Chapter 4
Regan
M y tears had dried, and I had my head tilted toward the sun when I heard the door to the isolated patio open behind me. I didn’t bother to see who it was as I heard their footsteps grow closer.
“Are you okay out here?” my brother asked, and I wanted to roll my eyes but didn’t want to be rude to him.
Turning my head to face him, I lifted my arm and shaded the sun from my eyes as I smiled up at him. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
He exhaled and pinched his lips together before he spoke, changing the subject. “Hannah and I are running out for a while, and everyone is still in the war room. I think Elise, Aubrey, and Amaya left a little while ago, so I wanted you to know I would be gone.”
I stood from my seat and walked in front of him, hoping my statement would resonate with him and he would truly hear what I was about to say.
I needed him to hear me. “Big brother, you don’t need to worry about me.
I promise I’m fine, and you have a fiancée who needs your attention.
Go take care of whatever you need to and please stop worrying about me.
I’m going to be okay. I’m not your problem anymore. ”
“You were never a problem,” he started to say, but I placed my hand on his chest, stopping him from continuing.
He may have said I wasn’t a problem, but I was.
He was barely an adult when he and James found me in the foster system.
Until I was an adult and able to come live with him, he had to split his time between his home and job in Georgia and coming to see me in Tennessee.
Then, I was taken, and I’d come to learn that for those two years, he wasn’t himself.
He was angry, spiteful, and filled with rage, and that’s when he began ‘hunting’.
All because of me. For the last four years, he’s worried about me every minute of every day, and now, I needed him to focus on his wife-to-be and not so much on me.
I needed to learn to exist on my own without him.
I needed him to let me go so I could step away from all this and face my future. Whatever it looked like.
“Rhys, go be with Hannah. I’m fine, and it’s not like anyone can get to me inside the walls of your fortress,” I joked, hoping he would lighten up.
He went to open his mouth, but I raised my eyebrows with a smile, showing him the subject was closed.
At least for today. Sighing, he said, “We’ll be back in a few hours.
James is still in the war room if you need anything.
” He turned to leave and glanced over his shoulder, showing a hint of a smile as he added, “Or Seth.”
I should have known he already knew about Seth’s newfound attraction to me.
There were cameras everywhere, and between his guards, Devlin, Lucian, and James’s personal security, and Seth, Booker, and Caldwell, there was no way he didn’t know.
There was no privacy in the fucking place, and it was at that moment I became annoyed.
“Rhys . . .” I began as he was walking out of the room. He looked back again with a shit-eating grin. “If you don’t stop spying on me, I promise, you won’t like my response.”
He simply said, “Noted.”
He walked out and pulled the door closed behind him as he strolled down the glass hallway along the side of the patio.
I could see him smiling, and I wanted to smack him and scream at the same time.
But I knew this was the typical frustration sisters get with annoying older brothers.
I closed my eyes, giving myself a few seconds to exhale the aggravation.
At least he didn’t remark about my tear-stained cheeks or puffy eyes. Rhys was used to me shedding tears, and he stopped asking why I cried a long time ago. He learned it was something I wouldn’t share with him, or my shrink, and I could only imagine what he thought.
The condition I was found in by James and Devlin was as close to death as humanly possible while still walking around.
My body was covered in bruises and healed cuts, and I had a fractured arm that had to be surgically rebroken and reset.
I was severely malnourished and underweight, and for months, I refused to speak.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t—I just didn’t want to.
It took months for me to start sleeping normally, and even now, four years later, I don’t sleep for long.
It’s usually two to three hours at a time and never peaceful.
Shaking my head, hoping to dislodge the memories of why I refused to speak, I took a deep breath and walked back into the house. I went down the hallway and around the corner to the room where I felt like I had some control—the gym.
I’d watched Rhys work with other women when I first moved in, and there were more than a few times I wished I’d paid more attention to the lessons.
Being helpless and unable to protect yourself from flying fists and swinging belts, you lose hope that things will ever improve.
You begin to accept that pain and despair are part of your future, and the ache hurts a little less, if that makes any sense at all.
I kept workout clothes in the closet in the attached bathroom, and after quickly changing and pulling my long hair back into a ponytail, I turned on my playlist and started stretching.
After a slow warmup, I began working on the dummy mounted to a base.
I’d often practice until my arms wouldn’t move, making sure no matter the size of potential threats, I could defend myself if the need arose again.
The more I punched at the dummy, the more the memories flooded back.
“What the hell am I supposed to do with her?” I heard Kelly yell at Ricardo, and the tremors started again. “She was Sergey’s pet, and he’s gone.”
I could hear her crying, which made the next part of their conversation difficult to understand. They pushed me into a chair outside a set of double doors while some man stood guard over me, half listening to the argument and half disinterested as he played on his phone.
“All I know is he protected her, so she’s valuable in some way,” Ricardo said as their voices became clearer. “So, figure out what made her so special to him when it seems he didn’t trust anyone, including his own family.”
“And how am I supposed to do that?” Kelly asked as I leaned closer, trying to hear what they had planned for me.
“Think about where you live, you stupid bitch.”
Oh shit.
I closed my eyes as a fresh round of tears fell.
Kelly had made herself wealthy from the whorehouse, and if Ricardo was suggesting what I feared he was, I didn’t know if I would survive it.
I saw what the women who worked here went through, and I watched as the light dimmed in their eyes.
