Forever

by Penelope Sky

  The officer stayed calm over the line. “Can you describe the man?”

  “Yes. He looked like a fucking asshole.”

  The officer didn’t find that humorous at all. “You can’t file a report without a description, miss.”

  I spat out the words, rapid-fire. “He was tall—like six-three, six-four—Caucasian, covered in black tattoos, blue eyes. Did I mention he’s an asshole?”

  He ignored my comment. “Anything else?”

  “I thought he was just trying to rob me at first, but he was trying to take me. He might be a trafficker or a rapist, so we have to get this motherfucker. Life behind bars. Death by firing squad. Whatever. Guy has got to pay.”

  In a bored voice, he said, “We’ll do everything we can, ma’am.”

  “Uh, I’m twenty-five. I prefer miss.” Was going to hold on to my youth as long as I could.

  “Do you have any other information that could help us?”

  “Yeah. I memorized his license plate when he carried me to the car.” I read out the letters and numbers and used my abnormally strong memorization skills. That was something that would make it so easy for the police to catch this guy. Looking up his plates in their database would lead them right to his address, and they would put cuffs on that jackass. I moved back and forth between my two couches, one hand on my hip with blood still splattered up and down both arms.

  The officer typed in the information then turned quiet for a bit. “His plates aren’t popping up…”

  “You must’ve typed it in wrong.”

  “Or you’re just wrong,” he said coldly.

  “Sir,” I said condescendingly, “I have a photographic memory. I’m not wrong.”

  He sighed into the phone. “Well, it’s not here. If we need anything else, I’ll let you know—”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I continue to pace, blood still on my arms because I hadn’t even had a chance to wash up. I somehow fought off a guy three times my size, and I wasn’t gonna let him get away with this. If the police didn’t handle it, which was their job, I would take matters into my own hands. I’d kill him myself or ask my brother for a favor. No way in hell was I letting that piece of shit go free so he could do this to someone else. “The plates are right. You better check again and again because the information is solid.”

  He still had the same bitter attitude. “I said we’ll do everything we can…”

  I stopped in the center of the living room when I heard the knob turn in the front door. After a couple wiggles, the locked door was pushed free. “Who the hell are you?” Was someone breaking in to my apartment? Or was one of my lovers trying to surprise me? The chain on the top of the door was intact, so they couldn’t get it open farther than a few inches.

  “Ma’am, is everything okay?”

  “It’s miss, alright?” I said through clenched teeth. “And I think someone might be breaking in to my apartment.”

  Bolt cutters appeared, and the chain was snapped in one clean break. Then the door was pushed open to reveal the man who had just assaulted me fifteen minutes ago.

  Now I was fucking scared. “He’s here! He’s in my apartment right now!” I crept backward and looked for a weapon to put this asshole in the ground. “He’s going to do something. Send someone right away.”

  The officer never said anything because the line went dead.

  I pulled the phone back and glanced at the keypad as the speaker beeped. “Did he just hang up on me?”

  The asshole kicked the door shut behind him, and he looked even more threatening now than he had earlier. His hands were in tight fists, and he was still covered in blood. His arm was wrapped in gauze he must’ve had stored in his truck. “The police won’t help you.” He started to move toward me.

  I dashed to the kitchen where the small window over the sink was located. It led to the fire escape. My best chance was to run, not fight, not in this small apartment. I jumped onto the tile counter, flung the window open, and I got most of my body through before he reached me.

  “Jesus, stop running!”

  He grabbed me by the arm, but I managed to twist away from him and get free. It was a small window, not meant for a big man like him to squeeze through, and I could barely make it out myself. It would definitely slow him down.

  I sprinted down the pathway and pushed down the ladder so it lowered to the next level of the building. Without glancing behind me to see if he’d figured out a way to follow me, I just kept going, moving as fast as I could. Any neighbors who looked out the window and saw me running, caked in blood, would probably call the cops at any moment.

  I hurried and climbed down the ladder until I reached the very last rung. I was ten feet off the ground, and I’d have to let go and land on the concrete before I could escape. It was a long fall, but I could handle it as long as I didn’t lock my knees. With no money and no phone, I’d need to get a taxi and ask for a ride to Damien’s. He could pay the fare when I got there. I glanced at the ground one more time and saw nothing but bird shit stains between the cracks. Then I looked at my hands before I closed my eyes and found the courage to let go.

  The fall was only a second or two, and it wasn’t a hard collision. It was actually soft.

  Because the asshole caught me.

  I stared at him blankly and couldn’t process how this had happened. How did he get to the bottom quicker than I did? Why wouldn’t he leave me alone? It only took me a few moments to start pounding my fists into his face. “Bastard! Leave me alone!”

  A needle slipped into the back of my neck, and then there was a hot injection of fluid.

  Oh no.

  He let me hit him as he carried me away. “Relax.”

  I kept fighting, but I felt my mind begin to slip away. I was growing weak, tired, so fatigued I couldn’t think anymore. My body suddenly drooped, and I collapsed against his shoulder. “Leave me alone…” I closed my eyes and went straight to sleep.

  I woke up to the sound of my captor’s voice.

