Chapter Eleven
Handcuffed and thrown in a cage meant for a large dog, Jada tried to move and situate herself enough so that she was comfortable for what was looking to be an incredibly long journey, but no position was restful for her. Her wrists rubbed against the tough metal, no doubt bruised from the cuffs. She wondered how long it would take the bruises to fade.
Her once gorgeous white dress was filthy, muddied by the dirt outside the coliseum, when she had tried to prevent herself from being forced into the spaceship. The man had thrown her to the ground, pinned her, stuffed a rag into her mouth, and bound her hands. He’d thrown her over his shoulder and carried her onto the ship, not caring if she kicked and struggled against him.
Once inside, she’d been confined to this oversized dog crate and only allowed to use the restroom three times a day. It was torture and her body screamed in pain every time the ship jolted a little.
A day had passed and the small ship hurtled through the stars at hyper speed. The man had said that Earth was still over a week away. She didn’t know how she’d survive. Her stomach growled angrily, loud enough that the man heard it and tossed her a protein bar. She looked at it both in disgust and with interest, but finally managed to nibble a few bites despite the sick feeling in her stomach.
The man finally unlocked the cuffs from her wrists and she cried out from the sheer pain of the blood returning to her fingers, of her shoulders creaking back into place and the stiffness in her back. She rubbed her wrists, noting the dark bruises that were already beginning to develop beneath her pale skin.
Tears prickled at the edges of her eyes when the man tossed her another protein bar and slammed the cage door shut. Lying down on her side, she cried silently at the pain still racking her body and wished that everything was different.
But if she had never worked for the president, she would have never been sent to the detainment center, would have never been match to Bruddis and Draego.
She missed them. Wanted their caring touch, their arms wrapped around her body, their palms spanking her naughty backside. She missed everything about them. She hadn’t even had a chance to really learn about their world, to learn what their dragon forms were capable of, to figure out what it meant to be a queen.
Rolling on her back, she stared at the ceiling of the tiny spacecraft, counting the numbers of screws that secured each metal plate.
Eight.
She passed the time by counting higher, rounds of eight until she closed her eyes and dreamed of better days.
When she woke, she nearly screamed out loud, finding herself still enclosed in the cage with the strange man at the helm. He barely spoke to her, hadn’t even told her his name. He just stared at the computer at the helm of the ship, studying the map of the stars and bitching every now and then about a strange blip on the radar behind them.
She ignored him for the most part. She didn’t recognize him from her life back on Earth, prior to all of this. He was of average height, muddy brown hair and brown eyes. A long scar dragged from his left eye to the corner of his lips, making him a foreboding sight. His voice was gravelly and vulgar and he had little manners to speak of, leaving much to be desired. And he stank, literally. The more she watched him, the more she came to realize that he had not even one attractive feature.
Glaring in his direction, she observed as he murmured something about being only hours away from Earth and the blip that had been tailing them had seemingly begun to lose speed, edging on and off the radar. He seemed to be in better spirits now that Earth was in his sights. She sighed and closed her eyes again, listening as he made remote calls to people back on her home planet, including President Ramsey.
Fucking bastard.
She listened to the president’s voice and chewed her lip with anger. That was the man who had fucking ruined everything. He deserved to be taken down and destroyed. The world deserved to know the truth about him, how he’d lied his way into the presidency and killed a man to keep his secret from getting out. Biting her cheek, she vowed to destroy him, whatever it took, no matter the cost. She just had to make sure her family was safe first and then she’d kill the asshole. The world would know everything then.
Several hours passed and she felt the ship’s speed increase as they entered Earth’s atmosphere, her stomach dropping at the forces involved. Had she eaten anything other than the tiny, bland protein bars he’d given her, she probably would have thrown up.
Curling up, she moaned as the ship slowed its descent, landing gear screaming as it emerged from its hull. The spacecraft hurtled across a landing pad and ground to a screeching halt, leaving her head reeling and her stomach rolling. Groaning, she pressed her fingers to her forehead and lifted her eyes to see the door swish open and guns pointed at her face.
