by A. M. Myers
“You are a smart girl, I’ll give you that.”
I shake my head, a deep hatred burning away some of my fear. “It won’t work. She won’t ever come back to you.”
A smile curves his lips and I break out in a cold sweat. “See, that’s where you’re wrong.”
He stalks over to me and holds his hand up between us, letting it hover over my skin for a moment and my jaw clenches as I watch him. He leans in closer and trails his fingers over my cheek, his eyes darkening as he bites his lip.
“Once your sister realizes I have you, she’ll come running home because she knows what I’ll do to you if she doesn’t.”
“This isn’t her home,” I bite out as I lurch away from his touch and jerk my hands, shaking the rope above me.
“Ah, ah,” he taunts, pulling a large hunting knife out from behind his back. I freeze, watching him as he takes a deliberate step toward me and a fresh wave of terror blooms in my chest. I jerk again, the need to flee overwhelming my common sense. When he reaches me, he kneels down and moves the knife toward my legs. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to picture this morning when I was in bed with Chance or last night as he made love to me, anything to get me through what comes next. The swoosh of the knife cutting through something fills the air and when the pain doesn’t follow, I open my eyes.
One leg is free of the ropes binding it to the chair and Julian moves to the other, slicing through the rope with ease. I frown. Why would he free my legs? Licking my lips, I study him as he stands and moves behind me, my belly quivering as I twist in my seat. When he gets to the wall, he stops and smiles as he unties the rope from a hook and jerks it down, pulling me into a standing position as I scream in pain.
“God,” he groans, doing it again as pain lances through my body. My toes barely touch the floor and the constant pain in my shoulders is making me woozy. “I love that sound.”
My stomach rolls as I drop my head and suck in a breath. I didn’t understand, not until this very moment, just how deranged Julian is. But I could see it on his face as I screamed… it turned him on. He’s a sadist in the purest form of the word. With a gleam in his eyes, he ties the rope back around the hook and stalks toward me, holding the knife in front of his face.
“There,” he whispers, inching closer to me. “Now we can talk.”
My gaze flicks over to the knife, hovering inches away from my face as light glints off the flat part of the blade. “Okay, let’s talk.”
“You took something from me,” he accuses as he tilts his head to the side and narrows his eyes.
“Ivy is not a thing and she left; I didn’t take her.”
His lip curls back in a snarl and his nostrils flare. “She wouldn’t have left. I made sure of that.”
“No, what you did is exactly what drove her away,” I snap and he rushes forward, wrapping a hand around my throat as he presses the tip of the knife to my cheek.
“She knew the consequences for leaving and if she doesn’t come back to me, it will cost you your life.”
A chill blankets me and my chest tingles as I raise my head and meet his eyes. “Go ahead and kill me. It will be worth it as long as she’s free.”
He throws his head back and laughs, releasing my throat as he takes a step back and pulls the knife away.
“Sweet, innocent, Carly,” he muses, tapping the spine of the knife against his hands. “We’re not going to kill you.”
We?
“Who’s we?”
His lips stretch into a grin that makes my heart stop. “Wouldn’t you like to know? Don’t worry, you’ll find out very soon.”
“Fuck you,” I spit. I’m done with these games. His smile grows and he steps closer, reaching up and dragging his fingers down my arm.
“So beautiful when you’re angry. I can almost see the appeal.”
“Get your hands off me,” I hiss, my skin growing clammy as memories rush back, things I’ve never remembered before about that night twelve years ago and I squeeze my eyes shut like I can somehow stop them.
The boys circling me…
Their taunts as they closed in around me…
Austin smiling as he pulls out his phone…
“I won’t hurt you, Carly. As long as your sister comes back to me,” Julian assures, his voice cutting through my memories. I shake my head and open my eyes.
“She won’t.”
“Oh, I think she will. You are the one person in the world she would do absolutely anything for and I’m counting on that.”
