Makes me hate the man all the more.
My muscles constrict. My heart starts pounding when Cole gets up from the bed, adjusts his crotch, and stands before me. His slimy hand comes up, and grips hold of my chin. “Yeah, my dick still works after that knee to my balls. You’ll pay for that. I would have saved you years ago if you had given me the time of day. There’s no saving you now.”
I expect him to hit me, so I brace for the blow. When he just stands there, I decide to test how loyal he is to Shadow.
“Wow, you sound like Shadow. Is he your idol, Cole? Is that why you helped him? Or maybe you’re a rapist like he is — two little peas in a pod. Did Daddy bail you out of jail too? We’ll see who gets saved and who doesn’t. You have no clue what will happen to you once I’m found.” I repeat the last for my benefit. I have to rely on hope because honestly, Shadow isn’t going to let me hang here for long before he makes truth out of his promises.
Cole looks up at my hands, tilts his head slowly as he drops his gaze back down and settles on my lips.
I try to jerk my head away from his hold as he steps closer and grinds himself into me.
Nausea. It swirls.
I’m entirely at these men’s mercy, and I hate it so bad. Hate that they have this kind of power over me, and there is nothing I can do to save myself.
He laughs and God it’s as nightmarish as Shadows.
“Ellie, it’s you who doesn’t have a clue. I’m in this to help a friend settle a score. I couldn’t care less what Shadow does with you once he gets what he wants, and I fuck you as I’ve always wanted.” He speaks calmly, eyes hard as steel as he inspects my face. “You grew to be even more beautiful than you were. I didn’t think that was possible; those women did a number on you, didn’t they?”
Keeping my face steady, he bunches my dress to my hips. Pain lances through my arms when he drops his hold on my face, takes several steps backward, forcing me to stretch as taut as I can. I try to kick, all it does is jerk my shoulders out of joint, making me internally cry out in indescribable pain.
“I’d be nice to me if I were you. I’m the one in this threesome who will let you shower and use the bathroom. I have what you want, what will keep your mind from flipping the hell out, from pissing all over yourself until we’re ready to send your boyfriend a nice little video. Don’t think for one minute when we’re ready; I won’t collect. It won’t be with a thank you; it’ll be with this body.”
My heart thuds wildly. Cole just gave it away that Logan isn’t dead. I’m clinging to those words like a lifeline to help me get through this torture.
Hope. I’m holding it in the palm of my numb hand. I have to because God help me if they both were to rape me, not only will it destroy me, it will be what does kill Logan if he watches. He won’t survive.
“Fuck you and Shadow.” My stomach sinks. Panic slams into my ribs, sealing off my air supply as the thought of what he and Shadow want to do kinks my stomach into knots.
His brows raise, black as night eyes glare at me, holding a terrifying promise.
“Sweetheart, you will be fucking us both soon. It’s my understanding Logan loves to watch as much as he loves to fuck women who belong to someone else. You aren’t mine to keep, and that’s a damn shame. Speaking of watching, do you know how hard it was for Shadow to stand in the window and watch you on the beach while Logan slept? He was going out of his mind between wanting to kill Logan before he took you. I told him to kill the man, then go get you, to forget about his vendetta, but he’s got it in his head that Logan needs to suffer.”
My heart bleeds. Suffering is worse than anything. It can surface with sudden, brutal ferocity, sweep you away in engulfing despair, and stir in the depths with malevolent force.
“No, please don’t.” My body trembles in utter horror as Cole pulls a syringe out of his pants pocket. Whatever is in that syringe isn’t good for me, I know it isn’t. I try lifting my legs to kick. I can’t move them, they feel like dead weight.
Ignoring my plea, Cole draws his arm back, his fist connecting with my stomach, knocking the air out of me in a fit of coughs. Before I can catch my breath, and just as bile shoots up my throat, a prick to my thigh has me floating through nothing but blackness.
* * *
“Has she woken yet?” a familiar voice asks close to my ear.
