Chapter Twenty-Five
Lauren
Where am I?
As my senses and thoughts returned, I looked around the room, trying to discern my surroundings.
The last thing I could remember was being in the back seat of a white car. It was waiting for me across the bus station when I disembarked, just like Clyde said. A man in a black jacket opened the door for me and after I slipped into the backseat, I felt a prick on my arm. I suppose I blacked out after that.
Now, I was inside a house, in a bedroom with a large, four-poster bed and a window with dark blue curtains. It was a spacious room, the furniture expensive-looking, though without much character. I had a feeling that all the rooms looked the same. Same wardrobe. Same wingback armchair. Same practically empty bookshelf with brass frog bookends. Same blank desk with a green and white vase.
Wait a second. I’d seen this vase before. I broke one actually.
As I combed through my memory, a scene popped into my head of me and Clyde standing in a room with the fragments of a shattered vase on the carpet, gray, just like the one I was standing in now. I cut my finger trying to gather the pieces before the maid Clyde had summoned arrived.
Was this the same house? The one near Knoxville? I looked out the window and the familiar marble fountains below confirmed my suspicion. Yup. He had brought me to the same house, the one which had a room that was like a giant frog terrarium where Clyde locked me up for a good five minutes as his idea of punishing me for breaking the vase.
Frog House.
It could have been worse. I actually feared he would lock me up in some bleak warehouse or bring me to one of his fetish clubs, but at least this room was comfortable, well-lit, and with the AC was set at just the right temperature. It was still a gilded cell, though, the door locked from the outside, as I discovered when I tried to turn the knob.
Was Clyde planning on keeping me here forever?
I was still pacing the room, stewing in anxiety, when the door opened and Clyde entered, the scent of his cologne washing over the room.
I used to like the smell of it. It was an expensive combination of wood and spices, but now, I found the scent almost suffocating. I used to think Clyde was handsome, too, with the slight cleft on his chin, his mysterious gray eyes that he got from his Finnish mother, and his ash-blond hair that was the same as his father’s, but right now, I could barely look at him. All I could think about was that man he killed and all the times he had hurt me, memories that made me cringe just recalling them.
“What’s this?” Clyde walked towards me. “Feeling shy?”
He tried to touch my face, but I stepped back, pursing my lips. There were a bunch of things I wanted to say to him, anger and disgust swelling in my chest, but I stayed calm, reminding myself of how dangerous he was. Besides, I didn’t agree to meet him just to whine. I came here for a purpose.
“I’m here just like you wanted me to be,” I told him. “Now, take down that video of Max Shelton and…”
His palm hit my cheek, the force enough to knock my breath away and send pain rushing across my face. “Don’t you dare mention any other man in front of me, bitch!”
I fought back the pain and the tears.
Don’t you dare cry, Lauren. Jake, Max, and Wade wouldn’t want that. You have to be strong for them.
“Oh, my sweet Lauren,” Clyde spoke more softly as he touched my cheek. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Yeah, right. I’d heard those words a million times before. Each time he hurt me, he would apologize immediately after. That was probably why I thought he wasn’t so bad, but I knew better now.
They were sweet words meant to make him feel better about what he did, not me.
“I was only hurt because I thought you’d be happy to see me again,” Clyde said. “I was so excited to see you. When the guy outside your door told me you were awake, I ran here.”
I took his hand off me and met his gaze. “Well, I’m sorry for not being excited to see you. You did try to kill me last time, you know.”
He frowned. “I only told them to scare you, not hurt you. Don’t worry. I’ve already punished the guy who almost got you killed.”
Which meant that guy was likely dead. I didn’t feel sorry for him, though. I was sure everyone who worked for Clyde knew just what kind of monster he was, and yet, they still helped him commit his crimes.
“Anyway, that’s in the past now,” Clyde told me. “What matters is that you’re fine, and you’re back here with me.” He took my hand and planted a kiss on it, the gesture making my stomach churn. “I knew you’d come back. You always do.”
That was because before, I had no one. Now, I had returned precisely because I had people I cared about and who cared about me—people I wanted to protect.
I pulled my hand away. “We had an agreement. Now that I came here of my own will, you have to keep your promise. You have to leave the people who were kind enough to take care of me alone. You told me they’d be safe.”
He touched his chin, his eyebrows furrowed. “Did I?”
My heart sank. Was it wrong for me to come here after all? Did I make another mistake?
Clyde stepped back to look at me, his gaze making my skin crawl.
“That depends on whether or not you’ll be a good girl,” he said.
I felt a pit in my stomach, but I kept my shoulders square. “You said if I followed your instructions and came back to you, you would leave them alone.”
“And you told me you loved me, but you didn’t, did you?” Clyde replied, glaring. “You left me!”
Oh, so he was going to play the victim?
I gritted my teeth. If he was going to go back on his word, anyway, there was no reason for me to play nice.
“Who on earth would want to stay with a spoiled, selfish monster like you?”
For a second, anger flickered in Clyde’s eyes, almost making me regret my impulsive boldness, but that sharp glint in his gaze faded, and he clutched his stomach as he laughed.
“My, my,” he said when he was done laughing. “My sweet Lauren has gotten a little spicy, hasn’t she?”
Then he gave me a bone-chilling grin before leaning over to whisper in my ear.
“That will only make things more fun for me.”
I froze. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t speak.
“By the way, they found this in your bag.” He took out the bracelet he bought for me from his pocket. “How nice of you to have kept it. You should be wearing it, though.”
He slipped it on my wrist like a cuff on the end of a chain as if letting me know I was his prisoner from now on. Maybe that was what it always meant.
