Chapter 60 #2
They all three watch her kick and squirm while she lies naked on the floor. I know her wound hurts, and she rolls onto her back, trying to relieve the pressure on her freshly carved hip.
She’s covered in sweat and gasping for breath through the small hole in the mouthpiece.
“Sir?” the kid asks Evan. “What would you like me to do with her?”
“Put her back in her cell.”
“Like this?” he questions, looking over her restrained body.
“I gave you an order,” Evan yells at the kid.
“Yes, sir.” He picks Eve up and carries her out of the room.
Garrett turns to face Evan. “I want to see progress.”
Evan grinds his jaw. “It will come,” he promises. “It takes time—”
“I don’t think you understand who the fuck she is,” Garrett snaps. “She would rather die than do what you want. She wants to kill herself, and when she realizes she won’t be successful, she’ll push you to do it.”
Evan shakes his head. “It will work. She will be the best recruiter we’ve ever had.”
The video stops and I frown.
Recruiter. There it is again. It makes me think of the meeting that Bill and Adam called at Blackout. Why I’m on the run with her. They want to set my girl up as helping to lure others into sex slavery and blame her for those women’s deaths.
I don’t believe it.
She would never do that. Can a person be brainwashed?
Absolutely. She’s proof of that. How she feels about being useless…
unable to have a child…they brainwashed her to believe that.
Too many years of damage to undo. But to force someone to endure the same abuse she survived?
No. That is not who Eve is. Not who she wants to be.
Garrett was right. Eve would rather die or hurt herself than hurt someone innocent.
Getting out of the chair, I turn and come to a stop when I see my wife standing behind it, her watery eyes on my phone in my hand.
FUCK.
EVERETT
I’m tossed onto a cold surface and try to scramble away, but there is nowhere for me to go. I can’t see or hear. So I lie flat and kick out my legs.
When I don’t feel anything, I drop them to the floor and try to calm my breathing.
What happened? Where am I?
I was fighting with Evan and then…nothing.
Everything hurts. My face is pounding and it’s itchy. I can feel rough material all over my skin. Something is wrapped around my neck. A collar, maybe?
My hip is burning. Did they brand me?
I have no use of my arms or hands. They’re secured tightly behind my back. I’m hot. Can a person overheat? My face is sweating, and I can barely breathe. Whatever is in my mouth is big, and it has some kind of tube that keeps hitting the back of my throat that makes me gag.
I can’t die like this. In my own vomit. I will go down fighting. Not helpless.
“Eve?”
I blink, and my blurry vision rises to meet my husband.
He looks away and sighs heavily. “I’m sorry—”
“When did you get that?” I ask with a shaky voice.
“While you were sleeping.”
“Why”—I clear my throat—“would you watch it?”
His jaw sharpens before he answers. “I want to know.”
“To know what?”
Running a hand over his head, he says, “What you went through.”
“What I went through?” I repeat with a sour taste in my mouth.
I sit with my back against a cold wall. There’s nothing else for me to do. I jump when I feel hands on my face. I’m shoved forward and start to fight, but then the mouthpiece is gone, and I relax.
Finally. I want to cry but don’t think I have any tears left.
Then the thing around my neck is removed and the hot material over my face is pulled off.
“Hello, dolly.” Evan kneels in front of me.
I say nothing.
“How do you feel?” He runs his thumb over my lips, and I lean into him. “That’s my good dolly.” He drops his hand to my hip, and I whimper. “Would you like something for the pain?”
“N-o,” I manage to get out. I hate the drugs.
“Are you sure?”
I nod and beg. “Please?”
“Please what, Eve?”
“My arms. I want my arms.”
He pulls out a pocketknife and holds the blade to my neck. I arch away, pushing my head into the wall. “Have you learned your lesson?”
“Yes,” I rush out. “Yes. I promise. Please…”
“Lie on your stomach,” he orders, stepping back.
I push myself off the wall and lie down on my stomach, my head to the side, and he starts to cut the tape.
A sob escapes when he sits down next to me and pulls me into his lap. I don’t have the use of my arms. They just flop to my sides, and I bury my head in his chest.
“Now, now, dolly. I don’t like to hurt you. You know I love you, right?”
I’m sobbing, unable to answer him.
“Shh.” He runs his hand over my sweat-covered hair. “You make me hurt you, Eve. I’m here to help you. You just need to let me.”
I nod my head, soaking his shirt with my tears, snot, and drool. “O-kay,” I hiccup.
I look up at my husband, and he’s just staring at me. Why are things coming back to me? Why am I letting them in? I liked it when I didn’t remember. When that part of my life never existed. It was a nightmare that I woke up from.