Panic blares, and everything inside me goes cold. It threatens to rip me in two as Shadow nips my ear and licks the outer shell. I strain until my lungs threaten to burst to breathe the same as I was while I was out, to not let him see the vibrations behind my lids as my eyes twitch, to keep calm even though dread wants to speed up and choke me. Mostly, from him, but also I have a feeling that whatever they are giving me, I’m allergic to because the fire coating my skin is driving me out of my mind.
Shadow begins to rub the palm of a hand across my neck, slowly. I feel sick from his touch, my insides cringing. He’s taunting me, tempting me.
“Briefly, she’s pretty banged up, Shadow. I gave her a small dose of the sedative. Maybe we should give her a larger one, take her down and let her heal before we make the video.”
No, I can’t handle any more. That, plus, I will fight until I take my last breath before I let them do what I can’t make my mind wrap around.
“Not yet. She’s had enough. My girl is awake; I know she is. She’s terrified to look at me, as she should be. She’ll come around begging soon enough.” Every word he said sends a pointed shard of ice through my heart.
Begging won’t do me a bit of good. Shadow will do what he wants. He wants me weak. I might be helpless, but I refuse to be anything except the strong woman I am in front of him.
Logan.
I’m floating to the bottom without him. The man breathed life into me, and no matter what Shadow or Cole do to me, they will never erase him from my mind or heart.
“I had plans in motion to kill Logan before he fucked me over by taking my money. I was going to search harder than I did for you before I was locked up, and what do you know, you were right under my nose all along. That pisses me off to the extreme, Ellie. What angers me more is I never wanted to kill you, now because you let the man I hate more than anything inside of you, you’ve left me no choice.”
The sureness in his voice slices me, adding another scar to the many I’d suffered because of him over the years.
“Do you know how long I waited for you? How badly I missed you? I spent a long time behind bars thinking about you, Ellie. I turned down fucking Sadie, to save myself for you. I had free pussy right in my face after not having it for years. I did that for you. She blew me, but that doesn’t count. What you did with Logan that’s what counts, and both of you are going to pay. You owe me, bitch, and I’m going to collect. Money, you and the whereabouts of my sister are what I want, and to drive Logan crazy. Open those eyes and let me see that gratitude for not killing Logan.”
The amusement in his voice makes me want to puke.
Through a swirl of nauseating fear comes my father’s voice. “You are a strong woman, sweetheart. Stay alive. Don’t let him see your fear.”
Shadow continues massaging the stiff muscles in my neck, as every spot of my soul cries out for someone to help me.
Oh, God. Please let someone find me. Please give me the strength to hang on.
Bile.
It climbs up my throat, the acid burning my tongue as Shadow’s rough hand leaves my neck, skimming between my breasts and palming one before grazing down my stomach. He pauses briefly before sliding his hands down my sides, my legs, and wraps his hands around my ankles, yanking my legs apart.
Please, God, not again. My mind is spinning. It’s confusing; it’s shaking, it’s on the edge of curling in on itself.
“I am not yours. You can do with me what you want, beat me, rape me, abuse me, but I will never beg you for anything. Not even to spare my life.” My eyes fly open, and I glare down at Shadow. Everything about him shoots an impulse to vomit.
&nbs
p; The beard I remember him having earlier is gone, showing his square jaw and pale, smooth skin. There are lines across his forehead and crinkles in the corners of his eyes. Eyes I will never forget. They are eyes without a soul — Pitch black: no white, just an eternal hole.
“There she is. You are mine, Ellie. Might as well get used to it. You will beg. You’ll beg to be fed, beg to use the bathroom, beg to shower, and the only way you’ll get to choose one of those things is by telling me where my sister is. Otherwise, Cole is going to give you more of that good stuff to make you sleep. Too much of it and you might not wake up again.”
She’s dead, but I’ll never tell him that — the same as I won’t tell him to go ahead and pump me full of whatever it is they are giving me. I’d rather suffer from that than have to look at either one of these men again.
“How would I know where she is? Could she possibly be hooking her claws in another man as your mother did? Maybe she ran as far away from her crazy brother as she could. I don’t know. You seem to have found me easily enough; why is it so hard for you to find her?”
