Chapter 31 Xavier
My terror and panic reach a boiling point as Kevin drags me to the wall of horror.
There are chains with leather cuffs attached to the ceiling and floor.
The wall is covered in knives and other implements of torture.
I fight and struggle until Kevin punches me in the gut so hard that I can’t breathe.
I’m momentarily stunned. It’s the opportunity he needs to get the cuffs around my wrists.
The plastic ties cut into my skin from the pressure.
Once he has me secure, he walks over to a pulley and raises my arms above me. My feet are barely touching the floor.
“Hang out here for a few. I’ve got to clean your mess up.” He laughs at his own stupid joke. I pull on my restraints, but there’s no give in them. I’m a dead man who just hasn’t stopped breathing yet.
My mind goes to Declan. It’s only been sixteen days together.
It seems like forever and no time all at once.
I wish now that I hadn’t been so afraid that first night.
That I didn’t spend three days fighting my attraction to him.
I want forever with him. But all I get is sixteen days of having someone just for me.
I close my eyes and replay every time he held me, the first time he made love to me.
I imagine his hand on my throat, and I let the feeling of ownership take over me.
If I am going to die here, then I want to die with those memories playing in my mind.
I want to block out what is going on around me.
I want. My life for the past seven years has been about survival, not what I want.
Wanting wasn’t something I let myself dwell on.
But I want now, I want what Declan promised me.
I’m keeping just thoughts of him—of us—in my head and nothing else.
I almost succeed until I hear the man from the call speak.
“Well, hello, handsome,” Brian says from the doorway. “We finally get to play.”
“Brian?”
“In the flesh. I didn’t expect my new toy to be you, but I couldn’t be happier. You know, I thought about taking you when I first saw you at the café. But Brad wouldn’t let me.”
“Brad wouldn’t want you to do this to me,” I say.
“No, I just didn’t want him to take you from the café.
You really were a great employee. But since you quit, it’ll be tough for the police to tie you to us,” Brad says as he enters the cabin, followed by Kevin.
“I admit, though, that I was just as tempted as Brian. I can’t wait to fuck that gorgeous ass of yours. ”
“I get him first, Brad. You went first last time.” Brian pouts.
“As fun as this exchange is and as much as I can’t wait to watch you guys take turns on him, my payment first.” Kevin holds out his hand.
Brian pulls a thick envelope from his back pocket and hands it to him.
After checking the contents, he puts it in his own pocket and takes a seat on the counter near the sink.
He winks at me. “Okay, gentlemen, the prize is all yours.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” It’s cliché, I know, to ask such a stupid question. It doesn’t matter why, just that they are. At least if they are talking, they aren’t hurting me.
“Oh, story time. Our toys always ask that question. Well, you see, Xavier, we do it because we like it. It’s fun.” Brian laughs.
“You’re all fucking insane.”
“Just Brian. I found out that he was trying to do this on his own. So, I set up this.” Brad motions around, “to keep him from getting caught. Can’t have my little brother going to jail now, could I?”
“What about you?” I pin Kevin with a glare. “You pretend to help people.”
“I’m in this just for the money.”
“That’s bullshit. You like to watch, you sick little voyeur.”
“Yeah, I do.” Kevin laughs.
I am too fixated on watching Kevin, and I don’t notice Brian picking up a large hunting knife until he is standing in front of me with it.
He runs the blade down my cheek, and I feel a sting where the blade makes contact with my skin.
Twisting the knife, he rips it down my chest, slicing my shirt down the middle.
“I knew you were hiding a great body under your clothes.” He pinches my nipple and twists. The pain shoots through me, and I scream. “That’s right, let me hear you. Fuck, I am going to enjoy every minute of this.” He does it again on the other side.
“I want his pants off. I want to see the ass that has been tempting me every fucking day for two weeks.” Brad grabs another knife and cuts my jeans off my body. “Fuck me, but that’s a perfect sight.” He grips my ass painfully.
“Please stop! Don’t do this! Let me go!”
“I think it’s a little too perfect. How about I mark it up a bit?
” Brad says in my ear from behind me. His breath ghosts over my skin, and I feel bile rise in my throat.
I don’t have anything left in my stomach, but that does not stop me from vomiting stomach acid.
Because of my position, it hits my chest, and some of it lands on Brian.
“Fuck! I hate when they do that!” He backhands me, then punches me hard in my belly. I try to flex to absorb the hit, but it still hurts like a bitch. I hear water running. Before I can catch my breath, I lose it again when freezing cold water is splashed on me.
“Shit head, tell me next time so I can move,” Brad says from behind me. I feel the cold water dripping down my bare skin as he removes the rest of my clothes. With my eyes closed, I try to find him in my thoughts of Declan and his touch on me.
One of them slaps me hard across my face.
I don’t react, which pisses him off. It’s Brad.
He grips my chin and screams in my face, “Open your fucking eyes, Xavier.” I don’t respond, nor do I open them.
Pain lances through my back and across my butt.
I’m being whipped with something hard over and over.
I still don’t react. I’m hiding inside my head where they can’t touch me.
Where I am happy, and Declan is wrapped around me.
When he finds me, these fuckers will pay.
He will burn the world down for me. I hear him telling me that I’m safe.
That he’s here. It feels so real. I must be dead. Because I’m in my heaven.