Without thinking, I grab the rope above my head and grit my teeth as I pull myself up enough to kick my legs out in front of me. I hit Julian in the knee and he roars as he goes down, the knife clattering to the floor next to me.
Fuck.
Now what?
He howls in pain, clutching his knee but recovers faster than I thought he would. I jerk back as he lunges to his feet and lands a fist to my belly. As I gasp for breath, he wraps his fingers around my throat.
“You stupid little bitch,” he snarls, his fingers constricting more. His face is flushed and his nostrils flare as he stares me down. I can see the ideas churning in his gaze, all the things he wants to do to me and I start to tremble. “You’ll regret that.”
Releasing me, he leans down and grabs the knife before placing the tip against my chest. I close my eyes and he pulls down, cutting open my t-shirt as I suck in a breath, my eyes watering.
Oh, God.
No.
No.
No.
My lip wobbles and I gulp in air, trying to focus on anything other than what he’s about to do to me when white hot pain blooms from my chest. Crying out, my eyes fly open and I glance down, watching the blood stain my shirt. The cut isn’t deep, not enough to worry about but just enough to burn like hell and stain my shirt red.
“Such a gorgeous sound,” he rasps, reaching down to adjust his cock and my stomach rolls. “Do it for me again, sweetheart.”
He drags the knife over my skin again and I whimper as I bite down on my lip in an act of defiance. I won’t give him what he wants. Dropping the knife on the floor, he frowns and grabs my face.
“Why do you have to be so difficult, Carly? Just give me what I want.”
A few tears slip down my cheek and he grins before leaning forward and licking them off my skin. My stomach rolls again and I gag. Releasing my cheeks, he trails his hand down my face and neck until he gets to the first incision. He drags his finger along the side of it and I bite back another scream as it burns. When his gaze meets mine again, he growls.
“So fucking stubborn but we’ll break you eventually.”
“No.” I shake my head and he laughs, stepping away from me.
“Yes, we will, Carly, and I, for one, can’t fucking wait.”
Without another word, he picks up his knife and walks over to the far wall before light floods into the room. There’s a staircase just past the door but other than that, I can’t see anything. As soon as the door shuts and the lock clinks into place, my shoulders sag and a sob rips through my throat as pain radiates through my body and my stomach rolls.
I’m in Hell.
* * * *
Time doesn’t exist down here in the musty darkness, except to torture me with the awful possibilities of my immediate future. Seconds bleed into hours and it could be minutes or days since Julian left me all alone. Each sound that manages to pierce the black nothingness of my surroundings sends me out of my skin and the pain is so intense I’m not entirely sure I’ve remained conscious the entire time I’ve been locked away. My t-shirt is drenched with sweat and blood and my legs are growing weak from standing on my toes, waiting for the devil to return. I can only hope Ivy’s smart enough to stay away.
Before today, before I woke up in this… dungeon, for lack of a better word, I thought I had experienced the worst thing humanity had to offer. I was so consumed with my own pain and I thought no one could ever hurt me the way they had but it only took ten minutes wit
h Julian to make me realize how wrong I’d been. I would go back and relive that night a hundred times if it got me out of here now.
The door opens and I jerk, my head flying up and my eyes widen as a figure blocks out the light. It’s not Julian. This man is taller and wider in the shoulders than Julian. My body trembles as I watch him. He closes the door and remains in the shadows as he makes his way around the room to me. My hammering heart makes it difficult to judge how far away he is from the sound of his footsteps. I suck in air and try to back up, despite the fact that I’m stuck in place.
“Hello, Carly,” the man says as he steps into the light and I gasp, jerking on the rope harder, desperate to flee as ice cold fear fills my belly.
“Damian.”
He smiles, taking a step toward me and I see the same evil glint in his eyes that I recognized in Julian’s earlier. My chest tightens and my thoughts screech to a halt. What is he doing here? All the puzzle pieces rattle around in my brain and I can’t make them fit together. What does Damian have to do with Julian?
