by Eden Rose
I nod my thanks and rip the bottle top off. The second the cold liquid floods my throat, I begin to relax.
Beast and Bella are trailing into the room to join in on the festivities. I have to give it to Beast for his dedication to his woman. At first, I thought he was full of shit and didn’t really care about her. Turns out, he is in love with the chick.
Marie, a club whore who’s been here for too many years, walks over to me with her tits hanging out from the tops of her bra. She tries to walk sexy, but she is shaking on her heels. Normally, I would be all up for the night of crazy sex with her.
Tonight, though, I can’t even manage to get it up. That woman in my room has be all tongue tied and shit. I fucking hate it.
Feeling like a chump, I hold my hand out to Marie who is quick to sit on my lap. She’s had a couple of kids with some random losers outside of the club. On the bright side, she doesn’t want to get all wifed up like a lot of these chicks do. She is just here for a good time.
She plops her boney ass on my legs and wraps her arms around my neck. “Hey, Prince. I’ve missed you,” she murmurs in my ear.
I look down at her drunk face which is always redder than her normal skin tone. Her bleached out hair reminds me of Elle’s and I try to shake that memory out of my mind. I can’t think about her right now.
No matter how much I try to push her out of my mind, she still floods it with her innocence. Her insecurities.
Marie’s brown eyes are filled with want and horniness. “Why don’t we go to your room?”
Her face has pock marks on it from her many years of doing drugs. One of the things I don’t like is being with a druggy. It reminds me of being with Cass.
And whatever reminds me of being with Cass reminds me of my daughter that I lost.
I do my best to push that baggage out of my head, but it doesn’t work. Nothing works. Not even the loud rock music that fills the air and the pool balls pinging off of each other stops my warring thoughts.
So, instead of listening to my thoughts, I lean down and kiss Marie. Her lips are hard and thin from the many years of being used like a chew toy. She loves being a club whore, though. She has said repeatedly how much she loves it.
I don’t see the prestige of it. I would hate to be used just because I’m easy.
Marie slips her velvety tongue in my mouth and I all but gag at the taste of her vodka flavored tongue. She tastes terrible.
I move my face away from hers and she whines. “Come on, Prince. Let me make you feel good.”
Elle’s innocent eyes flood my mind and I feel the urge to go to her. I want to climb into bed and hold the broken woman until she’s whole again. What kind of pussy does that make me? What kind of asshole does that make me for not using Marie?
“Nah, go find another brother,” I tell her and lightly push her off of my lap.
She lands on her heels and walks away from me without looking back. That’s because she knows I’m not interested in her. I don’t want her anymore.
I’ve been in every hole of hers many times. The thought of being in the holes again, makes me sick.
I want Elle.
Beast sits across from me with his woman draped over his lap like a blanket. “How’s the girl?” I ask and take a pull from the beer.
“In my room taking a shower.”
Instantly, all the blood from my head flows into my dick. My dick is hard from the thoughts of Elle wet and soapy in the shower.
“Cool,” I mutter.
Beast chuckles. “Bro, I think you got it bad.”
“Fuck off.”
Bella giggles. “Thank you for getting my sister. She has a long way to go, though.”
I nod my head. “I want you to know what’s gonna happen over the next couple’a days, Bella. She’s not the same girl you once thought you knew. She’s different. She has been through a lot of fuckin’ shit we don’t know.”
“I know that. I was just saying thank you. You don’t have to be a dick,” she counters.
I throw my head back and laugh. “There’s that attitude you said she had, Beast!”
“You think I have an attitude?” Bella asks him.
They begin to tease each other as I begin to concoct my plan on getting these drugs out of Elle’s system. There’s no telling how many years they pumped her full of these drugs.
Chapter Sixteen: Elle
The night was especially cold. The windows were open throughout the house and I could feel the winter air sink in through the opened windows. The chill almost biting me through my clothes.
I sat up waiting for my dad to come home. It happened all the time where he would be out with his friends and wouldn’t be home until late at night. I knew where he was, or at least I thought I did. He wasn’t exactly forthcoming with information.
Plus, the less I asked, the less I would know. I wanted to believe he was a good man. I also wanted to believe that my mother didn’t die from the war that went south.
I sat in my room with the noise from the highway seeping through my ears and anchoring me to my bed. I turned off the television about a half hour ago hoping I would be able to fall asleep. Nothing worked. Nothing helped to ease my mind into sleep.
