Chapter 31
RAELYNN
“Come on, pretty thing. Wake up for me,” an unfamiliar voice whispered in her ear.
Exhaustion weighed down on her as she attempted to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt like a thousand tons were pulling them down.
“Are you sure she’s not dead?” the man asked.
“She was alive when I left her yesterday. She wouldn’t have been able to die in that short amount of time,” Edmund replied. “Can’t you see her chest is rising and falling?”
Had Edmund brought a friend with him? No.
“Then why isn’t she waking up?” the man asked.
“Jenkins, I haven’t fed her in two days. She hasn’t had any water in two days. She’s going to be weak. She may not open her eyes and engage with you. While she was used to it before, she’s not used to it now,” Edmund explained.
“I told you that I wanted her awake and to be able to communicate with me. I want to be able to see the fear on her face. I want to get a reaction out of her,” Jenkins demanded. “I didn’t pay you for her to be half dead. I’ll come back in a couple of days, and she better be more alive.”
“Right, sorry, Jenkins. I’ll feed her and give her some water,” Edmund replied.
“Good, and remember, I want to be the first person to fuck her. I paid more than everybody else, so I expect to be first.”
Raelynn cracked her eyes barely just enough to see the man give Edmund a pointed look. Jenkins screamed cowboy, with the Stetson he wore and the boots with the pristine blue jeans. They had never seen a day of work in their life. So, half a cowboy if she really thought about it.
She heard one set of footsteps leaving the room. Raelynn finally closed her eyes, hoping the darkness would swallow her and she would never wake up again.
“Little bitch,” Edmund hissed. “Why couldn’t you have just opened your eyes for a couple of minutes to show him you were alive?”
Pain exploded across her stomach as she felt the tip of his boot making contact. She sucked in a breath as Edmund gripped a fistful of her hair, yanking her head up.
“Listen here, and listen well,” he growled. “I’m going to feed, but not too much. Next time he comes, you’d better be in a better position or else something far worse than a boot to your stomach will happen.”
“U-Understood,” she stuttered as she looked him in the eye.
Did he not understand she couldn’t control that? He was the one neglecting her. Was he hoping the man wouldn’t mind and that he could just continue doing whatever he wanted to her?
Edmund let go of her hair before she could react, and her head hit the hard ground.
“Maybe that will teach you a lesson,” he said as he walked off.
Raelynn lay on the ground, wanting everything to be able to cradle her head and cry, but with her hands bound, she wasn’t able to.
“Please, Daddy,” she whimpered. “Please come save me.”
Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths, willing her body to calm down. Not that it was hard with how exhausted she had become, and soon she found herself succumbing to sleep.
Searing pain spread across her head as she woke up. What was going on? Edmund had said he would be back with food after the man left, but she didn’t know when that would be.
Not that it would have mattered if Edmund had given her a time because she wouldn’t have known how long had passed. Maybe that was what Edmund really wanted with her in the dark room. Not being able to orient herself and always keeping her on her toes right now.
It was exhausting, but at least she still had her cochlear implant so she could hear. Right now, she would take being tired and not knowing the time rather than not being able to hear.
“Take one more step, and she’s dead,” Edmund growled as his arm wrapped around her body and something cold pressed up against her head.
When she cracked her eyes open, Daddy was standing right in front of her.
“Daddy?” she whispered, tears pooling in her eyes.
No, her mind had to be making this up right now. There was no way he was right in front of her with a worried look.
“I’m here, Little Fairy,” he gently said.
“Stop!” Edmund yelled. “One wrong move and she’s dead. Don’t even think about it.”
Daddy lifted his hands. “I’m not going to do anything. I just need you to let her go and take it out on me. That’s what you really want, isn’t it? You want me.”
Edmund scoffed. “Why would I want you when I have her? She’s more than enough. She’s satisfied my hands whenever I needed to let out anger.”
One good thing about Edmund was he never wanted to have her sexually. But he did enjoy hitting any part of her.
“Because I’m the one she holds loves. You want me to take out all your aggression,” Daddy pointed out.
“Daddy, no,” she whispered. “Don’t.”
