Chapter 3
Day 6
Wherever we were it was completely surrounded by tall brick walls with guards standing at the gates and several walking the perimeter with German shepherds. The property was massive with several buildings and one main building that looked like a mansion. Logan drove up the long, narrow driveway then stopped at the house and shut off the car.
I looked at Logan, my body beginning to shake as I realized wherever we were was not a place I wanted to be. His hands gripped the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles turned white, and I could hear the leather crack beneath the pressure. It scared me. No, it terrified me.
He got out of the car as did the two men in the back, and I sat with my knees to my chest watching as he spoke to them and nod toward the house. Both men disappeared inside, and Logan stared at me through the windshield. It was like he was unable to move, his body stiff and looking every bit the fierce fighter, not the gentle rock star who wrote me a song I never had the chance to hear.
He strode toward me, and I wanted to disappear into the leather seat. I couldn’t control the trembling, and it made me angry that Logan would see it. I wanted to be tough, to have him feel nothing but anger from me, but the panic treading across my body was too overpowering.
The door flung open. “Out.”
It took me several tries to unclip my seatbelt, because my hands were shaking so badly. When I finally did, he snagged my forearm and pulled me out. “Do exactly as I say.” His voice was low as he spoke. “Don’t look at anyone. Eyes down at all times, and do not speak unless asked a question.”
“Where are we? Logan? Please why are you doing this to me?” I couldn’t help it. The words tumbled from my mouth in quick succession. What little connection I felt he tried to make shattered the moment Logan grabbed me by both shoulders and shook me.
“Don’t you get it yet, Emily? Raul owns you. He’s ruthless, and he’ll break you down, torture you, and when you beg him for mercy he’ll torture you some more.” His bruising fingers tightened, and I winced. “Do not f*ck this up.”
I broke. I couldn’t help it, and I hated myself for falling so low as to let him or anyone else see me do it, but for that one second I let the fear take hold of me as I said, “I’m scared.”
Logan stared at me with eyes that were cold, dark, and without a spark of ... anything. “You should be.”
My breath hitched, and it was at that moment I knew I had to face my fear head-on and conquer it or I was going to die. Logan wasn’t going to save me; only I could do that.
Walking into what looked like a huge dining hall, I kept my head down like Logan told me to, but my eyes drifted upward. It was an uncontrollable reaction. Survival maybe, I didn’t know why, but I was facing the unknown, and I had to look at what the unknown was.
The room was filled with over a dozen men, most sitting at a long wooden table laden with food. I could smell the aroma of cheeses, wines, and the sweetness of an array of fruits. The sound of laughter echoed off the walls, along with the clinking of glasses and men talking and shouting.
But it was the subtle sounds of groaning and sobbing that caught my attention. My heart started pounding harder and faster. The noises were wrong. They reminded me of trapped animals in cages and their sobs of despair. I raised my head, eyes searching the room as the sounds pulled at me.
Lying shivering on the floor was a naked girl.
Then another tied to a chair.
Beneath the table.
Over in the corner of the room, a girl kneeling.
My eyes widened, and my breath caught in my throat as I stared horrified at the women ... They were young, some maybe younger than me.
My stomach rolled and lurched, and I staggered backward, fighting against Logan’s grip as I heaved with revulsion at the scene before me.
I shook my head back and forth over and over. “No. No ...” I repeated, my hand over my mouth.
One girl knelt at a man’s feet while he fed her pieces of meat like a dog. She had a metal collar on that had a chain attached to the man’s belt. She was naked, and I could see red welts running the length of her spine.
Beneath the table, another girl was between an overweight man’s legs. She was ... her mouth was on his cock as he groaned and pushed her face back and forth into him.
But it was the girl kneeling on all fours nearest me that was the one sobbing quietly. Her cheek was pressed into the floor with her butt in the air as a young man pumped into her from behind. He was also naked and wearing a collar, and he had scars running the length of his back.
“Emily.”
Alfonzo was standing beside the girl laughing and drinking his wine as he watched with a sickening gleam in his eyes. Another man, tall and lean, who looked in his thirties stood beside Alfonzo watching as well, but he wasn’t smiling. The girl. Oh God, the girl’s eyes stared at ... nothing. Blank and empty, yet filled with tears. Her body rocked back and forth, her hair swinging with the motion. It was when Alfonzo raised a crop and hit the guy on the back and said, “Harder” that I lost it.