“It’s lovely to see you again,” Damian purrs, his gaze dropping to my chest and he frowns as he runs a finger along the first cut. “I see Julian decided to get started without me.”
“What are you doing here?” I ask, flinching as he traces around the wound again. He licks his lips and meets my eyes.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for that answer.”
I jerk on the rope again despite the tearing pain in my shoulder. “No. You’ll fucking tell me now.”
“Will I?” he asks, his eyes lighting up and a slow smile stretching across his face. “I don’t think you’re in a position to argue. I do love your fire, though.”
I remain quiet, staring him down as I wait for answers and finally, he sighs.
“All right. I suppose I could give you some answers while we wait.”
I blink. “Wait for what?”
“Ah, that’s not one of the questions you’ll get an answer to. It would ruin all the fun,” he says, laughing, and I turn away from him. “I suppose I should start at the beginning, huh?”
Silence stretches between us and as I look back at him, he nods. He peels his suit jacket off and tosses it over the chair next to me before slowly rolling the sleeves of his dress shirt up.
“I was born here in Baton Rouge and my daddy, he was a mean old bastard. He loved to smack me around just to hear me cry and he did it often. When I started school, I was different than the other kids. I never fit in with anyone and kids can be so mean, but you already know that, don’t you?” He smirks and I wonder just how much he knows. “Even back then, I had… certain tastes and it got me expelled on a few occasions, which only made my daddy beat me more.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, hoping I can appeal to his emotions somehow but the wry smile he flashes me makes my heart sink.
“Oh, don’t worry about me, sweetheart. See, it all got better when I met Julian. He was different, too, and we became friends merely out of necessity. It wasn’t until we were in high school that we realized we both were into the same thing.” His gaze drops down my body and he runs his tongue over his teeth.
“Which is what?” I ask, despite the fact that I’m sure I don’t want to know. He grins.
“Aren’t we impatient? Hold on, I’m getting to that part.” He steps up and places his hand on my ribs. “See, we realized we were both really intrigued by the idea of sharing a woman but more than that, we both fantasized about hurting them.”
I suck in a breath and he grins, shaking his head.
“I mean, what are the odds, right? It would have been rare to find someone who wanted to share a woman but to also find someone who liked the sound of her screaming in pain? It was fate. Our imaginations were endless and we finally had someone to share our darkest thoughts with. Things just grew from there. Alone, we were vulnerable but together, we realized we could rule this fucking city and get everything we’ve always wanted.”
“Meaning?” I already think I know the answer, but I need to hear it.
“You… and your sister. You belong to us now and we’ll do whatever we damn well please with you.” He runs his fingers down my neck to my breast and I shudder.
“We don’t belong to you.”
He laughs, nodding. “Oh, but you do, actually. We bought you.”
“You what?” I ask, my mouth going slack as my head swims. “You can’t buy a human being.”
“Technically, you’re right but who’s going to come after you? Your mother is the one who sold you two off like prized pigs.”
I shake my head as I struggle to breathe. “No. That’s not true.”
“It seems that the men of this town have caught on to your mother’s games and they refuse to play anymore so she needed to find another way to make money. The poor thing is broke. Julian and I overheard her at a fundraiser, complaining that her daughters couldn’t find good men and well, we jumped on the opportunity. She was so eager to give us any information we needed about the two of you.”
“No,” I whisper, my mind fighting to understand everything he’s saying.
“Oh, yes. I’ve even seen the lovely little tape you made in high school,” he whispers, pressing his nose against my cheek as he releases a breath. His breath fans out over my skin and I fight back a sob. “I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve gotten off to it. Planning this whole thing took months and I didn’t know if I was going to make it.”
I still can’t wrap my mind around it. The money sent to the account in the Cayman Islands and the burner phones, it all makes sense now but how could she just sell us like things she grew tired of? Sure, she’s always been single minded when it came to getting what she wanted but this… this is taking it to the next level. I can’t help but think of my daddy watching over me right now, his heart breaking. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Maybe I should have expected something like this all along. My mind drifts to Chance.
