Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
ANGELICA
“Order.” I whispered, as the memory of that heavy, air-conditioned air filled my mind and the loud click of the double doors followed. I was caught between the past and the present. Trapped by teasing, flickers of what happened to me there and the neon white words that ignited behind my eyes.
DAUGHTER.
OWNED.
THE ORDER.
“The Order.” I whispered. “The Order.”
“You want to go there so bad?” Silas’s deep, guttural snarl fought to pierce the hold. “Then why don’t I just take you?”
I tried to shake my head, tried to reach through that smothering hold to plead. You don’t understand…you don’t know what they did in that place. But if I did hear me, he never listened.
Instead his hand slipped under my knees and lifted. Warmth pressed against my side. Part of me was aware of him carrying me, but I couldn’t get free of the hold as in my head the door opened and his heavy steps came behind me.
“Angelica.” He murmured.
The sound of my name on his lips sent shivers along my spine. He stepped around me and waited for me to meet his stare, commanding my attention. “Owned.” I whispered. “Daughter.”
That’s right. The man in my nightmares murmured. He stepped away, heading to the door of that room. You are owned.
I was fixed on the moment, reliving the way my pulse thundered and my breath caught.
Inside my head, hinges squealed as the door swung inward. Goosebumps raced, leaving me to shiver and wrap my arms around myself. My fingers touched bare flesh. I looked down, seeing the white lace bodysuit I was forced to change into.
He wanted me in white.
The faint crunch of boots drew me away from that memory. I shivered but I wasn’t cold. Not anymore. Soft warmth covered me.
“Get the door.” Silas commanded.
The sound of a car door opening followed and the heady scent of rich leather filled my nose.
I closed my eyes and lowered until I hit the seat.
I wanted to climb back out of that car and race back inside to the safety of my room.
But I couldn’t move. Even if I did, my room was no longer the salvation it was before.
I couldn’t escape the demons in my head…or the ones I lived with.
I’m not going to force you, Angelica. He said in my head, drawing me back to that first moment I stepped into that room. But you want to obey me, don’t you?
OBEY.
OWNED.
Thud!
I jumped, knowing it was the car door that closed. Still, I couldn’t pull out of the illusion of that place in my head. No matter how hard I fought, I couldn’t shake the memory of that place free. It was always in the back of my mind, just one whisper away.
The faint sound of a car’s engine rose. I could hear my brothers talking, their raised voices making me panicked. But I wasn’t invested in what they had to say. How could I be?
Angelica. That look, throbbing murmur drew me back to him as he stood outside the open door. Are you going to obey?
OBEY.
The word made me shudder. I couldn’t fight him. Not that deep throbbing command. My feet were moving before I knew my movements took me closer to that room. I lifted my head as I slowly passed. Still, I couldn’t see him. His features were nothing but a blur. A monster without a face.
Inside. He commanded.
I turned my focus to that room and stepped inside.
The door closed softly. But I held my breath.
You know what happens now? His voice resounded all around me.
We begin training?
Good…good girl. And what is the first thing we do when we train?
Establish the balance of power.
Yes. Very good. Tell me, Angelica. Who has the upper hand here?
A shiver coursed through me. You do.
You will obey my every command, won’t you? He stepped closer, stopping at my back. Even if it causes you pain and it will cause you pain.
I swallowed hard, trying to fight that clenched ache in the pit of my stomach. It would cause me pain. I knew that. Because this betrayal wasn’t just mine, was it?
No.
It wasn’t only one trapped in this Hell.
Won’t. You?
I jerked my gaze up to him in that room and a wave of deja vu hit me. He slid his finger under the strap of my bodysuit.
Yes . I murmured. Yes, I’ll obey.
“Theo.” Silas’ threatening tone pushed into the nightmare. “You’d better get your ass to this fucking place, or so help me God, you’d better not come back home. Do you hear me? Theo…Theo…”
“Is he gone?” Jude asked.
“Yeah.” Silas’ tone was graveled.
I blinked, slowly coming back into my body. Warmth pressed against my back. I lifted my head, looking behind me to Gabe.
“You’re okay.” He said, his words slow and warped. “We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
I stilled, what? Then, slowly the blurred view of where we were heading sharpened.
My breath caught. My stomach dropped.
The imposing front of the Order seemed to shimmer in the morning sun. Glaring rays bounced off broken panes of glass, flooding the interior of the car.
“No…” I shoved backwards as Silas pulled the car up in front of the place.
He met my stare in the rear view mirror. “It might help you remember.”
But he didn’t understand. He didn’t realize how dangerous this was.
On your knees, Angelica. I want you on all fours.
My body trembled in that car as Silas pulled up and killed the engine. For a second I was frozen, unable to move as the rest of my brothers climbed out of the car, then opened the door in front of me.
“I’ll get her.” Silas murmured and stepped closer.
“No.” I shook my head and kicked out my feet, driving myself backwards.
But he wasn’t stopping, reaching in through the open door to grasp my ankle and yank me toward him.
“You don’t UNDERSTAND!” I screamed as he grasped me around the waist and lifted. “You don’t understand.”
“Maybe we should think about this for a moment.” Gabe said carefully.
Silas heaved me higher, lifting me over his shoulder. “I want answers. If this goddamn place is going to get her to talk, then I’m okay with that.”
I lifted my head as he walked. My vision blurring with every thud and Gabe’s wide stare only grew wider.