An armed guard of SWAT units was waiting for her and the man that had flown the ship greeted them warmly.
“Jada Rivers. Fresh, signed, alive, and delivered as promised,” he said, and she growled in his direction.
“Shut up, feisty. You’re Ramsey’s now.” He laughed and kicked her cage, causing her to cry out.
“Fuck you, jackass,” she retorted as the SWAT team swarmed around her, lifting the crate into the air and carrying her off. They shoved her in the back of a van and it tore off into night.
No one said a word to her or even acknowledged her presence. They were silent as the grave, even though she tried to ask where they were going or what was going to happen to her. Eventually she gave up and just sat in her cage, waiting for whatever doom that was to befall her to come and take her.
The car ride was bearably short and the SWAT team took her cage and carried her down a dark hallway into a room with a heavy metal door. Once inside they unlocked her cage and left her, slamming the door behind them.
All alone, she ventured out into the dimly lit room. She nearly moaned with relief at seeing a cot with a blanket and a private bathroom off the side of the room. On the cot was a tray of food that included a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple, and a bag of chips. She devoured the meal within moments and instantly regretted it, remembering that it could have been drugged or poisoned.
After some thought, she realized it was incredibly unlikely. She knew Ramsey didn’t want her dead. He needed her for something, whatever it was.
She curled up on the cot and drew the covers up around her body, grateful to be able to stretch out and get warm and perhaps get the most restful night’s sleep she’d had in a while.
She drew her wrists up near her face and was pleased to see that the bruises were beginning to change color, indicating that she was healing and that they would hopefully be gone soon. Wondering how Bruddis and Draego were doing, she bit her lip. How long had it taken them to realize she was gone? What could they do since they had no evidence of her whereabouts, no clue that she’d been taken by insane people back on Earth.
She hoped she’d see them again someday.
Before long, the lights dimmed in the room and she was left to ponder what her fate might hold in the dark. It wasn’t till then that she noticed the red blinking light. She was being watched and recorded. If she was a betting woman, she would guess that the president was watching her to see what she was up to. She’d have to remember that she was being taped, especially when he finally eventually showed his face.
Time would only tell now. Her nightmare was just beginning.
Sleep came over her eventually, but every stray sound—a footstep in a nearby hallway, a squeak of a door that needed oiling, the click of a generator whirring to life—startled her from sleep time and time again.
The next morning, or what she assumed was morning based off of the lights brightening in her prison room, the door clattered open and a tray of food was pushed inside.
A pile of eggs, sausage, bacon, and hash browns met her eyes and she groaned in relief. Pulling herself up and placing her feet on the floor, she slowly moved toward the platter and brought it back to the cot.
It was cold, but well-seasoned and way more filling and delicious than those stupid protein bars that the man who kidnapped her had given her.
The thought of drugs or poison coldly washed over her again but she did her best to ignore it. If they wanted her dead, why waste so many resources on her? No doubt the president paid the man to take her in the first place, including the resources needed to fund a trip across the galaxy to fetch her. The president very clearly needed something from her and wasn’t afraid to shell out whatever he needed to see it done.
When she finally finished the food, she pushed the tray away and picked up the cup of coffee off the tray. It was obviously cheap coffee without any creamer or sugar, but she enjoyed it anyway, having not had a cup of it in a long while.
The sound of heels scuffing the floor echoed outside her little prison room and she stood, fully expecting to find out very soon what the crooked Earthen administration needed. Taking a deep breath, she readied herself for whatever was to come.
A small team of SWAT officers opened the door and one of them stepped forward and removed his mask. His harsh gaze met hers, dark green eyes judging her from afar. His head was shaved and his jawline was clean shaven, but she trembled inwardly as he stared her down. The instant his eyes met hers, she knew he’d spent some time in battle. She had no doubt that the gun attached to his hip had been used before and fairly often.
Biting her cheek, she waited for him to say something first.
“Jada Rivers, my name is Commander Clayton. I’ve been sent to escort you to the Oval Office, where President Ramsey is waiting for your presence,” the man said.
