Survival

by J Marie

  “I’m sorry! My kite got stuck in the tree! I just climbed up to get it. I didn’t think it was a big deal,” I struggled to say as my hands grabbed his wrist that held me in place. My blood was racing, my heart was pounding out of my chest, and I could feel the heat begin to blossom between my legs. What the fuck was wrong with me?

  “So you decided to risk your safety over a fucking kite?” His voice was all malice and venom as it pierced through my ears, further driving my fear.

  “It’s just a fucking tree! I used to climb them all the time,” I shot back.

  “Watch it, little girl,” he warned, glaring at me. “Your safety is of more concern to me than your childhood activities. Apparently, I need to rearrange your priorities.” He squeezed harder, causing tears to form in the corner of my eyes.

  “I’m sorry. It was stupid,” I groaned against his strength.

  “Yes, it was very stupid! Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? What if you had fallen and broken something?”

  “Well, I was doing just fine until someone decided to bind me up,” I retorted.

  “And you wouldn’t have fallen had you not been up there in the first place!” He was yelling now, and I flinched back in my skin and looked away from him.

  “You're right. I'm sorry. It won't happen again.”

  “You're goddamn right it won’t,” he snarled and flipped me around, shoving my dress up all the way to the back of my neck.

  Taking off his belt, he whipped me hard fifteen times over my back and ass until there was nothing but thick red marks left behind. As if I wasn’t sore enough from halfway falling out of a tree. When he was finished, my face was red as silent tears fell down my face. Darren then dragged me back into the house by my hair. And that was when I noticed the gardener standing at the side of the house, concern and anger clear as day across his face. Shit. Major bad timing.

  My entire backside ached and burned the rest of the day and well into the morning, the need between my legs long forgotten after Darren finished fucking me from behind in his bed. He didn't give a single fuck even when he tucked me against his side that night. He said if I hadn't been so stupid and careless, I wouldn't be in so much pain.

  Of course, my punishments were always my fault, and I spent most of that night unable to sleep from tears and pain. But I reminded myself it wasn’t all for naught. I finally knew where I was and had a better understanding of the property I was a prisoner of. Tomorrow, I would start the new phase of my plan of escape.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Trouble

  ~*~

  When I woke up in the morning, I looked down to find Jaden’s sleeping form and couldn’t help but smile. She had rolled over in the night, resting her head on my shoulder as she slept. It honestly amazed me how she could so quickly fill me with murderous rage and then melt my black heart the next.

  I had given her so much in the last month, more than I was ready to, but I had already compared Jaden to the lion in the zoo long before she ever told me about it … because that was exactly what I was afraid of. All I wanted was for Jaden to know her place—to respect and obey me without question, surrender all of her passion to me, and laugh with me like she was happy. But I couldn’t force her to be happy. What I could do was everything in my power to make her happy, yet understand that it would never be enough. I just hoped she didn’t end up like the lion in the zoo.

  She would never be happy with me as long as she had something else to hold on to. I could see that she was trying to make me happy, but it was for her own self-interests and benefits. She knew what she needed to do to make things easier for herself, but the simple fact was she hated it. Jaden hated bowing down to me, but it was something she was going to have to get used to, and eventually, she would. She’d only been with me barely a short couple of months, but already there was so much improvement and so much potential.

  I looked down at Jaden, feeling her soft skin beneath my fingertips. She flinched a little in her sleep when my hand grazed down her back, still sore from my belt yesterday. I couldn’t be surprised that she had climbed the tree to retrieve her kite; she’d probably done it all the time before me because she was fearless—another trait I loved about her. It wasn’t as if I didn’t think she was capable or coordinated enough to climb a damn tree, but the simple truth was it was still dangerous, and anything that threatened her safety had me raging inside.

  Daniel had fallen out of one of those trees a long time ago when we were young boys. He’d broken his arm then and our father had been furious, just as I was now. I had reprimanded the guards watching her and made sure they knew Jaden was never to climb another fucking tree again.

  The sun started to shine through the windows and the light poured over Jaden’s hair, igniting the beautiful reds and coppers that reminded me of fire. The fire I loved so much.

  Eventually and reluctantly, I rolled out of bed, careful not to disturb her, and headed downstairs for my workout. After a good run and warm-up, I sparred with Scott for a while in the octagon; he and I were too equally matched for one of us to actually surrender. We would eventually just tire each other out.

  Two hours later, I went back upstairs to find Jaden still sleeping in my bed. I took a quick shower and got dressed, Jaden now finally waking up by the time I was done. She stretched her naked body as I fastened my black chrome Rolex around my wrist, her slight wincing hard to ignore.

  “Good morning,” I said to her as I went to put on my jacket.

  “Morning,” she said quietly, looking away. I hated when I couldn’t see her eyes.

  And then my phone started to ring. I pulled it from my pants pocket and answered, walking away toward my closet and out of Jaden’s earshot. I noticed she had been trying to listen in on some of my conversations lately. She thought she was sneaky, but she couldn’t hide much from me.

  “Yeah?” I said into the phone.

  “Darren, it’s Hagen. We’ve got a bit of a situation you’re going to want to handle personally. We’re on our way over to you now.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. It was too early for this shit already.

