Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
EZRA
“ W akey-wakey, Sleeping Beauty,” Simon sniggers as he throws a bucket of water in my face. The haze of my impromptu nap ebbing away as the basement room comes into view.
“What the fuck is going on?” My vehemence is directed at Lenora as she stands tall with a shit-eating grin.
I scrub at my face, trying to clear my spotty vision, only realising now my hands are bound tightly with rope in front of me.
As a kinky fucker, I’m well-versed in the beauty of a little bondage, but this right here is a fucking mistake.
I use my teeth to work at the bowline knot, but it’s impossible to work it loose.
“You’re not the only one who likes a little rope play.” Lenora chuckles heartily as she watches me. I shudder at the implication of everything she’s not saying.
“Please, spare me the visual, Lenora. This back and forth is fun and all that, but would someone mind enlightening me on why the fuck I’m here?”
The cocky show of stoicism in me is wiped from my expression when Simon approaches Cara.
No longer strapped to the table where she was when I entered the room, she’s now handcuffed to the radiator in the corner.
When he gets close enough to her, she spits in his face.
He lunges for her, but she’s quicker; she takes out his ankles, and he drops to the floor at her feet.
Using the opportunity to do some damage, she digs her heeled boot into his hand, using her toes to press and twist, likely dislocating a finger or two when he squeals like a prized pig ready for slaughter.
Fuelled by rage, he grabs her by the throat and squeezes.
Her eyes widen with shock as she struggles to breathe, tugging against her restraints as her face flushes red.
I scramble forward on unsteady legs from my seated position, but I only make it a few steps when I feel the cold metal of a gun pressed against my temple.
The room goes quiet, Simon’s grip of Cara tightening as her feet try to get purchase on the floor.
“Simon, let her go; I’ll let you play with her later if you’re a good boy.
” The perverse ownership bond between them has my stomach churning.
Obediently following his master’s order, his hold of Cara slackens, and he grins, that serpent tongue slipping out and wetting his lips as he backs away.
My soul weeps at the sight of her trussed up like a beaten down animal, her dress in disarray with a few buttons torn off, exposing the red lace bra meant for my eyes only.
I notice the puckered edges of a fresh brand burned into her skin.
Turbulent waves of fury wash over me, the rage swelling in my chest.
“You fucking branded her,” I seethe, looking between Lenora and Simon, not knowing who I’m going to decapitate first for what they’ve done to her. Jealous, possessive, incensed—the war of emotions I’m feeling are all consuming as my heart feels like it’s trying to claw its way out of my chest.
“Ahh, she loved every minute of it. I saw your little carve job on her arse when Simon carried her in here—are you sad mine is bigger, Ezra?” she taunts with a pouty lip, close enough to my face I gnash my teeth together, jolting forward at her before Simon kicks me back.
“Don’t be a baby, Ezra.” She steps towards the open fireplace unfazed.
Always so put together, an honest to God demon hiding her true identity in this human meat suit.
Hell hath no fury like an emotionally inept sociopath with an overbearing God complex.
“My stepson here, or is it nephew, I get so confused,” she teases, approaching me from behind as Simon holds me by the ropes securing my wrists.
She ruffles my hair like she did when I was little, always tugging it at the root to let me know she was the boss when I didn’t do as she requested.
This woman has never been anything like my mother, and it’s not until this moment that I realise how much she is like my father—twisted, fragmented, and devoid of humanity.
I can see the confusion on Cara’s face as she pieces it together, her lower lip bobbling and her brows pinched as she looks between Lenora and me, hunting for the subtle similarities that would affirm the familial bond.
“That’s why you don’t challenge him? Why he doesn’t seem to abide by the same rules as all the other patients?
” The questions barrel out of her, her voice barely a squeak in the quiet room.
Confusion lingers between her pinched brows.
I’ve memorised her expressions, and it’s impossible not to note the lacing of hurt that muddies the usually clear ocean blue of her eyes.
She thinks I kept this from her on purpose.
“I don’t challenge him because I don’t need the fuss and fanfare of the repercussions, and he doesn’t abide by the same rules because if I had to keep him in line, I’d end up killing him—and all that lovely inheritance I get for keeping him here would disappear.
