I jumped when the door burst open. Light beamed into the blackness, but it was too quick to note anything other than Rafe’s presence. He spoke to someone for a few moments, though I couldn’t understand what he said. Then he stumbled inside and the clank of the lock echoed, leaving us in complete darkness. Silence thickened the air, broken into pieces by the screams of the girl next door. Between the wailing, I listened, waiting for him to say something, do something, make some noise that indicated he was there, because I knew he was.
So why wasn’t he talking to me?
Gritting my teeth against the pain, I forced myself into a sitting position and slowly pushed to my knees. “Rafe?” I called, crawling in the direction of the door. The chain attached to my neck crept after me like a snake. At least, that’s what I envisioned.
He remained eerily silent as I spanned the distance between us. Terror gripped my heart, and my breath came fast and noisy. “Talk to me,” I said, but everything I was, all the shattered pieces of me, fell through the cracks. Fear iced my heart. Oh God. What had they done to him? My limbs shook violently as I lowered to my haunches next to him, and that’s when I heard it.
A low groaning, interspersed with quick, shallow intakes of breath. As if he were trying not to breathe. As if he were trying to hold it in. I knew what that was like.
My eyes burned with grief. “Rafe…” I reached out to touch him, but he shifted away at the first brush of my fingers. Fear and rejection darted through me, leaving in its wake tiny holes where stubborn hope seeped. I had to believe we’d find a way out of this. Giving in to the alternative would surely get us killed.
“What…what happened?”
“I remember.”
Letting out a breath, I reached for his hand, and my fingers wrapped around his on the first try, as if they knew exactly where they belonged. I held on tight, refusing to let him withdraw. “What did you remember?”
“The hole in prison. The guards let him in…”
“Let who in?”
“Cleft smells like him.” He returned my grip painfully. “He fucked me in there. Cleft fucking smells like him.”
“Who’s Cleft?”
“The fucker in the hoodie.”
I stiffened, still unable to get the hatred in that man’s eyes out of my head. “He was in prison with you?”
“I think so. I can’t remember…I couldn’t see a thing in the hole.”
And we couldn’t see a thing in here. I ran my thumb over the back of his hand, blinking rapidly to hold back the simmering grief. I’d failed him eight years ago. I wouldn’t do the same now. I’d be strong for him, a rock for him to lean on. “Did he d-do it again?”
I waited with bated breath, my heart pounding in my ears. Another thwack and scream came from the other side of the wall, and I jumped.
Rafe jumped too. “Jax stopped him.” His voice sounded off, almost as if he’d rehearsed his void tone. I recognized the underlying shock because it matched the way I felt.
“In prison?”
“No, here. He’s here.”
“Jax is involved?”
“I don’t know how or why. None of this makes any fucking sense. He wants me to trust him, but I don’t even know him. How can I trust him when he won’t even tell me what the fuck is going on? All I know is they’re hurting you because of me.”
“I-I’m okay.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I will be okay. Just don’t shut me out.” I moved to straddle his lap, needing more than anything to wrap my arms around him, but he held me off.
“I’m naked, Alex.”
I sucked in a breath, sickened by the implications of why they’d remove his clothing. But we only had each other, so I straddled him, despite his protests, and lifted my hands to his rough cheeks. “So am I.”
He laughed. He actually laughed. But the pitch was off, like he was trying hard not to cry or scream or punch something. “I don’t know why this is happening. They said I did something in prison, but I can’t remember shit.”
“I don’t think this is just about you. After they drugged you in the woods, they brought me in to see Lucas.”
“Who?”
“Lucas Perrone,” I repeated, then faltered because he had no idea who I was talking about. How could he? He didn’t remember any of it. “He was a business associate of my dad’s. We dated for a while. He…he asked me to marry him the night you took me.”
“Did you accept?”
That wasn’t what I expected him to say, and I definitely hadn’t expected the note of possessiveness that tinged his tone. I lowered my hands to his shoulders. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“I thought it would protect me from Zach.”
“So you didn’t love him.”
“There’s only one man I’ve ever loved. You already know that.”
“You have shitty taste, sweetheart.”
“I have a taste for you.” I lowered my head, and our breaths mingled. Electricity zinged through the darkness, crackling over our naked skin. Everywhere we touched sparked with heat. I inched back because being so close sent vivid images through my twisted head. I wanted to forget about Lucas, Jax, the fact that we were both prisoners in a dank room, naked and sitting in the dirt.
I wanted to lose myself in him, except we couldn’t just ignore reality. The threat wasn’t going away on its own.
“Why do you think Jax would do this?” He wasn’t the first person I’d trust, but Rafe had trusted him enough to share the cabin with him.
“Fuck, Alex. I don’t know. I’m pretty sure they’re all working for someone though. Jax mentioned his father.” Silence ensued, and we both stilled as the implications settled in.
“But that would mean…”
“Perrone is Jax’s father,” Rafe said, the words hoarse and barely audible. “What did he want with you?”
I squirmed on his lap, hesitant to go into Lucas touching me or nearly forcing his cock into my mouth. “He wanted something I wasn’t willing to give, not unless he agreed to let you go.”
“Alex…” he warned. “Don’t you dare try to bargain for my life.”
“It didn’t work anyway. He sent me into that room and…”
“And they beat you,” he finished, his voice cracking. He burrowed his face into the crook of my shoulder and crushed me in his embrace, holding on as if letting go meant he’d splinter apart. “I’ll kill them all,” he whispered.
My ass was burning something fierce, but I clenched my teeth until the pain dulled. I was just starting to relax, calmed by the shelter of his embrace, when another screech bled through the wall. We both froze, suspended in quiet horror.
Her screams reached every part of me, and my skin erupted with goose bumps. I’d been through a lot. Some would say I’d been to hell and back. But they were baptizing that poor girl by fire, taking her from everything she knew and loved just so they could torture her into becoming nothing.
A thing with holes to fuck, like Zach had treated me in that cabin. I shuddered at the thought.
“I won’t let them hurt you again,” Rafe said.
I knew he meant every word, but he was only one man. “I know,” I whispered. I wouldn’t upset him by telling him that I had little faith left. We were trapped in a dark room underground somewhere, and no one would find us.
“I won’t let them,” he repeated. We settled into each other, bodies pressed together, mouths parting over warm skin, and breathed the other in as the monster next door elicited more screams from his victim.