Chapter 29
KIT
Damian and I make it back to the damned cottage a whole five minutes ahead of Jasper and Jane. And based on the clumps of bloodied hair on the back of Lucien’s head as they drop him onto the filthy reception room floor, it looks like they decided to take the long, rocky route home.
As soon as we’re all safe and Damian’s checked on his phone that the cameras have stopped streaming, he ushers me away from the chaos and into the bedroom I was imprisoned in.
The second we step through the heavy door, my heart rate starts to climb, and it’s only when Damian wedges it wide open with a stray anal plug that I’m able to catch my breath.
“I’m sorry, Kit. I know you don’t want to be back in here, but we need to clean you up before we go home.”
“No, it’s okay,” I say weakly. “But you’ll stay with me the whole time, right?”
Damian scoffs. “As if I’m ever letting you out of my sight again. If people thought we were close before, wait until they see us now.”
I stretch onto my aching toes and wind my fingers through his tangled hair. “Sounds perfect.”
True to his word, Damian stands outside the shower, scrubbing the dirt and blood from his hands in the sink while I slowly turn the spray from lukewarm to steaming hot. It feels incredible, even if the colour of the water running off me is sure to stain the tiling for years to come.
There aren’t any towels in the bathroom, so we use the bedsheets to dry off. They’re certainly big enough. There’s no solution for my ruined pyjamas, though. They’re beyond repair, so they’re bundled up in Jane’s bag, and Jasper’s sent to the car for a set of Damian’s spare gym clothes.
Then, once I’m dressed, my boyfriend picks me up and lays me carefully down across the middle of the bed. At first, I feel the panic closing in above me, that is, until Damian bounces onto the mattress and my fear is exiled once more.
He says nothing, just wraps me in his arms and holds me against him. I’ve never felt so safe before, so cherished. I hum into his chest and wrap myself around him tight, simply breathing him in.
“I nearly lost you,” Damian whispers, his voice shaking perilously.
“But you didn’t,” I say, working out the knots in his hair. “You found me, Damian. I always knew you would.”
He pulls back to look at me, gently holding my face in his hands. “Did he… Did you…” Damian looks to the ceiling, his eyes brimming with watery fear.
“No,” I say softly. “He didn’t touch me. Lucien threatened a lot of things, but he was all talk. These cameras were running the whole time, I think, but I never had to do anything. I’m fine, Damian, really I am.”
“Oh, thank god,” Damian breathes, his forehead dropping onto mine. “I was frantic, Kit, I’ve never been so scared.”
“Me neither,” I admit unsteadily.
“Do you know what he’s been doing?”
I nod against him, my eyes downcast. “Yeah. He showed me the videos.” I chew on my lip, wondering if I really want to know the answer to the question scratching at the back of my brain. “Did… Did my mum know?”
“Not the slightest clue,” Damian reassures me quickly. “And if it weren’t for her, we’d never have found you.”
“She knew where I was?”
“Not exactly,” Damian smirks half-heartedly. “She’d put a smart tracker in Lucien’s glove box. We used her phone and followed his car here.”
“What?” I snort. “You have to be joking.”
“I’m not. She’s batshit crazy, but it’s come in handy.”
“Wow.” It’s all I can say. I’m lost for words.
“I don’t know what she’ll do now,” Damian sighs.
I wave off his concern. “She’ll rinse him in the divorce and be even happier than she was before.”
“Oi, Damian.” Jack pokes his head around the bedroom door, hanging precariously off the buckled frame. “I think your dad’s waking up. I still have those drugs we found in his office. Want me to give him a shot?”
Damian looks to me, and I nod. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”
“Do you remember how much was in the syringe?” Jack asks me.
“I dunno,” I shrug. “Just guess. Who cares if you’re wrong?”
Jack clicks his fingers at me happily. “You got it, boss!”
“Come back in here when you’re done,” Damian calls at his retreating back. “We need to figure out how we’re going to get home.”
Jack waves over his shoulder and then disappears to do god knows what to my stepfather. Am I a bad person if I hope it’s something awful?
Damian and I curl into each other to wait for the rest of the rescue committee to be done with whatever they’re amusing themselves with.
We while away the short minutes with soft kisses and simple touches until Jack finishes either knocking out or killing Lucien, and the others join us on the oversized bed.
“So, what do you want to do with him now?” Damian asks me tentatively.
“Do you know if he’s done this to anyone else? Were there other people he was filming?”
“I’ve got into a few of his devices,” Jack says. “The security was tight, but I managed. I can’t find any other videos except yours. I think you were the only one.”
I laugh humourlessly. “I don’t know whether to feel relieved or not.”
“You can feel both,” Damian says, rubbing his thumb gently across my knuckles. “Or you don’t have to feel anything at all.”
I close my eyes and try to tease out all the emotions scrambling for attention in my head. I definitely feel something, but it’s not relief. It’s spiteful, bubbling anger.
“If I’m the only one, I don’t want to go to the police.”
“Considering the state we’ve left him in, I think that ship’s sailed,” Jane huffs.
“I want more,” I say quietly. “I want to make him pay for what he’s done to me. I want to take everything he has and watch as he crawls into the gutter to beg for scraps.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Damian says resolutely.
“Where’s the footage from these cameras stored?” Jasper asks, his eyes raised to the ceiling. The camera lights haven’t blinked once since we’ve returned.
“I haven’t seen anything linked to these on his laptops,” Jack adds. “I found another tablet in the kitchen when you were gone, but it was dead. It’s possible he had another device on him.”
“Come on, dickheads,” Jane says. “Let’s raid his car and see what we can find.”
Jack and Jane leave the room, only to stop short when they realise Jasper hasn’t followed.
“Are you coming or what?” Jane snipes.
“Oh, were you talking to me?” Jasper asks sardonically.
“Well, I was hardly calling Kit a dickhead, was I? Get a move on.”
The three of them bicker all the way through the cottage, the sound of squabbling only cut off once the front door creaks shut behind them.
“Do you think you made a mistake introducing Jasper to those two?” I ask.
“They got me back to you,” Damian says, pulling me close. “They could kill each other in cold blood over my father’s corpse for all I care, as long as we don’t get caught in the crossfire.”