually heralded the more dangerous side of him... What would he do to Bella...
Paige felt a kernel of guilt. It was her fault, not Bella's... She knew she should say it but her mouth refused to form the words.
Chris slowly advanced on Bella and she cowered back from him. Chris reached out and trailed his fingers down along the side of her face. It was almost tender. But he changed as quick as lightening. Paige wasn't even sure how he did it. One minute he was stroking Bella's face as she cowered from him and the next he had slapped her. The crack of his hand against her face resounding through the room, making Paige shiver.
Bella collapsed onto her knees, her hands lifted in an attempt to shield herself from his blows.
"You would try and defend yourself from your Master? You would lift your hands to your Master? Ungrateful little bitch!" He drew back to hit her again.
"It's not her fault!" Paige finally found her voice... "It was me... I refused because I don't belong to you. I belong to Will..."
Chris stopped immediately. His rage barely in check as he turned to Paige. The look on his face was one of pure insanity and part of Paige regretted drawing his attention on herself.
He advanced slowly towards her. His disgust and rage for her rolling off him in waves. He picked up something in his hands and Paige couldn't quite make out what it was. He clicked a button and a large screen flared to life.
Paige wanted to get sick... What she saw there made her stomach flip over in both happiness and humiliation. It was a tape of her and Will together in the condo... The way he carried her into the room and sat her on the bed. The look on his face as he turned back to her, such tenderness and hunger.
Even now, watching it back it made Paige shiver with desire. The look of pure love that filled his eyes when he took her on the bed. It brought a flood of memories back to her. The sound of Chris laughing drew her out of her thoughts and Paige could feel a blush flooding her cheeks.
It was a private moment, a moment shared between her and Will, Chris had no right to do this... "You sick perverted bastard!" Paige spat the words at him and Chris's face darkened.
Desired by the Billionaire 4 (Loved By Him) Page 2
