Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“ELEPHANT” BY FREYA RIDINGS
LARK
Several minutes before…
My heart rate doesn’t slow while I wait, even when I try desperately to practice some breathing exercises and affirmations that I learned years ago.
There is no way to calm my body, it knows what is coming.
My mind is a different matter though, I’m able to slip deeper and deeper into the numbness that I used to inhabit so often, and for that, I am beyond fucking grateful.
I barely even jump when the door opens, yet my heart stutters to a stop when I register the dark hair and bright blue eyes.
“Rook!” I yell, rushing over to him and wrapping my arms around him. Shit, he’s so much taller than me now, I barely come up to his shoulder, and his eighteen-year-old body has filled out, even though it’s only been a couple of months since I saw him last.
His arms come around me, reluctantly at first, then tighter as he buries his face into my neck.
“L–Lark,” he chokes out, hugging me close. Tears fill my eyes and my chest tenses as we hold each other for a few moments.
“W–Why are you here? How come he let you see me?” I ask, trying to pull away, but he holds me firm, one of his hands sliding down my back.
A slight chill crawls down my spine, my stomach quivering.
“Rook?” His hand slides lower, cupping my ass through the material of this stupid teddy.
“Rook!” I push roughly at him but he doesn’t let go, instead, he walks us back towards the bed.
“Rook!” I shout again, bile filling my throat as the backs of my knees touch the mattress.
He’s holding me too close against him to give me room to see his face, let alone fight him off, and my ribs flare in protest but it’s nothing compared to the fear that’s filling me up.
“I have to, Lark,” he whispers in my ear, his voice thick and full of regret, giving a final push so that we fall down.
I cry out as he lands on me heavily, my ribs and all the bruises screaming, but my heart and soul screams louder as I try to fight him off.
Despite my best efforts, like so many men before him have proven to me, he’s just too strong.
“H–he says that real men take w–what they w–want, and if I want to be a Soldier, a true Soldier, I need to take you.”
My breaths come in sharp pants as he captures both of my hands, pinning them above us.
He’s not looking at me, his eyes on my breasts which are completely exposed with the sheer material, but unlike the Soldiers that have come before him, there’s no lust in his eyes.
If anything, the slight curl of his upper lips speaks of revulsion and his wide eyes show horror in their blue depths.
“R–Rook! Just fucking look at me!” I scream, and finally, his eyes meet mine.
Eyes so similar to my own that I want to vomit.
“You don’t fucking want me. You’re not even hard.
” My voice wobbles a little, and although I have to swallow more bile, I move my hips against his, demonstrating his lack of excitement to both of us.
“You don’t want to do this.” My voice is soft, tears filling my eyes at the wild, lost look in his.
“I–I have no choice!” he all but shouts in my face, spittle flying from his mouth and landing on my cheeks. “He’ll know if I don’t, and then he’ll kill us both.” His grip on my hands loosen, his forehead dropping to mine, and a splash of moisture lands on my cheek. “I can’t let him kill you, Lark.”
My own tears spill over then as he sobs, and I want to make Rufus hurt so fucking badly for putting this all on my brother. For giving Rook an impossible decision that no brother should have to make.
“He won’t kill either of us, Rook,” I say gently as his cries quieten, and he pushes up, a pain-filled gasp leaving me as he rolls off me to one side.
“Shit, you’re hurt!” he exclaims, his eyes trailing over my body then his face grimaces. “Umm.” His face reddens as he looks away.
“See, there was no way you could fuck me, you idiot,” I say with a chuckle, grabbing the sheet to cover myself a little.
It’s a testament to how fucked up my life has been that I can laugh after they sent in my brother to rape me.
Guess we got to get our humor where we can.
“And Rufus sent Dean to visit me not long after I arrived.”
Rook’s eyes widen, he knows how fucked up Dean’s tastes are. Everyone does, and it’s the reason he’s never been allowed a shot at me before. A shudder runs through me at the unwanted memories, and I snuggle the blanket around me tighter.
“Fuck.” He swallows hard, his brows dipping as tears fill his eyes.
“Don’t you pity me, Rook. It’s not the worst thing to have ever happened to me at the orders of our sperm donor,” I tell him, looking down, not able to face his sorrow.
We need to sort this shit show out first. “Case in point.” I sweep an arm out, glancing back up and indicating the situation we have found ourselves in, and he wrinkles his nose again.
