Why is he taking me there? What is he doing?
Fear knocked against her chest from the inside out. Her breath came in ragged gasps from her throat. Sasha fought him. She dropped to the ground, gasping as her tailbone hit the hard-packed dirt and grass. She tried to roll away from him but he stopped her, dropped to his knees and grabbed her, pinning her against the ground. He breathed heavily on top of her.
“If you force me to knock you out again, I will.” His voice rasped in her ear, rough and dangerous.
Then, before she could respond to his threat, he hefted her in his arms as if she weighed no more than a sack of flour. Barnes walked quickly with her into the barn, between the charred stalls, and under the roof that was half gone, pieces of it eaten away by the fire, snaggled teeth of burnt wood thrusting up into the night sky. Barnes dropped her into a pile of musty hay. Her teeth snapped together. She grunted and curled into herself as pain shot through her hip from her abrupt contact with the ground. He tied her to the remnants of a stall, lashing her against the blackened wood.
Then Barnes made a dismissive noise and turned away from her. He took a cell phone from his pocket. Dialed a number.
The moon above them was bright and thick, its substantial half disc pouring light down into the barn. It showed Barnes on the phone with the cell held to his ear, the light from the screen illuminating his face.
“Good evening. Anthony Barnes here.” He stopped speaking for a moment, listening to whoever it was on the other end of the phone. “Are you sure you don’t want to hear what I have to say? I have your little slut with me.” He paused again, a cold smile moving across his face. “Yes. That one.” Now, an actual laugh tumbled from him, joyful and truly amused. “This is not a ransom demand. I just want you to know that I have her. I’m going to fuck her.”
Sasha shivered at his cold tone. The terror ratcheting higher in her throat.
“I’m going to fuck her hard until this place runs red with her blood. Then I’m going to burn her alive just like your family burned me.” Barnes strolled toward Sasha and she cowered back against the stall where he had tied her, shivering and crying in her fear, her body swarmed in alternating waves of heat and cold. She was terrified.
“But she won’t be saved like I was. She’ll die here in this place and your happiness will be over.” His eyes burned down at Sasha. “Then you’ll know the kind of hell I’ve been in all these years since you threw me out.” Barnes knelt down on the ground next to Sasha. Before she could twist away from him, he grabbed her face, snapping his fingers tight around her cheeks and mouth.
“You can call the cops, Taylor. You can call all the powerful contacts you have in your entire self-serving universe, but by the time you find your little slut, she’ll be a melted and ruined mess you won’t even recognize.” A frantic voice burst from the other end of the line. Damien calling Sasha’s name. Barnes laughed and hung up the phone. He released Sasha’s face.
She sobbed behind the tape sealing her mouth shut. Barnes only looked down at her, moonlight and the sharp illumination from the flashlight bringing his face into painful focus.
“You shouldn’t blame him for failing to find you,” he said as if trying to soothe her. “Taylor isn’t smart enough to figure out where you are in time. That’s not the kind of game we’re playing here. If you blame him for anything, blame him for fucking up my life so that now I have to take it out on you.” He abruptly stood up. Looked over her body, at her legs and most of her thighs revealed in the dress that had ridden up in her struggle.
“You’re a hot little piece, aren’t you? Trust him to get the best of everything, even in the desperate bitches who end up panting after him.”
He dropped down beside her again, squatting next to her prone body as she tried to squirm away from him. The burned slat he had tied her to creaked as she twisted and yanked at the ropes.
“It would ruin him if he knew his name was the last thing you screamed before you die.” The pale moon washed the color from Barnes’s face as he smiled grimly down at her. So certain in what he was about to do. Sasha clenched her teeth to prevent a whimper of fear from escaping. But she trembled and her teeth chattered. The smell of the barn was seared into her senses. Old hay, the mustiness of time, damp wood, insects making their lives in the building that had been lain low by the elements, rain, fire, sun, revenge.
Barnes grabbed at the front of her dress, ripped it. Reached up and yanked the tape from over her mouth. “Scream his name for me, you little bitch.” He pinched the tops of her breasts revealed by the ripped clothing. “Scream it.”
“Fuck off, you psycho piece of shit!” Sasha yanked her arms against the wood, against the ropes, her desperation and anger giving her a strength she never knew she had. She reared up, butting him in the head.
Barnes howled in pain and anger, jerking back from her. Then just as suddenly, that flare of emotion dampened and he only knelt over her, staring coldly at her bared breasts, at her eyes staring up at him in hatred and fear.
“Is that how you want to play it?” He ripped a piece of her dress and grabbed her face, squeezing the hinge of her jaw to force her mouth open. Then he stuffed the piece of cloth into her mouth. When he let her go, she stared up at him with all the hatred she could muster.
“You’re a fighter,” he said with an amused laugh. “I like that. You can fight me all you want in here. I’m going to enjoy this way more than you ever will.”
