Beyond Ransom (The Ransom Series)

by A. T. Douglas

  “Nothing to say this time? No smart-ass remarks? No name calling?” Mark waits for any kind of response out of me, but I’m not giving in. “I’m surprised. Leo must have talked more sense into you than I realized.”

  My heart breaks to hear Leo’s name. As my eyes try to adjust to see past the spotlight, I quickly scan the tables at the back of the room, unreasonably expecting to find Leo sitting there casually among the other men. He’s nowhere to be found.

  “Someone looking for their new best friend? Or fuck buddy, I should say? God, I’ll have to fuck you myself just to get the image of the two of you going at it out of my head.”

  I’m trying to maintain control, to stay calm and keep the tears that desperately want to pour out of me from falling down my face, but I can feel myself slipping. Leo is my rock, the one I look to for strength in these trying moments when Mark likes to fuck with my brain. I don’t have him anymore. Leo is likely in a similar or worse position as I am now.

  He was so worried about ruining me, and in the end I ruined him. I destroyed what he worked so hard to build for himself.

  Something jangles off to my side, and my eyes are immediately drawn to its source. Leo’s unconscious and attached to the wall with this room’s latest addition, or maybe I just didn’t notice them before. Heavy chains cuffed around Leo’s wrists and ankles connect him with the wall. A bruising abrasion covers the side of his forehead near his temple, but he otherwise looks unharmed. His mouth is covered with a large piece of duct tape. He’s unconscious but stirring slightly.

  “Leo.” I can’t help saying his name. I call out to him again, my voice cracking this time. “Leo?”

  He awakens slowly, and I can see the recognition making its way through the synapses in his brain as he acquaints himself with his situation. When his eyes look up to mine, he’s instantly out of his haze, pulling violently at the chains as he sees me. The look in his eyes tells me everything I need to know.

  This is our mutual end. Mark won’t let us survive this. He will destroy us together.

  “You two are so smitten with each other, aren’t you? So much more than fuck buddies.” Mark circles me slowly. “Do you want to see the beauty of this situation? It’s gorgeous, really. Perfect.”

  Mark turns abruptly from me to Leo. In one swift movement he swings his leg and kicks him hard across the face, launching his body as far as it will go against the chains attached to the wall.

  “No! Stop!” I yell at Mark while thrashing my limbs against the restraints. It’s an openly desperate and pathetic move, but I can’t help my natural reaction to what Mark’s doing. Leo shakes his head, reorienting himself as Mark sets up for another blow.

  Mark looks directly at me when he’s about to do it, taunting me. “You don’t like me beating the shit out of your boyfriend?”

  “No. Please stop.” I’m begging now. I can’t sit here and watch him do this.

  Mark ponders my words for a moment before turning his attention back to Leo. “I’ve given him a rather fine selection of scars already. What’s a few more?”

  This hit is even harder than the first, the heel of Mark’s boot coming down sharply on the back of Leo’s head before he even has a chance to see it coming.

  Tears trickle down my face. I’m witnessing just a glimpse of the horrors Leo had to endure growing up with this wretched human being who stands between us. Mark may have saved Leo’s life the day his family was killed, but he has been slowly taking that life away from him every day since.

  “Do you see the beauty of it now?” Mark turns his attention back to me with excitement beaming in his eyes. “What would you do to save him? How far would you go to make me stop from beating him unconscious at this very moment?”

  I look to Leo for guidance, needing anything to help me get through this latest mind-fuck that Mark’s come up with, but he’s not looking at me. He’s too busy struggling to recover from the last hit.

  The part of me that strives for survival is telling me to say nothing.

  The part of me that cares for Leo is telling me to say whatever the hell this evil man wants.

  I speak with my heart, leaving my mind to figure out a way to pick up the broken pieces of me after what I’m about to say.

  “Anything.” The word is heavy between us, sealing my fate. “I’ll do anything to stop this.”

