Chapter 14 #2
I gripped the back of my neck, squeezing the muscles as I stared at her all curled up in the corner of her damn room.
I’m sorry. The words lingered on my tongue as everything and everyone else in the room faded.
I winced at the sight of her, that menacing hunger inside me battling a new opponent, one that wanted desperately to protect her.
“Please…” she whispered and closed her eyes . “Someone help me.”
I took a step forward before I knew. Her body trembled, her skin pebbled with goosebumps. I spun around, searching her room and strode toward her bed, tearing the comforter free.
“Easy.” I murmured moving toward her. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
She looked so fucking small like that. Her legs curled up, her thin arms limp and lifeless at her side. I bent down, wrapping the blanket around her. “Angelica. Can you hear me?”
Her eyes stayed closed, but her lips moved. “Owned. Daughter. The Order…the Order.”
There was that goddamn place again. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, pulling her against me for warmth. Yes, that’s all this was…for warmth. Her boney body pressed against my chest, quaking as she shivered.
“We need to get you warm.” I murmured, glancing at the thin satin nightdress she wore. “Do you understand me? You need to come out of this now, you need to wake the Hell up.”
“He wants me here.” She whispered. “He likes it when I…”
I clenched my jaw. When you what? I didn’t want to think about it. Not about the way she looked in that video on her knees, or the other things this sick fuck forced her to do.
But there was a part of me that wanted to know. That lethal part of me that craved that tortured emotion.
“Someone needs to help her get dressed.” I forced the words through clenched teeth and looked behind me at my brothers.
“Don’t look at me.” Jude shook his head.
Gabe looked utterly horrified, his face as pale. Eyes wide and transfixed on her.
Fuck.
Hard gnashes of her teeth sealed the deal. I shoved upwards and spun around before I stopped. “Well, are you two going to just stand there and watch? Get the fuck out.
They did, Jude moved first before he stopped. “Gabe…come on.”
My little brother didn’t want to go. But he did, finally tearing that fixed stare from her to me. “Fix this, Silas. Fix this or else.”
Or else what? That panicked flutter in my chest knew all too well. Fix this or live with the fact we broke her tonight. No…I broke her. It was my idea right? Push her til she cracks. Use that stupid hazing mentality to break her.
Well, we fucking succeeded.
Only this wasn’t what I had in mind when I decided it.
“Order…the Order.” She murmured behind me as Gabe left the room and closed the door behind him.
Yeah, the Order, I got it the first fucking time.
I strode to her walk-in robe and switched on the light, before I looked at her clothes and stopped.
“Jesus.” I didn’t know what to get, where were her fucking sweats for God sake?
There was nothing but dresses and slacks and…
I grabbed an almost sheer cream colored blouse with long ruffled sleeves. What the fuck was this?
I couldn’t figure out what to put on her. I turned, finding her in the same spot, her eyes still closed. She sure as Hell couldn’t stay like that. With a snarl I strode out, turned the handle and walked out of her room.
“Where the fuck are you going?” Gabe barked as I strode past. “Silas…where are you going?
Bang!
I slammed my bedroom door closed, then stood there, staring at my room but not really seeing anything. I did this….I did this…I closed my eyes . I did this.
She was in there, wrapped in a fucking blanket, cold and shivering and goddamn catatonic.
I shouldn’t care. I shouldn’t give a goddamn fuck about that lying, treacherous little fucking bitch…
so why did I? Why did I feel this fucking hole inside me?
Why did I want to tear something apart in one second and go to her in the next.
Why did I torture myself?
And why the fuck was I standing here?
I waited for a sign, for a clear decision, to either leave her there and walk away or return to her. But no thought came so in the end I opened my eyes, stared at the poem drawers of my cupboard and the soft, warm fleece that peeked out, waiting for me to tug them on and start running.
I headed for them, pulled out sweat pants, and a t-shirt as well as a sweater and thick, warm socks before I slowly headed for the door once more. Gabe was still in the same spot when I passed. Only this time he never said a word.
I closed her bedroom door behind me and moved closer. “I brought you something warm.” I said and winced. Christ I sounded pathetic. “I’m going to need you to wake up now. You can put these on for now. It’s not the best, but it’s the best I can do.”
