6
The springs in the mattress below me ping and twang as the man on top of me thrusts inside me painfully. I’m lying on my front with my cheek pressed firmly against the dirty mattress. He has my legs spread wide in a V shape, and the angle at which he moves inside me hurts like hell, but I’m not gonna let him know that.
Vik, one of Austin’s lapdogs outweighs me in both strength and size. His stocky frame and beer belly pins me down to the point it’s getting hard to breathe as his skin slaps crudely against mine. With every one of his harsh movements above me, the disgusting slew of degrading words that leave his mouth only turn him on more.
I can feel it.
He must like that I’m pliable, remaining stock still, totally emotionless while he uses my spent body for his pleasure. Some of them like it when I cry. Some, when I scream, and some of them even like me putting up a fight, he did the first time he brought me here.
Austin.
He loved the fight in me, the determination in my eyes, the defiance and strength he spent hours ridding me of, carefully breaking me down piece by piece and taking pleasure in it.
Vik’s not supposed to be in here, he’s not allowed to ‘sample the goods’ as Austin so eloquently likes to put it. I’m reserved solely for clients who pay for the pleasure, but ever since I was brought here, I couldn’t help but notice the glint in Vik’s eye, his sinister smirk, like he was biding his time. The crude remarks he’d make when no one else could hear sent shivers up my spine and aside from Austin, Vik is the only other one who terrifies me here. The other men who come and go usually do what they pay to do and then leave, the only ones who really hurt me are Austin and his guard dogs.
The man above me grunts and if the fact of him on top of me, doing what he is to me wasn’t enough, he smells like body odour and stale cigarettes, and I have to fight back the urge to gag.
He leans forward, his hands bracketing my head as he presses me further into the mattress, so much so I’m sure he’s going to crush me completely with his weight.
His thrusts soon begin to speed up as he nears his release and I can’t wait for it, because then it will be over, at least for a little while.
“Having fun?”
“Fuck!” Vik pulls out of me at the sound of Austin’s voice, clearly so engrossed in what he was doing, he didn’t hear him come in.
I shift my gaze towards the door to see Austin stood in the doorway with Ollie hovering behind. Austin has his hands tucked into his pockets as his eyes flick down to me briefly then back up to Vik.
Austin cocks his head, his eyes burning into Vik. “What makes you think you have to right to touch what’s mine?”
“Boss, I—”
Austin holds up his palm, cutting him off. “It was a rhetorical question. I don’t need an explanation, I already have my answer. You disobeyed me, Viktor, consider me disappointed.”
The sound hits me before I see what’s happened, but in a split-second, Austin’s gun is in his hand and he’s pulling the trigger.
I scream as the gunshot pierces my eardrums, the ringing in my ears loud enough that it blocks out everything else. Everything except the sound of Vik’s body hitting the floor.
“Oliver, did you know about this?” Austin asks.
“I told him not to, but he said to keep quiet or he’d find my little sister and do the same, not in those words, but I know what he meant.”
“Go get Greg to give you a hand taking this piece of shit out of here. Then I want you back in here, you don’t let her out of your sight and I want that door open from now on.”
“Yes, Boss.”
I must have dozed off because I’m snapped awake with the sound of the metal door swinging open.
I follow the sound of footsteps with my eyes until Ollie appears in my line of sight.
“Sorry.” He gives me a tight-lipped smile as he settles into the chair against the wall. “I didn’t mean to disturb you. Are you alright?”
“Better now he’s gone,” I mumble. “I never liked him.”
He leans forward. “I’ll let you into a secret, neither did I.”
A faint smile tugs at my mouth. With Vik dead, it’s like a weight has been lifted somehow and I don’t have one tiny sliver of remorse. In a way I’m glad he did what he did to me, otherwise he wouldn’t have been caught.
“You’re not like the others,” I say.
He smiles. “I like to think so, which is why I’m helping get you out of here,” he says, his voice growing quieter at that last part, not much above a whisper.
My heavy-lidded eyes widen. “What?”
“Happened to come across your friend, Alec earlier tonight.”
My breath hitches in my throat.
Alec.
“He knows where you are. He’s coming. Tonight,” Ollie continues.
Alec’s coming?
I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry with relief, the emotions swirling inside me have me wanting to do both.
He’s coming for me… Hope swells in my heart as I let the words sink in. For the first time in weeks, my body buzzes with excitement.
My chin trembles. “Th—Thank you.”
“I’ll do everything I can, I swear.”
“What’s with all the whispering, you two?” Austin’s voice startles me as much as it does Ollie. Austin must have been hovering outside the door which was still open.
Ollie shoots to his feet, doing his best to keep his features in check. “Boss.”
“What did you say to her, Oliver?”
“I… I said not to worry now that Vik’s gone,” Ollie replies.
“Don’t fucking lie to me!” I flinch at Austin’s harsh tone. “What did you tell her?” he grits out.
“Austin, I swear I—”
Bang!
I scream, slamming my hands over my ears as Ollie collapses to his knees in front of me, clutching his side, his wide terror-filled eyes falling on me.
Austin comes to stand between us, his shins level with my face. “What the fuck did he tell you?”
“N—Nothing,” I breathe out, my heart pumping erratically.
“You little cunt!” His foot collides with my abdomen, knocking the breath from my lungs as I double over on my side, my breaths laboured and raspy as I gasp for air.
“Don’t touch her!” Ollie grunts.
“You both must think I’m a fucking idiot.” Austin reaches for me, fisting my hair so hard some is ripped from my scalp as he drags me up. “Tell me what the fuck he said to you!”
I stay quiet as silent tears leak from my eyes. His fist collides with my face and pain rockets through my cheekbone, my head feeling like it’s splitting in two as everything around me turns blurry.
He throws me back down on the mattress, though it does nothing to soften my fall. He kicks me hard in the stomach and I cough, clutching my belly as pain seers through my mid-section.
He does it again and again, his attacks on my body relentless and I have to wonder if whether he’s going to stop at all. Is he going to keep kicking until I’m dead?
After about a half a dozen kicks to my belly, he begins to tire, but my relief is short-lived, because with one final kick, I feels something tear inside.
The pain in my abdomen is unlike anything I’ve ever felt and I can’t help but cry out as agony slices through my body.
I’m being ripped in half.
I pull my knees up to my chin, hugging them to me, wishing it would all go away.
Something warm and wet floods between my legs, and when I reach down, my fingers come back stained in red.
Blood.
The room around me spins, black dots spotting my vision as my ears ring, my head filling with white noise like a million bees buzzing in my head.
He draws back his foot to kick me again and I brace for it, reaching for my stomach with shaky hands to protect myself, but the sound of two gunshots on the floor above us has his foot hovering in mid-air. “What the fuck?”
Using the momentary distraction, Ollie kicks at the back of Austin’s knee, sending him to the ground, his gun skittering across the floor.
The two wrestle with each other, Ollie screaming in pain as Austin digs his finger into his gunshot wound.
Ollie manages a kick to Austin’s head that disorientates him for a moment.
The pain in my belly is excruciating, it’s like someone is tearing out my organs one by one.
The blood rushes through my ears so loud that I don’t hear the footsteps coming down the stairs.
A few seconds later, something warm is draped over me and I lose myself in the familiar, woodsy scent as my eyes drift closed.
I cry out in pain as it rockets through my midsection as I’m lifted into someone’s arms.
Warm breath fans my cheek. The words, “I’ve got you, princess,” are the last thing I hear before everything goes black.