  Mark grins wildly. “I love it.” He moves in front of me excitedly and grabs my face between his rough hands. “I love it! Pure selflessness and dedication to a man you hardly know. Now to see if lover boy is as dedicated to you.”

  Mark moves over to kneel next to Leo, putting his hands on Leo’s face much in the same way that he just held mine. He smacks Leo across the face to bring his dazed eyes to focus on him so that he has his full attention.

  In Leo’s recognition of his proximity to Mark, he lunges his head toward him, but Mark backs away in time to avoid the blow.

  Mark smiles wickedly. “You’re a bit feistier now than you were as young boy and a teen. My time in prison really gave you an opportunity to thrive, didn’t it?”

  Leo groans against the tape over his mouth and pulls again at the chains, clearly frustrated.

  “Watch this, my boy. Watch very carefully.”

  Mark stands up and pulls a gun from a nearby table. I recognize the weapon instantly, my dad having taught me all about guns at a young age. It’s a Beretta M9 pistol, the worst possible thing that could have entered into this situation.

  Mark approaches me with the gun, pointing the tip of it at my temple before pressing the cold metal against my skin. My eyes close tighter the harder he presses. My heart races within my chest.

  Within the course of a second, the gun is removed from my temple and smacked hard against the same spot, my head flying to the side and a cry escaping me at the sharp blow. My eyes shoot open, but I’m only seeing stars. The next blow from the gun hits me hard and fast across the other side of my head and I cry out again.

  When my vision returns to me this time, I make out Leo fighting wildly against the chains beside me. It almost looks like he’ll rip the chains from the wall in his attempt to stop Mark from beating the shit out of me with his gun. I try to take some comfort in Leo’s presence next to me even though there’s nothing he can do to stop this.

  I hear a growl of anger in front of me and turn to find Mark’s hand bringing the gun toward my face but not to hit me. He stuffs the dirty barrel of it into my mouth and grasps the back of my hair roughly, preventing me from turning even the slightest bit.

  He pushes the tip of the gun to the back of my throat until I’m gagging on it before pulling it back slowly and reinserting it again. I quickly realize what he’s doing, and it absolutely sickens me.

  I can’t see him, but I can hear Leo yelling into the duct tape over his mouth above the loud clanking sounds of the chains. Mark glances to the side with a maniacal grin. “Do you like this, Leo? Does it turn you on? I can think of another place we can insert this.”

  In Mark’s momentary distraction to look at Leo, I take advantage of the opportunity to rip my head away from his grasp and turn enough to get the gun out of my mouth.

  My relief is short-lived as the chair I’m in is thrown sideways to the floor toward Leo, the side of my head smacking the cement with a painful thud. I catch a glimpse of Leo’s horrified face just before I close my eyes and retreat behind my eyelids, unable to watch what’s going to happen next.

  Mark moves on to kicking me repeatedly in the stomach, chest, and legs. At first the adrenaline coursing through me helps to dull the pain, but before long I can feel each blow tearing at my sensitive skin, and suddenly my body feels like it’s on fire again. I’m hyperaware now, my entire body alert and desperate for a reprieve that I begin to wonder if I’ll ever see.

  And then it stops. Mark’s angry show of power is over and I dare to open my eyes. Leo stares at me helplessly, and I fear he’s given up hope. I can’t have him give up, because he’s my rock and
I need him here. I need him to be with me even if we’re both broken into a million tiny pieces.

  My body has reached its limit. It’s shutting down, willing me to enter unconsciousness for a chance to recoup. It’s time for my reprieve.

  I give Leo a tiny reassuring nod before the darkness consumes me.

  18

  Broken

  Every bone in my body aches. Every single bone. It seems impossible to me that a body can still function under the overwhelming feeling of being completely broken, but I’m still here. I draw a deep, aching breath and am grateful to still be alive, even if I am shattered.

  “Morgan?”

  Leo’s voice is not what I’m expecting to hear, and it only helps to pull me back together, if not permanently, at least temporarily.

  I open my eyes to confirm Leo’s presence. I’m draped across his lap on the cot in my cell. He’s clinging to me like I might drift away.

