Endgame

Chapter 7 Aurora

AURORA

Bright light shines through my closed eyelids. A hand rests gently on my arm, softly stirring me.

“Miss Clarke.” The woman’s voice is unfamiliar. “Miss Clarke, it’s time to wake up.”

Did Mom hire a new staff member? That’d be a first. Kind of. The only way change happens in this house is if someone dies.

I hope one of them did. They never help me. Just stand there and turn their heads whenever Dad drags me to the basement or locks me in my room.

Maybe this new person would finally be decent.

Maybe meeting them would be nice. But to do that, I have to open my eyes. And…my eyelids won’t cooperate. They feel stuck, heavy.

Everything feels heavy.

Sinking. Like quicksand. I’m practically part of the bed at this point. My brain is mush.

What happened last night? I must’ve passed out from screaming in the basement.

Waking up and getting out of here, I have to do that.

All I need is a little more time in this haze. I’m so tired.

“Miss Clarke, please.” That voice again. It’s a woman, I realize. An undercurrent of urgency is audible beneath her kind tone. “Your wedding is in four hours. You must get up.”

My wedding.

Oh, shit.

Reality is a slap in the face.

Yesterday’s memories are a splash of cold water, chilling me to the bone.

The trial.

Everett, the cruel and beautiful wrecking ball.

The electric collar.

This soreness in my ass wasn’t there before. It’s there now. Something’s stretching me from the inside.

“No,” I murmur, as if this is all a nightmare. It isn’t. This is my new reality.

“Please.” The hand on my arm squeezes me.

He knocked me out, then touched me while I was unconscious. I’m pretty sure he shoved a plug inside my ass.

I’ve never seen one in person, but Mom talked about it once. I overheard her on the phone, being judgmental as usual, telling a friend about some woman from their country club who got caught fucking her pool boy and that, according to the rumors, she was wearing a butt plug while he did her.

So yeah, that must be it. What Everett put inside me while I was passed out.

And now his staff member is going to help me get ready to marry this bastard.

Before today, I wanted him. He made my heart flutter.

Then he zapped me. Then this happened.

A full-body shiver tears through me. I allow myself this single moment of weakness before I snap into action.

“Get away from me.” I jump to a sitting position, my eyes flying open to see what and who I’m up against.

Two women in black uniforms stare at me from about a foot away from the edge of the bed. Their gazes are impassive. Both have their long hair braided behind their backs, one blonde and one brunette.

“I’m not going anywhere.” I scoot back in a thankfully empty bed.

His bed. I know it’s his. The sheets are soaked with Everett’s cologne. Overpowering. Masculine. Evil.

“Miss Clarke,” the brunette implores. The corners of her eyes crinkle. “We have to get you ready for your wedding. Please.”

“I’m not—I’m not marrying him. I won’t.” Panic locks my throat. My neck has a collar secured around it. And my hand, it’s heavy from the weight of his ring. I never asked for any of it. I wanted him, yes, but it’s not fair. I had no idea who he was. No idea at all. “Get me the hell out of here.”

“We aren’t here to harm you,” the blonde implores, raising a tiny golden key for me to see.

My fingers twitch to snatch it from her. To stick it in her eye.

Common sense holds me back. This situation isn’t her fault. I bet the monster pays both women well to heed his unhinged orders. He must be offering them great benefits and—

What the hell?

Why do I care about their benefits?

“If you’d come with us.” A small smile rises on the brunette’s lips.

The light filtering in through the large windows makes both of them look like angels.

But I know better.

They’re Lucifer’s demons.

I’m so done. With the pain. With being humiliated.

More than anything, I’m done with this butt plug.

“Turn around.” No fucking way are they going to stand there and stare at me while I reach for it. Oh, fuck. I don’t have my panties on, I realize. “Now. Or I’ll…”

Or I’ll what?

I’m helpless. Naked under this black gown that someone helped me change into while I was knocked out.

Wait. The lamp on the bedside table, I can weaponize it.

“I won’t hesitate to hit you.” In less than a second, I curl my fingers around the body of the lamp.

“Miss Clarke, I brought the key so we could remove your…necklace.”

Necklace. Yeah, and I’m Cinderella, being polished up for the ball I never agreed to attend.

“After the last twenty-four hours, I’m sure you’d like to shower.” The blonde reaches out to me, ignoring my growls. “My name is Rylee. This is Elena. We’re here to help.”

Help, my ass. They’re here to follow orders.

Getting them to leave me alone is my top priority at the moment.

I pull on the lamp, trying to pick it up.

Trying. Trying. Trying.

And failing.

The controlling bastard had it bolted to the bedside table.

“Argh!” A scream of frustration and despair lurches out of me.

I scramble to the other side of the bed, far from them.

Their shoulders hike up. Their faces twist. Other than that, they won’t back away.

“Miss.” A low hum of electricity buzzes at my neck while Elena pleads, “It’ll be easier for everyone involved if you don’t resist.”

Everett is here. Somewhere. He’s using the damn remote to threaten me.

I look all around the room, telling him, wherever he is, “No.”

A second buzz. This one causes my jaw to lock. My nipples are pulled tight.

I can’t be hot for him. For this. Can’t let him fuck with my head.

My hand flies up to the leather collar. I need it off. I need these tiny shocks to my throat to stop making me wet.

That motherfucker.

“I want to be left alone.” Under the weight of Everett’s invisible threat, my voice drops. “For five fucking minutes. Is that too much to ask?”