  “What’s the situation?” I asked.

  “It’s about your girl.”

  My head perked up. Well, now he had my attention.

  “What’s your ETA?”

  “Five minutes.”

  I hung up the phone and headed out into my room. Jaden was still sitting on the bed, staring out the window.

  “Go get dressed.” I pointed at her as I headed for the door.

  She gave me a strange look but didn’t argue as I left the room, closing the door behind me. I didn’t have time to deal with her questions; if something was up concerning her, then I needed to know right fucking now. I gathered Scott and together, he and I and two other guards made our way out to the front of the house. Hagen was just pulling up in his sheriff’s vehicle.

  He stepped out, nodding in my direction as he began to head toward me while his men pulled a man from the backseat. They dragged him over to where we stood and dropped him to his knees in front of me. I looked down at the man and instantly recognized him. He was one of the gardeners I’d hired to care for the grounds of my estate. The fuck was this shit?

  “What the fuck is this?” I waved at the man as I looked at Hagen.

  “Well, you see, this gentleman right here claims you’ve got a girl locked up in your house who’s been missing for months. Says you abuse her and won’t let her leave,” Hagen said casually.

  If I hadn’t been so pissed off, I would have started laughing.

  “Is that so?” I said, looking down at the man who now cowered in fear. “And what evidence does he have to support this wild claim?”

  “Says he’s seen her several times on the news and recognized her. Says he knows she doesn’t want to be here and that she’s in trouble. He wanted to help her.”

  I felt my shoulders bulge with pure rage as I looked down at the puny fuck who actually attempted
to have Jaden taken away from me. And what’s more, she probably played a part in this. She probably fucking begged him to.

  “Please, señor,” the man began to plead in a heavy Spanish accent while his hands remained cuffed behind his back. “Please, it’s misunderstanding. I-I’m sorry. Please, I have family.”

  I just glared at him, unconsciously baring my teeth while I thought about ripping his throat out, but I had to confirm something first.

  “Get Jaden, now,” I told Eric, one of my guards, and returned my attention to Hagen. “Has this fucker told anyone else about this?” I asked Hagen.

  “Doesn’t seem that way. Otherwise, I’d have a lot more phone calls to answer this morning.”

  “Clean it up if you do. I don’t need anyone else snooping into my business.”

  “Will do.” Hagen nodded.

  I heard the front door open and the sound of struggling caught my ears. I turned to find Eric dragging Jaden by her upper arm as she fought to keep up with him in her little flats. When they reached us, she yanked her arm out of Eric’s grasp and turned to me.

  “What is this? What’s going on?” she asked me with a much harsher tone than she should have.

  “Do you know this man?” I asked sharply, pointing at the gardener who began to shake uncontrollably.

  She looked down and her eyes lit up with fear, shock, and recognition. Oh yeah, she knew him. She knew him far more than she should.

  “No, I don’t know him,” she said with an attitude. “Why would I know him? You don’t let me talk to anyone.”

  “Well, he certainly thinks he knows you. In fact, he knows you so well that he seems to think you’re a missing person,” I said very lightly.

  “Well, I can imagine why he would think that,” she replied.

  Without even thinking, I grabbed her throat and roughly pulled her to me. Her little hands wrapped around my wrist as she fought for balance and ground. “This stupid fuck decided to take it upon himself to report you to the police.” I watched her for a minute to see how she reacted. “But for all I know, you could have told him to go to the police for you. Is that what you did, Jaden? Begged this man to help you escape?” I practically roared at her. Her eyes lit up in panic.

  “No! No! I swear I didn’t do anything!” she pleaded back. “Why would I even bother to tell him that when I know the police can’t help me?”

  “I don’t know, Jaden, someone obviously put the idea in his head,” I growled menacingly.

  “I swear I’ve never spoken a word to him!”

  “You expect me to believe that?” I snarled. I was so close to snapping, it almost felt inevitable.

  “Yes! I swear to you I never asked him to do anything. Please, Darren, don’t hurt him. He didn’t understand what he was doing.”

  “Oh, no. This little fuck knew exactly what he was doing. He was trying to take you away from me, and that, princess, simply will not do.”

  I released Jaden’s throat, watching as she stumbled back only a little before Scott caught her shoulders and forced her to still. I then hauled around and kicked the stupid Mexican fuck right in the face.

  “No!” Jaden screamed behind me. “Darren, stop it!” I sensed the lunge of her body as she moved to stop me, but I ignored her, knowing full well Scott could handle her.

  The gardener fell back with a grunt as I got on top of him and started pummeling his face with my fists. Fury flowed through my blood as I released my rage onto the guy’s flesh. Just who the fuck did he think he was? Her savior? I didn’t fucking think so.

  Jaden continued to yell and cuss as she began to fight with Scott to get at me, but he was steadfast. I punched the guy several more times, shattering his nose and cheekbones before standing up and addressing my guards.

  “Kill his family. And bring him to the shed.”

  “What?! No!” Jaden screamed and fought harder with Scott. “You can’t fucking do that, Darren. They’re innocent!”

