Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
WREN
After a couple of hours, Robert comes back into the room. I sit up immediately, wondering what he wants now. He glances at us both before he beckons me toward him. “Come with me.”
I open my mouth to argue, but he speaks again before I get the chance. “Be careful, Wren. Disobeying me will only cause pain for your friend.”
I snap my mouth shut and stand. Elias watches me with concern and frustration evident in his gaze, but wisely doesn’t comment as he watches Robert escort me from the room.
“Where are we going?” I ask when he starts climbing the stairs. There are two guards following me closely, reminding me I can’t attack Robert. It bothers me that he gives me his back, like he doesn’t see me as a threat.
“If you don’t want Elias harmed, you need to follow the rules. Rule number one: don’t ask questions. If there is something you need to know, you will be told.”
Well, that doesn’t sound good at all.
He leads me into the room I spent the night in, and my chest constricts with fear as I eye the closet. Is he going to put me back in there?
He points to the bed, and I notice a dress laid out, not too dissimilar from the ones he used to dress me in; however, this one looks like it will fall to my ankles. A pair of white ballet flats accompanies it.
“Get changed. I don’t want to see you walking around in whatever this is,” he says, motioning to my outfit. “Then come down to the kitchen to make dinner. The guards will be right outside your room to escort you.”
He steps out the door, and just before he shuts it, he feels the need to give me one last warning. “If I catch wind of you not cooperating or trying to escape, Elias will pay the price.”
And with that, he shuts the door firmly, the solid thump of the wood resonating in the room as I try to calm my breathing.
I turn my back on the closet, not wanting to risk a panic attack, and quickly change my clothes.
The good thing about this new dress is that it would hide the knife I have strapped to my ankle.
I don’t dawdle, as I don’t want to give Robert any reason to hurt Elias. I take note of everything along the way. How many guards are there, and where are they stationed? I see no exterior doors, so that makes planning an exit strategy harder.
I’m led to the kitchen and find a note from Robert on the counter that says "lamb chops." I guess I know what he wants me to make for dinner, then.
It unsettles me how easily I start moving around, making a delicious dinner for Robert as if the past month hadn’t happened.
I bet Dex would love my lamb chops. Actually, I think they’d all love any food I make. Maybe I wouldn’t hate cooking so much if I made it for people who truly appreciated it and I was allowed to eat it as well.
I wonder what my brother will let Elias and I eat. So far, all I’ve had are carrot sticks, and I have a feeling Elias may be the same.
As I’m prepping Robert’s meal, I decide to cook something for myself and Elias that I was allowed to eat before: a salad with cooked salmon. I make sure to cook an extra salmon fillet for Elias, knowing he needs the extra protein.
I just hope that Robert doesn’t get upset at me for doing this, but he also told me not to ask questions, not that I’ve seen him since he told me to change.
It takes me an hour and a half, but as I’m plating the meal, and I still haven’t seen Robert, I turn to one of the guards and ask, “I’m just plating, is there somewhere I’m supposed to bring this?”
“You can bring everything you made into the dining room,” he says, obviously noticing the two extra plates I made, and gesturing to a doorway at the far side of the kitchen.
He touches an earpiece and says something too quiet for me to hear, probably letting Robert know I’ve finished.
I finish plating the food, then pick up the three plates and follow him through the doorway, with the other guard bringing up the rear.
There’s a large wooden table in the center of the room with about a dozen chairs surrounding it.
There’s no one else here, so I place Robert’s food at the head of the table, where I expect him to sit, then place the salads beside each other, a few seats away.
Then I move behind one of the chairs and wait.
Only a few moments pass before Robert enters with five other men. I recognize only Carlos and Theo. The latter smirks at me in amusement, but Carlos’s smile is so off-putting I can literally feel the bile rising in my throat.
When Robert gets the table, he stops mid-step, his confused eyes scanning it.
“What is this?”
“W-what do you mean?” I stammer, suddenly feeling extremely nervous as the tension in the room seems to rise with every passing second.
“Where is the rest of it?”
I frown at the table, where he's gesturing, before looking back at him. “I don’t understand.”
Theo snorts before muttering, “Shocker.”
His attitude has my hackles rising. “You told me to make you lamb chops for dinner. I did,” I tell him firmly, gesturing at his plate.
