Chapter 33
Isaac
The night I brought Serena to the hospital, is the same night that I hunted down Savanna and brought her here.
Leaving my girl that night nearly fucking killed me.
Every instinct inside of me demanding that I stick by her side. Stay at her bedside, holding her hand, waiting for her to open her eyes again. Fighting with myself every step out the door while I watched her chest rise and fall.
The second I left the hospital, I felt like I was abandoning her.
But Savannah almost killed her and deserved to bleed for it. And now, standing her watching her struggle against her restraints while Serena rests in our bed upstairs, I feel that same war raging inside me.
All I want to do is go upstairs, crawl into bed, and give her exactly what her eyes have been asking for since she woke up. To touch her, hold her. Remind her that we are both still here.
Fuck, I want it so bad it physically hurts.
But every time I look at her, see the bruises and cuts healing across her skin, guilt crushes the desire. The thought of losing control, and hurting her even more than she is, makes me sick.
Normally, I would know exactly how far I could push her. But in her current state, all it would take is one wrong move before she feels more pain than pleasure. And I don’t think I would be able to restrain myself once I have her in my hands.
I would want to claim every inch of her all over again. Bury myself balls deep in her pussy, making her come all over my cock until she is screaming my name.
Savannah curses at me from across the room. I chained her to the wall, giving her just enough slack to piss and shit in the bucket I left her. Needing to get back to Serena at the hospital as quickly as possible, I left her alone to sulk and think about why she was here.
Cole would bring her water and some bread to keep her alive. Alive just enough for me to come back to her when Serena was awake and home where she belongs.
When I got down here, she was curled up in the fetal position rocking back and forth, humming to herself.
I should feel sorry for her, but I don’t. She doesn’t get to have my sympathy after what she did to my girl.
I unchain her, grab the bitch by her hair and drag her to the chair I set in the middle of the room. Thrashing against my grip, she screams. Her hands flail around her in a futile attempt to hit me and break free.
Picking her up, I force her to sit in the chair and secure her hands into the straps on the armrests. I drop to one knee and do the same thing to her ankles, pulling tight.
When I sit back up, she manages to slam her forehead into my face. Pain shoots through me before I feel warm liquid run from my nose.
“You fucking bitch!” I strike her with the back of my hand and her head swings to the side. Her hair covering her face, and her shoulders shake from laughing.
She slowly lifts her head up to face me, shaking her hair out of the way, blood dripping from her mouth. Her pupils are dilated, and the eyes that look back at me are those of pure evil.
I’ve only ever seen that kind of evil once before. When I looked into the eyes of the man who shot my mother.
Rising from my knees, I turn away from her and grab my favorite knife from my workbench. The same one I plunged into Christian’s chest almost two and a half weeks ago. Dried blood coating the hilt.
“I’m going to give you one warning,” I twist the knife between my fingers and stand in front of her, “if you try something like that again, I will cut off your fingers. One by one.”
“It’d be worth it.” She sneers and spits at my feet.
She is making it really hard not to just kill her and end her pathetic life right now. But I need answers, and she’s going to give them to me. Whether she wants to or not.
“You’re going to answer for what you did to Serena.” Squatting to her level, I point the blade at her chest. “You didn’t really think you were going to get away with it, did you?”
She puffs her chest out further, causing her skin to touch the tip. A small bead of blood forming from where it pricks her. “That cunt had it coming. I was thrilled to be the one to do it, and I would do it again. Fucking worth anything you dish out.”
My jaw ticks and I grab her face between my thumb and fingers. Squeezing her cheeks so her lips are spread. I lean in close and hold the knife to her jugular.
“You’re goi-.” The door swings open and I turn my head to see Serena standing in the doorway. Her eyes wide and her face pale.
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.
She wasn’t supposed to come down here. She wasn’t supposed to see me like this.
I didn’t want it to happen this way. I was going to get what I needed from Savannah, kill her, and then tell Serena that she was safe and that I had taken care of it. Keep her innocent in the matter.
Now what am I going to tell her?
Hey Mi Vida. How are you? Oh, by the way, while you were unconscious and possibly dying, I abducted Savannah and brought her here to torture and kill as a gesture of my undying love for you.
I’m sure that will go over smoothly going by the look on her face right now.
