Chapter 19 #2
I grab the pliers from the table and go back to him as he starts thrashing in his restraints when I forcefully open his mouth and cut off his tongue.
“You see, Ken. Your cooperation means nothing to me. You know why?” I lean toward his ear.
“Because that thirteen-year-old girl? She was my mother.” He gasps and it transforms into a scream when I stab him several times, enjoying watching him bleed before I release the chains holding him together so he can fall to the floor.
Injuries that would affect his life forever but not take it.
Oh, no.
All these victims in his photo albums?
They deserve justice, and death is too quick of a punishment for the atrocities committed by him.
I want him to suffer and answer for every single soul he captured.
As he thrashes in agony, I grab the album and flip through it some more, searching for my mom’s picture, greedy to see her and dreading it at the same time because the picture would be a haunting reminder of what happened to her.
I don’t find anything, though. Robert must have taken it, which would fit with his jealous character. He couldn’t even stand her loving me.
The rage within me builds and builds, wishing to destroy everything around me, and it’s hard each day to control the urges.
I’m not any closer to finding him or my little sister, but I will.
If that’s the last thing I do.
In my quest for revenge, I forgot about one crucial thing.
Spoiled and cowardly men like Robert can’t forgive or forget those who took something from them.
And when my mother died, I became his single focus, just like he was mine.
We both wanted to catch the other.
The only difference?
I wished to kill him, and he needed to take away something from me I loved most to bring me as much pain as possible.
According to his warped logic, I had to pay for taking away Mom from him.
Once I figured that out, all I had to do was wait.
And when Lavender entered my life?
It was game on.
Lavender
Pain.
That’s the first thing registering in my head when I open my eyes, only to close them again as prickling sensations seem to envelop my whole scalp and squeeze it tight.
My body hurts all over, and since when is my mattress this rough underneath me?
Wincing and hissing, I raise my hand to touch my forehead, wondering if maybe I have a fever, but something heavy pulls my arm back.
“What in the world?” I mutter, finally forcing myself to snap my eyes open again and sigh at the single light bulb flashing directly on my face and blurring my vision a little bit.
I must have slept with my lights on again, which explains why I feel this shitty.
Gathering all my strength, I sit up and freeze when the environment around me comes into focus as horror fills every bone in my body, replacing confusion with fear so strong I can almost taste it.
Because I’m sitting in the cage, the cuff wrapped around my ankle with a long chain attached and trailing to the bars. It’s long enough to let me move in the cage, but short enough not to escape. I have another one on my right wrist of similar length.
Oh my God.
Memories like the most horrific movie start to play in my head, one after another, as a deep and husky yet amused tone speaks up, coating the energy around us, proving to me this is not a nightmare.
It’s my reality.
“You’re finally awake, moy cvetochek.”
My eyes crash with Levi’s, who flips a lighter through his fingers, periodically lighting it up while he studies me.
The sound, along with water dripping from the sink several steps away, causes a different kind of flashback to pop in my head.
“You’ll learn to obey me.” Jade fists my head and drags it to the sink, my cry echoing in the space because it hurts my already burned skin. “How could you have done this to me?”
I push him away and rush back into the living room, searching for a phone to call for help while my entire being hurts so much I barely resist the urge to scream.
“Come back here. You’re almost eighteen. We should have dinner, and you can accept my proposal.” I cannot fathom his delusions, but should I be surprised?
He killed my parents and still thinks I’m my mom. She never loved him, and that was enough for him to sign her death warrant.
Obsessive men like this…they are a danger to society, and no sane woman should ever end up in their twisted web, for the outcome is always the same.
Inevitable death.
He lunges at me, and I dart toward the dining table, knocking a few things over in my rush, and that’s when several candles fall on the floor, scattering to the curtains and igniting them right away.
“What did you do?” he screams, advancing on me, and I step back, back, back until the fire touches me, and it’s a relief.
Maybe if it destroys me, it will free me from his obsession.
“Lavender.” Levi’s voice pulls me back from the past and into the awful present. That’s when I realize my labored breathing fills the air, and I’m gripping the chains hard. “Stop. Focus on me.”