Not with my dad not home. I don’t know why, but I didn’t sleep well without home. I also didn’t sleep well when he was home. It is a strange concept that contradicts my mind a lot of the time.
The night my life came crashing down started when someone banged on the front door in hopes of me opening it.
I push the covers off my legs and walk out of my room to see who is knocking on the door. It is after midnight and I’m not expecting anyone to come visit me.
Maybe it’s my dad and he forgot his key or something like that. I wonder if that is what’s happening.
I run towards the door wearing my pajama shorts and a tank top and throw it open. There in front of me is a man with a wicked smile on his face.
“You must be Elle,” he says.
The man is taller than me and dressed in a suit. With a cigar hanging out of his mouth, he looks like the epitome of a mafioso. His face has a scar which takes over half of his face.
“Uh, who are you?” I stutter out. I’m not sure what to say or do. I feel the urge to cover myself up.
He smiles and pushes me aside to walk into the house. He does it so effortlessly. “I’m here to take you away. You must not have spoken to your dear old dad. Have you?”
“He’s not home yet. He will be soon,” I answer and step closer to the door. I want to swing it open to get him out of the house, but I’m worried.
Every alarm is ringing in my mind.
This is bad. This is really bad.
“Silly girl,” he tsks. The man looks around the great room before turning his black eyes back onto me. “You must know your father isn’t coming back anytime soon. He sent me here to collect you.”
“Collect me?” My hand is on the door handle and I’m squeezing the cold metal. If I run out the door, how do I know one of his people are not outside?
Of course, I knew from the beginning that my father was into underworld stuff. An idiot could have figured it out. The shady deals he made inside the house and outside of the home were well known to everyone. He made no secret about it.
The only thing he did make a secret about was his other family.
“Elle, my sweet Elle,” he chides. He moves closer to me so I can smell his cologne. “My darling prize. I can’t wait to bring you back.”
My head is swimming with reasons why this is a horrible situation. He is going to bring me back? To where? What the fuck is going on?
“Come on,” the man says casually. “Let’s get you ready for your next show.”
“What show?” I ask shakily. I’m so scared. I feel the blood in my body begin to heat up and cool down all at the same time. My heart races in my chest.
“Your father used you as collateral. You are now my possession.”
I start to scream but
his hand his quick across my face. I fall to the floor with my hand covering the heated flesh. I cry out in agony over being slapped. I can taste the blood in my mouth from the inside of my cheek getting caught by my tooth.
“Silly girl,” he says again. This time the man leans down to pick me up. He makes quick work to hold me in his arms.
I’m not being held for love. I’m being held for the sole purpose of control.
“Please let me down,” I stammer. “I don’t know anything about anything. Please. You have to listen to me!”
He smirks down at me as he kicks open the door with me cradled to his chest. “Silly girl. You’re nothing but a pawn. You will only ever be a pawn in this game your father has begun to play.”
“I don’t know what my dad does. You have to believe me!”
He strides with a purpose to an awaiting black SUV in my driveway. There is another man standing in front of the SUV with the door open. I’m thrown into the back of the vehicle before I could defend my case.
That was only the beginning of my night.
I wish my night would have ended at this moment.
*
My body feels abused and bruised in all the wrong places. I’m sore through every limb of my body and I feel sticky.
I roll over to my side into the fetal position to help ease the discomfort. However, the sudden movement hurts me all over again. That didn’t work.
I can smell the stench from the rough sex I was forced to have over and over again. What felt like a whole month, was over in a matter of hours. The whole family took their turns on the new virgin.
I wish I would have died right then.
I almost stopped breathing from screaming so loud they had to put a gag on me. I was screaming that loud.
“Well, I see you’re awake,” a man says as he enters the room.
I remember him. I remember that he was either the fifth or the sixth man that had his way with me tonight. He was one of the gentler men. That doesn’t make me want him or anything. If anything, that makes me want to hate him for being nice to me.
I try to wince, but my body won’t allow me to. My whole body feels badly used and abused. Am I awake? Is this a terrible nightmare? I don’t even know.
He walks over to me with assuredness in every step. “Elle, Elle, Elle… What are we going to do with you?”
I try to jolt back on the beat-up cot in the abandoned room. My whole-body screams from the sudden movement. I don’t want to feel this way. I want to go back to yesterday when none of these people existed.
“This is what we’re going to do, sweet Elle. We’re going to teach you some manners and you’re going to learn how to be a sweet girl.”
Hearing him say my name has my stomach tossing and turning from despair. It isn’t fair he knows my name and I don’t even know his.
