Chapter 24
Ainsley
W ith his back to me, Cain walks to one of his torture walls and picks out a long chain. He wraps it around his hand, down and around his elbow, and back up again until it’s no longer dragging on the floor.
“This is your only chance to come clean,” Cain barks as he takes the few steps back to the woman in the chair. “For every question you refuse to answer, or every lie you tell, know that I’ll find joy in wrapping this chain tighter around your neck.”
If I didn’t know that his threat was directed at her, I’d probably be cowering away from him. But, much to my surprise, how he’s threatening to torture her for my sake has my thighs rubbing together.
“You can start with why you came here,” Cain starts. I see him peeking at me from the corner of his eyes as I pull the last of my clothing on. My point was made, now it’s his turn.
“I came because I miss you, Cainy,” she answers as if she doesn’t understand why he would think there’s another reason.
With lightning speed, Cain unwraps the chain from his arm and hooks it around her neck. Her eyes widen with panic, but she doesn’t offer another reason.
“That’s one lie. I hope you don’t think I make empty threats,” Cain growls to her, his words alone causing goosebumps to raise on her arms. They better be from fear and not because she likes this side of him as much as I do, or else she’s going to make me do things I never thought I would do. “Who sent you?”
She scoffs, irritated that he won’t believe her. “I sent myself, duh. I just told you, I came here because I miss you.”
Cain pulls the chain tighter, letting the metal bite into her skin and begin to take away her air.
“Come here, little one,” Cain instructs me without looking up to meet my eye. I do as I’m told, walking around Christina until I’m standing next to Cain. He hands me the ends of the chain he’s holding, causing me to look at him with confusion. “Hold these, just like this. If I tell you to pull tighter, you pull tighter.”
I do as I’m told, holding the chain with shaky hands. Torture is not something I’m accustomed to, and not something I ever thought I would be a part of. Once the chain is firmly in my grasp, Cain walks behind me to grab something else from the wall.
“Where did you get the key?” I hear him ask from behind me.
“Key? What key? Someone let me in the front door when I got here. You’re acting like I broke in or something,” she chokes out around the pressure of the chain.
“Tighter,” Cain instructs me. I pull on the chain, feeling the resistance of her throat as I do so. She thrashes, trying to get away from the chain as it gets harder to breathe.
Cain finally appears next to me, but after only a flick of his eyes to me, he goes to Christina’s side and kneels.
“Let’s try this again,” Cain says. It’s then that I notice the butane torch in his hand. He lights it, allowing a blue flame to shoot from the opening. Christina thrashes even harder as Cain lowers his hand until it’s under her chair, holding the lighter to the metal bottom of her chair.
It suddenly becomes clear to me what he’s doing. I’ve heard of this being done to people in history, but I never would have thought it was still a method of torture.
He waits until she releases a pained scream before he turns the torch off. It takes a moment for the heat to dissipate, but once it does, Christina slumps in her chair as much as she can with the chain around her neck.
“Give it a little slack so she can speak,” Cain instructs me. “Who sent you?”
Once the chain is loose enough, Christina coughs before she speaks. I can hear the tears in her voice. “Your father,” she chokes out.
“Why?” Cain asks with more calm than he should feel right now.
She juts her chin out, trying to look strong despite the tears rolling down her cheek. To combat her defiance, Cain once again lights the torch and brings it to the bottom of the chair.
“Wait!” she screeches. Cain doesn’t turn the lighter off until she rushes out an explanation. “He wanted me to cause problems, to make her hate you. He wants her out of your life.”
“Good girl, was that so hard?” Cain praises her. I see fucking red. My hands pull on the chains without me telling them to, completely cutting off her air this time. I can hear her choking as she tries to pull on the chains, but I don’t let up.
Still down on his knees, Cain chuckles at my violent outburst.
“Loosen the chain, Ainsley,” Cain commands, making me even angrier. If anything, I want to wrap it around his neck next until he apologizes for praising another woman. Those words belong to me, and no one else.
“Ainsley,” Cain growls when I don’t obey. With daggers shooting out of my eyes for him, I loosen the chain and hear Christina pull in a painful breath.