A harsher shock pulls a shriek out of me.

“Miss Clarke—”

“Stop!” I scream to the ceiling. To the man who literally holds my life in his hands. “Please, no more.”

This next zap is the harshest.

It knocks most of the thoughts out of my skull. My legs seize. My back arches. And shamefully, I welcome the burn.

Because my last thought before I pass out is, this is still better than the basement.

“There you go.” A warm, wet washcloth. That’s what I feel trailing from one shoulder to the other.

My exposed shoulders.

At that realization, I jolt awake. A scream tears out of me. My hands fly up to shield myself.

And that’s when I notice I’m not in his bed.

Warm water laps against me. Bubbles cling to my skin. Lavender lingers in the air.

While I was out of it, someone moved me. Placed me in a bath.

The surface of the vast stone tub is slick and hot. The stone warms my skin, grounding me in the nightmare I’ve woken up to.

I’m naked. Exposed. Vulnerable.

Panic causes my gaze to dart all over. This bathroom is even larger than the one I was in when I first arrived. The tiles are black. The vanity has gold and black ornaments engraved on it.

Two sets of hands close in on me. Grabbing. Pinning. Holding me down.

“Miss Clarke.” Rylee. I recognize her voice, though I wish I couldn’t.

“I’m Aurora,” I spit out. The repetition of my adoptive parents’ last name will be the last straw. It’ll tear apart what’s left of my mind. “Aurora.”

I turn my head from side to side, looking at both women. Their brown eyes are wide and kind. I see now that they’re sitting on the ledge of the tub.

They have a full view of my body where the bubbles don’t reach.

Disgust curls in my gut. I’ve been stripped bare of clothing, and my power. “Go. Away.”

“Miss—Aurora. Please, don’t worry. We won’t harm you.” Rylee clutches a wet washcloth in her hand.

It drips into the tub.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The sound digs into my ears. Makes me twitch.

But there’s a silver lining.

The collar is gone. So is the pressure from the butt plug in my ass.

Except…this isn’t really okay, is it? I wasn’t conscious when they removed the plug out of me either.

My lungs deflate. Flatten. “You touched me.”

Elena has the decency to cast her eyes to the floor. Her cheeks burn red. “Mr. Alder’s orders.”

Hate barrels through me. Shame is quick to follow.

It has nothing to do with them and everything to do with me.

I’m embarrassed to admit, even to myself, again, that despite everything…this place is a step up from home.

Of course Everett’s place is awful.

I’m in a constant state of panic.

My heart never stops pounding.

My muscles are weak after being knocked out twice.

Yet I’m here. Nowhere near Winston and Molly. Miles away from the basement.

Tears spring to my eyes.

There has to be something wrong with me.

There always has been. Ever since I was dumped outside my vile parents’ doorstep as a baby without so much as a note, I’ve been doomed.

She couldn’t know though. My biological mom must’ve thought she’d be doing me a favor. That being raised with money would equal a better life.

I have to believe she meant well.

I have to believe someone in my life wanted what was best for me, or I’ll cry until I pass out.

But this, this can’t be the life Mom had in mind for me. To be raised by monsters. To be married to a bigger one.

She didn’t get to ask questions.

Everett’s words flash through my mind, as sharp as the electric shocks he sent through me.

Suddenly, that’s all that matters.

If she is or was someone special to him, or…

My parents never attended Everett’s wedding, meaning this is his first and only one. He’s single, meaning she got away, or her body is rotting in the ground.

Either way, I have to know. The information will help me manipulate him.

“May I?” Rylee brings the washcloth to my shoulder.

“No,” I snap. “Who’s she?”

Both women turn quiet.

Makes sense. She could be anyone.

“Everett mentioned a she.”

Elena’s lips press into a fine line. Neither woman speaks.

“Was there another woman he was about to marry?” I keep going, not letting their silence deter me. “Did he kill her?”

I wait for them to talk to me. I even let them wash me, hoping they’d reward me for my good behavior with a whispered secret.

While Elena holds me down, Rylee runs the washcloth over my arms. My breasts. My stomach. The movements are surgical.

They stick to the chores assigned to them.

I’m nothing but an item to check off their list.

It drives me crazy. My hackles rise.

Taking a swing at them and running out of this bathroom is impossible, since their boss is probably close by. What’s left for me to do is demand answers.

“Who. Is. She?” Satisfaction warms me from the inside as soon as my nails sink into Rylee’s forearm.

Back home, I never hurt my family’s staff. If I had, I’d probably get locked in the basement for weeks, maybe months.

Here, it doesn’t matter what I do.

My freedom’s already gone.

He’ll hurt me without ever telling me why.

Might as well fight to get my answers.

“I’m your boss’s fiancée.” Naked and not so vulnerable anymore, I latch onto the other woman’s forearm. I hold them right where they are and break skin. “Tell me.”

A dark, ominous presence enters the room.

Everett’s behind me. I don’t see him, but I feel him.

The air is thick with his authority, with the unrelenting threat that rolls off my future husband in waves.

I bury my nails deeper into the shrieking women’s arms.

“No,” I say, my stupid chin quivering. I bite my tongue before I go on. “No. Go away. I don’t want you here. I don’t have to see you until the wedding.”

“I’m not going anywhere, princess.” His voice coils around my lungs, suffocating me. “And I suggest you release them. Right now. Don’t let me repeat myself.”