Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
“NOTHIN BUT A MONSTER” BY ARI HICKS
LARK
An animalistic roar from their cage shatters the silence, and I whip my head away from Jude to see Knox punching the bars, trying to use his bare hands to rip them apart. Blood splatters across the bars and walkway as his skin parts across his knuckles, but he doesn’t pause, doesn’t even flinch.
“Knox! Knox, stop!” I yell, clutching at my own bars, barely feeling the cold metal of them and watching the blood drip down from his split knuckles. He’ll fucking break something if he keeps this up. “Please, there’s no way you can break through these!”
He stops, his chest heaving as the other guys stand around him. They don’t touch him, just surround him with their unwavering strength, and the sight makes my chest tight.
“I may be fucking pissed at you, but I can’t let them touch you, Little Bird,” he breathes out, and my breath stutters out of my chest at his confession. He may still be mad, but if his barely suppressed rage and words are any sign, his feelings for me haven’t changed.
“It’ll be okay, Daddy,” I reply softly, watching as he swallows hard and his jaw clenches. His head comes up, his hazel eyes dull and not bright like they usually are, and my soul twinges with guilt. I took away his sparkling eyes, leaving them almost lifeless.
“Nothing about this is fucking okay, princess. Nothing.”
“I know, but there’s nothing else we can do now but wait.”
Wait.
It feels like I’ve been waiting for the past ten years and now I’m impatient for this all to be over. I just hope that Adam Taylor will come through and bring in the big guns because I need my father dead for this to work, for Rook and I to finally gain our freedom.
Shit, Rook. I still don’t know how I’ll keep him safe in all this, especially if the Tailors come in here guns blazing. What if he gets caught in the crossfire? I hadn’t banked on being trapped in here with the guys. I’ll have to find some way to get a message to him or something.
“What’s wrong, Dove?” Aeron’s deep voice infiltrates my thoughts, and I blink as I look up at him. His brow is deeply furrowed, his blue eyes like a stormy sea.
“I was just thinking about Rook, and how, now that I’m stuck in here, I can’t make sure he’s safe when your father comes,” I respond as I nibble my lower lip.
“Don’t worry, Nightingale, Aeron gave you his word we’d keep him safe,” Jude says, and I glance towards him with a small smile.
In some ways, he’s so na?ve. I don’t miss the look Aeron and Tarl share, my stomach dropping when Aeron won’t look at me.
“Won’t you, Aeron? You’ll make sure Rook is safe, right? ”
Aeron glances at me, then turns his attention back to Jude.
“I’ll do what I can for him.”
I guess that’s better than a kick in the teeth, and the most I can hope for, for now anyway.
At least the Tailors will have to pass this way before entering the main complex, and I told Adam that Friday was the best day because of the weekly meeting.
So once he hears of his boys’ capture, he should be here next week. I hope.
Seven days to survive. Just seven days. That’s all I need to get through before help arrives.
Although, there’s no telling if I’ll be allowed to live once Adam arrives. I just have to pray that the guys have enough sway to persuade him to keep me alive.
The bare bulb is suddenly switched off, plunging us into darkness and I gasp as a cruel laugh echoes throughout the long space just before the outer door slams, making me jump, then hiss as it pulls my ribs. Fucking Soldier cunts.
Shivers take over my still naked body, the darkness smothering me in its inky embrace and I can no longer see my guys. Bad things happen in the dark, terrible monsters that hurt you until you can’t scream anymore, and I can feel the panic as it makes me breathe faster, stealing my air.
“It’s okay, Dove,” Aeron’s voice floats towards me, and like a soothing balm on a wound, it pushes some of the shadows away. “We’re right here.”
Jude sings, and I recognize it as the same Disney song he sang to me in their dungeon; “I See the Light” from Tangled.
Moisture fills my eyes as, once again, I sink down to the cold, unforgiving, concrete floor.
I let Jude’s voice wash over me, wrapping it around myself like my arms around my knees as I try to fight the dark memories which try to drag me under.
The pain from my stab wound barely registers as the terror of the dark threatens to drown me.
“I’m scared,” I murmur into the blackness once the last note of the song disappears.
My voice is small and sounds too broken for my liking.
I can feel myself reverting to that girl who lived here before.
The abused girl who was just biding her time, hoping that something better would arrive soon.
I don’t want to be her again and refuse to be a victim once more, even if it’s just in my head.
“I know, Dove, but you just have to be brave for a little while longer. My dad will help to get us out of this.” Aeron sounds so sure, so confident of his father coming to our rescue.
It gives me a small ray of hope and also makes my heart ache something fierce.
I’ve never had that kind of support, the unshakable knowledge that someone is coming to my rescue. Not until the guys anyway.
