Chapter Seven
Abe grabbed a few more jugs of water from the small shed by the cabin and walked over to his truck. It had been a few days since he had brought Bethany to the cabin, and although she was more docile then she had been since she first arrived he could see her calculating her plan. She honestly thought she’d escape him, and that he would allow anyone to take her. It was infuriating that she still couldn’t see what was right in front of her. But he also couldn’t deny that when she had broken apart at the sight of her suitcase and the clothes that represented her life, a surge of pleasure and power had filled him. And when she’d chucked that lamp at his head, despite being pissed, he’d felt pride that she was breaking down the walls she had so easily erected around herself. Oh, she knew what her life had been like, and clearly hated it, but she never did anything about it. Well, he had changed that for her, and took her away from the nightmare she was stuck in.
He opened his truck, slipped the key in the ignition, and turned it until his radio kicked on. As he waited for the news, he lit a cigarette and stared at the kitchen window. He could see her on the other side, staring out the window over the sink. No doubt she was contemplating how she could escape, although he admitted she was warming to him—at least that was the guise of the game she was playing. He had to give her credit, she was a smart and cunning woman, but what she should already know that he wasn’t a man to give up on what he wanted. He hadn’t meant to show her his tattoos, or tell her how many men he had killed. He had been vague up until that point, had wanted to make sure she was connected to him with no worry that she’d try and leave before he told her he had been trained to take out men by the organization that had taken him in. That life was not what he wanted to focus on now. Right now he wanted to only worry about his life with Bethany. When the news started playing he waited until he heard what he was waiting for.
“The search for Bethany Sterling, the daughter of millionaire Robert Maximus Sterling, is still underway. But sources say the young socialite who was set to marry Steven Michael St. Gerrard has left of her own free will. With clothing gone and a typed note left, Robert Sterling is using his resources to locate his daughter, who has apparently run away with no other word or contact to her family.”
Abe leaned against the side of the truck, continuing to stare at Bethany and smoke his cigarette, and listened to the news basically say there wasn’t shit they could do. Robert had an unlimited amount of resources, but thinking his daughter had left willingly would achieve what Abe had been going for, and that was Sterling turning his back on what he considered the embarrassment of the family.
“The authorities are still continuing their search at the request of Mr. Sterling, but with no leads and the assumption that Miss Sterling left on her own due to the evidence, the search is coming to a standstill. There is a person in question, an employee of Mr. Sterling that has gone missing as well. Although the note Miss Sterling left doesn’t speak of running away with someone, there is speculation that Bethany Sterling and Abe Sparrow may have had a forbidden relationship.”
Abe turned off the radio and took his keys out of the ignition. After snubbing out his cigarette, he grabbed the jugs of water that he had set on the ground and slammed the truck door shut. He walked up the porch and into the cabin, and instantly trained his gaze on Bethany. She leaned against the counter, watching him with an unreadable expression. He set the water down by the door and walked into the kitchen. He didn’t go to her, but instead grabbed the bottle of whiskey from the cupboard, took two glasses out, and moved to stand beside her. Without speaking he poured the whiskey into both glasses and slid one over to her.
“Go on. I’m sure you could use a drink.” He didn’t look at her as he drank the two fingers deep shot of whiskey, and when he set the glass on the counter and refilled it he noticed she had yet to touch hers. “Drink, because I know you fucking need it after listening to the news.” He glanced over at her. She was watching him, but finally reached out and grabbed the glass, tossed it back, and breathed out through the burn. He lifted up the bottle and she nodded for another and held her glass out to him.
“How did you know I was listening to the news?” she asked and lifted the glass to her mouth to finish the alcohol.
He tilted his chin toward the small battery-operated radio on the counter. She looked over at it. The red light indicated that it was still on, and she reached out and turned it off.
“It doesn’t matter, because if I didn’t want you to listen to it I wouldn’t have left the radio out.” He drank his second, set the cup on the counter and pushed it away. “Besides, I planned on having you listen for yourself to what is happening. I mean, it is your life, after all.”
She didn’t respond. For several minutes they stayed there in silence. Although the cabin was being run off a generator and Abe could stay here for the rest of his life if it came down to it, he wanted more isolation than this place provided. There were close enough to Sinnerstown that he was still edgy, on alert and watching his every move.