Robert steeples his fingers over the back of the talkback wooden chair as he stares at me. His voice is calm as he asks me, “Was there not an entire rack of ribs in the fridge?”
“Yes,” I answer slowly, unsure where he’s going with this. He didn’t mean for me to eat it, too, did he? That’s never happened before, not even on a holiday or my birthday.
“You were supposed to make all of it,” he tells me, his voice slowly rising with anger. “You were supposed to make dinner for me and my men.”
I glance at the other men who entered with him with worry. “You didn’t tell me that. You always used to tell me how many people I’d be cooking for.”
He moves quickly toward me, and I’m only able to take a single step back before his hand is fisted in my hair at the back of the head.
“Ow!” What was with him and my hair lately?
When he speaks, his voice is barely a whisper, but I can hear the anger and menace tinging every word. “Not only have you insulted me by not serving my men, but you dare to talk back to me in front of them? Then you throw the blame on me?”
I open my mouth to respond, but he tightens his hand, making me hiss in pain. “It seems you have a lot to learn, dear sister. And let this be your first real lesson. If you ever speak back to me again, I will cut off one of Elias’s toes and make you watch as I feed it to him.”
I feel the blood drain from my face, and I swallow the giant lump in my throat. He glances around at his men before his eyes settle on someone I can’t see from the angle he’s holding me at.
“I have no doubt those convicts of yours have already ruined your purity. Shame. But at least there’s no reason not to let others have their fun with you now.”
If I thought I’d been pale before, I probably look as white as a ghost now. What is he implying?
“Carlos,” he says firmly, confirming that’s who he was looking at. “Since she disrespected you as well, by not having your dinner ready, you can have her for the next hour.”
“No! Please don’t! I’m sorry!” I cry, my hands gripping Robert’s, where it’s tightening in my hair.
He stares at me, and for a moment, I think he’s going to concede, but he just looks back at Carlos as he tells him, “Lock her in the closet when you’re done.” He tosses me away, and I’m caught by the man I’d rather die than have touch me.
“No! Get off me!”
Robert just watches me with no emotion on his face as he tells me, “Consider this your punishment, Wren. Think about that while you spend the rest of the night in the dark closet you seem to love so much.”
I scream as Carlos wraps both arms around my center and drags me from the dining room. Two men follow us as I thrash around and scream as loud as I can, even knowing that nobody here will save me from this fate worse than death.
Carlos just chuckles the more I scream, and I know my size is no match for his strength. He drags me kicking and screaming through the foyer and toward the stairs.
I let out another scream, and he slaps me across the face. Before I can recover from the shock of being hit, he throws me over his shoulder and hurries up the stairs. I pound my fists on his back, and he laughs.
Elias starts yelling out from downstairs, but I can’t hear what he’s saying. Then a loud bang echoes through the house, like a door being slammed, and his voice is silenced.
Through my panic, I tell myself I need to stay strong, for Elias. Then I remind myself that when I get out of this, and I will get out of this, to ask the guys to teach me how to defend myself better. What use was knife training when I couldn't reach it all the way down by my ankle?
He moves so quickly, every step makes me bounce hard against his hard shoulder, and I grunt in pain.
Suddenly, I’m airborne before landing on a soft surface on my back.
I realize I’m in the bedroom I got dressed in, and before I can reach for my knife, Carlos is on me, roughly flipping me to my stomach before lying on top of me.
I feel him run his nose up the side of my neck as he inhales. “Ew! Get off me, you cretin!”
He chuckles in my ear as he asks, “Cretin? What colorful language for such a pretty girl.”
“You want colorful?” I ask through clenched teeth. “Nadeyus', tvoy chlen ssokhnetsya i umrot, a ty budesh' goret' v adu vechno!” I curse in Russian, but it only makes him laugh more.
“Too afraid to tell me what you really think in English, princess?”
“I said… I hope your dick shrivels up and dies and you burn in hell for eternity.”
He stops laughing for a moment before I feel his hand fist in my hair, and a pained whimper escapes me.
“That wasn’t very nice. I would think you’d be grateful for my attention. I know you’ve been watching me all these years.”
“I’ve been watching you to make sure you stay away from me. You’re disgusting,” I tell him honestly. Despite the terrible situation, I feel a little relief at finally telling him how I really feel after all this time.