  “I got her.” His voice was deep, masculine, and quiet. He was much calmer than he had been earlier, borderline indifferent.

  A man’s voice responded through the speakerphone. “Good.”

  “Good?” His voice dripped with bitterness and sarcasm. “That’s all you have to say? The bitch is psycho. She tried to kill me.”

  “I warned you, man.”

  “No,” he snapped. “You said she knew a few moves. You didn’t say she would cut me into tiny pieces.”

  The guy over the line chuckled. “Did she beat your ass?”

  He took a long time before he responded. “She was just a pain… is all.”

  I was aware of my body lying on concrete. All my muscles were sore, I could feel the ache in every single place. The muscles in my arms were so sore, I felt like I’d lifted a car off my body. I was an experienced dancer, but my thighs felt like I’d had the hardest workout of my life. My eyes slowly opened, and I saw the world tilted on its side. Everything was concrete, so it seemed like I was in the basement. Then I realized I was in a cage.

  Made out of iron.

  My eyes focused on the man sitting in the chair on the other side of the room. His phone was on the table beside him, screen facing the ceiling and bright. He rubbed his fingers against his temple as if he had a migraine, and the rest of the room was filled with various metal objects, like shackles that hung from the ceiling, metal shelving full of odd tools, and a couple drains in the floor that were stained a weird color.

  His right arm was wrapped with white gauze, and I must’ve stabbed him pretty deep because the white material was stained a pink color as he bled through. He was in a black shirt and black jeans, the clothing fitting his muscular frame to show his undeniable strength. He was a large man, covered in muscles and ink, and it was no surprise he’d defeated me. “She came at me with a knife and started quoting some song by Beyoncé…fucking weird. Then I choked her out, and when I thought she was under, I put her in my truck
…but she’d been faking and took off.”

  “Sounds about right.”

  “I chased her down to her apartment, but then she crawled through a fucking window the size of a cat door and sprinted down the fire escape… This bitch doesn’t quit.”

  The guy chuckled. “She’s got bigger balls than Damien.”

  He shook his head and stared at the ground. “No comparison.”

  The mention of my brother made me sit up. I squinted because the fluorescent lights overhead were so harsh on my eyes. I felt weak because of the drug that was still in my system, but I fought it off and prepared to rise to my feet.

  When he heard me moving around, he lifted his gaze and looked at me. “Great…she’s awake.”

  The other man spoke. “Let me know what Damien decides.” The phone clicked when he hung up.

  I grabbed the bars and used them to pull myself to my feet. I felt the metal of the cage, shook it with my hands, and was deflated to know it was completely solid. There was no give at all, as if it were a cage from medieval times rather than a modern apparatus. “Let me out of here. Now.”

  He relaxed back in the chair and spread his knees farther apart. With his arms crossed over his chest, he tilted his head slightly and stared at me with bright blue eyes. On his right hand was a large diamond ring carved into the shape of a skull, with two eyes and a slight indentation for a mouth. It had to be worth a billion euro.

  “Who the hell has a cage like this?” I tried to shake the bars again with my hands. “Do you think you’re a knight or something?”

  “Knights serve their king, and I don’t serve anybody.”

  Now that I was trapped, I was truly scared, but the worst thing I could do was show that fear. It gave my captor all the power, only made his ego bigger. If I acted like a victim, he would treat me like one. I had to convince him to let me go, to see me as his equal rather than his prisoner. “It sounds like you serve the loser on the phone.”

  He looked at me with intense eyes, staring at me in a way he hadn’t before. He seemed perplexed by my existence, as if he didn’t understand me at all. “Business associate.”

  “And what kind of business are you in? Raping people?” I could deal with being mugged, I could deal with someone taking me for every single cent I was worth, but I couldn’t deal with someone stripping away all my rights and forcing me to do something against my will.

  He was still as a statue in response to my accusation. “Do I look like someone who needs to rape women?” He tilted his head again, and this time, the hardness etched into his features showed he was actually offended by my assumption.

  I didn’t pay much attention to the attractiveness of my captor because he was my enemy, but yes, he was a handsome man, a guy I would probably hit on in a bar if I spotted him across the room. But that wasn’t our situation. “Not all monsters are ugly.”

  He rose from the chair and came closer to me, his heavy boots thudding against the concrete as he approached, his heavy arms still crossed over his chest. When he was near the cage, he stopped far enough away so I couldn’t grab him. “No. I’m not going to rape you.”

  I had no reason to trust this guy, but the answer made me feel better anyway. I could handle anything else, even death, but not that. “Good. Because I’d kill you if you tried.”

  “Pretty bold thing when you’re inside a cage.”

  I gripped the bars and pressed my face through an opening so I could get as close to him as possible. “Then unlock the door.” My threat was unmistakable. Maybe it was stupid to provoke a man like him, but I had nothing left to lose right now.

  It was the first time we’d had a conversation because up until now we’d been fighting for our lives. It was a strange feeling, disconcerting, to talk to this monster like we were having a simple discussion. “You’re no match for me.”

  “Open the door, then. Let’s find out.”