“Can I ask you something?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and looked over at her. She continued to stare out the window, and he ran his gaze down to her ankle. He still had her chained, but he had lengthened it so she could at least walk the length of the living room and kitchen. But he wasn’t a fool. He had taken away anything that could have been used as a deadly weapon, and hoped soon he would be able to unchain her so they could actually walk the property. She turned and faced him then and he stared into her eyes, ones that he had dreamt about staring up at him as he claimed her body and her soul. He could tell she was nervous, could see it in the way her lips trembled slightly, and by how she gripped the edge of the counter.
“Do you see us getting married, having children, and living happily ever after?” The question wasn’t laced with her acidic tone, as it had been just days before. She sounded genuinely concerned.
He took that one step closer to her, reached out to cup her cheek, and was pleased when she didn’t shy away from him. “I am not a happily-ever-after kind of man, but I won’t lie and say I don’t have an image of what our life will be like.” He smoothed his hand over her cheek, and for a moment his heart picked up pace as she leaned slightly into his embrace.
“And what do you imagine our life like?” she asked softly, without hesitation.
“I just image you and me.” He leaned in and kissed her softly at first, but as he started stroking the seam of her lips, he felt her respond to his touch and open for him, and he became that animal that wanted her desperately. He pressed his body fully against hers, placed his hands on the counter beside her body, and ground himself into her. She resisted only marginally, and he had noticed that over the past several days that resistance had slowly been waning the more he talked to her, touched her, and told her that she needed to look good and hard at what she wanted out of life. He broke the kiss and trailed his lips along her jawline and over to her ear. “Just tell me this is what you want, tell me that we can move forward and put our pasts behind us.”
She was breathing heavily against the side of his face, and although she wasn’t touching him, he knew she’d be wet between her thighs for him. For several long, agonizing seconds she didn’t respond, and it was taking every ounce of strength and willpower he possessed not to tear her clothes away and spread her out on the counter. He wanted her, wanted to fuck her until she couldn’t walk straight, and although he told her he would never force himself inside of her, that didn’t mean he hadn’t thought of it too many times to count. The dark, nasty part of him pictured her under him, bound and struggling as he took what he wanted, and showed her that he already owned every inch of her body. It was only a matter of time before she gave in to him, but she had to know by now that he was a patient, dangerous man, and he had all the time in the world.
“Just tell me to ease the suffering and open you up to what else is out there.” He had never been loved, never felt loved by anyone. He was in essence a machine that was sent out to do another’s bidding, to watch over his charges and destroy anything that threatened them. But then there was Bethany, and he was enthralled with her to the point that he was an obsessed and possessiveness mess concerning her. Would he kill anyone that stood in his way, or tried to take her away from him? Yes, and he’d do it with a grin on his face, taking pleasure from watching them bleed out. He felt how stiff her nipples were under her shirt. As much as that pleased him, he was even more pleased that she was wearing the plain shirt and sweatpants he had stocked in her dresser instead of the designer outfits that had been in her suitcase. She lifted her hands and placed them on his shoulders, and his fucking cock jerked at the feel of her willingly touching him.
“No.”
* * *
Abe held her for a few more seconds after she told him no, that she wouldn’t tell him to take her right then and there. Despite her body being on fire with this disgusting, misplaced lust, she was wet, her nipples were hard, and she was having a hard time not moaning for him to tear her clothes away and just push his cock into her. But she was trying to hold on to her strength. Yes, she realized how shallow and unfulfilled her life had been before, living under her parents’ scrutiny. And now, after being here with Abe for several days, listening him drill into her about how meaningless her life was before then, how she was a pawn, a puppet for others’ ultimate needs, she knew he was trying to wear her down with the truth. Did she believe that he really cared for her? There was a part of her that knew in his twisted reasoning he did, but it was this obsessive need that made him want her, and taking her away from her life hadn’t been the right way to go about it. But how did you try and reason with a psycho? And that was what he was, right? She wanted to believe he was insane, and that she was trapped at the mercy of a madman, but he hadn’t really hurt her…not really. He had frightened her, tried to make her see his point of view, but until she was ready to understand all of this and find out for herself that this was best, she was just his captive.
He pulled away, and the anger that came from him actually had her moving several steps back. He was breathing so hard that his nostrils flared out, and his chest rose and fell so violently that she held her breath. He frightened her at this moment, maybe even more so then he had any other time before. She had told herself to play along, to gain his trust so she could leave, but there was this stubborn part of her that wanted to go against the grain. She’d never been a fighter in her life, always a doormat for everyone around her. So she supposed she could thank Abe for opening her up to that fact, because with him she didn’t want to just submit. She wanted to fight and let him know that she was done with letting others dictate her life.