Serena’s eyes dart back and forth between me and Savannah, and I realize that I’m still inches from her face with her lips pursed.
That can’t look good.
I release Savannah’s jaw and straighten my posture, throwing my hands up in surrender.
“Serena, you shouldn’t be here.” I take a step forward and she flinches. And my chest tightens.
I’ve never wanted her to be afraid of me. And I’m pretty sure I just ruined that. She’s never going to see me the same way again, and that crushes me.
I take another cautious step towards her, and this time she stays still.
Serena
My heart pounds against my chest when I see her. Flashes of that night hit me without warning. My breathing turns uneven almost instantly.
What the fuck did I just walk in on?
Isaac stares back at me like I am a wounded animal, and he isn’t sure if I’m going to bite or run away. He has a knife in one hand, that was just on Savannah’s throat, and it looks like I just stopped them from making out.
Why is she here in the first place?
This is supposed to be my safe space, and yet here she is. The woman who left me bleeding to death in my car. Sitting in the middle of the floor in Isaac’s basement, vulnerable and half naked.
Once again invading my space, and I know she didn’t get here on her own.
She looks at me from the chair with a shit eating grin on her face. “Isaac, baby, don’t let her take you away from me. We were just starting to have some fun.”
My eyes narrow. The panic that was starting in my body, now being replaced by rage. White. Hot. Vengeful rage.
Isaac points the knife in her direction. “You, shut the fuck up. And you,” he turns toward me, “what are you doing here?”
I clench my fists and walk past Isaac, completely ignoring his question. All I can focus on right now is how much I hate the woman sitting in front of me.
I hate her for making me doubt Isaac at the bar. I hate her for making me doubt myself. And I hate her for attacking me in my car.
She has caused so many problems in my life, and I am so fucking tired of it.
I am done being the nice girl who lets everyone walk all over her. There’s a fine balance between being a pushover and being a total bitch. And I’ll find that balance one day.
But today? Today, I erase the line completely and get to be the aggressive one for once.
I reach Savannah and before I know it, my hand is smacking her across the face. The sound echoing off the basement walls. Her head snaps to the side, and she cries out in surprise, drowned out by Isaac's laughter behind me.
“Damn Mi Vida, that was some hit. Proud of you.”
My hand stings from the contact, but I don’t care. That was one of the most satisfying things I’ve done in a while.
Besides Isaac, of course.
I feel Isaac’s presence before I see him. He stands next to me and grabs my elbow, pulling me off to the side, away from Savannah.
His expression is a mixture of concern and fear. “Are you okay to be down here? We don’t have to stay.” Caressing my cheek, he adds, “You really should be resting in bed.”
I’m suddenly reminded that I was just in the hospital a few hours ago, and my body aches. I lean into his hand and then square my shoulders. Recovering or not, I’m not the same timid woman he met a few weeks ago.
If he’s going to be down here, then so am I.
I remove his hand from my cheek and look him confidently in the eye. “We are in this together, Isaac. I’m staying.”
His eyebrows raise and then he smiles. Looking back at me with pride and adoration that sends a thrill through me. “Well alright then. Let’s get to it. But if at any point it’s too much for you, we will stop. Yes?”
I nod and Isaac’s voice lowers. “Use your words, Serena. I need to know that you understand that you have complete control here.”
“I understand.”
“Good girl. Now go stand over by the workbench for me.” His lips brush softly against mine before he lands a sharp slap across my ass as he walks away.
I swear, that the second those words leave his mouth, something inside me melts. My body craves his approval, even when I know I don't need it. He calls me a good girl and it's like every sensible cell in my body leaves. Completely and utterly at his disposal.
Who knew I had a praise kink.
“Oh, that’s so sweet. Makes me want to vomit.” Savannah makes gagging noises from the chair. The sound of her voice is annoying, grating across my ears like nails on a chalkboard.
Isaac stands in front of her again and widens his stance, knife in hand. She tries to hide her fear, but her eyes give it away. I am confident that he isn’t going to let her leave here alive, and she knows it.
I have mixed feelings about the fact he’s going to kill her, and I’m not doing anything to stop him.
But I am coming to realize that this world isn’t all I thought it was and there are some dark shadows of the world. Growing up, I knew that to some extent.