24. Chapter 24
Present Day
I would know those smooth hands anywhere… that voice. Was I dreaming?
“ Thomas. Little Rabbit. ”
I want it to be true. The past few days had been literal hell.
Someone tried to lift me, and my body trembled.
I was so cold. Always cold… and wet. I fought him off because I wasn’t sure he was real.
It could’ve been those horrible men again.
But I was too weak. A lack of food and water had my energy quickly diminishing.
My stomach was so empty, I felt literally sick.
God, and my body ached all over from the muscle spasms from the cattle prod and being hit.
“Thomas!”
I freeze at Easton’s commanding voice, which brings me back to reality. “Is that you, Superman? Am I dreaming?”
“It’s me. I’m here to take you home.”
It was him. It was really him. Easton never, ever let me down. He was my one, true constant.
I burst into tears and wrapped my arms around Easton’s neck. “Oh, god! I knew you’d come. I just knew it. You promised to protect me, and here you are.”
“I wanted to get here sooner.”
That he found me at all was a miracle in itself. I didn’t blame him at all. “You’re here now. You’ve kept your promise, never lying to me. It’s the one thing I love about you the most.”
“I’ll always come for you.”
I cried again as he lifted me to stand and tugged me out of the cell. Easton quickly pulled off his black sweater and put it over my head. “I don’t have anything else.”
His warmth and smell enveloped me, so I held myself as if I could actually hug a sweater. That was when I noticed the sticky blood on the fabric, then my eyes trailed to his hands and arms, also covered in blood. And was that a knife?
“Are you hurt?” I asked.
He shook his head. “It’s not my blood. Come on. We need to get you out of here.
There was another man with him, grabbing Annie, giving her his black Henley, since she was only wearing her bra and underwear. She saw me and rushed into my arms, sobbing. I held onto her for dear life. “I’m so sorry, Annie Boo. I’m so sorry. Did they hurt you?”
“No, they didn’t touch me. They tried to scare me, though, telling me terrible things they were doing to you and what they had planned for us.”
I nodded and held her tighter as Easton and the other man got the women out. The man in the next cell to me hadn’t been around for a couple of days.
Easton took my face in his hand again, scanning me as I held my sister. “They clearly injured you, but did they do other things to you? Did they rape you?” he asked bluntly.
I shook my head. “No.”
“Good.”
He handed me a blade, and I took it. “Uhm.”
“Just in case. We can protect you, but I want you ready in case we get incapacitated for some reason.”
“Okay.”
I had no idea how to use a knife or if I could even bring myself to kill someone.
He reached for the back of my head, pressing fingers at the base of my skull.
“Here, with enough force, you can kill them quickly.” Then his fingers moved to my throat.
“Cutting here won’t kill them instantly, but they will bleed out and die.
” His fingers continued to move to my middle back.
“Rapid stabbings to the kidneys will inflict a lot of pain and kill them rather quickly if you’re fast enough. ”
“How do you know all this?”
Instead of answering, he said, “Follow me.”
The man with the black hair led us out of our prison, with Easton close behind. Annie and I took up the rear with the women .
I held Annie’s hand with the knife out in front of me as we made our escape. It was slow, so we weren’t caught off guard.
When we approached a door that was cracked open, the black-haired man waved at us to stop. He held his gun out and entered before I heard him talking.
“Jesus, Sully. You’ve had your fun. We have to go now.”
“But I was just getting started,” the other man whined.
I heard two pops from his gun, making me jump. “Now we’re done.”
“You’re no fun, Dante.”
A tall, red-headed man came out, his hands covered in blood. He eyed me with unsettling eyes that matched his hair.
“Ah, I see you found Boyfriend alive,” he said. “Well, I’ve killed five others. Who knows how many are still here?”
“All the more reason to leave now,” the black-haired man said, who I assumed was Dante.
It was clear those two men were killers. Did Easton hire them to get us out? Were they mercenaries? If so, why was Easton covered in blood, too? I needed to save my gazillion questions for later.
As we moved on, we passed the room Sully had come out of, and I paused to look inside. While I’d expected to see dead bodies, I hadn’t expected to see all the… gore. And was he… missing a face?
“Oh, Jesus…”
I shoved Annie behind me, and suddenly my empty stomach tried to throw up, but all that came out was drool and what little water was in my system. My hands shook so much that I dropped the knife. Those men weren’t just killed, they were carved up more than a Thanksgiving turkey .
I was quickly moved out of the way, and the door was slammed shut. Easton picked up the knife and handed it back to me.
“We need to go.”
I nodded as I wiped my trembling mouth, trying not to lose it. Easton would give me answers once we got to safety. He was always honest.
“We’re being too fucking loud,” Dante said.
I looked behind me at Annie, who hugged herself. Then I glanced back at the four women, who were also holding onto each other.
I straightened my shoulders and took a deep breath. I had to be brave for her. It was my job to protect her. With her hand in mine again, we followed the other men.
A door suddenly burst open, and shots rang out. Sully was hit and stumbled back into the wall as Dante fired several rounds.
Easton attacked another man coming out, stabbing him from behind.
He was huge, swinging Easton around like a rag doll, but he hung on, repeatedly stabbing the man.
