Riding with him was hell. The wind wasn’t gentle as it brushed against her cheeks, and she had no choice but to cling to his waist to keep from making Kane’s bid for freedom a reality and falling off the side of the road. But it wasn’t any fear of death that kept her at his back. It was the knowledge that if he lost his chance to torture her, he would head right back to Kane and Theo. So, she was going to take her poison and deal with the pain.

 

“That’s right, Angel,” he said. “You’re gonna hold onto whatever I say.”

 

Her body was awash in fresh trembles as he parked in the lot of a sleazy motel and pulled her off his bike. Noel hurt her arm as he dragged her through the main doorway, and Angeline saw a disinterested desk clerk. His ears seemed to perk to a kind of attention when she couldn’t help but quiver, but Noel just tossed him a wad of bills and demanded a key. The clerk did not argue, and Noel saluted the guy as he hauled Angeline to the room that would become a prison once he locked the door.

 

“You know,” Noel said, as he lit a cigarette and blew the smoke in her face, causing her to blink through the haze, “I could have used him—like he was—before you got your hooks into him.”

 

Wanting only to keep Kane safe, she asked him if he would leave him alone now, now that she had surrendered herself to him.

 

Noel lifted her chin to his eyes and gagged her with a harsh kiss, as he said, “You perform. Keep me interested. And maybe I’ll have all that I need to keep me happy.”

 

He slammed her into the wall, his hands everywhere as his tobacco-laced teeth bit her buttons away and started to nip at her breasts. She whimpered as he kissed her, but she kept close to the wall. The last thing that she wanted was to make him angry, and she tried to go dead as he kept mauling her. She thought of Kane and hoped that Ben and Waldo had talked some sense into him, making him see that she was a lost cause. Would he get that and focus on Theo? What would her father say when she failed to come back?

 

Could this really work? Or should she have stayed?

 

“Keep me happy now!” Noel cried, slapping her face until she fell to the floor and hid behind her curls. Then, Noel kicked her back to attention, pulled her off the ground, and said, “Strip. Lose it all.”

 

Noel settled on the edge of the bed. Scared but feeling that she needed to go through the motions to keep her boys safe, Angeline did as she was told and removed what was left of her blouse. Sliding her skirt down her thighs, she kicked off her shoes and stood in nothing but her panties as Noel drooled.

 

I can’t… I can’t do this. I can’t let him have me like that again. I—

 

“This was your idea!” Noel bellowed, as he flicked his cigarette at her legs, and even as she drew back, she caught some of the burn and felt her eyes filling with tears.

 

“You doing this or what, bitch?” Noel asked.

 

She lowered her panties and blushed when she felt her body completely exposed to his eyes. Noel licked his lips, and as soon as he seemed sure that her body was his for the taking, he pounced.

 

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!”

 

He forced her to the bed, his hands working their way between her legs as he curled his fingers around her shaking ass. Angeline hated the feel of his hands, but she sank into his touch. She would stop being a woman, a person, for the duration of her sentence. She would just lay back and take it and think of Kane with Theo. Just the thought of them safe was enough to make her sure that her sacrifice was worth it, and Noel…

 

“Aren’t you going to at least put up a fight?” he sneered, as he started to push his fingers inside her. Her entire body groaned around his point of impact, but she stayed still. “No difference,” Noel said. “I can make you scream in other ways.”

 

Pushing her off the bed, Angeline peered up and saw him removed his belt. Before she could tell him that they could go back to the bed, that she would do whatever he wanted, Noel slammed the buckle against her bare back. She yelled as she finally understood Kane’s anguish and why he had to try to get away.

 

However, as the brass cut into her skin, she knew that she had no such choice. She couldn’t run; she could only take her punishment and hope for moments of reprieve between his assaults. A part of her wished that Kane would appear and save her from this monster, but he had to be keeping Theo safe. He had…

 

She curled into a ball as the door was pushed open, and as she looked through her fingers, she saw Kane there, nearly frothing at the mouth with Ben as his side. Their guns were drawn, and when Angeline found his eyes, she cried out for Kane. However, he kept his gaze on Noel who stepped back, used her bare body like a shield, and said, “You can’t even listen to her! You are one dumb fuck.”

 

Kane clicked the trigger and appeared ready to shoot when Noel reached into his back pocket and held a knife to her throat. Angeline closed her eyes so as to not see the blade even as she felt it poking into her skin.

 

“She tried to give you a way out,” Noel said. “All you had to do was hang back with the brat.” He pressed the blade closer as he leaned forward and spat at Kane. “All you had to do was forget her.”

 

Again, he pressed his fingers between her legs. When she couldn’t stop from groaning, Kane swore that he would shoot him where he stood if he didn’t release her.

 

Noel seemed to grow reflective as he left her cunt and started to stroke her thighs. She hoped he would release her now. She longed to know where Theo was. And Kane…she had to have the chance to soothe her own blows to his face.

 

“But enough, Noel said. “So let’s say I just cut her and we call it a day?”