Chapter 41
forty-one
A sickening, putrid stench of mildew and decay yanks me toward consciousness.
Pain pulses at the back of my skull, scattering my thoughts, pulling me violently between clarity and oblivion.
When I pry my eyes open, I immediately wish I hadn’t.
The world spins, sending a whirl of nausea through my gut, but anchored in the center is the worst sight I’ve ever beheld.
My love lies naked, strapped to a wooden table, trembling beneath two looming figures dressed in black robes, their faces hidden in the shadows. A tall, skinny one crosses his arms, but the big guy presses the tip of a gleaming knife to her abdomen, eyes fixed mockingly upon me.
“You awake now, Vanquish?” he taunts, and his thin companion’s snide chuckle echoes through the small room.
Big man trails the blade slowly down her quivering body, eliciting a sharp whimper as she twists helplessly against the bindings that bite into her skin.
If I could force myself to move, I would. I strain with every ounce of strength, yet darkness drags me back under. Again. And again. And again.
Every time consciousness returns, I shove my back against the craggy wall, the rugged edges carving into my skin. Clanging rattles in my ears, and I catch a glimpse of the chains binding me to the ceiling.
We could be in the cathedral crypts—in a room I don’t recognize. Or some place else entirely.
“Look away, Valen. Please. Just go to sleep,” Olivia pleads from the void.
I struggle to lift one of my eyelids and vomit on the floor when I wake again. The larger guy has his robe open and grips himself obscenely, stroking his dick above her chest with sickening intent.
“Don’t watch,” she begs, a broken sob escaping her throat. The sound hits me like a bullet, splitting my mind in two.
“No, let him look. This is what happens when you disobey the orders.”
A raw, anguished wail cuts the silence, wrenching me awake. The skinny guy backs up from her figure. “Fuck! The bitch bit me!”
My eyes close again, a bitter smile touching my lips as I sink back into oblivion, the discordant sound of his cruel slap fueling an urgent promise: I will burn this world down to save her.
“My Monarch…” I whisper and rip open my eyes.
This time, we’re alone.
She’s softly sniffling, her head turned toward me as she lies naked and shivering on the table. Crusted marks mar her skin, vile evidence of what they’ve done to her. A dark bruise blossoms on her cheek.
“I’m going to kill them,” I try to say, my words slurred and distant.
“Valen… Shh. It’s okay. I’m okay.”
“You’re not fucking okay. This is not okay. You’re crying, and they hurt you. Do you realize how dead they are? I have to stop them.”
“Look at me!” The fierceness in her voice makes me snap my head up. “This is fucking nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
“They’re going to try to use you against me.”
“And you against me.”
She’s right. What twisted plan do they have for us? Will they make us kill each other?
As if we both hold the same thought, our eyes lock, and for the first time since I got knocked out, I’m wide awake. Her throat visibly tightens as she swallows hard.
“I won’t let them,” she whispers, her gaze darting to the corner, where a red camera light blinks repeatedly. “I love you.”
“Life isn’t worth living without you. I’m getting us out of here.” As I say it, I have no idea how. My parents… Hers… Surely, they’ll know we were taken and come looking. Both of our families would stop at nothing to get us back.
But it may be too late.
For a long moment, we stare at each other in silence. My legs hurt from holding myself up and continuously buckle under the weight of my body.
“How’s your head?” she asks delicately.
“How’s your face?”
The only response is for her to shake her head. “Valen…” She stops herself, and I worry she’s going to tell me they did more than come on her skin. More while I was asleep and unable to save her while only ten feet from her.
“What is it, baby?”
“They have these metal plates under me…”
I blink and focus on the table, then I see them.
Black cords snake down the sides, converging into a thick bundle near the wall. They trail around the room, disappearing through a wooden door barely visible when I strain to turn my head. Metal plates…
They’ll shock her—use her agony to force my obedience.
I thought they just wanted me dead, though… So why? Why?
Oh. To get her to comply…
With killing me.
“Take a deep breath for me,” I tell her with a steady voice and another quick glance at the camera. “We’ll get through this.” And when it comes down to it, I’ll let her do what she needs to, as long as she gets out alive.
She cries softly as if she knows what this means. “No.”
“Yeah. We’ll get out of here and get back to where we want to go. Where do you want to go?”
Her lips press together, then soften into a fragile smile. “To putt-putt.”
Tears leak from the corners of my eyes as I chuckle. “You want to kick my ass again? Is that what you like? To humiliate me in front of a bunch of kids?”