He got to his feet, grabbed the flashlight and stalked from the burned ruins of the barn. Left shrouded in darkness, swamped by her own fear, Sasha could only pant in fright. But she wasn’t about to give up. She had finally found someone in the world who loved her, who wanted the best for her and was willing to fight for her. She would fight for their life together. She would fight for Damien’s happiness and for her very life.
Sasha jerked her arms until it felt like they would jolt out of their sockets, yanking hard and grunting around the cloth stuffed in her mouth. Finally, her persistence was rewarded. The wood cracked. She froze, unable to believe it. But the sound of Barnes returning to the barn spurred her into action. She pulled her arms back experimentally. She had broken through the wood and was no longer imprisoned to the stall. Sasha wriggled to a sitting position, forcing her breath to be quiet.
She heard the sound of splashing, like water. Then smelled gasoline. She froze.
No! Her eyes widened in realization of what he was doing. Barnes walked in with a red gas can in one hand, a lamp in the other. He knelt a few feet from her, plugged in the lamp into one of the walls that had barely sustained any damage. She stared at him, wondering if he was crazy enough to think that electricity was still connected to the old building after all these years. He turned on the lamp and light flooded the barn. Kneeling over the lamp, the light flared up from under him, creating a monster out of his face.
Her panicked breath rushed around the cloth in her mouth. For a moment, spots danced in front of her eyes. A ringing sounded in her ears.
You will not pass out. You will not!
Sasha blinked. Forced herself to take calming and slow breaths as best as she could. The ringing faded. She blinked away the spots in time to see Barnes stand up with the gas can in his hand. With an almost playful look in her direction, he splashed gasoline on the walls all around them, on the wood that had escaped the first fire, the resilient hay, and the unscarred walls. Then he walked toward her.
“You’re going to burn screaming his name.” He splashed the gas on her.
Sasha gasped, jerking her face away from the accelerant that stung her flesh. It quickly soaked into the remnants of her dress, into her bra, her panties, her skin. Behind her gag, she screamed. She screamed and screamed and screamed. But she never gave the monster the satisfaction of calling out Damien’s name. He chuckled as he threw the empty gas can behind him into the darkness.
“You’re screaming now. That’s beautiful to hear.” He came close to her.
To h
er horror, she saw his erection shoving against the front of his jeans.
Fuck that!
She’d rather burn than have him touch her. He leaned into her, his brown eyes sparkling with hints of gold as if he was truly enjoying himself. He came closer and closer, pressing into her, not caring that his own clothes got wet from the gasoline.
“You’re really going to be a hot little piece tonight after I’m through with you.”
He yanked at her panties, reached down to free himself at the same time. The sound of his zipper sprung her into desperate action.
“No!” Sasha screamed from behind her gag. She flung herself up, her head slamming into Barnes’s throat. He yelped and stumbled back, put off balance by trying to wrestle with her underwear and his at the same time. Sasha jumped up, sparing his startled face the barest of glances before she ran for the burned and gaping door of the barn. She heard his furious breathing behind her and ran harder, lengthening her strides to get away. But her foot caught on something. The cord to the lamp. She gasped as she fell, as the lamp fell too, the bulb shattering with the noise like a gunshot. A spark. She saw too late the large slat of wood on the ground. Something hard slammed into her head. And everything went dark.
~~~
Sasha thought she heard someone calling her name. A ragged and hoarse voice yelling her name over and over. Damien? But her head throbbed with pain, a starburst of hurt under her forehead. She couldn’t move. There was smoke everywhere. Bright and hungry flames licking at the roof above her. Or was it the wall? A cough burst from her throat, doubling her body on the ground. Her lungs felt like they were on fire. Someone cried out her name again. Then darkness sucked her in.
When she opened her eyes again, Damien’s face hovered hers. Blond hair sticking up everywhere. Soot on his cheeks and forehead, his blue eyes wide and frantic. He called her name, touching her face with shaking hands. From far off, she heard the sound of a fire truck. Or was it an ambulance? The stink of burning flesh was heavy in the air, mixing with the burning already in her lungs and nose. Pain vibrated in her head. Her eyes burned, tears from the fire dripping down the sides of her face and into her hair.
“Damien.” Her voice came out in a croak. She lifted a hand to his face that was streaked with....tears? “Oh, baby. It’s okay,” she rasped. “Everything is okay.”
He sobbed openly now, grabbed her hand and pressed it to his lips. “Thank God!”
The sound of the emergency trucks came closer, loud sirens whose screams echoed in the pounding of her head. Sasha squeezed her eyes tight.
Damien’s hand tightened on her shoulder. “Stay with me, baby! Stay with me!”
Her eyes fluttered open she looked up at him again. “I’m not going anywhere.”
~~~
The sounds of the hospital leaked into Sasha’s consciousness. The beeping of the monitors. The intercom paging different doctors and nurses. Footsteps walking past her room. She opened her eyes and saw the length of her body under a white sheet, her feet making small hills at the bottom of the bed, a chair nearby with an overnight bag sitting in its depths.
Then the sound of another person breathing came to her. Slowly, she turned her head. And caught her breath. Damien sat in the chair next to the bed, his knees sprawled wide as he slept.