Nostrils flaring, eyes narrowing, he digs his fingers into my skin until I flinch from the pain. It intensifies as he slides his hands up my legs.
Die, I want to because if Shadow does what those full-set demon eyes of his are telling me he wants to do before I can figure a way to get out of here, I surely will. There will be no peace, no calm to my life ever again.
We stare at one another. Shadow is, by far, the most frightening man I’ve seen in my life. He ruined me once; I refuse to withdraw into myself and let him do it again. I will fight him. I will stand on solid ground even though my toes are barely touching.
“Leave us, Cole, leave the drug too. Ellie is going to need it by the time I’ve finished with her.” There’s sureness in his eyes. It tests and goads me to shut my mouth.
“Go to hell. Where are my father’s guns? What else do you have that belongs to me?”
Determination.
It drapes over my entire body.
“Ah, ah, ah, Ellie. I’m the one who asks the questions, not you.”
“Fuck you; those guns are mine.”
“Nine-tenths of the law, remember?” He cocks his head. Mirth and glee and sickness bleed from his eyes.
Let him think he owns me, let him think whatever he wants.
“By the looks of it, you’re a wealthy man, Cole. You’ll lose everything, or else Shadow will kill you once he’s done using you. If you think for one minute he’s going to share me, then you are insane.” A muscle twitches in Cole’s jaw. The air becomes laden with tension.
My determination has turned into desperation.
Without looking at me, Cole sets a syringe on the floor, then pivots to face Shadow.
“You talk to me that way again, and you can take her somewhere else.”
Shadow flinches, it’s the first time I’ve seen him appear to be intimidated by someone. It makes me laugh. I can’t control it. I let it out as I stare at Cole’s back until he’s out of sight.
“Don’t think for one second I don’t see what you’re doing. Cole won’t help you. You try playing me against Cole one more time; I will cut your tongue out, do you understand?”
I don’t understand, not at all, but the longer I remain here, I’m sure I’ll figure it out.
Money. I have a feeling that’s what it boils down to, and I’m the bargaining chip that’s changed Shadow’s entire plan.
“It appears I’m in no position not to do what you say.” I tilt my head back as far as my aching muscles will go and glimpse at the two strands of rope wrapped around a wooden beam, my wrists tied to the ends and splotches of crusty dried blood is scattered down my arms.
“Good girl. Now let’s stay on track. I need answers, and it would do you good to give them to me. Logan came to see me a while back. He told me he had no idea where Whitney was. She should have been with Sadie to pick me up. The last time Sadie saw her was when she dropped her off at his house. Don’t play me; things won’t end well for you if you do. I warned Logan that if she didn’t show, he was going to be sorry. He killed her, didn’t he?”
Logan went to see him, when? It must have been during the time we were apart. Good for Logan. I hope whatever he told Shadow has eaten away at him.
Hurt flashes briefly in Shadow’s eyes before it turns to anger, that’s when I decide that making him angry is what I need to do. It’s an unchecked emotion for Shadow. He doesn’t know how to handle it. I’d much rather piss him off enough to beat or drug me than to have him and Cole gang rape me.
“Maybe I killed her. Maybe she ran off and said, ‘fuck you.’ I’d imagine you were a burden to her. That’s all you’ve ever been, Shadow. A burden to everyone. Someone we’ve all had to watch out for because you think you are one step ahead when you’ve always been behind. Maybe she finally realized that when light shines all around her, she isn’t able to see her Shadow. That’s all you’ve ever been to anyone is their shadow. A follower.” Those words fly out of my mouth in a rush.
There’s no warning before he stands and the hard backhand to my face causes my vision to blur, and a headache instantly sets behind my eyes. My head flings to the side, and I swear I hear the bones in my neck creak.
“You expect me to believe you killed her? Who knows though right, it has been ten long years? People change. Not you though, Ellie. You weren’t supposed to change. Except you did, didn’t you? I suppose I need to not only punish you for sleeping with my enemy but to remind you that you can’t fool me. You’re scared. If you cooperate, then you won’t be hurt for spreading these long legs for Logan.”
