Chapter 34
Ainsley
“ Y ou can tell me where the tracker is, or I can start cutting open random parts of you until I find it,” he threatens.
My teeth clench together, refusing to answer him. With my phone gone, the tracker Cain put in my neck is my only hope of being found now. Losing that tracker means being sold to another Carlos, and just like last time, there’s no guarantee that Cain will save me.
“You’re more stubborn this time,” he observes as he continues driving down the dark road. I could jump out. Undo my seatbelt, open the door, and jump to the asphalt.
The thought crosses my mind, but unfortunately, logic jumps in before I do something stupid. If I jumped out and managed to not break anything, where would I go? I’d be too hurt to run fast, meaning he would catch me and just be more mad. Even if I could outrun him, we’re in the middle of nowhere.
“I can’t wait to break you of that.”
“I survived Carlos. What makes you think you can break me?”
A creepy grin crosses his face, making me shy into my seat. That grin holds the promise that whatever he does, I’m going to like it about as much as I liked my time with Carlos.
Please, please, please don’t sell me again. Don’t force me to live with a man that thrives off of my torment. Jonah won’t be there to be my lightning bug on a starless night. I may be more stubborn, but I won’t survive being sold again.
The pleas are loud inside of my head, but that’s as far as they go. I refuse to let him see how terrified I am of what’s about to happen. If Cain has realized I’ve been taken, then he’s probably already tracking me. I just need to be patient and trust that he’ll get me out this time.
“Tell me where the tracker is or I’ll start ordering the deaths of people around you,” he threatens. When I continue keeping my mouth shut, his threat becomes more real. “I could start with that friend you were with at the bar. Ethan, is it? Shame he grew up differently than his half brother, I’m sure he could have been an excellent addition to my men.”
“They aren’t your men anymore,” I correct him, immediately regretting it as he grabs the side of my head and slams it into the window. It’s not hard enough to knock me out, but it makes the pain from my concussion flare up.
He keeps talking like that didn’t just happen. “And then there’s your dear bodyguard. I hear his mother is quite sick. It would be a shame if something unexpected were to happen to her. Or, there’s the two girls you live with. Cassie and Violet, right? Of course, I could threaten your dad, but the two of you aren’t really on the best terms.”
Each person he names sends a pang through my chest. How does he know all of this about me? Lucky for me, logic sets in before I panic.
“You would have to turn around and drive back to town to get to them. Cain is probably already following us, meaning he would intercept you and save me before you could get to any of them. And do you really think he’d let you live after that?”
A smug smile crosses my face as I watch him grip the wheel tighter, but as the smile on his face grows, the one on mine fades. I just told him he doesn’t have leverage against me, he should have no reason to smile.
“You weren’t listening, child,” he sneers. “I said nothing about killing them myself, I said I would order their deaths. There are still men that are loyal to me, and they’re currently stationed close enough to each person who I listed that all I have to do is make the call and they’ll be dead.”
I swallow nervously, not doubting him for a second. He’s shown me multiple times just how sick and twisted he is, this shouldn’t be a surprise to me. With my eyes squeezed shut for courage, I lift my hand and point to where Cain stabbed me with the needle to inject the tracker in me last week. I wish he hadn’t told me what he was doing, because then I couldn’t tell him. The time it would take him to find it would have been long enough for Cain to find me, but then I couldn’t guarantee the safety of everyone he threatened.
“See? I knew you could be obedient.”
I keep my eyes squeezed shut, even as he grabs the side of my head in his hand and I feel my neck jerk to the side.
The first thing I’m conscious of is the tingling in my arms. I must have fallen asleep with them under my pillow again. All I have to do is pull them down to at least shoulder height, and then I can go back to sleep.
Except, as I try to pull them down, they refuse to budge. A dull thud pulls me further out of my sleep state as I continue to yank on whatever is preventing me from pulling my arms into a more comfortable state.
Finally, my eyes snap open, only to immediately squeeze shut as the sudden light makes the pounding in my head scream for attention.
“Cain?” I call out. While he loves trying new things with me, and I wouldn’t put tying me up in my sleep so he can use me when I wake up past him, it’s weird that he would just leave me here. “Cain, my head is hurting again.”
My own screaming is making the throbbing even worse, but the sooner I can get him up here with some medicine, the better. Besides, maybe he’ll feel bad and get me out of these restraints so I can sleep the headache off.
When I don’t hear him calling back to me or stomping up the steps, I force my eyes to open slowly so I can see if he’s sitting in the corner waiting for me to see him or something.
“Cain?”
The first thing I realize as my eyes finally adjust to the bright light is that I don’t know where I am. This isn’t the bedroom I was sharing with Cain last week, or even the bedroom he kept me in when he first brought me to his house. I don’t find him sitting in a corner waiting for me to wake up.