His hair was disheveled and there were circles under his eyes. Several days’ worth of blond beard prickled his cheeks. The clothes he wore, a pale pink button-up shirt and faded jeans, were rumpled and twisted as if he’d slept in them. Her hand twitched at her side with the need to touch him. Instantly, his eyes flew open.
“Sasha.”
He was instantly at her side and sinking into the bed, his hands quickly grabbing hers.
“I’m tired of passing out,” she said, her voice a hoarse tremor.
A painful smile moved across his mouth. “I’m tired of it too.” He drew a deep breath, squeezed her hands. “I’m so glad you’re awake. You had me worried. You had all of us worried.”
He pointed to the small table under the window that was just about completely covered with flowers, baskets of candy, teddy bears, and balloons with “get well soon” written on them. Sasha felt warmed by sight.
“Nothing to worry about.” She smiled weakly. “I was just taking a little nap.” A cough shook her frame, curled her up in the bed. When the fit was over, she lay back against the pillows, gratefully accepting the glass of water Damien held out to her. She sipped from the glass, swallowing past a throat that felt raw and bruised from the fire. The fire. Anthony Barnes. Damien.
The last few moments of her time in the barn flashed through her mind. Anthony Barnes ripping at her clothes. The smell of gasoline soaked into her skin. Running through the barn and falling, hitting her head. Then Damien appearing like an angel to her rescue. Sasha swallowed hard. Hands grasping at Damien’s.
“Thank you for coming for me,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was so worried.”
“I had to find you,” he said.
She turned her head on the pillow, breathing easier now. “Tell me what happened.”
Damien looked at her. “Are you sure you want to know?”
“Please. Tell me.”
He took a deep breath, and then began to speak.
Damien had been waiting for Sasha to come over to his place for dinner when he got the call from Barnes. The phone call had been short but had changed everything in his life in those short minutes. After that call, he realized just what was important in his life, and how important it was that he protect the people he loved. No matter what the cost, even if it was to his pride.
After Barnes disconnected the call, Damien immediately contacted the police. He was frantic on the phone with them, telling them what a dangerous man Anthony Barnes was and that they had to track him down right away.
Their calm acceptance of the situation had infuriated him. The 911 operator, a man with a rough voice like an old soldier, had seemed to read Damien’s mind.
“Don’t do anything foolish, son. We’ll take care of this, we’re the professionals here.”
But he hadn’t been able to turn off his instincts, his worry, and his desperation to solve the urgent mystery of where his woman was being kept. From everything Barnes had said over the phone, his constant references to the past and to burning, Damien thought he had a pretty good idea where the man had taken Sasha.
He jumped in his car and drove the short distance to the stables, leapt from his car without turning off the engine and sprinted for the old barn. But by the time he got the barn, it was already on fire. Again. For a moment, seeing the old barn in flames had frozen him on the spot. All he could see in his mind’s eye was the first fire, the one that had claimed his father’s life and ruined his own life in so many ways. Damien grabbed his phone to call 911. He was in the middle of telling them what was going on when he thought he heard a shout, Barnes’s voice inside the burning building.
Damien dropped the phone and ran into the barn, splintering apart the brittle doors with a kick of his booted foot. There was smoke everywhere. Inside the barn was like a vision from his own personal hell. Fire climbing the walls and shooting up through the roof. He remembered his father’s body when they had pulled it from the fire over ten years ago.
No. He wouldn’t go through that again. He couldn’t take these losses from Anthony Barnes and keep his sanity. Damien rushed deeper into the barn calling out Sasha’s name.
Not too far from the doors, he almost tripped over her. She was passed out. Her dress ripped nearly down the middle, her face sooty with smoke. The fire was dangerously close to her, its hungry tongue licking the bottom of one of her shoes. His heart thudded like a warrior drum in his chest.
Damien grabbed her and lifted her into his arms, preparing to run out of the barn with her protectively shielded against his chest. But Anthony Barnes appeared, screaming at him; running toward him from the other side of the barn, a human fireball. The smell of his burning
flesh was terrifying. Galvanized by his fear for Sasha, Damien dove out of the way, his body curled protectively around the unconscious Sasha.
Propelled by his own momentum and the incredible heat from the fire, Barnes fell past Damien and Sasha and tumbled down the hillside, still screaming. Damien didn’t waste a moment grabbing up Sasha and getting the two of them out of the burning barn. By the time the ambulance and fire trucks arrived, Barnes was dead. Sasha had regained consciousness for a few minutes only to fall back under. Damien had been terrified for her.
“But I’m okay,” Sasha said softly from her hospital bed.
“Yes, you are.” Damien swallowed loudly. “When I saw you in that barn, I swore to myself I would never let you go again.” His voice was deep with emotion. “You mean so much to me. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost you.”
Sasha felt tears start in her eyes. She touched his stubbled cheek, lightly kissed his mouth. Damien drew back, his eyes searching deeply into hers.
Billionaire Erotic Romance Boxed Set: 7 Steamy Full-Length Novels Page 66
