“You’d deprive her of food and water on top of what’s coming? Would you condemn her to sit, tied to that chair, in her own filth?” He didn’t blink or budge from his spot. He meant every word. He’d do it. “I will leave her there, until she dies like that. Of course, I’ll move her to a new location you’ll have no hope of finding, but you’ll have this lovely last image to remember.”
My spine stiffened. “No, you won’t. Then you’ll have nothing to keep me in line.” This was not going to happen, I wouldn’t let it. Somehow, I had to stop this.
“If she dies, we’ll just get another one of your friends. That Murphy guy looked like an easy mark.” He looked up at the ceiling, as if he was pondering some great thought. “Or maybe Lady Luck? I bet she’d be a lot of fun to break. I know the guys would enjoy trying.” He smiled, as if he were picturing it in his mind.
I tried to keep my breathing calm and not attack him right where he stood.
“You think we can’t? We took her easy enough. We can take others. We know everything.” He gave up his physical position and walked over to me, and then let his fingers trail along my shoulder and down my arm. “Or maybe we should bring in Fate? How would that make you feel? Would that bother you? You act like you don’t care that much, but I think differently.”
He slowly walked back to his spot in front of the glass. The soles of his dress shoes hit heavy and rang in my ears like a death toll. He pointed to the spot next to him.
My first step toward him was the hardest. The short walk to stand by his side represented something I couldn’t wrap my brain around. There wasn’t a name for it; not yet, anyway. But it was dark, unnatural and made me feel like I’d walked a mile in a swamp and didn’t think I’d ever feel clean again.
One final step and I was standing beside him. I kept my eyes on the large man as he reached down to where Kitty’s hand was tied to the chair. He made jerking motion with her right hand. When he let go, her thumb was jutting at an unnatural angle.
She hunched over as much as the ropes tied around her chest would allow. Although her eyes were covered, I knew she was crying, because of the sobs coming from the speaker by the door. She might not be able to hear us, but I could hear everything.
“Who are you? Why are you doing this to me?” she cried desperately.
My chin notched up even as my stomach clenched.
“Are you finished?”
Luke didn’t answer right away, just looked at the watch on his right hand. “No. That would’ve been it if he’d only answered the phone, but this little issue we had today cost me an hour.”
He held up another finger to the man inside the room.
All reason disappeared and I snapped. My hands went around Luke’s neck before another thought had a chance to take over.
Sometimes in life, you reach the limit of your tolerance, whether it’s physical pain, or worse, mental. At that moment, you snap. You revert to the most animalistic instincts that still dwell in your core, the basest part of you that always lingers deep inside. It lies dormant, waiting for opportunities just like these.
Logic ceases to matter. You become a creature without higher thinking. You attack because it’s all you have left.
We were falling to the ground and I had the best of him until a Taser gun hit me from behind. I’d known they were waiting in the shadows, from the moment I’d walked in the room. But the beast inside me—the one that had grown a little more every day since this ordeal had started—didn’t care. It had urged me forward, no matter the price.
My body stiffened and I couldn’t control my limbs as I fell. When it finally stopped, two sets of hands gripped both of my arms and his goons hauled me to my feet.
Luke, still prone on the ground where I’d knocked him, wasn’t smiling anymore. If I’d had half a second longer, I would’ve killed him. As it was, the damage was already apparent. Blood marked his nose where I’d gotten a good blow in, and there was a gouge where I’d almost taken out his eye. Once I had him on the ground, a few moments more and I would’ve been able to overpower him and snap his neck.
“Put her front and center,” he said as he regained his feet and picked up his cell phone, which must have slid during our tussle.
Since my legs weren’t working well, I was dragged to the middle of the glass and supported in place.
Luke dialed a number and said three words that crushed me worse than two goons ever could. “Break them all.” He slipped his phone into his pants pocket and crossed to where I was now, with one of his men on either side. I found little satisfaction in him keeping some distance.
“Now, let’s watch what you’ve done to your friend.”
By the third break, Kitty was crying in agony. The tears burned at my eyes but I wouldn’t let them fall. I moved my stare to a spot over her head but a hand yanked my hair and forced my gaze to her again. So instead, I forced my eyes to go out of focus.
At the beginning, each break was punctuated by a scream. I counted down, knowing there’d be an end and clinging to it in my mind. After the fourth, there was only a soft mewl marking the breaks. I told myself that it wasn’t Kitty in there. It was a stranger who meant nothing to me.
My spine stiffened as my eyes burned. If I wanted to get through this, I couldn’t feel. I had to be like them, cold and empty, a machine.
The noises finally stopped and the room went black, turning the window before me into a makeshift mirror. All the horror I felt turned toward the image reflected before me. My hair was tousled and my clothes were wrinkled and stained. It took most of the energy I had these days just to continue on. The girl in the mirror was weak.
Where was the strong attorney, the woman who could handle anything? Nothing had scared her. She’d never backed down from anyone, ever. She was her father’s daughter, a Marine with steel in his bones. Or she had been.
Luke walked forward to stand in front of me, but I held my ground, no matter how pathetic I felt. The disgust for the woman in front of me held this new person I’d become in her spot. I would not let them break me.
“Next time, it’ll be worse.” He stared at me and I could see him searching for something, a softness. He could look all night. It wouldn’t matter. It wasn’t there anymore. Any emotion that wouldn’t get me through this, or help Kitty, would be squashed as soon as it appeared.
He stood still in front of me, neither of us moving or saying a word. He stared into my eyes, a small smirk lifting the corner of his mouth.
He took a couple of steps around me, but I remained staring straight ahead. “Shame, really. I thought you’d offer me a much better run for my money. You’d started out with such promise. Who knew how easy it would be to break you with the right tools.” His hand trailed over my back. “I didn’t even know our kind could lose weight. You look so bad lately, you aren’t even worth the effort of rape.” His fingers grazed across my hip. “But you never know. Maybe if I get bored enough.”
He was wrong. He wasn’t breaking me; he was honing me. His words didn’t matter anymore. His threat of rape didn’t faze me. Even if he did do it, it wouldn’t change anything. He couldn’t take something from me I’d already shed myself. If that meant giving up all I had been, so be it. I’d deal with what I was becoming after I got Kitty out of this. Or maybe I wouldn’t. Maybe I was better off like this, an animal like them.
I didn’t budge; just let him grope me as he pleased. Luke seemed to become more agitated the more I didn’t react. “I’ve got plans. Drop her off somewhere,” he said to the two men at my sides.
The Taser gun hit me again and I lost consciousness.
Chapter 25
Almost Miracle Grow
When I woke, I was lying in a muddy field in the middle of the reserve. My purse lay next to me in a puddle. I guess they’d forgotten my address, this time.
I coldly surveyed the damage. My knee would require a lot of wrapping before it would be able to take any weight at all. From the feeling of my midsection, Luke or his goons had given me a couple parting kicks to the ribs.