Chapter 35
THIRTY-FIVE
LIAM
I’ve tried to pick the lock.
I’ve pulled at the shackles until my wrists bleed.
I’ve crawled as far as the chains will allow to see if I can find anything to use as a weapon.
He’s taken our phones, and we’re left sitting there on the cold ground. Well, I am. I gathered Kat into my lap as soon as I could to warm her up.
And there’s nothing. The hours wear on in whispered apologies and tears.
Until Sam comes back.
His whistling precedes his footsteps on the wet floor. When he comes into view, he’s twirling the hunting knife in his hand.
‘Thanks for keeping this safe for me. After I kill the two of you, I’m going to go kill my dad. This is my favourite knife—I stole it from him—and I’m going to sink it into his fucking throat.’
He holds it loosely as he drags the metal chair closer to us, turning it and sitting backwards with his knife-filled hands leaning over the backrest.
Kat shivers in my arms with the way he looks at us.
‘Don’t you think it was kind of me to leave you enough chain to hold each other? I’d like to say that it’s because I’m not completely tapped.’ He taps the side of his head with the knife. ‘But that would be a lie.’
‘Let her go,’ I demand. ‘It was my dad. My cottage. She just stumbled into our story.’
Sam laughs, and the sound is deeply unhinged. I have no idea how Ellie fell for this fucker. God, Ellie.
‘She needs to understand,’ he says. ‘What it feels like. To be watched against your will. To have no choice in how your body is used. You both need to understand that.’
Kat’s hand tightens on my arm.
I look at him across the cold floor and breathe hard through my nose. The rage that bubbles in my stomach is so familiar, and I never want Kat to experience it. That feeling of being powerless and made to debase yourself for someone else’s satisfaction.
‘Don’t,’ I threaten.
‘You don’t get to tell me what to do. No one does,’ Sam says. ‘Not anymore. You’re going to fuck your blonde whore, and you may as well enjoy it, as it’ll be the last time you do. And if you refuse to perform, I’ll sell your sister to the highest bidder, too.’
‘Your sister?’ Kat mumbles.
‘Oh, sweetheart, he hasn’t told you? Ellie is his foster sister. It’s how he was so easily able to get into your flat. It actually gave me the idea. Go after Ellie and get a copy of her keys, just like I assume Liam did.’
Kat looks at me with those pink-rimmed eyes, and I lift my chained hand to cradle her face. ‘I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you.’
‘Is that how you found me?’
‘I saw the two of you walking through campus. Then I learned about you from her social media.’
‘Little did he realise that Ellie is his downfall. She was my way in.’ Sam looks so fucking pleased with himself that I want to gut him. ‘So you’re going to fuck your girl, and you’re going to look into her face while she learns what it is to be one of us.’
‘No,’ I snarl.
‘Please, Sam, you don’t need to do this,’ Kat whispers, and the pain in her voice cuts me deep.
‘No?’ Sam repeats. ‘Do you think you have a choice?’
Sam walks over, and I try to shield Kat, but he yanks on her chains, grazing her skin on the concrete as he pulls her out of reach. I’m on my knees, pulling at my chains until my shoulders burn while he grabs her by the hair, gathering it up and forcing her to kneel facing me.
‘Let her go,’ I roar. The scabs on my wrist are opening and splattering the floor with blood as I try to get to her.
Sam slides his knife over her throat, the tip leaving a pink scratch in its wake. Kat quakes, two trails running down her face. With a snick, he cuts open her top, reaching down and ripping it from her.
My body is hot with anger; it feels like my blood is boiling from the inside.
He cuts her bra off, too, as Kat sobs. I want to tell her to fight, but he’s got the knife. We’re at his mercy.
He keeps going until she’s naked and shivering, and I’m sure the vein in my neck is going to explode.
‘Do you know what they did to me?’ Sam asks, ‘I know that objectively, you’re a beautiful woman. And I have you at my feet naked and shivering, and I feel nothing. They broke me. If you had said something, maybe I would have been like Liam, fucking you over the counter like a real man.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Kat whimpers, trying to cover herself as best she can.
‘It’s okay, Kat,’ I say, trying to find a way to make it easier for her.
Sam lets go of Kat’s hair and kicks her toward me. ‘Get your dick out, mate. It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.’
It’s the last thing I want to do in front of him.
‘Let’s just get it over with,’ Kat whispers to me. Her cheeks are wet, and her body is quivering.