  “I’m here. I’m okay,” I say, though I’m unsure of how true the second statement really is. “Are you okay?” I quickly scan Leo’s face and upper body and see nothing noticeably wrong with him other than the couple welts and bruises from where he was struck.

  “I’m fine. You’re the only one I’m worried about right now.”

  I try to sit up, to prove that I’m as fine as I think I am, but I quickly realize that I’m not fine. My ribcage feels about ready to give out within me at the movement, and I immediately fall back into Leo’s embrace.

  “Your ribs are bruised again. You need to take it easy.”

  “We were so close, weren’t we?” I ask hesitantly, ignoring all concern for the pain in my body.

  “We were. I’m so sorry.” Leo can barely look at me. “I took a chance and it failed.”

  I close my eyes, taking in the feeling of Leo’s warmth and touch around me. “We’re still together. We didn’t completely fail.” A subtle laugh escapes me as I open my eyes. “We may even see more of each other now. Look at us, back on this cot together and you don’t even have to be sneaky about it.”

  Leo smiles with his lips but the expression doesn’t reach his eyes. “I don’t know that it’s a good thing we’re in the same room.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Mark knows we care about each other.” I can’t help the slight jump of warmth in my heart as he says this. “He’ll use that against us, Morgan. He’s going to get exactly what he wants out of both of us.”

  Understanding slowly works itself through the painful haze in my brain. “The show in the main room. That’s what it was all about.”

  Leo nods reluctantly. “I’ll try to protect you in any way I can, but you’re going to have to restrain yourself from trying to help me. You can’t give in to him the moment he lays a hand on me. I’ve lived with this for years. I can take it.”

  I’m visibly angry with Leo at his suggestion. “How can you possibly expect me to do that?”

  “Because you have a life to go back to you. You have a family.” Leo soothes me with the slightest touch of his fingers up and down my arm. “You can’t sacrifice all of that for someone who has nothing. I won’t let you.”

  “You have me,” I insist. “I want to be there for you. I want to be in your life.”

  “You don’t fit in my life.”

  This comment stings a little even though I know it’s true. It’s a reminder that we really are from two different worlds, that until a short time ago Leo was standing next to Mark as his second-in-command, carrying out anything and everything he wished to further this evolving plot that Mark has in store for me. It’s a reminder that this comforting and caring man holding me is just as responsible for my torture here as the man behind the commands.

  I’m not ready to give up on him, though. I won’t let him go that easily. “You need a new life, away from Mark and the business and all this bullshit.” My anger is swelling again, tension seizing my body within Leo’s embrace.

  “I don’t get a do over. I’m too far down this path. I can’t just step off it into a life of suburbs and white picket fences.”

  I shake my head vigorously. “I don’t believe you.”

  “You can’t even fathom the things I’ve done for Mark and the business. I’d have about ten life sentences waiting for me on the outside if the police got to me, not to mention Mark would find me. He’d track me down anywhere, even in prison. Now imagine that situation with you still in my life. You’d be an instant target.”

  I can’t help the sigh of frustration that escapes me. “There has to be a way for us to be together.”

  Leo leans down to kiss me softly on the lips, lingering there for just a moment. “Don’t worry about us right now. You should rest.”

  “But the light’s on, and I don’t want to rest.” I feel exhausted and know I should sleep, but I also want to keep talking to Leo and feeling him comfort me.

  “You need to rest. Take advantage of this while you can. Mark’s a fucking loose cannon. We need to be prepared for anything at any time.”

  Leo pulls me in against him with his arms wrapped gently around the front of me. I’m drawn to the telling tattoos on the arms that hold me. My eyes find the edgy, abstract black rose encased in black flames at its stem partially visible from the top of his arm. I inspect the words “fallen but not forgotten” inscribed in large cursive lettering on his inner forearm.

  This man who lost everything is ready to sacrifice all that he has left for me. He wants me to stand idly by and watch him be destroyed by the man who was supposed to be his savior, the sad replacement for the father taken from him at too young of an age.