“As for your other stuff, I’ve had it thrown away,” Clyde went on as he started to walk away. “Except your phone. Maybe I can still have some use for it. Maybe I can send your precious Max a memorable video, you know, a souvenir of you.”
The pit in my stomach turned into a gaping hole, draining whatever courage I had mustered earlier.
He placed his hand on the doorknob. “Or maybe I can call those members of Black Storm and pick them off one by one. That way, they’ll never get in my way again.”
My eyes grew wide. No!
As panic washed over me, my body finally moved. I ran to the door, banging my fists on the wood.
“Asshole! Liar! You son of a bitch!” I hurled whatever insults I could, as well as the bracelet on my wrist, at the closed door. “You promised me they’d be safe! You promised me!”
But no one from the other side answered, the footsteps out in the hall fading, and as much as I rattled the doorknob, the door wouldn’t budge, as if it was another of Clyde’s accomplices. I sat on the floor and hugged my knees to my aching chest, sobbing.
Why did I come here? A voice in my head told me that Clyde could not be trusted, that he would just hurt me again, but I decided to take the risk and make a deal with Clyde just the same, thinking I could protect Jake, Wade, and Max. I should have known there was nothing I could do for them. I’d always been weak, stupid, and helpless. What made me think I could be some kind of hero?
I was just a fool, and thanks to my stupidity, the three men I loved were in even greater danger. I had dragged them into this whole mess, and now, I would likely get them killed.
Just the thought of losing them made my chest feel like it was being shattered into pieces. If they hadn’t met me, they would have been able to get on with their lives in peace. Jake would go on happily leading Black Storm, doing tattoos and occasionally tinkering with bikes in his garage. Max would finally step up to the plate as CEO and become one of the world’s youngest, most successful businessmen. Wade would find the peace he’d always wanted. I could very well take that away from them all because I foolishly thought I could keep them safe.
In the end, they had given me everything, but there was nothing I could give them.
As despair weighed heavily on my mind, my tear-filled gaze went to the paperweight on the desk. If I could break it in half, I’d have something sharp to cut myself with, and I suddenly felt like I wanted to. There was no point in living if Max, Wade, and Jake were gone, just like my parents. Besides, death was better than living as Clyde’s prisoner, his slave, his toy.
I walked to the desk and picked up the paperweight, but as I was about to smash it, I caught a reflection of my pendant in the glass, then a memory flooded into my mind—a memory of my mother explaining to me that butterflies were a symbol of hope, something she told me never to lose.
I put the paperweight down and wrapped my fingers around my pendant, clutching it like it was the most precious thing I owned. And it was precious. It was a gift from my parents, a lasting reminder of their love. It had gotten me through so many times when I was so nervous I didn’t know what to say or do, giving me just the right dose of courage I needed, and right now, it was making me remember wonderful things. Magical memories from childhood. Time spent with my parents. Meeting Jake, Max, and Wade. The first time I had sex with each of them, and that amazing night all four of us shared. The sound of their laughter. The tenderness in their touches. The passion in their kisses. The love in their eyes. I couldn’t just throw those memories away.
Then there was the future, the chance that I could be carrying Jake, Wade, or Max’s child. I didn’t know who the father was, of course. I didn’t even know if I was pregnant for sure. I hadn’t had the opportunity to get a test yet, but the mere possibility of being pregnant was enough for me to keep holding on. Yes, right now, things were bleak, but there was still hope that things could get better, that something wonderful was waiting on the other side of this catastrophe.
I closed my eyes, feeling that hope swell in my chest. My lips curved into a smile as I thought of Max, Jake, and Wade. If they could see me now, they would tell me not to give up because they would never give up on me.
And I didn’t want to.
I went to the bathroom to wash my face. When I looked in the mirror after, the eyes that stared back into mine glimmered with determination.
What was that Clyde had said? That I was a little spicy now? He had no idea just how much stronger I’d become.
I squared my shoulders and grinned at my reflection as the wheels in my head started to turn, concocting a plan.
This fight wasn’t over yet. In fact, it was just beginning.
When a maid came to my room in the morning to deliver breakfast, I put on my best behavior, treating her nicely and trying to get as much information as I could out of her without making her feel alarmed, then after she’d left and I’d eaten to regain some strength, I threw the glass of water on the floor and let out a cry, knowing it would catch the attention of the guard standing outside my door. After he barged in, I used one of the moves Wade taught me to knock him unconscious, then I slipped out of the room.
I could head straight to the front door, but I knew it would be guarded, so I decided to create a distraction first. I went to the frog room, having confirmed it still existed from the maid, and remembering where it was from the last time I was here. I opened the door and scooped up some frogs into a pillowcase I had taken from my room, then I scattered them out in the hall. I brought just one with me as I quickly, but stealthily, made my way to the front door, putting it down on the floor near the guard.
When the frog croaked, the guard immediately turned around, and I nearly laughed as such a big guy nearly had a fright upon seeing the slimy, spotted creature.
“What the hell?” he muttered.
Upstairs, someone screamed, “Frogs!”
As I heard all hell break loose upstairs, I grinned. Well, Clyde, how do you like my idea of payback?
In the midst of all the chaos, I found the chance to slip out of the house, hopping on a bike that was in the garage. Remembering what Jake taught me, I twisted the throttle, kicked the bike into second gear, and sped off, hoping that by the time anyone realized I was gone, I’d be far enough away, or at least, I’d have reached the diner the maid mentioned as the closest place to the house. Then, I could make a phone call and let Jake know I was safe.
I’m on my way home, Jake, Wade, Max. Please be okay.