Some of her dark hair falls across her face as she nods rapidly. “Yes.”
“Then that’s where we’ll go. Shitty pizza and stale beer and plastic prizes. All of it. I’ll take you there.”
She breaks—shatters right in front of me, her pain stabbing deep into my gut, like the tip of the knife is twisting brutally. “I want to have coffee in bed right now, V. Please.”
“I know, baby. I’ll make you coffee every fucking morning, I swear.”
“They’re going to make me kill you and then kill me.”
“Shh…” But I already feel myself falling into the black hole of unconsciousness. Dreaming of her back in our bed, safe beneath me, warm and tangled together in our sheets, my body sheltering hers…
That’s exactly where I need to be. If I can only force myself to wake up.
High-pitched, panicked gasps jolt me into reality. This time, I’m more alert, but throbbing agony sears through my skull. Rusted metal bites into my forearms as I strain against the chains. They don’t budge.
“Strip him. I got the camera set up.”
“It’s not on yet, though, right?”
“Nah, not yet. Let me just…”
Olivia remains captive on the table, her chest heaving as if she’s run for her life. The larger of the men kneels, his hood down around his shoulders, revealing his identity.
Mr. Earl squats between her spread legs as his dark eyes dart over to me, his bumpy forehead crinkling. Taunting me, he sticks his tongue out and wiggles it.
“Don’t fucking touch her!” I manage to yell through a hoarse throat.
Olivia’s back arches at an awkward angle as he violates her pussy with his mouth.
“Got to get her wet… You’ll thank me,” he mumbles against her skin.
What does that mean? Is he not going to penetrate her himself?
The other guy strolls toward me, twirling a weapon between his fingers. As he approaches, I get a good look at the shimmery silver blade…
It’s Olivia’s knife.
The one I used to kill Hunter and that other bitch from Beta.
Olivia growls with frustration as the enforcer’s face buries deeper into her cunt, the sloppy sounds making me want to split his throat open.
She kicks her feet, but her legs can’t move.
Rage scorches my skin, and though the skinny guy cuts away my shirt and rips off my belt, I crane my neck, desperate to watch.
Only to memorize what Olivia’s violator looks like alive so I can relish the image of him in a pool of his own blood later.
“Don’t watch, Valen! Don’t!” Her knees twist inward, trying any which way she can to get the man to stop.
The captor in front of me unlocks the chains from the ceiling, then digs Olivia’s blade against my neck. My pulse races as I hold a breath, willing myself not to move. He jerks me forward until it slices into my skin. I wince, but that’s the only expression I’ll let him have.
“Don’t hurt him!” Olivia begs, her pleas sending me into a righteous fury.
The hooded man in front of me reaches my height of about 6’4”, maybe an inch shorter.
His shadowed eyes are steady when he tells me, “You’re going to fuck her and fill her with your cum.
That way, when we release your bodies to the city’s coroner, we can let Northview News know that the Nighthawk Night Terror has officially been caught through physical evidence. ”
Sweat streams down my forehead as I clench my fists.
He continues. “Same DNA found on the bodies of those missing from the Greek events this year…”
Mr. Earl edges away from Olivia, eyeing me warily.
“Good thing we caught ourselves the serial killer before he struck again.” His gaze drifts over my love’s body as he wipes his thin lips with the back of his hand and along his graying stubble.
“And poor Xavier Cardell will be saddened to learn his daughter was his last victim.”
“Not to mention, Calum Von Dovish will be shocked to hear his son was responsible,” the man in front of me says without averting his gaze from my face.
They’ve been looking for the perfect fall guy. And now, not only will they tarnish my name, but they’ll likely try to pit our families against one another. Maybe they think one of her brothers will take one of mine until there’s only blood left.
Until no defiant board members remain.
The skinny guy yanks me forward by the chains and positions me between Olivia’s bare knees at the foot of the table. His fingers delve into my jeans and rip them open at the waist, then tug them down my thighs.
“I can’t fuck like this,” I tell them, tossing my voice over my shoulder to the other enforcer.
“What? You want me to suck you off first? Do as we say. Fuck your girlfriend for the cameras.” He glances down at my hands. “Oh, wait.”
Threading the hilt of Olivia’s knife into my sweaty fist, he unlocks the shackles. Mr. Earl leans casually against the wall behind me and raises a gun, aiming at my head. He glances up at the corner. “Okay, it should be recording. Move out of the picture, Cain,” he instructs his cohort.