He does as he pleases because I get paid, plain and simple.
I told my sister to abort him when she told me she was pregnant, and she wouldn’t have it—her love for him sickened me—just as your love for him does. ”
“We don’t love each other,” the lie tumbles from my lips, my bid to diffuse the situation and maybe spare Cara from Lenora’s wrath.
I see the split second when what I’ve said hits Cara.
She flinches at my outburst. Even though it isn’t true, it spears her heart enough that the doubt settles in its wake.
Everything I said to her when I held her close to me in her bed was the truth.
I am so in love with this woman, and I hope she can hold onto that because showing Lenora that Cara is my weakness won’t work out well for us right now.
Lenora laughs heartily and throws her head back, scratching her forehead with the barrel of the gun.
“Don’t make me laugh—you think everyone can’t see the two of you?
You’re a weak mess with hearts in your eyes, it’s clear as day.
I knew the second I saw you out there with her, the day she arrived, that this was a mistake, but still I let it happen. ”
“Why did you let it happen?” Cara asks, genuine curiosity filling her voice, the visual hurt laced in her expression at my outburst from moments ago dissipating.
“Raven was all used up, and I needed another girl, subscribers want young fresh meat. You have no family, no friends, no one to come looking for you when you are no longer useful to me.”
“Too old to star in your little movies huh, Lenora?” I bite with a satisfied grin when she balks at my question. I can’t rip her head off like I want to, so offending her is the next best thing, I guess.
“Where is Raven?” Cara stutters, the colour draining from her face as she pulls her lip between her teeth to stop it from trembling.
“Sold to the highest bidder and on the other side of the world by now, I suspect. Probably getting railroaded by a hundred men a day in some shitty doss house—how the fuck should I know? Once the girls no longer tickle the online subscribers’ fancy, I sell them.
I know your past Miss Morgrieves—I had planned to do the same with you, but I can’t see you being very… what’s the word…willing.”
“There’s always a market for snuff films,” Simon interjects. The need to flay him alive making my fists bunch. I should have ended that fucker when I had the chance.
“Snuff films are how people get caught. If I sell her to our Russian connection, she’ll be pumped full of drugs and used daily like the little whore that she is.”
Cara doesn’t seem fazed by the fact that Lenora seems to know so much about her.
I had found the DVD in the records room with Cara’s name on it after she arrived; I’d watched enough of it to know the life she had been forced to endure before coming here.
All the men who hurt her, their faces were seared into my brain as I silently vowed to enact my revenge in her honour when we escaped this place.
“You were destined to be here, Cara. I had originally organised with Doc to purchase you; we had business meetings before his untimely death. So how lucky was I when you happened across the advertisement and applied for the position? I felt like all my Christmases had come at once; a minimum wage whore is much better for my bottom line.”
As misguided as this moment feels with Lenora prattling on, one thought keeps rattling around in my head—the knowledge that she’d always intended to bring Cara here.
That we were meant to find each other. I glance at Cara, aching to soothe the sorrow I know is piercing her chest as she holds back the tears.
She had found a genuine friendship with Raven, only to learn her fate like this.
Until Cara, I hadn’t felt much of anything since my mother’s death—maybe even before that; I wasn’t exactly a poster child for healthy parental figures.
But now, the need to reach for her has my jaw clenched, my teeth grinding as I tug at my restraints. They don’t budge.
“You could let us go; we won’t say a word,” Cara pleads wide-eyed. I know it’s useless, Simon knows it’s useless, even the twins know it’s useless. Lenora bends down to face Cara, mimicking what she’s seen of affection as she strokes her cheek.
“If you’re trying to appeal to my better nature, I’d give it up; I don’t have one.” She smiles, the warmth in it all a show. “What you see is what you get.”
“What? A haggard, greedy, washed-up psychopath with an unnatural porn addiction?” I blurt, garnering her ire as she turns to flash the gun in my face. I’d happily open my mouth and welcome the barrel of her weapon if it meant she’d leave Cara alone.