Then I recognized him as the man who always hosed me down.
I found myself cheering for Easton, yet I was also a little terrified of him at the same time.
This was a side of him I hadn’t seen before.
He was definitely a killer, too. God, my mind tried to process it all, but I was stuck in fight-or-flight mode, with a heavy dose of flight.
Before I could ask myself more questions, another man came out and aimed his gun at the struggling duo.
Annie clung to my back as Sully threw his knife at him, missing since his dominant arm had been shot, from what I could see.
Dante was struggling with another man, whom I hadn’t noticed until now.
He kicked out at the man, knocking him back, but as he rushed to get his gun, the other man lunged at him and clocked Dante in the face.
He stumbled back, but quickly recovered.
My eyes drew back to the other man trying to aim amongst the chaos.
There was no one to protect Easton but me. He was going to get killed, and I wouldn’t stand by and watch it happen. He was my Superman. No one hurt my Superman.
Like Easton had done, I jumped on the man’s back and stabbed him repeatedly without a thought. All I could think about was protecting my boyfriend. I wasn’t as strong as Easton was, but I tried to stab the man in all the spots on the neck and throat as he told me to do.
The bigger man slammed me against the wall, nearly knocking the wind out of me, but he was quickly bleeding out.
He dropped to his knees, and I used the opportunity to bring him down finally.
With two hands raised in the air with a fisted knife hovering over him, I straddled his back and brought it down right below his skull.
He instantly went limp, and I fell off him. I scrambled away, holding out the knife in shaking, bloodied hands. My heart beat so hard it felt like it was trying to claw its way out of my chest.
I recognized him. My torturer. The one who cattle prodded me all the time. The one who promised he would be the first to rape me. Then rage consumed me for the first time. I jumped on the man, and stabbed him over and over, yelling, “Fuck you!”
I was abruptly yanked off the man. That was when I noticed Annie screaming and crying. Easton took the knife from my hand as reality set in. A sob escaped me, and I tried to throw up again.
“Oh, god. Oh, god. I-I killed him. I was… happy about it! ”
“You protected me,” he said.
“But… I killed him. I had no other thought but to protect you. But then… all I wanted was to see him die for what he did to me.”
I should’ve been glad the man was dead, but the idea that I blanked out and didn’t care if I was killing someone was the most disturbing part.
Even more troubling was the pleasure and anger that resulted from it.
It showed what I was capable of. But why hadn’t it bothered me that Easton had just killed?
It did, but not as much as me doing the killing. Plus, he was saving Annie and me.
“Dante, please take Annie and get her out.” Easton looked behind him and nodded toward Dante. “Ladies, go with him.”
“Tommy!” Annie cried out for me as Dante lifted her into his arms.
“I’m right behind you, Annie Boo.”
Easton placed a palm on my face. “We need to go.”
I nodded. “I know.”
My legs were shaking as I stood, and I felt the nausea rise again, but I swallowed it back. Easton took my hand and led me to Sully, who was pressing a hand to his bleeding arm.
“I don’t like being surprised,” Sully huffed. “If they ruined one of my tattoos, I’m going to be pissed.”
“You’ll be fine. Let’s get you back and take care of you.”
I glanced around at all the dead bodies, but my eyes landed on the dead man on the ground in a pool of his own blood.
The one I killed was the only one I focused on.
It was one thing when someone else did it.
While horrifying, I could clearly disassociate.
But not when it was me doing the killing. It was so personal .
“He hurt me the most.”
Easton kissed my head. “He deserves death, not your pity.”
I pulled away from him. “Pity? I don’t pity him. I…”
How did I explain what I was feeling? But before I could finish what I was trying to say, Easton swooped me up into his strong arms and carried me up the stairs and out into the cold, dark evening.
“Never pull away from me again. I don’t like it,” he said, putting me back on my feet.
All I could do was nod. I had too much to process between the past three days, all the death, and me killing someone. Annie and I were going to need some serious therapy. And I’d have to deal with Dad.
We were careful while walking back to the cars since none of us prisoners were wearing shoes.
Dante stopped at one of the SUVs and let the women climb in. “I’ll take you somewhere safe, then you can call your family or whoever you need to come get you.” They all nodded and whimpered, but didn’t say anything.
He looked over at us and waved. “I’ll see you back at the office.”
Easton opened the back door to the car, and Annie and I climbed in. He left for a moment, grabbing something from the back before returning and climbing into the driver’s seat as Sully got into the passenger seat.
He handed a rag to Sully, who pressed it to his arm to stem the bleeding. Then Easton turned to us and gave each of us a water bottle.
“There’s food where we’re going,” he said .
I nodded and stared out the window as he pulled away.
Annie rested her head on my shoulder, her body trembling against me, so I held her close, feeling helpless.
I also felt… I couldn’t describe it. Disjointed, like none of this was real, but I felt every punch and chill.
The killing hit me the worst. I was glad the man was dead.
That they all were. I had no doubt they hurt and killed many people.
The world was better off without them in it.
Still… Being kidnapped, tortured, and killing someone hadn’t been on my to-do list this week… this life.
One thing I knew for sure. My life would never be the same.