Kashton steps forward, and I take one back. His jaw sharpens, and he glances away.
“What I went through,” I repeat again.
“Angel—”
“Want to know what happened after that video ended?” I look to his phone in his hand.
“Evan left me in my cell like that for twenty-four hours.” My gaze returns to his, but he can’t look at me.
“By the time he removed my hood, I was a sobbing mess. I begged him to help me. Told him that I’d be his best girl.
” I swallow the lump in my throat. “He told me he loved me. That he was doing it to help me.”
Kashton drops his head and rubs the back of his neck.
“Is that what you want, Kash? To know how pathetic I was?”
“You were never pathetic,” he growls. “You were trying to survive.”
“Survive?” I snort. “I wanted to die, Kash.”
He glares at me, and I step into him.
“My first week at Dollhouse, a guard came into my cell at night, and I knew what he wanted.” I lick my lips. “What every man I had ever met wanted from me—my body.” I wrap my arms around myself. “When I didn’t willingly give him what he wanted, he took it.”
He runs a hand down his face.
“The next night he came back.” I sniff. “I refused to let it happen again, so I did the only thing I thought would stop him.” My voice cracks.
Kashton reaches out and brushes his tatted knuckles along my tear-streaked cheek. “What did you do, Eve?”
“I pissed and shit myself,” I answer, ashamed, and he tilts his head to the side.
“It’s all I could think to do to make myself be unattractive to him.
To make him disgusted by me.” My body shakes with anger.
“But he didn’t care.” Fresh tears fall from my eyes, and Kashton wipes them away too.
I wish he could do the same with my memory.
“He rubbed my face in it like a dog. Then he beat me, but not before he got off.” I give a rough laugh.
“Because God forbid a man not get to have what he wants. He ended up making me despise myself.”
“Eve—”
I step back from him, and his hand drops to his side. “What else do you want to know, Kash? Want to know about the time they pierced my nose like I was cattle?”
He looks away, and his Adam’s apple bobs when he swallows.
My chest tightens. “You know about that too? How?”
He doesn’t answer.
I slam my hands into his chest. “How many videos have you watched?”
“Five,” he answers, looking back at me.
Five videos? I know about the day I was dropped off at Dollhouse and this one, now my nose piercing. What did the other one show? One was humiliating enough. I give him my back, spinning around.
“Eve, wait.” He grabs my upper arm and turns me to face him.
I swing. My hand slapping him across the face. “Don’t touch me,” I scream and then shove him back, but he doesn’t budge.
“Stop, Eve,” he orders, but I hit him again.
“Fucking bastard!” I shout at the top of my lungs. This man is supposed to be my husband. The man I spend the rest of my life with, and now I can never look him in the eyes again.
He’s different from Evan, Adam, or Bill. They know I’m broken. Kashton is supposed to see me differently. Evan is ruining that.
“Let go of me,” I demand, trying to yank my arms free of his iron grip.
“Fucking stop, Eve,” he growls. Then my legs are kicked out from underneath me, and I’m on my back. Kashton’s on top of me, his hands gripping my wrists and shoving them above my head.
“Get off me,” I say through gritted teeth.
The door opens to the owner’s suite, and I stop fighting. Our heavy breathing fills the room.
“I heard screaming. Need some assistance, sir?” the man asks my husband.
It instantly makes my blood boil. What about me? Why not ask if I need help? I’m naked on my back, and he’s on top of me, pinning me down. What if I wasn’t willingly here with Kashton?
“Leave,” Kash orders.
The guy quickly looks from me to my husband. “Hooke keeps sedatives—”
“Leave or I’ll throw you fucking overboard,” Kashton shouts, interrupting him.
The man slams the door shut, and Kashton places his attention back on me. “Are you done?” he barks at me, sucking in a deep breath.
His cheek is red from my hand, and his jaw is clenched. Hard blue eyes search mine, waiting for a response. I huff, softening my body and tightly closing my eyes. He releases my wrists, and I place my hands over my face.
“Don’t do that.” His voice is no longer harsh, but there’s still an authoritative tone. “Don’t hide from me, angel.”
I refuse to look at him. I can’t. Too ashamed of who I am. What I allowed to happen to me.
“Eve?” he growls.
I turn my head with my hands still covering my face, and suddenly his weight disappears. I roll onto my side.
His hands are rough and forceful, shoving me to my stomach. My eyes spring open when he grabs my arms and pulls them behind my back. “Kashton.” I whimper when he places my wrists tightly in handcuffs.
Then his hand falls between my legs. I bite my lip to hold my breath when his fingers gently play with my pussy. I know what he’s doing.