“If this doesn’t work, did he tell you what his next step would be?” Cain asks, still sounding more calm than he should. Or maybe I need to calm down a little. No, not that. I have every right to be as angry as I am right now.
“N-no,” Christina stutters through her tears. “He just told me if I didn’t succeed, then he would kill me if you didn’t do it first.”
Cain seems to believe this, as he pulls the lighter out from under the chair. “And when is he expecting you back with news?”
“I-I should have been there by now,” she explains, sounding panicked this time. The reason is obvious. She knows she’s failed her task, and even if Cain shows her mercy, his father will not. Not that there’s a chance that Cain would show her mercy.
His eyes are lit up with a mixture of hatred and revenge. He’s plotting his next step, wondering just how long he should drag it out. I’ve already gotten my revenge by making her see that Cain has been claimed, so now all I want is for this to be over so we can go upstairs and I can get this plug out of me.
“If I ask you where ‘there’ is, will you tell me?” Cain asks, already knowing the answer before the question leaves his mouth.
As expected, Christina’s chin juts out as she stares straight ahead, defiance lighting up her face. Cain doesn’t look surprised, and slowly nods his head in acceptance. He’s gotten all the information out of her that he can.
“Go wait for me upstairs,” Cain instructs me without even turning his eyes to look at me. I scoff, but the sound only earns me a glare. “Upstairs, Ainsley. Now.”
Fuck, he’s hot when he’s being dominant, but there’s no way I’m about to willingly leave him in a room alone with a woman he admitted to sleeping with, especially after he called her a good girl. Cain should know me better than that.
To show him he can’t boss me around, I jut my chin out in defiance just as Christina did, and watch Cain’s face fall.
He sighs in acceptance. “I’m going to kill her, little one. I’m going to kill a woman tied to a chair, unable to protect herself. After you see that, you’ll never look at me the same again.”
So, that’s why he’s trying to get me to go upstairs. He thinks he could change my opinion of him by doing what needs to be done. What he doesn’t know is that I need to see this. To assure myself that he isn’t harboring any feelings toward her.
“She’s not innocent,” I remind him. “She came into our home and tried - no, succeeded, in driving me away. Besides, she’s dead whether it’s by your hands or your father’s. At least we have somewhat of an advantage if she doesn’t go back to him.”
Cain swells with pride as he looks at me with a new light. The old me, the person I was before I met Cain, would have begged for him to save her life. But, the new me sees the world differently. I’ve been kidnapped, sold, and beaten. The world isn’t black and white. I may not be willing to take her life myself, but I won’t shy away from watching Cain protect me.
“Fuck, you’re incredible,” Cain breathes. “Marry me?”
A chuckle escapes my lips as he slowly stands and comes to take the chains from my hand. It’s the only answer I’m going to give him right now. As he reaches for the chains, I throw them into his hands, too eager to be done with my part in this torture chamber.
With me watching, he pulls the chain against her throat, cutting off her air. She starts fighting almost immediately, trying to pull the chain from around her neck while thrashing around in her chair. Cain doesn’t let up the pressure as her fighting grows weaker, until eventually, a choked sound falls out of her mouth and she grows still. Even then, he continues holding the chain tight, making sure she’s dead and not just passed out.
I walk around the chair to look at her face, seeing her lips turn blue and her eyes bulging from her face. No longer is she the picture of beauty she was when she first walked into the house only a few hours ago. Now, she looks miserable. As miserable as her heart must have been for her to agree to tear us apart.
Finally, Cain drops the chain, and her head slumps to the side as her blank eyes continue staring. Cain walks to me, and places a hand on my cheek as he directs me to look at him instead of her.
“Are you okay, little one?” he asks, worry lacing his voice. The last time I watched him kill someone, I ran from him.
I give him a small smile as I nod my head in his hand, reassuring him I’m just fine. I chose to stay and watch, and I have no plans of running from him.
“Can we go upstairs now?” I ask, my voice quieter than I mean it to be, but suddenly all I feel is an overwhelming exhaustion. Too much has happened today, and I need to take a break from it all.
Cain plants a kiss against my forehead before he grabs my hand and leads me out of the torture chamber and back upstairs.