  There are no words to describe the rage I feel toward Mark, not just for my own pain, but for Leo’s as well. If anything good is to come out of this hellish experience, it has to be Leo. He means well, but I won’t do anything to jeopardize him. I won’t lose the man who has shown his affection and caring toward me repeatedly during this time of absolute darkness.

  I won’t leave him behind.

  The inscription on Leo’s arm steals my attention again. I focus on each swirling line of it dancing across his skin. Though I’ve observed the tattoo countless times before while Leo’s held me, I see something at the end of the written words that I haven’t noticed before. A tiny tattooed star hides just below the final cursive letter, seemingly overshadowed by the powerful written marking above it.

  “The star,” I say, and Leo instantly tenses in his grasp of me. “I don’t remember seeing this before.”

  He turns his arm just enough so that the tattoo I was inspecting is hidden from my view. “It’s nothing new. I’ve carried that with me for a long time.”

  “What does it mean?”

  When my eyes meet Leo’s gaze, his expression is unreadable other than the look of exhaustion and concern that affects every inch of his face.

  “Just get some rest.”

  He runs his fingers with the lightest touch over my forehead and through the strands of loose hair that frame my face. The contact is comforting and eases the dull ache throughout my body. My eyelids quickly become heavy, and I’m blissfully taken into the numb state of sleep.

  19

  Strong

  If there’s one good thing that came out of our failed escape attempt, it’s that Leo’s here with me in this room, the lengths of our bodies pressed together with his soothing arms around me. In these moments I can relax and rest fully, even if I can’t fall back sleep after awakening from a nightmare. It’s the greatest comfort knowing that I’m within his arms and temporarily protected from the dangers that lurk in the madman elsewhere in this building.

  I wish things were different. I imagine as I lie here what it would have been like had Leo and I met under other circumstances or if Leo’s escape plan succeeded. It crushes my heart to acknowledge that this is the only reality in which we can truly be together. Dad would never let me anywhere near an older guy, let alone a criminal who participated in my capture and all the horrible subsequent e
vents. In the free world Leo would have to leave me and run or stay with me and face the consequences of his actions. Both potential realities leave me without him, and I’m not ready to let him go.

  Leo’s breathing is even and shallow next to me as he sleeps. I want to reach around him and feel his skin and caress his face, but I know any attempt at movement is going to cause more pain than it’s worth to my bruised body. The longer my body has had to settle since Mark took his boot to it, the sorer I’ve become. I wish I could shut it off and give my pain receptors a break, even if only for a short time.

  The moment I hear the click of the lock at the door, I stop breathing and my heart quickens its pace. A feeling of dread consumes me as the door handle turns and light from the hallway pours in through the widening crack in the door.

  The shadowed figure is instantly recognizable as Mark with his tall stature and balding head. He puts a finger to his mouth, indicating for me to be quiet as he points the gun in my direction.

  My body has no choice but to comply. I’m too paralyzed with fear to speak.

  I’m used to Mark’s heavy footsteps, but he’s making every attempt to be as quiet as possible right now. Leo still sleeps soundly next to me, completely unaware of the danger that just entered our cell.

  Mark tucks the gun in the back of his pants, and for the tiniest moment I feel relief. He pulls something out of his pocket a little too loudly causing a metal clinking sound, and Leo stirs next to me.

  It takes only a moment for Mark to slip one end of the handcuffs around Leo’s wrist. By the time Leo’s awake and reacting fully to what Mark’s doing, it’s too late. Mark has the other end of the handcuffs secured around the metal pole that attaches the cot to the floor.

  I scream as Mark grabs me by the arms and rips me away from the cot. Leo’s yelling, grasping out desperately with his free hand to hold on to me, but he can’t get a good enough grip before Mark has me out of his reach.

  As Mark drags me roughly behind him toward the opposite wall, Leo’s already on his feet and pulling as far as he can go away from the cot, but he’s nowhere near me. He’s so close–only feet away from me–yet so far away. There might as well be miles between us.