I’m alone.
“Shouting for him like he’s a servant,” says a deep voice as the door suddenly starts opening. Fighting against the restraints keeping me attached to the bed, I realize it’s no use. I’m not strong enough to break them. “I’ll never understand why he’s so enamored with you.”
My brain is slow, but when his face comes into my line of sight, I recognize him. Suddenly, the events of the last few hours come crashing down on me. Being at the bar. Rushing to the bathroom to get a break from Cain and Ethan. Being trapped in the bathroom with no way to escape and then being carted away through a kitchen until I was shoved into a car and driven away.
The sting in my neck makes itself known as I remember his determination to find my tracker, and my head throbs to remind me that my neck wasn’t the only thing damaged.
He may have broken my body, but I won’t let him break my spirit.
“I’m just really, really good at sucking his cock,” I answer, hoping to piss him off. I follow my snarky comment by trying to spit in his direction, but it doesn’t go nearly as far as I need it to as I feel it land on my leg.
I have to be careful as I drop my head back down, irritating the cut he caused on my neck.
“Looks like he’ll have to find someone else for that, because I have plans for you,” he tells me with a devilish smirk. With that, he walks back out the door and shuts it behind him, leaving me alone once more.
This isn’t like the last time he took me. There isn’t a man constantly watching me and staying by my side even during bathroom breaks, which can mean one of two things. Either he has men and they’re still watching the people I care about in case I act out, or he was lying and he’s working on his own.
I have to convince myself it’s the former so I don’t hate myself for ruining my one chance at escape.
There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s going to sell me again, and this time, it’ll probably be much farther from home. He won’t want to deal with me himself, and he won’t want me close enough for Cain to find.
Hope drains out of me almost instantly. Even if Cain can find me, we may end up in the same situation that we were in last time. I don’t want to be tortured by the possibility of his death.
All I can hope is that whoever buys me this time is at least kind to me. Well, kinder than Carlos was. Not being beaten every day would be a step up.
Now that I’m awake and alone, I can at least survey my surroundings. He’s not keeping me in the same building as last time, meaning I don’t know how many spots are on each ceiling tile. This ceiling doesn’t even have spots. It’s just a plain white ceiling; much more boring than the last one.
The walls are the same white as the ceiling, giving me no contrast to stare at all day. There aren’t even any windows for me to look out. It could still be the night I was taken, or the sun could have risen and it could be the next day for all I know.
The only piece of furniture is the bed I’ve been chained to. The chains are digging into my wrists from being tied too tightly, while the other end is locked around a wooden bed frame. Tugging on it only causes the chains to jiggle loudly and the wood to creak from the pressure.
At least there wasn’t anything for him to pull out of me this time, so I can only hope I wasn’t violated after I was knocked out. Having the tracker cut out of me was enough of a violation. As far as I can tell, my underwear is still on under my dress that’s incredibly too tight on me now.
As I wiggle around, trying to get the dress to loosen up and feel even a bit more comfortable, the chains cause the bed frame to creak once again. Only this time, the sound gives me a thought.
If I pull on these chains enough, there’s two outcomes that could happen. I could either loosen them enough to slip them off my wrists, or the wood could snap.
Either way, I could be free.
The thought is enough to give me hope, and without fully thinking it through, I yank on the chains. I use as much strength as I can muster in my weakened state, and as the wood creaks from the stress the chains are causing, more hope floods through me.
“Before you have any silly little ideas,” I hear as the door creaks open. My arms drop immediately, dangling limply from the chains instead of yanking on them, and I force my eyes to look droopy as I rest back into the headboard. By the time his eyes meet mine, the act of being close to another nap should be pretty convincing. “I found this in the warehouse, and I know how much you loved it when Carlos made you listen.”
“Cain!” I hear my voice call out as he taps his phone, starting the video he already had pulled up.
No, no, no.
“Ainsley,” I hear him say, relief filling his voice. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, if it’s even been a full twenty-four hours, but I already miss the sound of his voice. “Ainsley!”
The sickening thud of my head against the SUV fills the room, causing my head to ache more than it did when I woke up.
“He’s dead, pet. Nobody is going to save you from me.”
The voice sends a chill down my spine as the memory of every time he laid a hand on me floods my mind, repressed from months of denial. I pushed all of this to the back of my mind, determined to forget it. Even when Cain pulled me back into his life, I never fully let myself relive the trauma to heal. And now, here it is, slapping me in the face and reminding me I can’t escape.
A car door slams as a former version of myself is shoved inside. As my eyes shut, trying to hold back tears, I see Cain on his knees with a gun pointed at his head as I’m driven away, convinced I’ll never see him again.
“Any last words?”
“I love you, Ainsley.”
Bang. Bang.