“Are you mad?” I don’t want to know the answer, yet at the same time, I’m desperate for it, my heart ricocheting in my chest at the thought that I may not have lost them.
Or perhaps I have. I just don’t know. Aeron sighs and even the sound of his frustration has me leaning towards their side of the room.
“I’m fucking furious, Dove.” My breath catches, my heart sinking to my stomach at his truth. My arms flex around me, my grip tightening to the point of pain but it’s nothing compared to the way my heart aches.
“Aeron!” Jude admonishes, and I can hear movement across the walkway.
“No, Baby Devil. He has a right to be cross. I led you into a trap.” My throat is thick with tears, tears that I can’t hold back as they flow down my cheeks. I’m so fucking weepy today. There’s just silence for a few moments as they take in my words.
“It’s not so much that, Dove. Although I am beyond pissed about you betraying us,” Aeron tells me. He sounds so tired, and I can just imagine him scrubbing a hand down his face like he does when he’s irritated and only we’re around.
“Then, what?”
“You didn’t trust us to help you. To get you out of this shithole, and that makes me so fucking angry, Dove. That you thought we wouldn’t do anything, everything, within our powers to protect you. To help you.”
I digest his words, hearing the truth in them as my tears dry on my cheeks. He sees my betrayal as me doubting their ability to keep me safe, seeing them as too weak, and that’s what really hurts. I didn’t trust them enough.
“I–I find it hard to trust, after everything,” I say eventually, wringing my hands together. It’s so fucking dark in here; there are no windows and I can’t even see them, no matter how close I bring them to my face. Aeron sighs again.
“I know, Dove, and it’s why I can’t stay mad at you. You’ve been through so much shit it’s a wonder you’ve allowed us to get this close. I just wish you’d come to us first. Then at least maybe you wouldn’t be stuck over there.”
“I’m so sorry, Devil Man.”
What else can I say? I fucked up and am only just realizing all the flaws in my plan. One of which is the potential to lose the love of the men who are my everything.
“I know you are, Dove. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry too.”
“Sorry for what? You have nothing to apologize for,” I tell him, my brows furrowed as I try to work out what he means. I hate that my thoughts instantly go to something bad, like they don’t love me, or that he plans to kill me after all. I really am fucking broken. Fucking ruined.
“I’m sorry that I couldn’t convince you of my love enough that you’d trust me more. I’m sorry that you couldn’t trust me enough to take care of you for the rest of our lives.”
“Aeron—” My voice breaks, and I hate these bars even more as I want nothing other than to be held by him and the others, to lose myself in their comforting embrace.
An idea comes to me, something that might make this a little more bearable.
“Are you where you were before the light went out?” My voice is stronger than it was moments before, and my chest has less of a weight on it as excitement fills me.
“Yes, I’ve not moved, why?” he asks, his tone adorably confused at my abrupt change of subject.
It brings a smile to my lips, and I grab hold of that smile as I’ve a feeling I won’t get many in here.
Not with what my father has planned. I shuffle down so that I’m lying on the floor, my shoulder pressed up against the bars, and reach through with my hand, extending it out into the narrow walkway as far as I can.
It tugs my wound, but I ignore the bite as I shuffle further out.
“Reach through the bars, Devil Man,” I tell him, excitement making my stomach tingle at the thought of being able to touch him, even just a small amount. I gasp as fingers brush my own, hearing a breath leave him too.
“Dove—” his voice sounds just as choked as mine was moments before, his hand grasping mine and tangling our fingers together. Fresh tears drip down the side of my face as his warm hand envelops mine, heat spreading all the way up my arm and into my heart.
“Will you hold my hand for a bit?” I ask, the question tentative and my tone unsure.
“Dove, I’ll hold your hand for the rest of our lives on this godforsaken earth and into the afterlife beyond. I’m never letting you go.”
“None of us are,” Knox adds, and a sob leaves my throat. He was so fucking mad earlier that I’d worried he’d never forgive me and never love me again.
“You are ours, Aziz-e delam,” Tarl tells me, his voice strong and unwavering in the blackness.
“I call shotgun!” Jude says, and we all laugh, the sound making the space just a little brighter. A little less cloying and hopeless.
“Rest now, Dove. We’ll keep watch and make sure you’re awake before anyone comes in,” Aeron says, and my heart swells at the love and care in his words. His hand squeezes mine gently and I squeeze right back, pillowing my head on my arm and closing my eyes as exhaustion sweeps me under.
Falling asleep to Jude’s melodic voice singing the lullaby from Dumbo, “Baby Mine,” the darkness of our situation feels so much less than it did moments before.
I don’t know what will happen in the next seven days, but I know that I have my guys around me, helping me in whatever way they can. I am no longer alone.