“Someone shut him up,” Cortez snapped, pointing over to Sutton who was trying to hold back the sobs of grief for the wife he’d loved, hated, and lost in a mere matter of minutes. I couldn’t see what they did to him, but the sound of flesh meeting flesh silenced him enough for the beating to end quickly.
Chester sighed, scratching the back of his neck as he surveyed everything around him.
“If it ain’t bitches, it’s kids. If it ain’t kids, it’s cops. This is already getting too sloppy.”
Someone beside him started talking, a man I didn’t know with a voice so rich and thick that it sounded almost comical in this fucked up situation. “Want me to clean up the mess?”
“Not yet. I came here for revenge and that’s exactly what I’m going to get.”
I blinked slowly, turning my attention back to him as I tried to focus through the haze of my left eye that was quickly swelling to the point of rendering me blind. As if having the same thoughts as I was having, Cortez stared at me for the longest time before making his final decision.
Turning to face his men, he tossed his knife on the floor and clasped his hands together. “Get him down from there. It’s time for the real shit to start before any more uninvited guests from unexpected love triangles show up.”
There should have been some feeling of relief flooding through me at the mention of getting me down, but I knew that in this world it only meant something even worse was about to happen. I took a moment to close my eyes and gather some strength, regulate my breathing and try to do a full body analysis of what muscles were still of use to me and which were shot to absolute shit.
Ayda barely made a noise as they moved her around, only a small whimper escaping her followed by a sniff as she tried to keep her emotions in check. With my eyes closed, it was like I could sense her more. I could feel what she was feeling. I was aware of something that I hadn’t felt before that night—our unexplainable connection.
When the chains around me were loosened, the fire started to roll through my arms. As my muscles slowly fell and the chains allowed me to drop down, someone came to grab me around my thighs to catch me. It was only when I opened my eyes slowly that I realized they weren’t there to catch me at all. They were there to restrain me before I could regain any power in my arms to use against them.
They didn’t have to worry about that. My body was fucked. My chest ached, having been stretched out. The burn in my biceps was raw, like a million tiny needles were being forced in and out of my skin repeatedly as the blood tried desperately to feed its way through all the veins that it had been starving for so long. My vision blurred for a few seconds before I was dumped to my feet, my legs immediately giving way and forcing me straight down to the concrete.
With the ends of the chains still wrapped around my wrists, I brought them crashing down around me, each steel link clapping together in a thunderous roar.
I couldn’t help the groan that forced its way out of my throat as I rolled over, but it wasn’t long before my hands were pulled together in front of me by some fucking beast of a man. His palms were so big, I was starting to believe I was hallucinating and King fucking Kong was the one manhandling me.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
Then I was dragged over into the middle of the warehouse like some kind of animal, and all I could do was wait and wait and wait until my body started waking up again. For now, I was useless. Lifeless. Like a limp dick in a brothel. I couldn’t do shit.
When I was eventually dumped on my ass and forced to sit up, I saw her.
They were treating her the same way they were treating me. A push here, a shove there, a sly kick to get into place until we were both made to sit directly in front of one another, my legs around her waist and hers around mine. It was like some sick, twisted, perverted show, two bodies being made to press up against one another, chest to chest, blood to blood,when, even though I couldn’t think of anything better than holding her, I didn’t want her close to me like this. I didn’t want my blood on her skin.
Forcing myself to look up into her eyes, her fear and pain stared straight back and I swallowed instantly.
“Foreheads together,” Cortez ordered quietly.
Ayda’s mouth moved, but no sound came out. I didn’t need to hear it to know she was saying my name.
Flaring my nostrils, I pulled in a breath and tightened my legs around her. I couldn’t show her any other way, not with all those men around, but I wanted her to feel me, to understand that I was there and that if I could find a miracle in any of this shit, I would.
“I’m sorry,” I said in a rush of breath.
Her newly liberated hands fell to my legs. One of her fingers was sitting wrong, but her eyes weren’t on her hands, they were on my face. I could feel the shake of her head as she catalogued the injuries she could see. When she finally did open her mouth to speak, her voice was a hoarse whisper of the one I recognized. “I love you, Drew.”
Whoever was behind me started to unwind the chains from around my wrist, and something else that should have felt like a blessing left me feeling like I was having knives pulled out of my tender skin. I winced in front of her, unable to stop myself from gritting my teeth before I pulled my arms free so they were in between us and let my hands carefully fall to her waist.
Just touching her felt like some kind of medicine.
“I love you,” I whispered back. My lips could barely move and my eyes were now scanning her face as much as they could, taking in every tear track, every fleck of dirt, everyfreckle that I’d ever had the pleasure of waking up next to. “And I’m sorry. I promise you, you’re going to make it out of this.”
Cortez faked a cough beside us, his knees cracking loudly as he bent down to our level. “Do you two want a minute alone?” he said through a pout. “Maybe say your vows, a prayer, recite a poem to her from your new, mushy, warm heart, Tucker?”
I tried to pull her closer and run calming circles over her waist with my thumbs. It hurt to do anything, to use any muscle I had, but I didn’t care as long as I had her in my grip.
“I love you,” I repeated, ignoring Cortez. “No matter what happens, remember that. You were the one who made a man out of me.”
There was a flash of determination behind her eyes that seemed to disappear just as quickly, the resolution immediate. “I tried to run, just like you told me, but it was useless. I love you, too, and nothing will ever change that.”
