Page 23 of Descent
And when I found one, I didn’t know whether to be relieved, or disappointed. The fucker was still alive, and that spurred me into a frantic mode as all the movies I’d watched over the years flooded my consciousness—the type of movies where the heroine got the upper hand but took too fucking long, giving the bad guy a second chance at miraculous bad timing.
I snatched the key from around his neck before digging into his pocket for my ring. As I slid the jade stone back onto my finger where it belonged, Zach groaned, making me jump several feet in the opposite direction.
I needed time.
I needed to feel safe again.
Grabbing him by the arms, I grunted under his weight and dug my heels in. Finally, his body slid across the floor by a couple of inches, spreading blood in his wake. I sucked in another breath and hefted him a few more inches.
Then a few more.
Dragging him to the cellar door was an arduous, endless trip, and every twitch and groan from him drove me closer to the edge of sanity. It took four tries of jabbing the key into the doorknob before the lock clicked over, and I was able to shove the door open.
Sweat bathed my skin on the journey down, each step a lesson in exertion, and I cringed every time his head thudded on a step. My muscles screamed in protest as I dragged his limp body across the concrete and into the prison.
I could barely breathe or see straight through the tears and sweat. Gritting my teeth, I confiscated the remote to the collar, along with Rafe’s cell phone. The instant I worked the key into the locking mechanism at the back of my hairline, and the choker opened, I finally breathed again.
Finally hoped again.
Studying Zach’s prone figure on the ground, I considered my options. The quicker I locked him inside the cage, the better. But goddamn it, I wanted the collar around his neck. I wanted him to feel the same terror I’d experienced, the same hopelessness of someone else literally having him by the throat.
Lifting his head, I slipped the choker around his neck and worked at closing the device, and that’s when he groaned once more.
“Lex…”
The lock clicked into place, and I got the hell out of there, glorifying in the finality of that prison door slamming shut between us.
And I vowed that he would never get his hands on me again.
12. The Cavalry
Alex
The hardwood under my feet burned through my skin, as if Zach’s presence in the cellar had the power to set the cabin on fire. Restless energy zinged along my nerve endings. I hadn’t thought of calling the cops. Instead, I’d called Jax from Rafe’s phone an hour ago.
Several more would slip by before he arrived, because he and Angel were in California.
I’d taken a shower in the bathroom on the main floor, desperate to wash Zach off from last night, but I hadn’t found the courage yet to venture upstairs to the loft bedroom to search for clothing.
Too many memories.
Some amazingly good, others horrifyingly bad.
Closing my eyes, I drew in a breath and held it, envisioning climbing those stairs. The idea of entering my own bedroom shouldn’t cause so much anxiety, but that room held so much pain within its unassuming walls.
Rafe and I had consummated our marriage within that space.
And Zach had destroyed the memory by raping me.
With a shake of my head, I exhaled in a rush. This was ridiculous. Zach was locked up downstairs, incapable of hurting me. Hell, he could be dead by now for all I knew. It wasn’t like I’d checked on him in the last hour. I was sure Jax would have words for Zach when he got here, but until then, I didn’t care if I ever set eyes on Zach again.
But I did care about covering my nakedness. After spending the past several days in the nude, the idea of clothing was a luxurious concept. Pulling another breath deep into my lungs, I climbed the first step, unsure of how I’d handle the first sight of the loft bedroom now that I’d broken free of Zach.
My heartbeat tripled at the threshold, hands clutching the doorframe for support. Thankfully, a blanket of numbness shielded me from emotion, allowing me the few precious seconds I needed to find a change of clothing in the unlocked drawers and return downstairs. I dressed in haste as the sun beamed on my head through the windows in the living room.
How the sky could be so bright and blue on a day like this, I didn’t know. The absence of Rafe was a tangible entity haunting me, causing a crushing pain in my chest. I slid to the floor next to the windows and watched the sun slowly sink toward the horizon.
