His grip tightens and my vision blurs with little white lights. Stars. The sleepiness takes over, but before it can completely drag me from this life he loosens his hold on me. My lungs fill with air and I take long, choking breaths.
He steps away, pulling a small trolley over to where I’m hanging. My vision clears and the tears I refused to shed spill. Implements. Steel glinting in the dim light has me retching.
I am strong. I am strong. I am strong.
“Now we’ll play with my toys. My little fu*k doll is going to get fixed today, so I can ensure she always remembers me.”
He lifts a silver chain with what look like metal pegs on either end. When he turns to me I recognize what he’s holding. Clamps.
He leans in, laving his tongue at my bare br**sts, biting down on my nipples till I’m yelping in pain. He straightens and clamps each of them between the tiny metal teeth of the clamps and I can’t stop the scream that escapes my lips. “Mmm, I love hearing you scream. It makes me so fu*king hard. You’ve always made my cock hard, Snowflake. Especially in your little school uniform. It took all my restraint to wait until you grew some tits.”
Another painful bite rips through my body as he clamps my clit. When he steps back he surveys his work with an evil smirk. “Beautiful.” Picking up his next torture device, he turns it on. The buzz of the thick plastic vibrator echoes through the empty room. “I remember watching you in the bath, your smooth soft skin,” he informs me and I can’t shut it out. “Every night I fu*ked your bitch of a mother picturing that tight bald little hole.”
I’m shaking my head so fast to stop his words from solidifying in my head. Dizziness takes over and I finally break. Tears spill and I allow them to bathe me.
“I recall how pretty your virtue looked on my thick cock when I stole it,” he continues. Placing the vibrator on my clit, he turns it on high, sending painful electric shocks through my body, and I realize it’s made to hurt me. “Are you getting wet for me, little one?” he questions and shoves the thick plastic inside me so deep I can feel it hit my womb.
“fu*k you!” My anger flares and I don’t know where I’m finding my strength, but I do as I bite back my retort. His laugh frightens me when he pulls the device from my raw sex and walks around me. I know what he’s about to do and I brace myself for the pain that comes all too soon and blackness surrounds me.
Carter
The warehouse in front of us looms in the darkness and I know he’s there. He has to be. This derelict part of Canary Wharf has been abandoned for months. Another SUV pulls up, and two men exit. Bennett’s team as he likes to call them.
Both men are dressed in black and they’re large, broad, and rock fu*king solid. My girl is in there and before they can do anything more, I push forward.
“Carter.”
Ignoring Bennett, I race inside and find everything in darkness. The moon’s dim light filters through a small window, but other than that, we’re bathed in murky shadows. I can’t see much, but I realize there’s nobody here. Frustration boils inside of me and I’m about to punch a wall when I hear whimpering. Soft, sweet, female. fu*k.
A sliver of light shines from behind me and I realize one of the men must have brought a flashlight with them. The sight before me has me dropping to my knees. My girl. My woman. My love. Hanging from metal chains. Her body is bloody and her head hangs like a limp doll.
My vision blurs. Tears sting my eyes. Rushing forward, I reach for her face and see her flinch. “No.” The word is so soft I would have missed it if I wasn’t so close to her.
“Baby, it’s me. Please, Ella?” I plead with her to open her eyes and when she does I see every emotion I feel inside flit across those gray orbs. He must’ve taken her contacts out, because for the first time, I see her real eye color and it’s as alluring at the amethyst. I’ve fu*king missed her looking at me. Making me feel like a man. Making me whole.
“Carter?” Her eyebrows crease in confusion and I nod. Her face is bloody and there are bruises that have swollen over one eye, which is almost shut. Her long, dark hair is matted and dirty, but it’s the rest of her body that’s got me more concerned. The two men manage to undo the chains holding her up and her body falls into my grasp, causing a painful cry to fall from her cracked lips.
“Come on, Princess, you’re going home with us.”
Bennett hands me the blanket and we wrap it around her. She feels so fragile in my arms and I’m so scared I’m hurting her.
“Get the doc to come to my place,” I ask my best friend. Before we can leave we hear a car door slamming from outside somewhere. He’s back.
Glancing at Bennett, I can see the anger burning like a wild fire in his eyes. “Let them take care of him. They’ll hold him until we can come back,” he growls. “Let’s get her out of here.”
We rush to the door and come face-to-face with the man I share blood with. The monster who not only violated my sister but the woman I love.
“What the fu*k is going on here?” He’s not even afraid that we found him. He has no concern on his face. “You’re taking that dirty little whore?” A sinister laugh escapes his lips.
“How about you get out of the fu*king way before I kill you, old man?” I spit at him as the two thugs my best friend brought along make their way to him. His eyes fall on them and he shrinks before my eyes. The evil fu*ker will get what’s coming to him.
My girl murmurs and her hands fist my shirt. It’s time to go.
“We’ll deal with this,” one of the men growls as I pass the monster. “Let us know when you need a location,” Sarge utters to Bennett and me.
I wish I could finish this now, but Ella comes first. I can’t have her in pain while I deal with him.
“We’ll be back.”
* * *
It’s been two hours since we arrived at my apartment. The doctor has been and gone. He’s given Ella some medication to let her sleep, but the screams she woke up to each time her eyes even fluttered closed have my body alert.
“She’s strong. Don’t worry so much.”
I drag my eyes up to meet those of my best friend. I nod. It’s all I can do. Not being there for her bothers me. I should have stayed with her, at her side. Both our phones beep and when I swipe the screen on mine I find a message with a photo attached.
Charles is hanging by those same metal chains. His body is bloody and bruised. I wanted to go there and do it myself, but Bennett said we needed to be here. I agreed. I couldn’t leave her, not right now. They’ve gotten orders to keep him alive as long as possible. From the looks of it, though, he’s bleeding out.
I want to hear him take his final breath. I wanted to say things to him that have been on my tongue for days, but as I stare at the image on my phone, I know he’s getting what he deserves and so am I. Ella and Bennett are here. We’re all three together and nothing will rip us apart this time. I’ll make sure of it.