  He smiled slightly, and it was a shame because he actually looked nice as he did it. On the street, he was a handsome man enjoying a warm afternoon. He even looked harmless. But in here…he looked like the devil. “I can’t tell if you’re brave or just crazy.”

  “Both, definitely.” I hated feeling powerless behind these bars. There was no weapon in sight and no way for me to fight for my freedom when I was enclosed in solid iron. “What does my brother have to do with this?” I knew my brother dealt with shady people, did sketchy things, but I’d never worried I’d get involved in it. Yet here I was, a pawn in this violent game of chess.

  “Everything.”

  “Be more specific.” I continued to hold the bars as a crutch, needing to do something with my hands. I’d tried to run from this man so many times, but now I was stuck in one place. The cage kept me inside, but it also kept him out.

  “My client wants something from Damien. So, we’ll make a trade—you for him.”

  So, I was being held hostage. All I had to do was wait until Damien came for me. “When my brother gets here, he’s going to kill you.”

  “Unlikely.”

  Was he stupid or arrogant? “Why do you say that?”

  “Because I have someone else just as important to him. He makes a move…he’ll never get her back.”

  I immediately realized I was a part of a much bigger plot. “I don’t understand…” If Damien would trade himself for me, what did they want with him? And where was Annabella? “What are you going to do with him?”

  He lowered his arms to his sides and slid his hands into his pockets. He looked away for a second, as if he needed time to figure out how to phrase his next words. He returned back to me eventually. “You already know.”

  I felt a shiver move down my spine, and there was this overwhelming feeling of hopelessness that exploded inside me. Damien was my brother, my friend, my family. I didn’t want him to sacrifice his life for me. The only reason I was in the situation was because of the decisions he’d made in his life, but that didn’t matter. He was my family…and I would do anything for him. “Why are you doing this? Just to make a few bucks?”

  He shrugged. “It’s complicated.”

  “It’s not that fucking complicated,” I snapped. “If Damien takes my place and I get out of here, what do you think will happen to you?”

  He raised one eyebrow slightly as if he didn’t understand the question.

  “I’ll come after you. And I won’t stop until my knife is through your heart.”

  Twenty-One

  Heath

  I set the tray on the ground in front of her cage.

  Instead of being grateful for the meal, she stared down at it with disgust before she looked at me again. “Do you expect me to eat that?”

  “Eat it. Don’t eat it. I don’t care.”

  She looked down to examine the dinner I’d made myself upstairs, and she reached out to grab the glass of water sitting there, but the size and shape of the glass couldn’t fit through the bars, so she tugged and spilled liquid all over the floor. “How do you expect me to drink this?” She copped an attitude every single time she spoke.

  I turned around and opened a cabinet to grab a straw. When I returned, I threw it at her. “There.”

  She let it bounce off her dress and fall to the floor. “Are you at least going to give me a change of clothes?”

  “Do I look like I have women’s clothes?”

  “I just said clothes, asshole. Men’s or women’s, I don’t care. Expect me to eat when I’m covered in blood?” She lifted her arms and looked at herself. “Your blood? That’s fucking gross. At least let me wash my hands first.”

  I was onto her game now. Never would I underestimate her again. She was trying to think of a way to get me to open that cage door, to get the hell out of there and kill me on her way. “No.”

  “Then I’d rather not eat.”

  “Fine.” I picked up the tray and carried it to the table. I sat at the table and picked up the fork to take a bite. “It’s a shame. I’m a pretty good cook.”

/>   She stood with her hands gripping the bars. She still in the short yellow dress, thin straps over her shoulders. Her long hair stretched out on either side of her, so long that the strands almost reached her belly button. She must’ve been a size zero because she had such a tiny waist. Her tanned skin made the yellow color perfect on her, when it would wash anyone else out. She flipped her head back to get the hair out of her face then continued to stare at me.

  She was such a pain in the ass, but I couldn’t deny that she was beautiful. Her concern about being raped wasn’t ridiculous because most guys probably would do that. Luckily for her, that wasn’t my thing.

  She sighed loudly, wanting me to know exactly how annoyed she was. “Expect me to sleep in here?”

  I nodded.

  “On this little roll?” she asked incredibly. “I’m gonna throw out my back.”

  I kept eating.

  “And where am I supposed to go to the bathroom?”

  “There’s a bucket.”

  “Oh my god, hell no. I’m a lady, asshole.”

  “Really?” I asked. “Because you don’t sound like one.”

  She narrowed her eyes and let out a loud groan of irritation. “How long are you going to keep me here?”

  “Until Damien shows up.”

  “And when will that be?”

  “As soon as I call.”

  “What are you waiting for?”

  I sliced my fork into the tender chicken and took a big bite. It was a shame she was missing out on this delicious meal. “I thought you didn’t want Damien to come down here.”

  “Well, maybe he won’t.”

  “You really think he’d leave you here to die?”

  She lowered her hands down the bars until they were at her sides. “So that’s what you intend to do with me? If he doesn’t take my place?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “I assume that asshole ex of hers has Anna. If Damien does make this trade, he’ll never save Anna. Did you think of that?”