“Chance will come for me,” I whisper, shaking my head again. Damian’s mood shifts in an instant and he grabs my face, his lip curling back in a snarl.
“I never want to hear that fucking name again; do you hear me? You are mine now and the only way you leave here is in a fucking body bag. If you ever try to leave, I’ll hunt that bastard down and take my time killing him.”
“No,” I gasp, unable to stop an image of Chance lying dead on the floor from entering my mind. My heart explodes with pain and I gasp for air. I’ll do it. I’ll live an eternity of this if it means he gets to live.
“Yes,” Damian hisses, his breath washing over me and I gag when the smell of tobacco floods my nose. “Since the moment I first saw you with him at the gala, I’ve wanted to take my knife and sink it into him so don’t think I won’t. It won’t be a slow death either. Maybe I’ll nick a lung and watch as he slowly suffocates or I’ll set him on fire just long enough to make the end of his life excruciating.”
“No!” I scream, tears pouring down my face as I pull at the rope again. “I’ll stay.”
“Damn fucking right you will. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough, but you are mine now. Well, ours.”
My lip trembles and I nod, accepting my fate. With any luck, he’ll just kill me.
“God,” he groans, grabbing my t-shirt and ripping it open the rest of the way. “Do you know how hard it’s been to wait for this? As soon as your mother showed me your picture, I knew you were the one and it’s been killing me to try and woo you.”
“It never would have worked.”
He laughs. “Yes, I can see that now. I’m not bothered – that’s more Julian’s speed. He loves the chase. I prefer something a little… different.”
“I don’t care,” I whisper, my eyelids drooping and my shoulders going slack. I’m quickly running out of steam. Damian moves behind me, gripping my hips as he buries his nose in my hair and takes a deep breath.
“But you should. It involves you, after all.”
Before I can say anything
else, the door bursts open and my head lifts as light floods the room. Julian pushes Ivy inside and slams the door closed behind them. She has a fresh bruise on her cheek and blood trickles from her eyebrow, mixing with the tears as it streaks down the side of her face. My throat feels tight.
“Vi,” I call to her.
“Shut up,” Julian growls at me, shoving her farther into the room and her eyes lock on me.
“You see,” Damian whispers, pressing his palm flat against my belly and I struggle against him. “Ivy is in big trouble for leaving and now she has to be punished.”
The glee in his voice sends my stomach rolling again and I shake my head, unable to figure out how I ended up here when only yesterday, my life was damn near perfect.
“No.”
Julian shoots a look in my direction and Damian clamps a hand over my mouth, his lips brushing up against my ear and I recoil.
“Just watch, sweetheart, because as soon as he’s done, it’s your turn.” His erection presses into my ass and I sob, my stomach turning and my heart turning to stone.
When Julian gets Ivy a few feet away from me, he stops and nods to Damian. “Grab me that chair, will ya?”
Damian releases me and I suck in air, panic clawing away at me but unable to do anything about it as he grabs the wooden chair and carries it over to Julian. Once Damian sets it down, Julian moves it to where he wants to and shoves Ivy into a sitting position. With her hands tied behind her back and a gag in her mouth, she is essentially helpless and I start praying for a miracle.
Julian moves in front of the chair and I squeeze my eyes shut, dropping my head. A hand fists into my hair, yanking it back and warm breath fans out across my neck. Chills races across my bare flesh and my stomach rolls again.
“Watch,” Damian hisses in my ear, excitement in his voice, and I shake my head. “Watch or he will make it ten times worse for her.”
Sobbing, I peel my eyes open and meet Julian’s eyes. His lips part and his tongue darts out, wetting them, as his fingers twitch with the desire to touch me. His cock strains against his slacks, growing harder as his gaze traces the tears pouring down my face. I was wrong before… this isn’t Hell. This is a deeper level of purgatory reserved for the most vile, heinous demons and somehow, I’ve ended up here by mistake.