She nodded. He reached for her and took her arm, gently but forcibly leading her out of the room. The rest of the SWAT team surrounded her in a circle and the commander let go of her, but kept close by her side.
They guided her down the long hallway and into a large elevator. She looked at the buttons that indicated floors and she came to the realization that they were deep underground. The digital screen above her indicated that they were on B100 and she gasped as the elevator began to rise, passing those hundred floors within several seconds.
In no time at all, they had reached ground level. She was stuffed into another black van and blindfolded, before it drove off with her and the SWAT team. The ride was smooth and most like automated, from what she could tell anyway.
She estimated they traveled only a mile or two before the blindfold was removed from her eyes and she was guided out of the van.
Looking up, she realized that she was behind the White House before she was brought into a back door. Before she knew it, she was waiting outside of the Oval Office, the wooden door ominous even in its familiarity.
She hadn’t thought that she would have ever seen it again.
Biting her lip, she looked up as the door opened and she saw the dreaded countenance of President Ramsey. Her buried hatred brewed quickly to the surface and she glared back at him. Evil bastard.
His eyes stared in her direction, red and full of malice. They narrowed slightly as his large black pupils perused her body, clearing judging the filthy, tattered state of her ruined dress.
“We’ll have to put some new clothes for you on the expenses sheet. Maybe a suit or something, definitely not some sort of cheap bridal gown,” he grumbled, his voice low, gravelly, and sickly sounding.
Jada forced herself to bite her tongue.
His white trimmed moustache and beard were cleanly brushed and styled, as was his full head of snowy hair that was combed back over his scalp. Thick eyelashes drew together as he studied her. He looked like a politician and even like he could be your friend, but she knew better. Corruption lay behind his dark, beady eyes.
He wore a dark navy suit, its collar high on his neck with a silver medal pinned to his chest. Its design was sleek and modern, and she didn’t doubt for a second, very expensive.
“Jada, have a seat. We have much to discuss,” he began, and she was ushered forward, pushed actually. There was a dark wooden chair in front of his large mahogany desk and she begrudgingly sat before him, not left with much choice. Her heart beat wildly with nervousness in her chest.
She reminded herself to be brave, that she had faced larger, scarier things in her time away from Earth. She’d faced dragons, and tricky nymphs in the forest, as well as death at the hands of two dragons deep in battle. President Ramsey, although a rich, powerful man, was just a human and she needed to remember that. He only had as much power as she would give him.
“Why did you bring me here,” she began, keeping her voice steady and as businesslike as she possibly could.
Ramsey sat back in his chair with a grim smile.
“I have some loose ends I need you to tie up for me,” he replied.
Clearly, he thought he was being cleaver with his evasive tactics.
“What exactly do you need me to do for you?” she asked boldly, refusing to play his game.
He glared at her then, thinly veiled anger burning toward her and she did her best not to react.
“I thought I had taken care of everything when I’d had you exiled, thought it was all tied up in a neat little bow and that I could continue to rule as usual. Only, things have begun to unravel rather recently upon the unfortunate discovery of your journalist friend’s notes. Somehow, his hard drive got loaded into the dark web and has been plaguing me for weeks,” he explained finally.
“Sounds rather unfortunate just for you. Excuse me if I’m not bothered by your circumstances, as you did them to yourself,” she countered, glaring.
“And that’s where you’re wrong, Jada. If I have a problem, you also have a problem,” he replied. She bit her tongue, narrowing her eyes at his challenge.
“Why is it my problem?”
“You and me, Jada, ever since your betrayal, your questionable need to spread information to the world even when it could wind up with you dead, has intertwined our stories together. You see, if you die, it won’t look good for me. It would make things worse. Bad president, young innocent girl, yadda yadda.”
“That’s why you shipped me off of Earth? Instead of just killing me?”
“Indeed. Despite my annoyance at you breathing the same air as I, it’s way more valuable to me to keep you alive.”
Turning her head, she huffed her disbelief.
“What do you plan to do with me?” she questioned. “What torture do you have in mind for me next?”
“Not you, now that you bring it up, but another close friend of yours,” He turned and snapped his fingers, a computerized projector screen appearing out of thin air.
