48. Laney
They’ve put me on display.
Despite my best attempts to fight back, they stripped me naked.
Now I’m hogtied with a gag in my mouth to stop me from screaming and alerting the neighbors.
They’ve suspended me from a beam in the ceiling, ensuring I’m exposing every part of my body to them.
The strain on my muscles is huge, but that’s not the part of this that makes me most uncomfortable.
These assholes are having their fun.
They push their fingers inside me, slap my tits hard enough to sting, smack my ass so my skin burns. I sob against the gag in my mouth. I wish they’d just kill me already, but they clearly want to have their fun.
I can’t believe I’m back in this position again. I want to curl up and die. The guys have been taken away by the police, so there’s no chance of them coming back to save me. This is how my life is going to end, and maybe it’s better if I accept it instead of trying to fight.
These bastards.
“I say we take every hole,” Smith threatens.
“We’ve got a few hours, so I think that’ll give us enough time to try each one.
I want to see her a fucking mess. Our cum pouring out of every orifice, dripping off her eyelashes, matted in her hair.
She needs to look like the little slut she is.
” He takes out his phone. “Then I’ll take some pictures and send it to her stepfather and stepbrothers—well, not directly, because they won’t have their phones in prison—but we’ll make sure they see it.
Maybe even a short video clip would be better.
You never know, they might get off on watching their little princess getting railed by all of us at the same time. ”
“Dirty little whore,” Axel comments.
Smith shakes his head. “Did you really think you’d get away with running from us? That we’d just let it go? You’re more na?ve than you look.”
I try to take myself away from this, to do what I had on the beach when Axel raped me, and picture myself somewhere else. While my body might be here, my mind doesn’t need to be. I can take it to somewhere I was happy.
To my surprise, the place my brain conjures for me—my happy place—is the cabin and the river.
I’m on the beach again, but not with Axel this time.
Instead, I’m with Reed, Cade, and Darius, and it’s my birthday.
Cade is teaching me how to skip stones, and we’re enjoying the last few items of food and drink that we’d taken from the plane.
I don’t need to know what’s happening to my body.
I don’t need to feel.
I just—
My thoughts are suddenly torn back to the present.
From outside comes the screeching of tires on asphalt as several vehicles are brought to an abrupt halt, and with it sounds the blast of a police siren. The air is filled with shouts of men, and doors opening and slamming shut.
Men burst in through the back door, and then moments later emerge from the front of the house as well. Armed police wearing protective vests, all with their weapons aimed at the three men who’d been only moments away from raping me.
“Down on the ground!” the police shout. “Hands behind your head.”
I know they’re not talking to me.
“Jesus Christ,” one of the officers comments. “Someone get the girl down, and untie her. Find her something to cover her up.”
I’d almost forgotten I’m completely naked, now in front of several armed police as well as Smith and his men.
One of the officers grabs a knife to cut the rope that suspends me from the beam, and carefully lowers me to the floor. Another picks up a throw from the nearest couch. He goes to wrap it around me, but I must flinch, as he puts up both hands.
“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. Let’s get you untied, and then covered up, okay?”
I nod my consent, my face streaked with tears.
Around me, Smith and his men are being handcuffed and then hauled to their feet.
“You’re under arrest for sexual assault, gun trafficking, and one count of murder,” a detective I don’t recognize says.
I have no idea how they got the tipoff to come back here, but I’m so relieved they have.
“Where’s Reed Riviera?” I ask the officer who’s untying me. “And Cade and Darius, too?”
“Laney?” I turn at my stepfather’s voice. Cade and Darius flank him on either side.
“Oh, God.” With my hands and feet finally freed, I clutch the throw around my nakedness and run to them. They form a circle around me, holding me tight.
“Did those bastards hurt you?” Cade asks. “Did they touch you?”
“No, I’m okay.” It’s not the whole truth, but what good would come of them knowing all the details? Maybe Reed will decide to watch everything back on the security cameras, but perhaps he doesn’t want to know either. I feel like it would kill Cade, for him once again to be unable to stop them.
But they’ve saved me now, and that’s all that matters. With what’s just happened, combined with our statements about the events at the cabin, Smith and his men will be going away for a very long time.