Chapter 65 #2
“Now, don’t get any funny ideas,” he says as he looks down at me from where he’s standing at the foot of the bed.
“If you try anything, I’ll be forced to restrain you again.
It’s late and the storm is still raging, so we’ll head out in the morning to the cabin.
It’s fully stocked and it’s in the woods overlooking a lake. You’ll love it there.”
The picture he paints does seem nice, but I’ll never be happy there so long as I’m there with him. Biting my tongue, I give a sharp nod, knowing I can’t fight him right now. He slips his pocketknife back into his right pants pocket. I make a mental note of that.
I doubt he’ll tell me where it is, so I try a different route. “That sounds nice. How far away is it?”
His eyes narrow as he studies me. I hope he takes the bait. If Anthony can’t get here before the storm lets up, then I’d like to know how long I’ll be stuck in a car with this asshole. Just as I think he isn’t going to tell me, he seems to come to some decision.
“About two hours northwest of here. It’s not too far from Lake Superior.”
Once the feeling returns to my feet, I gingerly sit up. After a second, I carefully stand up. My gaze slides to him, but he just watches me warily, not saying anything. My full bladder protests again and I finally start walking toward the bathroom.
Shutting the door behind me, I exhale hard and take care of my business.
I eye the shower longingly, but there’s no way I’d strip and become even more vulnerable in front of Dr. Ashcroft.
As I wash my hands, I look at myself in the mirror.
The area around my left eye is already red and is starting to swell from him slapping me.
My hair is disheveled from being in that sack for who knows how long and then sleeping on it.
After smoothing it down and running my fingers through it, I tuck my hair behind my ears and then quickly do a side braid.
Ever since I started working at the supper club, I’ve always carried a hair tie around my wrist, so I’m able to keep my hair somewhat tamed.
Honestly, I’m surprised they didn’t take it off when they tied me up.
A sparkle catches my eye, and another breath of relief flows through me when I realize I have on my earrings as well as my necklace from Python.
I glance back down at my wrists and tension bleeds out of my shoulders at seeing both sets of bracelets still on my wrists, the ones from Levi and Python.
Then my anger comes back when I see the bruises around my wrists.
Fuck. I bet my ankles have them too. Glancing down, I realize I’m not wearing my boots anymore, but since I saw my purse on the desk, I’m going to bet my boots are here as well. Somewhere.
“Lark?” Dr. Ashcroft calls as he knocks on the door.
Exhaling heavily, I square my shoulders as I look at my reflection in the mirror.
“You can do this, Lark. As long as he doesn’t have something to block the transmissions, Python can track you. Anthony is coming for you,” I whisper to myself and then open the door. “Sorry, was just trying to freshen up.”
His face softens and his gaze goes to where he hit me. “I’m sorry, Lark. I’m really not a violent person. Let me get you a cold cloth.”
Yeah right, you’re not a violent person, I think to myself as I internally scoff. I don’t buy that for a second.
Suddenly feeling sluggish from the drugs they gave me earlier, I walk to the bed I was laying on before and sit down.
He comes back with the washcloth, and I reluctantly take it, pressing it gingerly to my eye.
I wince as the rough material makes contact with my sore skin, and I’m surprised to see him flinch at the action.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask him more questions, but instead, I lay down and press the cloth closer to my face, lowering my eyes so that I’m no longer looking at him. He sighs, but I don’t give a shit. He’s the one that’s trying to dictate my future. The one keeping me here against my will.
“You really don’t remember me, do you?”
My temper flares and I sit back up, dropping the washcloth.
“Oh, I remember you perfectly. You’re the asshole that thinks going into a touchy profession, such as being a therapist, is a great career move for someone as dark and twisted as you.
You got off on getting into my head and filling it with lies and causing a major panic attack.
You’re the asshole who thinks it’s okay to stalk people!
You’re the asshole who thinks he has a fucking right to decide aspects of my life! ”
His face falls and unease pricks my skin.
“That’s not what I meant,” he replies quietly, and I frown but then my lip curls when he remains silent.
“So, you don’t deny you’re an asshole who’s done all that?”
His gaze slides sideways and he swallows thickly. “Psychology class in college,” he replies instead of answering me and I frown, not knowing where he’s going with this. “The group project towards the end of the semester.”
My frown deepens as I wrack my brain, trying to remember the project he’s referring to.
Personally, I hated my psych class, but as a business student, it was part of the required classes.
I look him over closer, and my stomach sinks.
Realization slams into me as I remember his name and I fight to keep my limbs from shaking.
Darren Ashcroft.
A dark gleam enters his eyes, and I know that he knows I remember him now.
He was scrawnier back then. Also, his beady, dark brown eyes were hidden behind chunkier glasses, but they did little to hide the twisted gleam in his eyes when we were discussing the darker side of the psyche.
Back then, Darren had asked me out repeatedly, but I told him I was already seeing someone.
It started with letters, poems, and little packages that were mailed to me.
I’d freaked out and of course, my boyfriend at the time, Denny, decided I’d gotten to be too much of a hassle with how on edge I’d become and dumped me.
It dawns on me that Darren must have been the one sending them. Denny was my first serious boyfriend and I thought, at the time, he might have been the one. Now that I think about it though, Denny started acting differently around me about the same time as when the first letter was delivered.
A couple of days after Denny dumped me, Darren started asking me out again, repeatedly. Each time, I told him no. Then finally, I’d gotten extremely fed up and told him that I didn’t see him that way, that I’d never see him that way, and for him to leave me alone.