Only she never turned her head, never looked my way. Never obeyed my command.
“Daughter.” She murmured, staring at the fucking wall.
“For fucks sake.” I dropped the pile of clothes beside her and knelt, grabbing the shirt first. “You’re going to make me dress you like a goddamn baby.”
I yanked the shirt up, stretched out the neckline and eased it over her head and her nightdress, only when I tugged it down and reached for her arm I stopped. I couldn’t pull it over the goddamn thing. What was I going to do with the skirt, tuck it in?
I had to take it off.
Didn’t she need some kind of bra?
I stopped, closed my eyes and sank a little deeper into that endless pit inside me. No matter how hard I tried to fight it, this was my doing…so I needed to undo it. I opened my eyes and pushed up, striding to the beside drawers and opened the top one.
Neatly folded white panties sat on one side, a few lacy black and red one peeked out from the rear.
But she didn’t wear those, did she? No, she wore white.
I reached down, grabbed the top ones. The sheer white lace so goddamn soft to the touch.
I never took any notice before. Then again I was rarely putting these things on. I was more focused on taking them off.
I fisted her panties, then reached for the matching bra. No wire, soft cups, they were smaller than I expected. What did I expect? Flashes of images assaulted me. The glimpse of the side of her breast as that bastard said, on your knees.
I turned around and strode back to her as she sat there with my shirt hanging from her neck. “Believe me, this is going to be more traumatic for me than it is for you.” I said, dropping her underwear beside me and set to the task easing the t-shirt back over her head and pushed the comforter aside.
The satin nightdress slipped out from under her easily. I tugged it upwards, over her thighs and hips before I eased one arm upwards, then the other and finally tugged it free.
Her body quaked, dusky, pink nipples puckering hard. I tried to look away, grabbing her bra instead. But the moment I looked back I was mesmerized. “You’re so cold.” My words were husky and raw as I reached out, dragging the back of my finger along her arm, watching for any sign she felt me at all.
She didn’t move. Didn’t register, not even when I reached higher, tracing over her collarbone and lower to the top of her breast. She didn’t flinch, not until I opened my hand and covered her breast with the heat of my palm. Only then did she stiffen.
“On my knees.” She whispered, echoing his demands. “Owned. Owned….contract.”
Contract?
My mind raced, still I didn’t move, only rubbed my hand over that hard nub in the middle of my palm.
“I’ll warm you.” I eased closer, drawing in the faint, sweet scent of her.
Christ she smelled good. I didn’t realise that before as I gently rubbed, sweet and faintly floral.
I licked my lips. “You can wear my clothes, the t-shirt is warm, but I’m afraid it’ll smell like me. ”
My cock twitched, hardening at the idea of that as I looked down. Her breast was warming, that puckered flesh smoothing out underneath me. I wonder if I put her in my mouth would I warm her more? The resounding answer was yes .
But that would cross the line. A line I was already rubbing away with every gentle knead of my hand.
I pulled away instantly, watching her small breast cool and her nipple grow tight once more.
I needed to stop this. Just fucking stop it.
So I forced myself to ease her bra over her arms, then slowly tugged it into place and hooked it together at her back…
before I lowered my gaze to her panties.
A moan ripped free. Seeing her breast was one thing…but down there…
“You can leave those on, I think.” I croaked and grabbed the t-shirt, pulling it back on over her head and eased it over her arms. My sweats were next, I looked everywhere else but between her thighs as I worked them higher.
By the time I was done my clothes swarmed her, but at least her teeth stopped chattering… and her murmured words slowed.
All she said now was the Order. The Order.
As I picked her nightdress up and tossed it toward her bed I realised maybe that was the one place she needed to be. “Is that it? Will that bring you out of this?” Maybe it was what we both needed. I get the answers I wanted…and she…she can find her way free.
I nodded, then glanced toward her closed bedroom door.
I’d need help…they were just as responsible as I was…and I’d be damned if I was going back into that place alone. No, this time, they’d all come with me.
I looked back at her. No, with us. They’d all come with us.