“You push my fucking buttons because you think you are safe from me.” He took a step closer to her, but it wasn’t his presence that scared her. The way he spoke so slowly, so deeply and menacingly, that was what had her blood running like ice. He grabbed the bottle of whiskey, and for a split second she thought he meant to hit her with it. He was certainly holding it tightly enough, and this physical show was clearly his way of letting her see the violence that he housed, but also that he had self-control. She didn’t know how she knew that, but she did.
“I’m done cowering, Abe.”
His nostrils flared again as he breathed in and out, and she heard him grind his teeth. He turned and threw the bottle of whiskey so hard against the side of the living room wall that a surprised cry left her and she covered her head with her hands. She stared as the amber liquid and small chards of glass slid down the wall. He turned on her faster than she could even comprehend, gripped her around the throat, and pressed her up against the counter. He was cutting off her oxygen now, but when his wild gaze slipped down to her throat he loosened his hold and breathed out.
“I’m not one of those motherfuckers in a suit that will smile and look the other way, Bethany.” He moved in so close that she felt his alcohol-laced breath move along her lips. Maybe she could blame her boldness on the fact she felt the warm burn of alcohol move through her veins. Either way, the situation had escalated to dangerous proportions. She was dealing with the aftereffects of his anger—which she had brought on.
He let go of her with a growl in his voice, and started to pace just a few feet from her. He looked like a caged animal ready to attack, and Bethany was having serious doubts about exerting her figurative wings. The sounds coming from him were ones she would have expected to hear from a wounded animal, not from this man. She looked around the kitchen for something to use as a weapon—despite already having done that whenever he left the cabin—and knew there was nothing. Aside from a few cheap pots and pans, some plastic utensils and wooden spoons, Abe had successfully “prisoner-proofed” the cabin. He suddenly stopped and looked her way. She saw how he kept clenching and unclenching his fists, saw the healing wound on his knuckles from the last thing he had punched, and wondered if she was next. She also saw his erection straining against the fly of his black cargo pants. He was dangerous and pissed, and that was turning her on.
“If you’re going to do it, then just fucking do it.” She swallowed. “You don’t scare me.” That was an outright lie. He smirked, but it was one of those arrogant “I know you’re a fucking liar” smirks.
“If telling yourself that makes you feel better, than by all means—.” He took a step closer to her “—fucking scream it as loud as you can. But you and I know the truth.” He bared his teeth, and she started to shake uncontrollably, but it wasn’t just from the fear he was causing inside of her. He was arousing her by this peacock show of arrogance, dominance, and overall assholishness.
“Fuck. You. How is that for forgetting my past and accepting my future?” The words just came from her like she was a totally different person, and not chained to this man’s wall right now. He growled, yes, fucking growled at her, and then they were clashing together in a tangle of limbs, angry kisses, and hair pulling. He had his hands in hers, and pulled at the strands until pain sliced through her skull, but she did the same to him. His hair was too short to really pull, but she scraped her nails along his head, dragged them down the back of his neck, and loved when he growled once more and bit her lip.
“You fucking tease.” He yanked her head back with his grip on her hair, and a gasp left her. “You go from hot to cold, distant to…this.” He looked at her mouth, and then claimed it once more with his. “I should punish you by not touching your body, by not showing you how much I want you.” He took his other hand and reached up until he had her wrist in his hold. Then he moved it down until it was between their bodies and right over his shaft. “You feel what you fucking do to me? You’re nothing but a little cock tease.” He said it so angrily, like he wanted to hurt her for how she made him feel.
Well good, because she wanted him to hurt as much as she was.
“I should take you to the room and throw you on the bed.” Abe pulled away, but refused to let go of her hair. “I should rip your clothes off until your body and your fucking soul are bared for me.” He pulled her head back even harder until tears spilled down her cheeks. He leaned in and ran his tongue up her left check, and then did the same to the right. He licked at her tears, cursed every step of the way, and continued to grind his cock into her belly.
“I’m sick of your threats, sick of being chained up like a goddamn animal.” Now she bared her teeth at him, and the dark laugh he gave her sapped all of the strength she had left. “You can’t force me to do anything, you asshole.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Bethany, and you’re about to realize that my threats were for your safety.” With his hand still tangled in her hair, he turned and started toward where the lock kept her tethered to the wall. He pulled her by the hair and she stumbled forward. She shouldn’t be wet from this or the degrading and sick treatment he was showing her. But she was, God she was so wet, and that just made her hate and want him even more.