I was hyperventilating, and I couldn’t hold it together any longer as I turned my head away and bent over coughing and choking. I couldn’t look as a girl screamed, and I knew ... I knew it was that girl with the dead eyes.
“No. No.” My mind was like a tornado filled with the sounds and images of what Logan had walked me into. Nightmares couldn’t compare to this. What I thought couldn’t exist in this world ... The realization that people could be so cruel. That this ... slaves ... girls ... It was hidden from the eyes of the world, but it was alive and real.
Logan hauled me up beside him. His voice low as his steal tone whispered in my ear. “Pull it together. I told you not to look. You have to learn to trust me.”
He was a lie. I didn’t trust a single word from his mouth, but I nodded anyway, because I couldn’t think of what else to do as the horror kicked me in the gut. I heaved in breath after breath, my chest wheezing, limbs shaking as I stared at the stone tiles beneath my feet and tried to get the images out of my head. They wouldn’t leave me. The sounds of girls whimpering and screaming, the look of the girl with her cheek pressed to the floor.
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying desperately to block out what I’d seen, but it wouldn’t go away. How could Logan be standing there so immune to the horror? Was he even human? No, none of them were.
I heard slow, casual footsteps approach, and Logan’s grip tightened on my arm, and my body went rigid.
“After days in your care, I thought she’d be better prepared for what awaited her.” The voice was the same one as in the house where I was whipped. The scent of sweat and garlic wafted off him.
“Look at me,” he ordered.
Oh God. I didn’t want to, yet I was terrified of what would happen if I didn’t. When I raised my head, I instantly recognized him. The man from Sculpt’s fight with the two bodyguards Jacob and Dave. I could remember him intently watching Logan after he’d won the fight. That night seemed so long ago.
The man’s finger came under my chin, and I balked at his touch.
His fist punched me in the stomach so fast and hard that I stumbled backward and would have fallen if Logan hadn’t been holding my arm. I tried desperately to suck in the air that he’d knocked out of me.
“That was unnecessary, Raul,” Logan said in a calm, contained voice.
“You’ve taught her nothing,” he shouted. “Nothing!”
Logan’s voice remained controlled as he answered, “She was drugged.”
“I gave her to you in good faith, but if she doesn’t conform then I will take her myself, and she’ll be sold.”
“You think I don’t know what’s expected of her? Don’t think for one second I’ve forgotten, Raul. She’ll behave.” Logan pulled me tighter into his side, and I could feel every muscle flexed and rigid. “When is my first fight?”
“Two days.” I heard Raul shift his feet until he was standing directly in front of me. “You remember what I told you, Sculpt?”
I didn’t dare look up, but I felt Logan’s hand on my arm tense. “I’m here to fight, Raul. I won’t lose, so don’t ever question me on it.”
“And I don’t like your attitude. I taught you better.”
“You taught me nothing except to fight. I’m here, and I’ll fight, but I get what I want.”
“Then train her and keep her on a short leash, or Alfonzo will take her and she goes on auction.”
I was humiliated and devastated when I saw Logan shrug. “She’s mine, because I want to f*ck her. Once I’m tired of her, you can do whatever you want with her.”
Oh God. No. No.
I was so angry and terrified and grasping at everything that didn’t make sense that I just couldn’t hold onto my sanity any longer. Hearing those words flow easily from the man I’d fallen in love with was like an anchor sitting in my stomach with oil being poured all over the once beautiful rabble of butterflies, darkening the love I once felt for this man.
I hated him. I hated him so much at that moment that I couldn’t stop myself. I reeled back and slapped him hard across the face. Then I spit at him ... turned and spit at Raul. “Bastards. Disgusting, f*cking parasites.” My yelling got the attention of the entire room, and even though I knew what I’d done couldn’t be good for me—it felt unbelievably amazing.
Then I was down on the floor with a knee shoved into my back and a hand pressing my face into the stone floor. I cried out as my arms were wrenched behind my back and something rough and stiff was wrapped around my wrists. Then I was hauled to my feet by Jacob.