“Please.” I whispered. “Please, you don’t know what you’re doing.”
They didn’t.
How could they?
On your knees, Angelica. That man in my nightmares commanded.
I bit down hard on my lip, stifling a moan. Still, it reverberated like a wounded thing in the middle of my chest.
On your knees and let’s see if your mother is ready to talk.
Silas stopped at the front door. I thought for a second he came to his senses before a thud and the door crashed inwards. The bright sunlight slipped away as he carried me inside. I was back there, to those endless hallways and the locked double doors that were everywhere you turn.
He won’t find it.
It was my last hope. That no matter what, Silas wouldn’t find that room where they ruined me. But he turned right and strode along the hallway, pushing through the now busted open doors without a second of hesitation. My stomach clenched, fear plunged deep.
“No…NO!” I bucked and kicked, punching his back and shoulders. “Let me go… SILAS, LET ME GO!”
Smile for your mother. The past reached out and with it, that memory came flooding back. I was on all fours, the bastard’s phone shoved in front of my face as he fisted my hair and yanked backwards. Let’s see if she’s ready to talk now.
“No.” I moaned, but the sound slipped from my lips in the present. Silas dragged me with him forcing me to turn along the smaller hallway to another wing…a more private area, hidden from the rest of the others. One I knew was kept especially for me.
“I must admit it took me a while to find it.”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
“And I almost gave up. But there was one thing driving me. One burning desire.” He turned his head, those dark brown eyes piercing. “To destroy you.”
My entire world went gray.
There was no air.
No warmth.
No…protection.
He turned again, finding another hallway…one that was sickeningly familiar and stopped. One hard yank and I slid down his chest. Those cruel hands grabbed me before I hit the floor.
Tears blurred his handsome face. “You’re a bastard.”
He leaned down lower. “And you, sweet sister, are a goddamn liar.”
I shook my head and shifted my gaze to the doorway behind him.
“Are you going to play nice, Angelica?” That monster’s voice resounded in my head and I took a step backwards.
He was in that room, still waiting for me. My head burned with the memory of his strong fingers entwined in the strands.
“You remember, don’t you?” Silas stepped closer.
Movement came behind him as Gabe and Jude moved closer.
“What the fuck is this?” Jude snapped. “We need to get out of here. It’s not safe…it’s?—”
“We’re staying.” Silas’s focus never left me. “Until she tells us the truth.”
I shook my head. Tears slipped down my cheeks.
“Tell her…tell your mother what I’ll do to you if she doesn’t give us what we want.”
My pulse thundered as I stared at that room.
“You want to go in there?” Silas stepped closer and grabbed my arm.
OWNED.
DAUGHTER.
THE ORDER.
“The Order.” I whispered.
“That’s right.” Silas pulled me closer. “That’s exactly where you are, and you’re going to tell us what happened here, aren’t you? You’re going to tell us what happened every goddamn time you came here. Because, we’re not leaving until you do.”
No mom, My own plea echoed. Don’t tell them…don’t tell them anything.
I could still see her face on the cell he shoved in front of me. Her wide, terrified eyes and the way she shook her head. Ange l. She cried. I’m so sorry.
Tell me what we want to know, Meredith. Tell me and I’ll let your daughter go.
YOU. BASTARD. Slap!
I flinched with the brutal sound as Silas shoved me through that open door. In an instant I was back there, kneeling on the ground in that room on my hands and knees. The terror. The need slammed into me. I couldn’t stop it. My knees buckled, sending me crashing to the floor.
“Silas for fucks sake!” Gabe yelled as he followed us inside.
“We shouldn’t be here.” Jude repeated. “Silas we need to leave now.”
“What happened?” Silas growled above me. “Tell me and I’ll let you go. Tell me and I’ll.”
“Order.” I whispered, my mind blurring.
I was slipping…falling away.
“You will do exactly as I tell you, do you understand?”
OBEY.
OBEY.
OBEY.
My hair was grabbed and yanked backwards. “Who is he?” Silas demanded, rage seething in his eyes. “Who is the bastard who killed my father?”
“What the fuck…”
A shadow spilled in through the doorway. Silas had my head yanked upwards and to him, so I saw him. Arctic blue eyes pierced mine, before the blond male scanned the room. Silas released me, straightening instantly. “Carven, what the fuck are you doing here?”
Only Carven didn’t answer him. He stared at me…no, he stared through me. I knew him. My memory blurred and sharpened. A room, our room. Him, and another…a mute, Theo called him and a man…a man my father called London St. James.
A hum came from deep inside. A trembling. A knowing. It was deeper than an introduction…a calling.
He took a step closer. “Daughter?” He whispered, his eyes widening. “You’re a Daughter.”
DAUGHTER.
OBEY.
THE ORDER.
“I said,” Silas repeated. “What the fuck are you doing h?—”
He never finished as the blond male lunged from the doorway, grabbing his shirt and drove him across the room to slam against the wall.
“I’m going to ask you one last time.” He growled. “Or I’m going to treat you like my goddamn enemy. Trust me, Silas, you don’t want that. What the fuck are you doing here…and what do you want with her.”
The male was cold, chilling, mechanical. Dangerous. Yes, that’s what he was…he was dangerous.
Silas lifted his hand stopping Gabe and Jude as they lunged. “No.” He sucked in a hard breath. “He’ll only hurt you.” Before he leveled his stare on the man in front of him. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Carven eased his hold and straightened. “Try me.”