“Maybe you want to know why you’re here… Is that it, sweet Elle?”
“Yes…” I sputter out through my dried and cracked lips.
“You’re here because your father is a worthless piece of shit and sold you to us.”
My dad did what? “I don’t understand…”
“You will. For now, you are property of this family. Everything you do and everything you don’t do will have consequences.”
Tears spring to my eyes as he begins to take his clothes off again. This time, there isn’t a bunch of men behind him. This time it is just him and that is worse than taking on the whole family.
Chapter Seventeen: Prince
“Yo, Beast!” Six Pack yells from the side of the bar.
Six Pack is a younger brother who has been here for about two years. The women love him because he’s a body builder and a well-known fighter in the underground fighting world.
I took him in because he’s a good brother with a great personality. And he’s a funny mother fucker.
“’Sup?” Beast answers back.
“You killin’ some chick in your room? Someone’s screamin’ bloody murder!”
I jump to my feet and run towards Beast’s room. I know exactly who it is and I want to be the one that gets to her first. I don’t know why, but I need to save her.
The thought of anyone else seeing her in the shower has me wanting to stab some mother fuckers.
I kick the door open and barge into the room. The bathroom door is shut tight and I feel the steam from the shower flood from under the door.
“Elle?” I yell hoping to get her attention and not scare her even more than she already is.
She doesn’t answer me. All she does is scream loudly with the shower masking her. “Help me!”
I don’t have a second to think about what to do. Instead, I kick open the bathroom door and see Ella’s slight frame behind the clear shower curtain.
She’s curled around her body with her arms tucked around her knees. I can see her whole body from where I’m standing. She’s absolutely gorgeous.
Absolutely gorgeous and scared out of her mind.
“Elle, baby. It’s me,” I yell to her.
She doesn’t jolt or even act as if she hears me. She’s crying that hard.
I open the shower curtain and walk into the blazing spray from the water. The pipes are hold here and you either get blazing hot or freezing cold. There is no in between.
The hot water pelts me through my clothes as I get down to my knees in the small shower. I wrap my arms around her and maneuver her so she’s sitting on top of me with my back against the heated shower tiles.
Her small body is tightly cuddled up with my hard body and I hold her like this as she cries. I couldn’t put her down even if I wanted to. She needs to be cuddled. She needs to be held to know what it is like to have something good.
It is there in Beast’s shower I realize what I have been missing all along. Have I been missing someone important in my life? Have I been missing a key part of myself all along?
More than that, is it this broken woman cuddled to my chest?
“Prince! Is everything all right?” Beast shouts from the door.
I look down at the shivering woman on my lap. Her face is tucked into my Henley and her fingers are wrapped in the wet material trying to hold herself closer to me. I punch at the faucet to turn off the water. I don’t want her body to go into shock.
“Get everyone away from the door,” I command and begin to stand up with Elle in my arms still. I wouldn’t let her down even if I could.
She feels good in my arms. She feels like she fucking belongs to me.
“Get the fuck away from the door!” Beast yells to everyone who has probably hovered around the door to see what’s going on. “The prez needs some space.”
“Is everyone away from the door?” I ask with Elle still in my arms. Her face has found its way into the nook of my neck. She takes a deep breath and mumbles something incoherently.
“Yeah, you’re good.”
“Hold onto me, baby. You’re gonna be okay.”
“Mmhmm,” she mumbles.
I kick the curtain open and grab a towel off the sink. After draping it over Elle, I march out of Beast’s room with her still in my arms.
“Bella, can you get some of your clothes for her? Also, do you have a hairbrush and toothbrush? We need to get her as comfortable as possible.”
“What’s happening to my sister?” She asks with tears welling up in her eyes.
I shrug. “This is part of the course. Elle has a long way to go. You wanted your sister back. We got her for ya. You now have to be there for her. You get me?”
“Yeah. Thanks,” she answers on a quiet sob.
She turns away from me to go and get what I asked.
Once we’re in my room, I sit on my bed with Elle. I push back her hair and look down at the most beautiful face I have ever seen.
“Baby, are you okay?”
“What happened?” She asks sleepily.
I kiss her on her forehead and lay her down on the bed. I have the towel covering her so no one can see her naked b
ody.
“You had a panic attack. You’re safe. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
She shakes her head. “I will never be safe. They will find me, and they will take me back. It is only a matter of time.”
I kiss her on her lips gently. “No, they won’t. I won’t let them find you. I won’t let them get you back. There’s no way in fuckin’ hell they are takin’ you.”