Despite the situation, a hollow laugh escapes me when I sit up straight and plaster myself against the cage as if trying to put more distance between us.
I reach deep into my soul, to the part of me I thought I put behind when Jade died, and pull strength from it.
If anyone can win against the obsessive madman…
it’s the Lavender who rose to protect me twelve years ago.
“It’s hard to focus on anyone else. Since I’m your prisoner.
” Lifting my hand, I shake the chain while more anger glides through my veins, and I welcome it.
Anger is better than the feeling of absolute betrayal.
To my astonishment and annoyance, the man clicks his tongue and flips that damn lighter once again. “Let’s cut the dramatics, moy cvetochek. It doesn’t suit you, and I find it tiresome. It’s never original either.”
“You’re a serial killer who’s been stalking me.” I point at the boards that are visible from here. “You’ve been keeping tabs on my brothers as well. Is it because of Rush? You decided to punish him by getting me?” I hate how my voice shakes on the last part because, how could I have been so stupid?
Men like Levi don’t chase scarred old virgins unless they need something from them. I’m a classic case, vulnerable and easy prey for the likes of psychopaths like him.
Even my life experience was not enough to recognize the signs as I was blinded by my own desires.
He takes out a cigarette from his back pocket and lights it up before taking a pull from it and sending the smoke flying all around us.
“The idea of your brother losing his shit once he finds out about us is amusing. I’ll enjoy his frustration and anger from the inability to do anything about it.
It’s a rather poetic justice, wouldn’t you say? ”
“You think you will live long enough to enjoy it?” I swallow past the bile in my throat as he smokes his cigarette and comes closer to the cage, and that’s when I notice a golden key in his hand.
He inserts it into the lock, and trepidation rushes down my back, only increasing my nausea.
“Rush, Rafael, and Orion will kill you once they know what you did to me.”
He laughs.
Freaking laughs!
“Rush kidnapped my sister and almost killed my father. Despite that, he’s still breathing. You really think they’re going to kill me over a little fight with their sister?”
“A little fight? We aren’t having a little fight. You’re a psychopath! A murderer! A stalker!”
“Anything else? Get it all out, moy cvetochek.”
“And don’t call me that either! I have a name, you can use it!”
The scarred and scared part of me urges me to shut up because it’s never good to antagonize such men. Right now, he holds all the cards, so I should act more compliant if I want to get away.
Somehow I can’t.
For the first time in my life, my patience is thin, I cannot control myself, and it’s a disaster!
He opens the cage and steps inside, slowly moving toward me, so I get up, ignoring the discomfort in my muscles at the movement and trying to walk to the farthest corner. “For a prisoner, you’re awfully mouthy.”
“You don’t get those a lot, I guess.”
Just shut up, Lavender!
The pep talk doesn’t work since he continues the conversation, only adding to my fear.
“They’re too busy screaming from all the torture to mouth back at me.
It’s an interesting change. And besides, I don’t take hostages or prisoners.
” He grins, although his blue eyes stay cold.
“You’re my first, moy cvetochek. Do you like that? ”
“Oh, yes. I feel so special to be your first. Thank you for such an honor, Levi.” I move some more, the chains dragging after me and making my ankle ache.
“What do you plan to do next?” The memories are blurred together inside my head, and the words spill from me before I can stop them or really think about them. “Are you a rapist, too? That’s why—”
The energy around us drops by several degrees instantly, and he reaches me in one long stride, the air sticking in my lungs when he wraps his hand around my throat and pushes me against the cage bars that rattle soundly.
For a second, he cuts my oxygen supply off while anger emits from him so strongly I can almost touch it.
“I told you. I never take what’s not willingly offered.
” His fingers flex on my throat some more, and I try to rip his hands away while he continues.
“You can call me whatever the fuck you want, but what you will never call me, even when you’re angry and hysterical, is a rapist. Is that clear? ”
I nod, too shocked to do anything else, and his grip on me loosens, allowing me to inhale air into my starved lungs. His thumb rubs my throat in a soft caress, and before I can tell him to stop, he takes several steps back, once again surprising me.
“I do apologize for hurting you right now, moy cvetochek. Some things will not be tolerated, though.”