Chapter 9
NINE
NATTY
PRESENT
It was still dark in the room when a phone began to ring.
I felt groggy as sleep continued to pull at me, like tiny talons.
My arm ached, my eyes burned, and I tried to fall back asleep until the second ring blared through the room.
Adrenaline surged forward like a spike in my chest as the realization of what that ringing meant.
A phone meant communication.
Help.
I could find it and call someone.
Sitting up lightning fast, my chest heaved as I looked over at the side table, seeing nothing. The phone rang again, but there was no light, nothing at all indicating where the device might be.
Alec was positioned between me and the end table, and with my arm chained to his, there was no way to get around him. Besides, I didn’t want to crawl over him. I had to think through a plan, just as long as whoever was calling stopped and he didn’t wake up.
I held my breath as another loud ring resounded through the room.
Alec stirred, but I was too enraptured with the idea of freedom to fall back to my pillows. Instead, I waited and watched as he slowly twisted to the side and pulled the phone out from the drawer. There was no way to charge it in there, so he must have already done so, or had a burner phone.
His thumb slid over the screen as his deep voice replaced the ringing.
“What?”
There was a pause, while someone spoke, and then Alec was sitting up, mirroring my position.
“What the fuck did you just say?”
The person on the other line said something else, but I couldn’t make anything out. Alec’s face was highlighted by the limited light coming through the clouded glass. A floodlight of some kind outside, maybe a porch light or a passing flashlight.
A rogue piece of hair fell over his forehead as worry creased his features.
“Caught on fire how?” he snapped at the person on the phone. “The club is guarded…there’s no way…” He trailed off again.
A smile slowly worked its way up my face as I realized what had happened.
Silas.
Alec seethed, working his jaw. “What’s left?”
The person on the other line must not have given him very good news because violent cursing filled the room as Alec listened.
“So the entire fucking club burned the fuck down, and all of you just stood there. Or what? What the fuck are you telling me right now?”
His voice continued to elevate as rage fractured each word, giving my heart tiny little wings. I hated that I was becoming the type of person who relished in another’s pain, but my life was spiraling out of control and Silas was sending me a message in the loudest way he could.
“No. Fuck.” Alec let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head. “I’ll call you first thing in the morning. I need to think through this. I can’t leave, so this will have to wait. Set up operations in one of the safe houses.”
He hung up the phone and the silence in the room felt heavy.
The air left my lungs as I fell back into the pillows and fought a smile.
Finally, Alec looked over at me, and I stared back.
“He knows you have me,” I mused, hoping it would continue to piss him off.
A horrible sneer tilted his lips up as he threw the phone against the wall, the pieces shattering as they fell to the floor.
I pulled a pillow over my face to smother my laugh.
“Time to get up, Artemis, your little shower ban is over.”
Alec tugged me off the bed. The light pouring into the room meant that I’d been asleep for a good while. But what was more concerning was seeing Alec fully dressed. Which meant he’d disconnected our cuffs at some point and I missed it.
I’d also missed him dealing with the fallout from the fire. His face had no residual anger or tension. He was like a blank sheet of paper, staring at me as if I were simply an unruly prisoner he was sent here to bathe.
Alec hauled me into the bathroom, flicking the light, which illuminated the same forest green walls that he had in his room.
A knock sounded on his bedroom door, which had me frantic. Fearful it was Fable and desperate that perhaps it was someone here to help me. Knowing Silas was trying to send me a message had me wondering if he’d figured out where I was being kept, and if perhaps he’d found me.
Alec cursed as he walked with me back toward the door and opened it.
Rachel was standing there, a pile of sheets and towels in her hands while she briefly glanced over my body, focusing on my hand for the smallest second.
“We need to change these sheets. I’ll be just a minute while you go get something to eat.”
Alec watched as Rachel moved to the small dresser, where she set down her pile and then began changing the sheets.
I could tell her that we hadn’t been having sex, but I was too scared that Alec would take it as a challenge and try to fuck me.
He would try, and I would go down fighting him with every breath in my lungs.
A frantic desperation in me wanted to beg her to help me again, regardless that I knew she couldn’t.
