Chapter 8
CAMILE
The next time I open my eyes, it’s to Rook staring down at my face.
The glassiness in his expression is gone, and he seems bright and alert.
I try not to look too hard at the darkening bruise that’s now expanded across his cheekbone and temple and caused one eye to swell.
It hurts to look at him and know it was because of me.
At least the injury doesn’t seem to have left any lasting damage.
“Camile,” he says, brushing my hair away from my face, “thank God, I found you.”
I’m not so sure he found me as much as we were reunited, but I’m not going to argue the semantics.
“Are you hurt?” he asks. “Did they touch you? What did they do to you?”
Images of me struggling beneath the water, body thrashing as it felt like my life was being sapped, flash through my head, and I squeeze my eyes shut. I can’t even bring myself to tell him. Will I ever be able to talk about it, to relive those awful moments?
He must recognize that, because he shakes his head. “It’s okay. You don’t need to speak about it. I’m here now. Everything’s going to be okay.”
I appreciate the comfort, but doesn’t he realize he’s in as bad a position as I am?
We both need help now. The one hope I cling to is that Rook said the others are coming—Jack, Ghost, and Ace. They were waiting for Jack’s old chapter to arrive, and then they would find us.
But how?
I realize Rook might have answers to some of the questions that have been plaguing me. If Jack and the others know where to come to find me, they must have those answers.
I struggle to sit up, and Rook helps me, until we’re side by side.
“Where am I?” I ask. “I know Ledger’s involved in this, but who are the other men?”
Rook draws his lower lip between his teeth and bites hard enough to turn the flesh white.
“I think we’re at a rival MC compound. The Revenants.
They stole a gun shipment from us and left some of our men for dead just a few days ago.
Now they’ve taken you, and me. I had a contact who knew people in the MC, and I thought he would help, but instead he betrayed me. ”
So that explains why I’d thought I might still have been on Jack’s compound.
“I don’t know why they’ve gotten involved with Ledger,” Rook continues. “My assumption is that asshole offered them the right amount of money, and they said yes. It makes sense, though I’ve never known an MC to get involved in cartel business before.”
“Why hasn’t Ledger come here with men of his own?
” I ask, making sure to keep my voice extra low just in case there are people listening in from outside.
“Maybe it wasn’t possible initially because he was undercover at the college, and having extra men hanging around would have given him away.
But even so, I’m surprised his family hasn’t sent men the moment they attacked my family, and yet Ledger is here alone. ”
Rook shakes his head and winces. “I don’t have an answer to that.”
Again, the possibility that Ledger’s family might not know exactly what he’s up to goes through my head.
“But Jack and the others are coming tonight?” I double-check.
“Yes,” Rook says. “They’ll storm the compound, and they’ll find us. All we have to do is hang on until then.”
I reach out and squeeze his hand, feeling the solidity of his fingers.
I never wanted Rook to put himself in harm’s way, but at the same time, I’m glad he’s here. I feel better knowing the others are coming and that they have some idea of where I am and who’s behind this.
“Thank you,” I tell him. “Thank you for finding me.”
He gives a wry smile. “Well, I’m not really sure I did,” he says, echoing my earlier thoughts. “But I’m here now, and that’s what matters. We just have to get through the next few hours.”
That might be harder than he thinks. After all, I’ve already experienced firsthand what Ledger is willing to do to me—and I’m supposed to be the woman he wants to marry. What will he do to Rook?
I glance around at the mess of the warehouse and wrinkle my nose at the vomit. I’m embarrassed at Rook seeing me in such a state.
“I’m sorry this place is so disgusting,” I tell him. “I’m sorry I’m so disgusting.”
He wraps his arm around my shoulders. “You could never be disgusting to me.”
“Seriously, Rook. I’m gross.”
He turns his face to nuzzle the side of my neck. “Then we’ll be gross together.”
We sit like that for a long while, and I almost find myself dozing off in his comforting company, despite our circumstances, but then the screech of the lock has me jerking fully awake. That sound never means anything good for me. Rook hears it, too, and we both scramble to our feet.
“Stay behind me,” Rook says, positioning himself in front of me.
I appreciate him wanting to protect me, but I know it won’t make any difference.
Two men walk into the room, Ledger behind them.
“Oh, look at this,” Ledger says. “How touching. You know you can’t protect her, right?” He walks toward us, so he’s nose to nose with Rook. “Trouble is, my friend, that woman you’re trying to protect is my bride-to-be. She’s mine to do with as I please. I’m sure you understand.”
Rook’s shoulders tense beneath his t-shirt and he balls his fists. “Fuck you.”
Ledger chuckles. “Big words for a man who’s so clearly outnumbered.”
He turns to the two big men he’d followed into the room and gestures for them to come over. “Let’s see if she’ll sing, finally, when her friend’s the one being hurt instead of her.”
One of the men huffs out a laugh. He’s got startlingly red hair, so in my mind I name him Ginger. It’s hardly imaginative, but it fits. The other guy has a large tattoo of a lion on his forearm, so I name him Lion.
I commit their faces to memory, because I want to be in the room when the Riders arrive and make them scream.
They approach Rook from both sides, so it’s impossible for him to fight both of them at once. Even so, he tries, throwing a fist at Ginger and kicking out at Lion.
“Leave him alone!” I cry, lunging forward to help Rook.
But two strong hands wrap around my upper arms, fingers gouging into my skin, and hold me in place. Ledger presses his nose against the side of my neck.
“No, you don’t, wife.”
Between them, they manage to grab Rook.
“Get the fuck off me!” he yells, struggling. I can’t bear to watch. I know what they’re about to do to him.
“I hate you,” I seethe at Ledger, yanking away from his grip. “Even if you take me back with you, to be your bride, I’ll spend the rest of my waking hours plotting how to end your life if you harm him.”