“You were behind Denny breaking up with me.” I don’t ask, it’s a statement.
That wicked gleam in his eyes gets brighter.
“You were meant to be mine all along. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for you.
I got a degree in a respectable field. Once I built a name for myself, I moved to this fucking backwater town because I knew you’d never leave your family.
Unfortunately, you were engaged at the time, so I helped my client gain the courage to go after the man she loved. ”
My eyes widen in shock. “Kelly was one of your clients?”
He smirks and anger simmers in my veins.
“How long have you been manipulating my life?” I seethe.
“Denny was the first one, but since then, yes, I’ve gotten rid of all the competition.”
“You’re fucking sick if you think I’ll ever be with someone who manipulates me, hurts me, and tries to control every aspect of my life.”
A smug look comes over him as he eyes my body possessively. “You’ll learn to be obedient and submissive. I’ll break you until you’re shattered into pieces, and then I’ll put you back together piece by piece the way you were meant to be.”
“Never. I’ll never submit to you, and I sure as fucking hell will never be yours,” I snarl and lay back down, ignoring the washcloth.
I’d prefer to give him my back, but I don’t want to give him that leverage.
As the sounds of the storm rage outside the window, Darren turns on the TV and unfortunately, settles on watching the weather channel.
Time wears on and my eyelids grow heavy even as I shiver.
I hug myself tighter. Fuck this shit, I internally curse and get up, turning up the heat.
Darren eyes me warily, but I ignore him as I settle back down on the bed.
I’d like to crawl under the blankets, but I don’t want to constrict my movement later if he lowers his guard and I get a chance to escape.
As the room warms up, my body relaxes and sleep pulls at me. I finally cave, letting myself drift off. It won’t do any good if I use up all my reserves and don’t have the energy to escape later.
Movement wakes me up and I blearily open my eyes, blinking repeatedly to clear away the sleep. My gaze goes to the alarm clock on the nightstand and I’m surprised to see it’s after ten o’clock at night. I must not have been asleep for very long.
An arm tightens around my waist and I freeze.
A palm covers my breast, squeezing hard while a hard rod shifts against my ass.
I grit my teeth when I glance at the other bed, confirming it’s empty.
The only silver lining in this is that I can feel I have on all of my clothes, because if he’d stripped me…
No, I’m not going down that rabbit hole.
Taking a deep breath, I’m about to shift when Darren moans into my ear. A second later he cries out in pain as I slam my elbow hard into him.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I seethe as I try desperately to get away from him.
His grip tightens on me painfully as he pulls me back against his chest.
“What am I doing? Taking what is mine, what was meant to be mine in the first place,” he hisses as he gropes my breast again and rubs his hips harder against me, digging his cock into my ass.
“No!” I cry out again as his other hand snakes down my stomach and he grabs my crotch.
I flail and kick at him, punching or throwing an elbow but unfortunately, he gets an arm around my arms and holds them tight against my torso. I scratch his hands and arms as I try to pry him off of me.
I am not going to be another statistic.
“Get off of me you bastard,” I hiss as he rolls over on top of me.
He drives his hips into mine and I punch him before dragging my nails down his face, hard. He cries out and leans up on his hands before backhanding me so hard I see stars. My breath rushes out of me as he drops his weight back onto my torso and I push against him right as our room door unlocks.
Darren freezes on top of me as his head whips toward the door.
The action gives me the leverage I need.
One hand goes up to his neck while the other slides in between us and I grab his dick.
Hard. I squeeze both of my hands with all my might, and he cries out in shock and pain right as Anthony, Loki, Devil, and Punisher rush into the room.
More club members are behind them, but I can’t see who they are.
All of them have guns pointed at Darren.
“Get off of me or I’ll do permanent damage to your dick,” I hiss as I squeeze tighter. I know I’m not strong enough to choke him with only one hand, but it wouldn’t take much more pressure to damage his dick beyond repair.
The veins in his neck bulge, both from my squeezing and from his face turning red with anger.
Loki holsters his gun and yanks Darren off me. Punisher helps secure Darren while both he and Loki talk in low yet hard voices, promising retribution for everything he’s put me through.
As soon as he’s secure, Anthony holsters his gun and rushes forward, running his hands over me as he checks for injuries.
“Are you hurt?” he rasps out right as his gaze lands on my face. His large hands cup my cheeks as he gently turns my head side to side.
“Besides them drugging me, he slapped me a few times and just a bit ago, he backhanded me again. My wrists are bruised from how tight they had the zip ties. My ankles might be as well,” I pause, licking my lips.
“And you saw part of the groping and him trying to force himself on me.” I swallow hard, trying to repress my shiver at the thought of what might have happened if they hadn’t gotten here in time.
Anthony’s eyes darken in anger, and I wonder if he’s thinking the same thing. He leans forward and places a gently kiss on my forehead, both of us purposefully ignoring the hatred Darren’s spewing about how I’m his and for Anthony to get his grimy hands off me.
Suddenly, Darren’s yelling cuts off and we both look over to find someone has gagged him with a bandana. He glares at both of us, but Anthony gently nudges my chin until I’m looking back up at him. He gives me another gentle kiss and scoops me up in his arms.
“Come on, Darlin’. Let’s get you over to our rooms. I’d rather leave right away, but the storm is gonna prevent that. Once they clear the roads in the morning, we’ll head out.”