It felt like days since I last saw her or had any hope at all that I could get out of here.
Alec’s expression shifted as he watched me stare at Rachel, and instead of moving out of the room, he extended his free hand.
“I’ll take them and change them myself. Then when we’re done showering, we’ll come out for dinner.”
Rachel blinked, nothing on her face changed at all except for the smallest flick in my direction.
I wanted to scream. I wanted her to fight him with me and help me out of here, but I wouldn’t risk her safety.
She had a son to get back to, and I’d do just about anything to make sure she had that reunion.
Once Alec had shut the door, and I felt like a piece of my heart had caved in, we wandered back into the bathroom.
I tried to focus on the tiny window above the shower, which let in a degree of light.
I took in the white tile on the floor, the basic silver faucets and walk-in shower.
Leaning in to turn on the hot water, Alec gave me his back.
He had scars littering the exposed skin from where his tank top didn’t cover, some from burns others looked like blades.
I nearly gasped because I’d seen these before…
He twisted, catching me as I stared.
“Don’t fret over my scars, Artie. Your precious Silas got more than me, and on occasion took my share because he’s an idiot.”
Tears edged in the corners of my eyes because Silas wasn’t an idiot; he had a good heart.
He was good. Regardless of all the dark that his father poured into him, he remained steadfast in his goodness.
I didn’t want to talk about him right now, not as I was about to debase myself in front of his brother.
“Remove them.” I held up my wrist as if I wasn’t bothered by the abuse he’d obviously endured.
Alec’s eyes, so much darker than his brother’s, seemed to soften as he let out a sigh.
Maybe I wore him down, he was likely just as tired of being chained together as I was.
I watched as he produced a key from his pocket and my heart soared as he unlocked our wrists.
I rubbed the redness around mine, muttering a reluctant thank you as Alec moved around me. “Just get undressed, Artie.”
Assuming he’d give me privacy and freedom was too much to hope for, so I turned away from him and slid out of my t-shirt and jeans, feeling my fingers shake as I slipped off my bra and panties.
I knew Alec was watching me, and I knew, as much as he might care for me, he didn’t really give a single fuck that this was making me uncomfortable.
I faced the shower, covering my chest with my arms as I stepped inside, but Alec was right behind me a second later, stripped naked. The sound of metal clicking filled the space as he grabbed my hand and cuffed my wrist once more.
“What…” I looked up as my abductor connected the adjoining metal to his wrist, glaring down at me, while completely naked. His chest was packed with muscle, and he had more hair than Silas did, but any lower than that, I refused to look.
“You need any help washing that gorgeous hair of yours, just ask.” He winked, moving under the spray, making his black hair skew to the side.
A dark rage barreled into me, so dark and fierce, I screamed. Shoving my arm up, my wrist was at his throat as I pushed against his windpipe with all my strength.
“Fuck you!”
Tears gathered in my eyes as spit flew against his cheek. I didn’t care that I was naked, or that he was.
I had hit my limit.
Alec had kept me from Rachel, or anyone else who might see me, talk to me or help me.
He had brought me my meals and uncuffed me long enough to secure me to a lead pipe in the bathroom; otherwise, I didn’t leave.
Finally Rachel came and he wouldn’t even let me out of the room to go to the kitchen.
I needed out of this house and away from him.
It seemed to line up with what Rachel had said about Fable just wanting me alive and here to taunt Silas or draw him out.
I assumed he’d either give me to his second born son as soon as Silas was dead, or just kill me himself.
One or the other, either way, my life was looking dim and so fucking small if I couldn’t get free.
Alec’s free hand wrapped around my hair, gently tugging until my head was tipped back.
“So fucking gorgeous.” His eyes darkened as he suddenly moved us backward, as if my hold on him was nothing but air. My back was against the wall within seconds, and he was standing over me.
“What is it my brother calls you?” His lips moved against my ear, his erection was hard and slick as it slid against my abdomen. “Heaven?”
My eyes pushed close; my lips trembled as the hand holding my hair moved to my hip.
“Should I taste you, and see why he calls you that? Or is it something I could only discover by fucking you?”
He wouldn’t rape me.