“Well, then, I’ll just have to make sure you never get a moment alone to do such a thing, won’t I?
Although I think, like most women, once you’re mine, you’ll soon realize the way to a comfortable life is to submit and obey.
I’ve seen it repeatedly with my mother, my sister-in-law, and my cousins.
Eventually, they all give in, you know? And you won’t be any different. ”
Oh, I’ll be different all right. I will make sure that if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll remove Ledger from this earth.
How will Rook cope with the water torture?
I found it horrendous, but maybe he’ll tolerate it better.
However, they don’t reach for the hose or the bucket.
Instead, one of the men rights the chair they’d previously had me tied to.
Ginger pushes Rook down into it roughly, threads his fingers through Rook’s beautiful hair, gripping it tight, and yanks his head back.
Ledger’s fingers tighten around my arms. “Last chance to tell me where the safehouse is.”
Tears fill my eyes, but I shake my head. “I swear to you that I don’t know its location. There is no need for this. I can’t help you. But you have me, and that’s what you want. Let him go,” I bargain.
“You are such a bad little liar.” He gives a deep chuckle. “That’s what I’ll call you. That can be your name when you’re my wife. No one will call you Camile, it will just be Little Liar.”
God, I hate him so much I can taste it. It’s like a metallic, acidic flavor coating my tongue. My hatred of him tastes like blood.
Ledger turns to the two men and gives a brisk nod.
Ginger tightens his hold on Rook’s hair, yanking his head back even harder, allowing Lion to go straight in with a vicious one-two punch right to Rook’s gut.
Rook jerks as he attempts to bend forward instinctively with the pain of the blow, but Ginger keeps his head held back.
The sound Rook makes is horrible, and I want to slam my hands over my ears, but I don’t.
I’m the reason this is happening, so I can at least be brave enough to witness it.
I just hope he can forgive me when he realizes I could have stopped this by telling them the location of the safehouse.
Thankfully, Ginger lets go of Rook’s hair and his head snaps forward. He doubles over, clutching his stomach and coughing. However, Ginger didn’t do that as an act of mercy, but so Lion could pull back again and smash his meaty fist right into Rook’s face.
They are going to kill him. ?Plegue a dios! Let this just stop.
Two more vicious punches to Rook’s gut follow the one to his face. He bends low and groans, then vomits bile on to the floor between his legs, his shoulders heaving.
“You two really do seem to enjoy throwing up,” Ledger observes wryly.
Ginger grabs hold of Rook’s hair again and pulls his head back so hard, I think he’s going to break his neck. Rook’s Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows convulsively against the hold Ginger has on him.
With his other hand, Ginger pries Rook’s jaw open and leans over him. He stares right into Rook’s eyes, rolls his tongue and sucks in his cheeks, then spits in Rook’s mouth.
My horrified gasp echoes in the room. Beating him is obviously so much more painful than this act, but there’s something so depraved, and so humiliating and degrading in it that it shocks me to my core.
Ginger shoves Rook’s head forward violently. Rook spits onto the floor and gags. He isn’t sick again, but he heaves a couple of times.
I’ve got to do something to stop this; I can’t let them keep on hurting him. Not for me, not because of my family. I’ll never live with the guilt.
“Unzip him,” Ledger commands. “Get his pants down.”
My blood runs cold. What does he plan to do?
“Boss?” Lion asks, as if he’s thinking the exact same thing as me.
“I want you to cut one of his balls off,” Ledger says.
Absolute sheer panic rushes through me and I scream. “No, no, you can’t.”
Ledger moves in front of me and grips my face viciously between his fingers, pressing my cheeks so hard it hurts.
“Oh, but you see, Little Liar, I absolutely can. That’s the beauty of this situation.
I can do whatever the hell I want, and all you and pretty boy over there can do is take it.
So, if you want me to stop, you better give me something.
Or he is gonna lose part of his nutsack, and, if I’m not feeling too charitable, perhaps all of it. ”
I must give Ledger something. He does not know where my family are, and I know that my men are coming soon, so why don’t I just play for time?
Yes, lying to the psycho is dangerous because it could get both me and Rook killed, but I have to do something.
My mind whirls as I think desperately, trying to make sense of the jumbled chaos that currently composes my thought process.
There was this place we went to when I was a kid, a long time ago.
My father took his men out there to practice survival training, and he didn’t want to leave my mother and us kids behind as we were young at the time.
Considering recent events, it seems that his paranoia was, in fact, very reasonable.
The place was in pristine, virgin rainforest, and extremely inaccessible.
We had to walk in, and it took over half a day.
It was near the Guatemalan border, and I can remember the name of the nearby village clearly.
Mind made up, I look at Ledger and I give him what he wants. A location.
“They’re near El Reposo,” I say, with heavy resignation in my voice. “It’s a village on the edge of the rainforest, and they’re about a five to six hour walk into the forest from the village.”
“Bullshit,” he spits. “How the fuck did they get there?”
“We have a chopper that drops us off as close as we can get, and then we walk in.”
“Can I get a chopper all the way in?”
I laugh bitterly and wipe a tear away. The tears are coming for Rook, but I hope he will believe they are for my poor family that I’m betraying. “No, Ledger, you can’t land a helicopter in dense, almost virgin rainforest. But your men can walk in. That’s where you will find them.”
“Walk in, she says, as if it’s easy.” He rolls his eyes at me. “Which direction?”
“If you leave Rook alone, I will draw you a map.”
He turns to Lion. “Go fetch me a pen and paper,” he snaps. “Make it quick.”
He squeezes my jaw even tighter, and I whimper in pain. “If you’re lying to me, your friend is dead.”
The bikers better arrive within the next ten hours, or I’ve just signed Rook’s death warrant.