  “And you,” I roared as I grabbed her throat a second time and began dragging her backward with me to the shed. I was so pissed; I could have snapped her in half with ease. “You can kiss your family good-bye.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Torture

  “What?! Darren, no! Please, listen to me!” I screamed in absolute shock and panic. “I had nothing to do with-”

  “Shut up,” Darren cut me off, his voice low and dangerous. “I’ve heard enough.”

  “No! Just listen to me for one sec-”

  Darren yanked me to him by my throat as he squeezed tighter than ever, practically lifting me off the ground. “If I hear one more fucking word come out of your mouth …” He didn’t have to finish his threat, just glared at me with the promise of something even more horrible than what I was already going to experience. I gulped back my tears and just lowered my watery eyes to the ground. “Now move,” he ordered.

  He turned me around and led me down toward the back of the house by the nape of my neck. His men followed, carting the poor gardener as he yelled and pleaded in Spanish. Terror consumed my entire being as I shook from head to toe, chills running up my spine with goosebumps forming along my arms. I didn’t say another word, fear controlling my every move now, though, I wanted to continue my protest. Something very bad was about to happen, and I had a strong feeling I was going to be a part of it.

  Eventually, we made our way through the trees and came to a rather large looking shed like structure. Darren punched in a code that was to the right of the door, but the bulk of his body blocked my vision from catching it. When he pushed the door open, he pulled me inside while the miserable party behind us followed.

  The room around me was dim with only a few ceiling lights to reveal the area. Concrete walls surrounded us with a dirty cement floor beneath my feet. Darren then pulled me over to the side of the room, which almost resembled a single car garage, but when he reached down to the floor, he lifted up a secret door hidden under the cement.

  The two cops pulled the gardener down the steps while he struggled with every step. The man with the sheriff’s badge joined them, followed by Scott, Darren, and me, and Darren’s guards in tow. The stairs were long and curved until we came to the bottom of what looked like an unfinished basement. More cinderblock walls, except for a white tiled wall in the corner of the room, dimly lit ceilings, and cemented floors with a drain in the middle of it. My stomach coiled as I realized there were chains hanging from the ceiling and hooks on the walls. There was also a large iron door in the middle of the wall, but I could not tell where it led.

  Two chairs were placed about ten feet apart, and a metal table of various instruments I couldn’t fully make out was set up beside the chair in the middle of the room. The chairs were not the same as the other. One was metal with rusted, dirty arms while the other looked more like a damn La-Z-Boy.

  The cops practically threw the gardener onto the metal chair and immediately tied his hands and ankles to the frame of the chair. Darren still had me by my neck as he headed toward the other chair and nearly shoved me to the floor in front of it. He sat down and pulled me by my hair to perfectly position me on the floor between his legs.

  I was going out of my mind with panic as tremors continued to hold my body prisoner, chills crawling up my skin. I quickly pulled my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around my legs securely. Darren held my hair in a tight grip to keep my head up to the horrible scene before me. When the cops finished securing the gardener to the chair, they stepped back and Darren’s guards headed toward him, sick and twisted glints in their eyes.

  “You need anything else?” the sheriff asked from behind us.

  “No, I’ll take it from here. Thank you, Hagen,” Darren replied without taking his eyes off the gardener.

  “Have fun,” the sheriff said with sick enthusiasm and then headed back upstairs with his deputies. Scott remained in the corner of the room with his arms crossed as he stared ahead of us.

  The room was silent except for th
e quiet cries of the gardener as tears began to spill from his eyes. His chest shook and his breaths came out in heavy gasps as he looked out to Darren, pleading for mercy with his eyes.

  “Please, señor,” he cried. “Please, have mercy. Please …”

  “You should have thought of that before you decided to meddle in my business and try to fuck with what’s mine,” Darren said with nothing but pure hatred.

  And then he nodded at his men.

  Without a single word of verbal command, the two guards began to haul their fists into the gardener’s body. I cringed into myself, my stomach sick with fear and guilt as I watched Darren’s guards beat the shit out of this poor man who only wanted to help me. The gardener grunted and cried, pleading in Spanish, but his words went unheard. Eventually, the guards rested their knuckles and went for something more drastic and gruesome. They began to break his fingers with a hammer.

  I instantly hid my face into the side of Darren’s leg while my arms curled around his calf, clutching him tightly as the sound of the hammer on bone jerked me into a tight cringe. I kept my eyes in the general direction of the gardener but winced my eyes shut. Unfortunately, nothing could hide the blood-curdling screams of the poor man.

  For the next longest six minutes of my life, I listened to Darren’s men break every one of the gardeners fingers, the sound of the hammer coming down enough to nearly make me vomit all over the floor. I kept it down, thankful to have not yet had my breakfast. I shook uncontrollably, my tears soaking Darren’s dress pants as I clung to him. He didn’t seem to mind, as he was too entranced by the gruesome scene he controlled before us. I didn’t even want to look at his face, knowing the sick and twisted smile I would find across his lips if I turned around.

  When they finished breaking his fingers, I couldn’t withhold my voice anymore as I watched one of the guards pick up a power drill from the tray, a cruel and sadistic smile on his face.