Chapter 2
Her eardrums, face, eyes, and brain all throbbed.
For the amount of times she’d been through this, she should’ve been used to it.
Used to her body in unexplainable pain. Used to her mind playing tricks on her.
Used to the gnashing of teeth on the other side of the door.
Used to being dragged out of whatever hiding place she’d found to avoid the inevitable.
It was her twenty-sixth birthday. This drug-filled party, Javier’s cocaine-rimmed nostrils, the house full of people, and the room full of exotic dancers he enlisted wasn’t what she’d asked for. In fact, when he’d asked her a day ago what she wanted for her birthday, she asked for nothing.
Nothing at all.
What Reign wanted was to go back in time and take back the day she allowed herself to be entranced by him, the glitz, the smoke and mirrors, and all the tricks he used to manipulate her mind. She craved the only thing that was out of reach; peace.
She sat in the dark, quieting her sobs. Partially because her head hurt too badly to continue, but also so KC, Javier’s right hand, couldn’t find her. Being dragged from the closet back into the room would result in further torture to her soul.
Gingerly, Reign patted her tender face. By now, she should’ve been used to the beating, the degrading, the mental abuse.
The more she found herself conditioned, the more she was disgusted by it.
She leaned her body into the side of the wall and plotted her escape.
It had to be tonight, once he’d passed out, once he’d come down, once the security changed shifts.
“Don’t fall asleep,” she muttered to herself, feeling her heavy lids close. She forced them back open, tried shaking her hands to keep herself awake, but there wasn’t much use. The beating, along with whatever Javier had the staff put in her drink, was taking full effect.
The more she fought to stay awake, the more it deemed a losing battle.
Her head dropped against the wall she leaned on, the pounding continued as her body pleaded for relief.
And for a little under thirty minutes, she had it.
Before the door was pulled open and Javier’s frame took up the entryway of the closet.
His presence a looming darkness. A demon with gnashing teeth, ready to pull her from the slice of solace back into hell.
“Wake the fuck up,” he hissed. A cup of ice-cold water hitting her face in tandem with his words.
Blocks of ice hit her face like fists, shocking her from trauma-induced slumber. Reign gasped, filling her lungs with air and erratically looking around the space that once was dark. All the dreams she had of peace – gone.
“Javi, no,” she pleaded. “Just leave me alone, please.”
Her pleas fell on deaf ears. With a fist full of her hair, he yanked her out of the closet and pulled her into the hall.
“Shut the fuck up and crawl back to the room like a good bitch,” Javi spat as he dropped her to the ground and kicked her forward.
Reign started to hiss, her knees raw from the constant carpet burn.
She swallowed the pain, recalling the plan she half-formed in the hall closet.
No fighting back, no pleading, just on her knees half-dressed and crawling back to the bedroom.
What was next, she knew, felt the disgust and shame course through her being.
The images of Javier and the woman and man he chose for the night having their way with her caused her stomach to quail.
Sweat popping out of the pores on her body as she quaked with fear.
Unable to control it, she halted her crawling to throw up.
“Bitch, you throwing up on my fuckin’ floor?” Javier barked, rushing over to grab her hair and push her face into the puddle of puke. Cruelty at its finest.
Reign threw up the contents of her stomach over and over again. All of the food, cake, and alcohol he presented to her before luring her to the room to be his slave. Her body was weak from retching.
“You sick?” he gritted, as if she’d gotten this way on her own doing. He drugged her, he beat and raped her. The result of his evilness was spewed across the floor in puddles of foul-smelling, chunky liquid. “KC, get this bitch out of my fucking face! She ain’t worth half the shit I give her.”
Reign’s head was spinning – the whole hall was spinning as she dropped to her side, still puking. The only thing that stopped it was Javier’s slide-covered foot to her face, sending her world from spinning to black.