I’m scared, alright, down to my core.
“You don’t scare me, Shadow. Not anymore. If you think you’ll get me to change for you, then you are more delusional than I thought. I will never be afraid of you again. I will never beg. Never do as you ask. You can hurt and take and give your best shot to break me; it will never work because in my mind, you don’t exist. In my heart, there isn’t a speck of room for you. Not when Logan takes up all the space.”
Shadow stands up, the muscles in his jaw twitching as if he might snap at any minute, and the anger plastering over his face frightens the hell out of me.
Dread licks my stomach as he wraps an arm around me and hoists me up several inches and the next thing I know, he’s using his foot to hook around a step-stool for him to stand on, giving him enough height to untie my arms. They fall like dead weight at my sides.
“No!” I scream, thrashing in his arms. Pain so unreal hitting my extremities it feels as if someone has poked me with the tip of a knife all over my body as the numbness begins to wear off. I keep fighting against Shadow’s hold. I slam my head forward, trying to make contact with his face, but it’s no use when he slightly pivots, and I fly through the air, landing on my stomach on top of the bed. I try scrambling away, but my limbs are too weak to do anything but shake.
The air is knocked out of me when Shadow drops on top of me, pressing my frame into the mattress, crushing my lungs beneath his weight.
“No isn’t a word I use in my vocabulary. Not when it comes to you. How could I say no when my sister struck a deal with the warden when we found out where you were? How could I say no when I knew I was getting out soon and had already lied to Logan’s contact about when I was getting out? How could I say no to have what I’ve always wanted? I didn’t. But do you know when I did say no? When I yelled it so loud in my mind that I wanted to kill anyone who looked my way? It was when Logan sat across from me and let me know you spread your legs for him. That was the last time the word no will be associated with you, Ellie.”
“Get off of me,” I scream, my throat burning from lack of moisture.
“I plan on getting off. First, you’re going to listen to what I have to say. You’re going to stay in this room and climb the walls wondering when I’m going to come for you. Mourn the loss of your child. You’ll worry about Logan, Renita, and Norah. The whol
e goddamn lot of them while you lay here in physical and mental pain. I’d say I’m sorry about you losing your baby; I’m not. You’ll never be a mother now, and that was something you always wanted to be.”
I wince, not because he doesn’t care. Not because Whitney must have told him when we were younger how I wanted to be a mother someday. I’m wincing and crying on the inside because Shadow is going to use my miscarriage against me. The one thing that can make me weak.
“Logan will find me, and he will kill you. His family will help him, and they will slaughter you like a pig.”
“He’ll come when I summon him to. Until then, I’m having some fun with you. When he does show up, you’re going to watch him die. Tell me where Whitney is. Tell me where my money is. Does one of his brothers have it? Is it in a bank? How about that cute little niece of his? If you don’t, I’ll have no choice but to erase Logan’s smell off your body and replace it with mine. I will mark your tits, your mouth, and I will fill you with my cum. I wasn’t planning on videoing what I want to do to you yet. That mouth of yours has left me no choice. I wonder what Logan will think when he sees me fucking you. After all, sharing is caring, and you took up with one who’d shared his body daily. I bet if I send it to Logan, you’ll beg.”
“You’re a monster.”
“That I am. One that’s going to teach Logan Mitchell that what he thought was his, wasn’t.”
Chapter Six
Logan
Palming my head, I let the agonizing pain in my shoulder course through me. It takes all the energy I have to keep my eyes open. The only thoughts that rip through my brain are about Ellie. Where is she? Has Shadow hurt her? Is she holding it together or falling apart? Is she cramping? Bleeding? Grieving? Will she come back to us as the woman we know or will she be lost?
In the meantime, I sit around like some sorry ass staring into space, trying to control my temper.
I want to shed blood, rip hearts out of chests and annihilate the fuck out of Shadow and whoever the fuck is helping him.
Unbound Trilogy Boxset Page 45