I glared at Logan. “I hate you. I’ll kill you.” I was hit hard on the side of my head, and I felt blood dripping down my cheek. “You’re a monster.” Logan’s face remained unaffected by my words as his cold stare went right through me.
“You know what to do,” Raul said, his breath seeping into my nostrils.
Jacob nodded.
“No,” Logan said, his voice a deep, dark rumble. “I’ll deal with her.”
“She insulted us and a room full of men. She’ll be treated as any other. You’re lucky I don’t strip her naked and let every man in here do as he pleases for the insult.”
I struggled against Jacob, but he was big, and to him I was like a pesky little Chihuahua.
“Emily, stop.” Logan’s order plowed through my panic and anger, and I stood still. I didn’t know how I knew this, maybe instinct, or it was the way Logan’s eyes stared at me unflinching, but I knew I had to stop fighting. “You can’t fight here, Emily. Ever.” He chin-lifted to Jacob, and suddenly I was being hauled away.
It was almost like being separated from my safety net—Logan. He wasn’t much of one, and it had holes all through it, but I still had some sort of connection to him, and even if I no longer trusted him, I didn’t want to be taken from him.
I looked back over my shoulder. Logan stood in the same place staring at me. He never moved, never looked away. Somewhere inside of me I was hoping he’d stop Jacob. That he’d run after me, shout, do something, but he just watched me.
I pleaded and hoped that he’d change back to the man who swept me into his heart. Then I screamed silently for him to fight for me as I disappeared from his view.
I was so terrified, that I sunk so low as to beg. “Please. I promise to be good. Take me back to Logan.”
Jacob ignored me like he’d done for the past three days. Not one word did he direct toward me. Instead, if he wanted me to do something he spoke to Logan who then told me.
He pulled me down a long, wide hallway with oil paintings of naked figures on the peachy brown stucco walls. Some were of a woman, others two women, or a man and a woman. They were beautiful paintings, and I suspected they were worth a fortune. Wherever we were, the place reeked money.
Jacob slid a key into a lock then opened a door. The heavy wood creaked, and when I saw it led down a staircase and into darkness, I started shaking. “Please.” I pulled back on his grip and shook my head back and forth. I’d do anything not to be left alone in the dark again. “No. I’ll be good.” I hated the words I was willing to say, but I couldn’t stop them. I began hyperventilating as Jacob pulled me forward.
“No. No. Please.”
Jacob ignored my begging as he shuffled me in through the door and then down the stairs. I started to cry as the familiar mustiness sunk into me. I couldn’t be locked up again. The terror gripped me, and I thrashed against Jacob’s hold. My body moved like a trapped piece of paper flinging in the wind. My insides were ripping apart, tearing, burning with fear.
Jacob calmly continued down the stairs then walked along a hallway, me writhing against his hold the entire time, sobbing, begging. He remained unaffected as he kicked open a door and shoved me inside.
I jerked as it slammed behind me and Jacob then turned a key in the lock.
I slowly backed away from him. He brushed past me, and I staggered to the side, but he never grabbed me. Instead, he walked over to a tap in the wall and grabbed a bucket; then water started pouring out into the pail.
I turned and staggered to the door and started yanking on it. It wouldn’t budge. Then I pounded on it and yelled for help. I knew it was pointless, but I couldn’t help doing it. I guess I had a smidgen of hope that Logan would hear my panic and he’d come.
I was wrong.
Logan never came.
Jacob forced me over to a dirty mattress on a rusted metal bedframe and pushed me down. I instantly thought he was going to force himself on me, but he didn’t take off my clothes. He pinned me down with the weight of his knee on my stomach then calmly tied my wrists and ankles to the bedframe.
I yanked and pulled, trying to get free, yet knowing it was pointless. I watched Jacob as he dragged a collapsible plastic chair behind the front of the bed near my head then brought the bucket.
My eyes widened with terror, uncertainty. Jacob sat, reached in the bucket, and pulled out a soaking wet towel.
That’s when I knew.
I knew exactly what he was going to do. I’d seen it in the movies. Heard that it was used to get people to talk. Torture. Unimaginable torture.
A wet towel thrown over the victim and water poured over their face.
Drowning over and over again.
“No!” I went crazy. Struggling against the ropes as Jacob placed the towel over my face. “No. No. No. No.”
He held my head back then the water came and my words were drowned with garbled screams.