Some were here willingly, enjoying the drugs, men, and money.
Others were forced into work, and those were the ones who gave up, allowing whatever to occur without fighting, using drugs to numb themselves, or making the decision to end their suffering.
The guard shook his head and rolled his eyes as Kelly and Ricardo moved farther into the room, causing their conversation to become almost muted.
I glanced up at him, and he gave me a sympathetic look before turning toward the front door and addressing an unknown man who’d just entered the opulent house.
It was nice but nothing like the house my brother lived in.
For the last year, I’d waited for Rhys or James to come and save me, but each day, I had less and less hope.
Being here, knowing what my future was going to be, I worried there wouldn’t be anything left to rescue.
Or that they really weren’t coming, like Sergey taunted every time he wanted to hurt me.
Physically, I’d been untouched since the men threw me into the bedroom in that disgusting house, but mentally and psychologically, he’d broken me. I was terrified of what Ricardo and Kelly were going to make me do, but inside, I felt like a block of ice had filled my chest, making me almost numb.
I was lost in thought, allowing all the scenarios to play out in my head, when the door opened beside me and Ricardo stepped out.
Looking up at him, I could see from the hair sticking up on his head and the flushed look on his face that he was frustrated.
He was a pudgy man with thinning hair and a patchy beard, but at the moment, he was in charge.
Or he thought he was. Grabbing me by the arm, he hefted me out of the chair and practically dragged me into the room, which I realized was an office with a small space at the front for an assistant.
I stumbled as he pulled me through a door and into the larger office at the back.
Tossing me into a chair, I caught myself and pushed into the seat, trying to keep my eyes on both him and Kelly.
Sergey said they couldn’t be trusted, and at that moment, I believed his words.
Kelly was sitting behind the desk and her eyes were red and puffy, probably like mine, except she was crying for the loss of Sergey while I was crying out of fear.
Without his protection, I was a target for their anger.
“I’m going to make this easy for you. Tell me why Sergey protected you, why he treated you so special, and I’ll have Ricardo set you free,” Kelly offered as she leaned forward and linked her hands together, trying to look intimidating.
I began to speak but had to clear my throat before the words would come out. “I don’t know why he did any of the things he did. He never told me why he took me or kept me.”
“Liar,” Kelly returned and sat back in her chair before crossing her arms. “Sergey wasn’t kind to anyone, except you, and I want to know why.”
“I really don’t know,” I started to say, only for Ricardo to interrupt me.
“Why don’t I just get her out of here and we can forget all about her? She’s going to be more trouble than she’s worth.”
I cut my eyes to him, knowing he knew more than he was saying.
I wondered why but really couldn’t have cared less.
Looking back at Kelly, I wanted to tell her how little Sergey thought of her and how he only used her to take care of his son.
Not ‘her’ son, but ‘his’, and after he was finished testifying, he was going to get rid of her.
But I kept my mouth shut and waited for her to decide what they were going to do with me. The evil smile on her face caused vomit to rise into my throat. She stood from the chair and walked around the front of the desk. Sitting on the edge, she looked down at me.
“I’m going to give you one chance to tell me what you know and what Sergey’s plans were, but I feel like you need a little incentive.
” She looked at Ricardo and nodded before he walked out of the room.
Lowering her voice, she spoke quickly, “I know you know more than you’re saying, and if you don’t tell me, I swear I’ll make every second of your life as miserable and painful as possible. ”
“What makes that any different than the world I grew up in?” I asked, leaning forward and gripping onto the armrests tightly.
“Do you think your threats scare me? I’ve been dragged around by one of the most dangerous gangsters in modern history, and you think threats of, what, assault, rape, and torture are going to scare me?
” Sitting back, I tried to remain defiant as I added, “Do your worst. I’ll survive long after you’re gone, you stupid bitch. ”
My bravery was false, but I could tell it was pissing her off, which was exactly what I wanted to do.
Sergey said Kelly and Ricardo were the type of people who, if challenged openly, would usually bend or sway, giving their opponents an advantage.
But something told me that wasn’t the case this time and I may have bitten off more than I could chew.
Someone walked into the office as Kelly and I were still in a staring contest. She glanced to the side, and when she looked back at me, the smirk on her face was big. “I’m about to make you eat those words, little mouse.”
A hand gripped onto my upper arm, and I turned to see a nightmare in front of me. There were four men who appeared to be guards from the look of their clothes. They all stood around me, looking at me like I was fresh water in the desert. I was pulled from the chair and pushed toward the group.
Ricardo joined Kelly at the front of the desk while the four men surrounded me, giving me no room for escape.
I knew what was about to happen, and at that moment, I felt myself sinking into a comfortable darkness where nothing could hurt me.
I hadn’t been in that place since I was a young child, before my mother disappeared.
It was the place I lived when my surroundings or experiences were too much for my mind to handle.
As the men pushed me out of the room, I heard Kelly laugh as she said, “I’ll see how you feel about talking after they get through with you.”
The door closed as one of the men hefted me up and over his shoulder, then the group climbed the stairs to the second floor.
I screamed, banged my fists against his back, and tried to kick my feet, but it was no use.
One of the men in the group lifted my head up by the back of my hair and punched me so hard, my hearing and vision became distorted.
The next two hours were a blur of pain and humiliation that I wished I could move past. The next words I spoke to anyone was over a year later, but I never gave Kelly or Ricardo the information they wanted. Because fuck them.