Chapter 38 Riven
Riven
I squint my eyes open to the blinding fluorescent lights that illuminate the bright white of Sabel’s fucking torture chamber. My mind is hazy, and it takes several seconds for me to recall the events that took place before this.
What time is it? What fucking day is it?
I have no way of knowing how long I’ve been out.
As in any true torture chamber, this one doesn’t come equipped with a clock.
I hear a groan beside me, and I drag my head up to look toward the noise.
It’s Callum, strapped down to a steel chair by his wrists and ankles.
There’s a large belt across his chest holding him against the chair.
Sabel knows that his big ass could get out of this in seconds otherwise.
I look down at my wrists and ankles, which are also strapped down with zip ties. Amateurs, I think, remembering my work in the barn with Levi.
“You okay?” I ask, my mouth dry.
“I’m fine. It’s Kai.” He nods his head behind me.
I drag my gaze over my shoulder to see that Kai and Raithe are directly behind us.
Kai is behind me with his head hanging down.
Damp white-blonde strands fall over his face, obscuring my view of it.
His chest rises and falls slowly, as if he’s walking the veil between life and death.
I tug on my zip ties roughly, but they don’t budge. Not so amateur, then. Perfect.
“FUUUUUUUUUCK!” I yell to the ceiling, throwing my head back. Spit flies from my mouth, showering me in its downfall. I’m panicking. My breathing accelerates, threatening to send me back into unconsciousness if I don’t stop.
“Stop, Riv. Please, stop.” I hear Raithe’s hoarse voice from behind Cal.
I can’t, though, because the next thing that slams into my mind is Sloane.
Her eyes, her face, her freckles, her body, her soul, her.
The what ifs come crashing in like a tsunami, seeking to drag me under and suffocate the breath from my lungs.
I feel my panic rising by the second. I barely hear Callum’s words over the rapid thumping of my pulse in my ears.
“Calm down, Riven. Look at me. FUCKING LOOK AT ME!” His violent and completely out of character screaming halts my panic and has my head snapping in his direction. My pulse slows, and I manage to come to my senses, for now.
“That’s it. Good. Now, please, for fuck’s sake, would you calm down so that we can rationalize a plan?” Cal speaks slowly, softly, and calmly, and it grounds me. He always knows how to ground me.
“Yeah, okay. You’re right.” I turn to look at Kai, making sure that his chest is still moving. It is … slowly. Fuck, we are running out of time. I bring my attention back to Cal.
“Okay. What do we do?” I ask, looking back and forth between Cal and Raithe.
“Dude, I don’t know. We are fucked,” Raithe says. He’s usually the optimist of the family, so his pessimistic response isn’t promising. Cal turns his head, glaring at Raithe.
“Focus, jackass,” Cal snaps. “We can get out of this. Let’s think for a fucking second.” I sigh, losing the hope that I never had. I pull at my restraints again, and they don’t budge again.
“Already tried that. Not gonna work,” Cal says. If Cal can’t get out of this, then none of us can.
“Great. Plan B, then,” I say.
“Riven,” Cal warns at the same time as Raithe asks, “Plan what?”
I rock violently in my chair, using every ounce of energy that I have left to tip it over in Cal’s direction. The chair falls onto its side with a loud thud.
“What the fuck are you doing, Riven?” Cal spits out. I don’t answer.
I grab hold of Cal’s chair leg closest to me and pull myself to it. Then, I start gnawing the zip tie that’s binding his leg.
“Riven,” he growls, “you know they have eyes on us, right?” I don’t answer.
I continue gnawing and tugging to get the zip tie free.
Do I think I can bite through this thing?
Kinda, yeah. Do I know that at the very least it will cause a scene?
Fucking right I do. So yes, I continue my frivolous pursuit.
I make sure that I’m growling, grabbing at the chair leg, and jerking at it frantically like a psycho.
When I think I might be getting somewhere with the fucking thing, the door to the double mirror viewing room opens up. Success.
“Fucking great,” Cal grunts from above me. I hear Raithe moan behind us. There still isn’t a sound from Kai, other than his shallow breathing.
I hear footsteps coming my way, and then I’m face-to-face with a pair of shiny, black Oxfords.
I spit on them, laughing. I hear my father scoff at the gesture, and it reminds me of every other time in my young life that he disdained me.
I almost reach out and bite the fucking shoe.
He lifts his foot and plants it directly on the side of my neck, pressing down enough to leave my already taut windpipe screaming for air. Mother fucker.
“Save your energy, son.” He releases his foot, and I suck in a breath.
“Fuck you,” I spit out. He chuckles.
“Dad?!” I hear Raithe say from behind me. That answers my question of whether Raithe saw him earlier. And … dad? Why is Raithe addressing him as dad when he’s been anything but our entire lives?
“Hello, my dear Raithe,” my father says, his voice full of pride for his favorite son. My dear Raithe? Okay, this is all getting a bit weird. But before Raithe can say anything else, I hear a pair of heels that can only belong to one bitch.
“That will be all for now, Dorian.” Sabel places a hand on my father’s shoulder, pausing to whisper something into his ear. He leans in and places a very intimate-looking kiss on her cheek, and then walks out of the room and shuts the door behind him. Good riddance.
“Oh, boys.” I shake my damp hair out of my eyes to look into her soulless ones.
Sabel assesses all of us, tilting her head to get a better look at Kai.
“He doesn’t look very good. Perhaps I should just let him go this time.
We all know that Kai is toeing the line, anyway. What’s a few years early gonna hurt?”
“Sabel,” I warn, “fucking help him, now. If something happens to him, I will—”
“You’ll what?” She raises an inquisitive brow. “It doesn’t look to me like you’re in much of a position to bargain, Riven.”