I unbuckle my belt and pull my trousers down. Shame heats my face as I remember all the times I’ve been made to fuck while unhinged men watched.
But this isn’t like any of the other times. This is with Kat. My girl. And I can’t protect her physically, but I can do my best to protect her head and heart.
‘Kiss me,’ I say. ‘Forget about him, and kiss me like it’s just us.’
She climbs into my lap, our chains cold and awkward as I wrap my arms around her waist.
Her eyes are filled with tears as she looks at me, before bringing her lips to mine. They are so much colder than usual, and I endeavour to warm them. Tracing my hands over her spine, I kiss her salty lips, sliding my tongue against hers as I feel her soften in my arms.
I hate that I can’t protect her.
I’m going to kill Sam. Somehow.
Tugging Kat up into my lap, and despite myself, her flesh against mine has me hardening.
‘See what it’s like,’ Sam mocks. ‘We can’t help getting hard. It was a hard lesson to learn. Now fuck her.’
‘It’s okay,’ Kat whispers against my lips, shifting her hips to let me angle my dick against her. The way she exhales as she stretches over me is so familiar, yet it turns my stomach that Sam gets to hear it.
Her whimpers are mine. And he’s soiling everything.
When I rock my hips, Kat lets out a moan and then bursts into tears. I’ve been there, my body reacting to the sensation while my heart breaks with the humiliation of it.
And I tip her gaze to me, and I pretend I’m in control, to let her slip away.
‘He can force us to do this,’ I whisper. ‘But he can’t control what we feel. Or what’s in our heads.’
I kiss her softly.
‘Eyes on me.’
I rock my hips again, my own breath shuddering at her growing wetness.
‘Breathe with me.’
I cradle her face, keeping our eyes locked.
‘Stay with me.’
The last one is a plea, because I need her to get through this as much as she needs me.
Her tears give way to soft moans, her hips moving with me, and I lose myself in her. In the softness of her hair and the way her skin glides against mine.
‘I love you,’ she whimpers into my mouth.
‘I love you, too,’ I answer with a scoop of my hips that makes her shudder.
‘Fucking, no,’ Sam yells, stomping over and grabbing Kat’s hair. The knife is against her throat before I can stop him, halting me from making any rash moves. If I grab it, it could cut her. I still my hips and glare up at him.
‘Keep fucking her,’ he demands, while pressing his mouth to her ear. ‘You aren’t going to disappear into your world of fucking unicorns and rainbows, Kat. I can hear how wet you are despite being chained like a dog and fucked under command. Even now, your cunt sops, doesn’t it?’
I keep my eyes on hers, blinking slowly while caressing her hips with my thumbs.
It’s okay. I try to tell her. Stay with me.
Her tears make me ache.
‘Just another one of us. Another hole for other people’s entertainment,’ Sam continues to mock her.
‘What’s it going to take for this to end?’ she asks, her jaw tight.
‘Not until you’ve both come. Properly. Liam knows how it guts you to come when you don’t want to, don’t you?’
Sam tightens the knife against her throat, so I agree.
Kat closes her eyes and takes a slow breath before setting her focus on me, giving the slightest nod.
And despite the knife and the threat, I slide a hand to where she needs me, circling that swollen flesh I adore so much, and increasing my thrusting inside her.
Her eyes don’t move from my face for a second, her breath becoming short as I work her clit, feeling her cunt start to engorge and tighten.
‘Just a useless fuck-hole,’ Sam sneers into her ear.
‘My darling,’ I counter, and it’s enough to tip her over the edge. Sam loosens the knife just enough that her rocking body doesn’t come apart against his blade, and the grip of her sweet cunt has me following her over the edge, hating myself all over again.
When we sag against one another, Sam steps back out of reach, looking dejected.
Whatever he was hoping to achieve, it must have left him more hollow than he expected.
Sam throws the knife at the wall and storms out, his screams echoing through the warehouse.
She’s cold and quaking, and we gather her torn clothes, pulling them on as best we can. I want to give her my hoodie, but the wrist chains mean I can’t. So I tuck my cock away and open my hoodie, pulling her against my chest and tucking it around her.
‘I’m sorry,’ I begin.
‘Stop. It’s not your fault. We’ll get through this.’
‘I’m going to kill him,’ I breathe.
‘If you don’t, I will.’ Kat’s voice is colder than I’ve ever heard it.