Page 59 of Malice and Surrender
“I fucking know that,” I said, stuffing my cock back in my jeans. “I. Fucking. Know. That.”
Raine
I blinked, not sure what had happened, but realized that the nightmare was real. Panic gripped me as I heard the rumble of men’s voices, but I couldn’t make out a single word or who the guys were.
Why had they taken me? Why was Kai letting them take me?
This was how girls ended up sold and overseas as sex slaves. I’d learned about it from the crime shows I liked to watch and, until tonight, had been so careful not to end up in a dangerous position.
Even though the bag was still over my head, I could see through it, but everything was blurry and shadowed, even with the bright lights. Where were we? I tried to move, but my body screamed as the pain of the hits I’d taken registered. My jaw ached, and my side felt like something was broken. The pain was sharp and made it hard to breathe. I was lying on something soft, but it stank like it was old and dusty. My nose wiggled as I held back a sneeze.
Pushing myself up with my arms, I tried to get the stupid material off my head, but it was tied too tight at the back. I could breathe okay, but the fear and the tug around my neck made it feel impossible. Holding my hands close to my face, I saw that my wrists had those awful white zip ties. They were cutting into my wrists and hurt every time I moved. Looking around, I tried to figure out where I was, but nothing seemed even familiar, and everything was shadow blobs through the stupid thing on my head.
The muffled voices were getting louder. “I don’t fucking care! Someone needs to pay, and you need to learn to take control. You’re a sap, a doormat, and it’s time you were a man.”
That was the man with the disgusting breath. Jerking upright, I didn’t care if I could see well or not. I tried to run but screamed as I stepped and realized my legs were tied together. I landed hard on the floor. It was hard and cold and looked all grey, like a factory floor.
“Did you hear that?”
Oh shit! They heard me. I rolled over and sat up, hoping to get back onto what I now realized was a couch, but the door slammed open with a bang.
“Think you’re going somewhere?” the man said as he stepped into the room. I couldn’t see his features, but the shadow of him with the light at his back told me he was a large man.
Two more men stepped into the room, but they were both wearing black and maybe animal masks. It was hard to tell between the material on my face and the terror trying to take control. What the hell did they want from me?
“Let me go, and I won’t tell anyone. I just want to go home,” I said, and the man in front of me laughed. “I mean it, I promise.”
“Oh, the word of a teenage girl, such a reliable source. How old are you? Fifteen, maybe sixteen? What are you doing in this area, anyway?”
“I came to see Kai fight.” I looked at the other two hooded figures and couldn’t tell if either was him, but the chances were good. “Kai, tell them we’re friends,” I said, still hoping he would step in and stop whatever the hell was going on.
The man in the middle bent over, and I could partially see his features. He had a long beard and dark eyes. He smiled, and I shivered. “Oh, that is very good news for me and very bad news for you.”
My forehead crinkled in confusion, but it didn’t last long as he stepped forward and ordered the other two men to grab me.
“Get off of me! Don’t fucking touch me,” I yelled, trying to yank my arms and feet away. “Kai, why are you doing this?”
I lifted my eyes to the man stuffing his arms into a leather jacket, and the sobs that overcame me wracked my body. What he just did was…I couldn’t even comprehend how I felt about it yet. It was the knowledge that it hadn’t been him. I’d sent him to prison, and it hadn’t been him.
The men who did this to me were free all this time. I knew two weren’t caught, but I never understood why Kai wouldn’t name his accomplices. Now I knew. He had no names to give.
Grabbing my pillow, I gripped it to my chest and rocked as I cried. They were the soul-shattering tears that only accompanied having your heart ripped out. I’d cried like this only once before, and it was the day my foster mother told me Kai had taken the deal and was going to prison. It had been the final confirmation that it was him. He didn’t try to fight it, didn’t say it wasn’t him, and didn’t want to look me in the eye. I thought he was guilty and too ashamed.
“Why?” I managed to get past my closed-off throat.
“Why what?” His face was hard as he looked at me. Those light blue eyes had always been cool with his bad-boy demeanor, but now they were ice. Nothing of the guy I remembered stared back at me.
“Why did you take the deal? Why didn’t you fight the charges? Why didn’t you force me to go to court and make this go away?”
Kai stomped toward me, and I instinctively backed up until I hit the wall and had nowhere else to go. I clung to the pillow like a shield, my fingers digging into the softness.
“Why? You want to know why?” he barked out, stopping at the side of the bed, his hands going to his hips.
He looked so different. Even in the poor light, the sweetness was all gone. Tattoos covered his neck, and even more were on his face. He was muscled and looked like he could snap my neck with a flick of his wrist. Yet, I still found myself cataloging every feature. He was still just as sexy, and even though it was crazy after what he’d just done to me, my heart fluttered with him here. I’d never stopped loving him. It was insanity and a loop of self-loathing mixed with the sense of loss and love that had my emotions trapped in a vortex of fucked up.
“Fuck, Tink. I had no money, a stupid public defender who could barely stay awake any time we spoke and who acted like I was lucky not to get life, and then on top of that, the Collinses abandoned me. Me and what army was going up against you in court?” He held his hands out to the side as the thunder rumbled again. The weather seemed to mirror the storm that had just gone through here.
“I could picture it playing out. You on the stand crying about how I molested you in your room, and you ran off to get away, only to have me attack you later and take what I wanted. Are you fucking kidding me? The judge or jury or whoever the fuck was listening was never going to believe me. I was the asshole that came from a bad family. My father was already doing time. I got into fights at school and fought illegally. I had no backup, no support, and no decent character witnesses. You were the only real thing in my life, the only one I trusted, and it was you I would’ve been fighting.”