“I’ll kill you myself. Slowly,” Callum snarls.
Sabel laughs. “You think that I’m scared of your idle threats, Callum?” Before Callum can say another word, Raithe speaks up.
“You can have me.”
“Raithe,” I warn.
“Now that is a proposition,” she purrs. Sabel’s always had her eyes on Raithe.
She’s wanted him since the moment we stepped into Sonus.
In a sick and sadistic way, she’s already had him.
Giving himself to her on his own accord would be different, though.
She won’t turn this down, and I can’t let Raithe do this.
“No, Raithe. You aren’t doing this,” I say, at the same time as Sabel’s, “I accept.” Fuck.
Sabel doesn’t give me a second of her attention before turning around and walking out of the room. Minutes later, Brian walks in to take Kai to the medical ward. We all watch as Brian cuts the zip ties and carries Kai out. Kai’s head dangles as Brian walks toward the door.
Brian stops at the closed door, turning. “I got him. Trust me,” he says.
I do. I trust him with every fiber of my being. We nod, and the door opens for Brian and Kai. Once it closes again, Cal and I both give Raithe our undivided attention.
“What the fuck were you thinking, Raithe?” I ask.
“What a fucking idiot,” Cal grunts.
“What other choice do we have? She was going to let him die. I knew it was an offer she couldn’t refuse.
Let me do this one thing, please. Let me fucking do this.
” His voice shakes, and his tone reeks of defeat and devastation.
It’s so unlike his usual upbeat and carefree attitude, and I don’t like it.
Something is up with him, and I can tell he’s withholding the whole truth.
“She isn’t going to get anywhere near you,” I assure. I’ll figure something out once we get the fuck out of this. We have to get out of this. There’s a long moment of silence before Raithe speaks again.
“He’ll never let me go,” Raithe whispers. My head snaps in his direction, confusion written all over my face. I start to speak, to ask him what the fuck he means, when Cal grunts in interruption.
“Enough,” Cal groans, knowing a fight is sure to ensue if this conversation continues. Callum knows what kind of person our father is. Dorian left us when I was fifteen. He was a shitty father to us both, but I’m not sure to what extent Raithe had to suffer. We don’t talk about our past like that.
Several minutes of silence pass before the door opens up again. I see four men walk in. I recognize them as the men who usually flank Sabel at all times. These are her guards. The last man who walks through the door is one whom I only know from the pictures I’ve seen of him.
David Galinsky. What a pleasure it is to finally meet.
Sabel’s bodyguards cut our zip ties and pull us free of the chairs. I’m dragged roughly to my feet, wobbling and still weak from being drugged.
“Boys, how nice to finally meet you,” David says, smiling with his hands in his suit pockets. He looks exactly like he did in the photos, except a little older.
The guards place our hands behind our backs, pushing to lead us toward the mirrored viewing room.
Why are they bringing us in there? My anxiety rises again.
Several scenarios run through my mind, none easing the panic.
The guards push us through the door and sit us down in three chairs that are all side by side, facing the two-way mirror that looks into the torture room.
I don’t see any zip ties or other restraints, but that does little to quiet my reckless thoughts.
Each of us is led to a chair and forced to sit, still too weak to truly put up a fight.
“What is this?” I ask, turning toward David.
“All in due time,” he replies. There’s a pretty long list of things that I truly loathe, and you can bet that cryptic responses are near the fucking top of it.
I scoff, but offer nothing more. I’m saving my energy, like my father suggested.
Minutes go by in silence before the lights in the torture room shut off.
All of our attention is drawn to the viewing mirror in front of us.
My pulse skyrockets, thrumming through my eardrums and wreaking havoc on my nervous system.
Cal reaches over and places a hand on my shoulder, steadying me.
I hear the door to the torture room open, followed by shuffled steps.
I’m unable to calculate how many people are in the room, and it alarms me.
Cal’s grip on my shoulder tightens, and my breathing accelerates.
The next sound that I hear is the rustling of chains, followed by the clinking of metal against metal.
I hear a faint groaning, but between the blood rushing in my ears and the noise in my head, I’m unable to discern whether it’s familiar.
Cal tenses beside me, and I turn my head to look at him.
His eyes are filled with agony and … horror.
It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and I don’t like what my mind conjures in response to it.
I hear the sharp whirring of the fluorescent lights flicker on, and my head snaps to the mirror.
I see the silhouette of a person sitting in a chair beneath a large black sheet.
The person’s head appears to be hanging, and the sheet rises and falls in a steady rhythm.
I hear David’s voice, but I can’t break my attention away from what’s in front of me.
“Now,” David orders. To who? I’m not sure. My mind is a black abyss, apart from one shining light within its depths.
Sabel walks across the room to the person sitting in the center of it. She fixes her gaze strictly on the mirror, looking through it and directly at me. Sabel reaches for the black sheet and pulls it off in one swift motion. My heart stops.
Sloane.
I jump up from the chair and charge the mirror, pressing my palms firmly against it.
I stare at Sloane through the glass. So close, but out of my reach.
Her bare ankles and wrists are chained to the steel legs.
She’s wearing a business casual black dress.
Her head is hanging down, red waves covering her face from full view.
Her chest rises and falls in a steady rhythm.
She looks unconscious. That isn’t the most unnerving thing about the scene that’s in front of me, though.
No, the most unnerving part of all of this is that there is a pair of fucking headphones covering her ears.
I ball my fists, pulling back and taking aim at the mirror. Before I can make contact, I feel something cold and hard press against the side of my head. And then, I hear a click.
“Don’t fucking move,” David growls.