“What the fuck are we going to do, Lark? He’ll check, you know he will,” he sighs, his voice so small and the lost look back in those baby blues of his.
I take a deep inhale, only needing a moment to debate with myself about telling him of our plan.
He’s my brother, and regardless of the past few minutes, I still trust him completely.
“I have friends who’ve promised to come get us tonight,” I tell him quietly, and his eyes widen once more. “We just have to wait.”
“I’m not sure how long we have, Lark,” he replies while scrubbing a hand over his face, then letting it drop into his lap.
“They teased me and said they’d give me maybe twenty minutes before the others started to come in.
” His jaw stiffens as his hand clenches into a fist. I reach over and unfurl it, sliding my fingers between his and giving his fingers a reassuring squeeze.
“They’ll be here. I know they will,” I say, my voice only wavering slightly at the end. Looks like hope has made me her bitch after all. “And we’ll figure something out if not.” We both swallow hard at that.
“Have they been treating you okay?” he questions, looking at me from under his dark brows.
“The Tailors, I mean?” As I look away from him, I feel the heat in my cheeks.
I could never hide a blush. “I’ll take that as a yes then.
” He chuckles, and the sound tugs my lips upwards as I glance back at him.
“At first it was tough, but after a while…it wasn’t,” I whisper, unsure how to tell him all that I feel for the guys and they for me. “Aeron promised your safety too.”
His eyebrows raise at that. “Really? Aeron Taylor?”
“Yep. He swore that he'd get you out. It was the only way I could get them here.” My free hand toys with the blanket, and he gives our joined hands a squeeze.
“So, how are they going to get us out?” he quizzes, his brows furrowed. “I mean, they’re trapped in the cages, right?”
“Before we left to come here, I left a note for Adam Taylor, telling him about the coal chute, the booby-trapped door, and the best time to come get his boys.” He whistles, both brows rising into his dark hairline.
“You played them all.” He sounds impressed, his lips pursed, but it just makes me feel sick.
“I didn’t want to,” I breathe, looking at our clenched hands and giving a small smile when he squeezes them.
“They’ll forgive you, Lark,” he assures me, and I look back up at him to find his features soft, a small smile on his lips.
“They already did,” I tell him, fiddling with the sheets between my fingertips that aren’t wrapped around his. It seems to be becoming a habit right now. “I’m getting out of here Rook, and I want you to come with me.”
He swallows visibly at my words, his blue eyes wide, then he frowns.
“Dad says I’m to take over the Soldiers one day.
That they’ll be my gang. Then I can do what I want with them, stop all this drug running, prostitution, and all the other shit.
There’s so much, Lark. So much fucking pain in these walls, so many innocents suffering.
” His grip becomes painful as he speaks, and I finally realize that while he may not have suffered like I have, he’s had his own cross to bear all the same.
“I want to make the Soldiers what it should have always been; a family.”
Moisture gathers in my lashes at his words. It’s what we’ve both always craved but never had aside from each other. A genuine family. It’s what I’ve found with the Tailors and my breath rushes out of me thinking that I so easily could have lost them.
“I’m sure—” My words are cut off as we’re plunged into darkness, my hand a death grip on his. “What the fuck?”
My heart races, my eyes darting around the pitch-black room as if I’ll be able to find what caused the blackout. Unless…
Rook lets go of my hands, then a light pierces the darkness from beside me as he turns on the torch of his phone.
“What the fuck is going on?” he asks, having sat up and swung his legs off the bed.
I do the same, reaching into the bedside drawer and pulling out the battery-powered lamp.
Having the entire HQ underground means we have these torches in every room, just in case.
It was never big enough for me to use as a weapon, but it’s enough for us to see by.
“I think it might be them, the Tailors,” I tell him in a hushed tone and watch as his eyes widen. “Do you have a key for the door?” I don’t remember him locking it behind himself as he walked in.
“Yeah, shall I lock it?” he asks, standing up and heading over to the door, putting his phone away as I place the lamp on the small table next to me.
“Just in case,” I reply, my voice breathy and my hands trembling slightly as I sit back down on the bed, pulling the blanket back up to cover me again.
Just as the click sounds, a shudder makes the entire room vibrate, and then the sound of muffled gunfire reverberates around the room.