Fuck. No. It couldn’t be true.
It was her mother. She was tied to a chair, bound and gagged in the center of a bare, cold steel room.
“Mother!”
Jada’s heart dropped in her chest as she saw her mother’s face, terrified and darkened from a bruise forming over her left eye.
“You didn’t have to hurt her,” she said mournfully, fear and sadness for her family’s welfare growing by the second. Her mom flexed her fingers and looked around with confusion and Jada’s heart broke in two. Her mother didn’t deserve this.
It didn’t matter what Ramsey wanted her to do. She’d have to do it. Her family didn’t deserve whatever brutal torture he had in mind, some sick way to break her parents and splinter them into a thousand pieces. Whatever she had to do, she’d suffer for her family. It was her duty as their daughter.
“I’ll do what you want,” she said softly after a long moment.
“Good. I knew you’d see my side eventually,” he replied coolly.
“Why am I not in her place? Why didn’t you torture me instead? Hurt me in order to do what you wish?” she asked, very much aware of her place in whatever arrangement was about to be brought forth. President Ramsey had the power to twist her world apart and he wasn’t afraid to see it done. It was sickening.
He chuckled then.
“I can’t have your face battered and bruised for the cameras, now can I?” he started, his smirk growing larger by the second. Why did she feel like she was a fawn about to be showed inside a lion’s den?
She began to feel cold hatred billowing up from the very tips of her toes. This man was evil, pure evil.
“You’re going to go on camera at a news conference we schedule for you. You’re going to admit that you made everything up, fed the journalist false information and killed him when you thought he was going to take the glory for himself. You’re going to make people believe you. You’re going to sell that story as if your life depends on it, because your parents’ lives certainly do. You’re going to confess and tell the entire world of your shame and your guilt. Understand?” he said, his expression growing more serious, expectant.
He paused then and let the power of his words sink in. She looked at him in horror. All throughout her trial, she had always claimed herself as innocent, had never pleaded guilty to a single thing she had been accused of.
Now, it became clear to her the enormity of the situation, of what she’d been dragged back into. Pressing her palms together, she took a deep breath.
“If I do this for you, if I take the fall, you’ll release my family? You’ll let them go? Promise their safety?” she pleaded, slowly coming to terms with how much her hands were tied.
“You have my word,” he responded, his eyes hardening as he began to smile. He knew he’d won. His victory would be absolute.
“Then what? I disappear? You kill me or send me back to Draegira?”
“Now that depends on if the world believes your performance.”
She felt devastated.
Her name would be forever ruined. Her confession would damn her completely in the eyes of anyone watching, but most important, her family. They’d never be able to forgive her.
“I won’t know what to say,” she whispered.
“That will all be arranged. Your speech will be written for you and you will deliver it, word for word. If not, your mother will die. She’ll be killed in cold blood and it’ll be all your fault,” he threatened, and she could do little but nod at his assertion.
She had little doubt that he would follow through with that threat.
“Can I see her?”
“After the news conference, you can see your family. I want you on your best behavior until then. I am an understanding man though; since I have your full cooperation, I’ll see to it that your mother is given every comfort,” he said and then he turned and dialed a few numbers into a keypad.
Movement caught her attention on the screen and she watched while a group of men surrounded her mom, removing the gag and ropes on her skin.
Jada studied the room she was in, realizing with horror that it was remarkably similar to the one she’d been kept in before.
“Everything we want… Sometimes it’s so close, yet so far away, isn’t it, Miss Jada Rivers?” Ramsey pressed, and she stared numbly back at him.
Her mother had been kept in the same place she’d spent the night. If she knew Ramsey and his twisted humor, she’d been right in the room next to hers.
“What about my father?” she exclaimed, her fear growing to insurmountable levels.
“All in due time. Guards, escort Miss Rivers to the guest wing and see to it there are guards posted at the door at all hours,” he replied and turned away, focusing his attention on the terrified expression that blanketed her mother’s face on the computer screen.
“I hate you,” she growled as arms grasped hers and he laughed.
“The feeling is mutual, Miss Rivers,” he replied, smirking.