“It’s okay, Little Fairy. Daddy is willing to do this. I’m always willing to anything for you.”
Tears ran down her face. “But I don’t want you to be hurt.”
Daddy smiled. “Nothing is going to happen. Daddy just needs you to stay still.”
Edmund pressed the gun into her temple harder, making her wince. The end of the gun was eating into her skull.
“Come on, Edmund. You’ve always been jealous of me and Raelynn. Now’s your time to let her go and come after me,” Daddy said.
“You don’t think I’ll shoot her?” Edmund laughed. “I don’t need to have her, but you do. One slip of the finger and she’s dead, leaving you mourning her for the rest of your life. But me? I’ll just find another girl to replace.”
“You aren’t going to do that though, are you?” Daddy asked.
“What makes you think I won’t? She isn’t the first person I’ll have killed.
You ever wonder where the unmarked graves came from?
Me. It was all me. Those bastards didn’t know what was coming to them, but I murdered them,” Edmund said.
“To feel my blade sink into their skin. Or hearing the bullet go through their brain. Music to my ears.”
Raelynn gagged at the thought. What was he thinking? How did he find that satisfying to listen to? She had known something was always off with him, but hearing him say those words put it all into perspective.
Edmund was a total nutjob.
Daddy stayed quiet as he just looked at him.
“Raelynn would have been one of them if your parents didn’t offer her on a platter to me.
I stalked her to make sure I knew her. I even had a date picked out for her.
Your birthday. I wanted her to celebrate it by herself, like she had in the year prior.
I wanted you to suffer knowing she was celebrating you but ended up dying on your birthday.
But I got something better. Seven years of torturing her.
Seven years of keeping her on her toes. Never knowing what was going to happen next,” Edmund continued.
“And within those seven glorious years, I had the time of my life, knowing you weren’t coming for her because you didn’t know where she was. ”
“What did we ever do to you?” Raelynn couldn’t help but ask.
Edmund pressed the gun even further into her temple. “What did you do to me? Everything. You were going to be mine, and then he swooped in and stole you. We were going to have a life together. A life of happiness. But your mother decided to marry his father, and he decided to make you his—”
“Just let her go and take me instead,” Daddy interrupted them. “You want me. I’m the one who took her away. I’m the one who made her mine, so you can let her go and take me.”
“Daddy, no.” Her voice broke.
“Now,” Daddy commanded.
Before Raelynn could say anything, hot liquid splattered all over her face. Screaming, she fell backward, on top of Edmund.
“I’ve got you, Little Fairy,” Daddy soothed as he pulled her up. She wrapped her arms around his body as he held her tightly. “I’ve got you. Daddy’s right here. I’m not going anywhere. Let’s get you home.”
“Wh-what happened?” she asked.
Raelynn tried pulling away from him to see what happened, but his hand firmly kept her head down.”
“It’s nothing you need to see, Little Fairy. Let’s just say you don’t have to worry about Edmund any longer. Daddy has you, and he’s never going to take you again.”
Tears ran down her face as Daddy walked.
“Is she all right?” Reaper asked. “I didn’t hit her, right?”
“You didn’t hit her, but she’s pretty banged up. We need to get her home so Doc can look after her and so she can spend time with her Daddy,” Daddy replied.
“You get in the car, and I’ll drive,” Reaper said. “Everyone else will clean up the mess.”
Raelynn held on to Daddy’s shirt, not wanting to let him go. He was real.
“You came for me,” she whispered.
“Of course I came for you, Little Fairy. When you weren’t replying to my texts, I went to the coffee shop. And when I didn’t find you there, I had everyone in the club searching for you,” he replied. “I knew something had happened when I found Reaper slouched against the coffee shop, unconscious.”
Her eyes went wide as she pulled back and looked at Reaper. “Are you okay? What did they do to you? Do I need to go back and avenge you?”
Reaper chuckled and shook his head. “No, Little Miss, you don’t need to go avenge me. And I’m perfectly fine. They just hit a pressure point and knocked me out. I woke up soon after Butch came and was looking for you.”
Her body relaxed into Daddy’s. Everything was going to be all right.
“Let’s get you home,” Daddy whispered as he got into the car.