I want to fucking rage. I want to rip this piece of shit apart. I want to tear the fucking government apart one by one for letting this motherfucker slip through the cracks and foster a child. A haze slips over my vision, and with total clarity, I come to a quick conclusion that the man in front of me is a dead man walking. I might be trapped beneath the binds of this chair, straddling a thin line between life and death, but I will do whatever I have to do to keep his attention on me. At least until Creed and Asher find us. Findher.And I will revel in the moment he takes his lastbreath, because there’s not a chance in hell that either of them will allow this man to even walk out of this room alive.
“Why?” Is the only question that whooshes past my lips. It’s a small question, but it’s a fucking loaded one that can keep him talking and focused on me.I hope. I don’t actuallywantto know his reasons because none of them will justify his sick behavior and the abuse he’s inflicted on Collins.
He tucks a hand into his pocket while the other runs through his perfectly styled hair like this is about to be the most mundane conversation he’s ever had.
He then looks at me, and I truly understand the severity of what Collins had said when she told me and Creed that Guy was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Apart from the manic look in his eyes, he looks like a typical, wealthy businessman. You’d never guess that a man who looks and dresses the way he does, would actually be better suited behind the quarantined doors of a psych ward.
“I thought I had it all, you know?” he starts. “I’d taken over as CEO when my father retired, and the money never stopped flowing in. I had a wife. She was my childhood sweetheart, or at least, that’s how she described us. For me, she was a perfect match because she got off on pain, and I got off on inflicting it. She liked it rough and raw. You can believe I played out every single one of her depraved little fantasies in spades.” He pauses, pressing his tongue into his cheek the moment his sadistic smile fades.
“But she put a stop to all of it when she decided she wanted a fucking baby.” He spits. “We married young, and she wasted no time trying to start our own family. I didn’t want children, especially knowing that sex would become a routine and timed thing. The thought of having to plan my orgasms made it no longer enjoyable. But I couldn’t talk her off of that ledge, so I decided that if she was pregnant and busy with a baby, I’d beable to get my dick wet elsewhere with women who would take it as rough as I gave it.”
Dread settles over me while he speaks, hoping like fuck he didn’t succeed in spawning any of his own offspring into this world. My brain snags on the fact that he said hehada wife. As in, past tense. Did he hurt her, too? Kill her?
My questions don’t sit and fester for very long because he goes on. “She never did conceive, and it killed my dreams. My wife wanted to be a mother so fucking badly that it blinded her. I loved her in my own way. The excitement of our marriage was over, so I wanted her happy and distracted. So, I agreed to apply to become foster parents when she brought it up.”
My shoulder throbs in pain, but I ignore it. It’s hard enough to focus on what he’s saying. It makes absolutely no sense.
He moves to sit on the corner of the bed, and my spine stiffens at his close proximity to Collins.
“It took years before we were finally paired up with a child. My wife was fucking thrilled. I wasn’t. I was fucking livid. Well…that’s a lie. I was thrilled because she was finally getting the little distraction that would give me my fucking sex life back. That is, until they ushered mylittle girlacross the threshold of my home.” He reaches out and strokes the entire length of Collins’ leg, stopping just shy of the apex of her thighs. I jerk against the ropes.
“Don’t fucking touch her—” I yell again. His only response is a bone-chilling grin at my helplessness.
“I knew immediately that she wasn’t going to burden my life. No,” he says, adjusting himself behind his slacks, and I gnash my teeth at him, snarling curses for being so aroused at the thought of Collins when she was nothing more than a minor. He ignores me, staring down at her with a sick sense of reverence as he continues, “she was going to beexactlywhat I needed.”
I really,reallydon’t want to hear any more. My eyes well with tears, but I hold them back.
“And she was,” he explains, finally looking at me expectantly, like I’m going to agree with him or praise him for turning Collins into his personal punching bag. “With my wife, I was a sadist, and she the masochist. But soon enough, with Collins around, it wasn’t enough. Something… evolved up here.” He taps his temple. “I didn’t give a shit about my wife’s pleasure anymore. I only wanted one thing, and I couldn’t have it. So all I wanted in the meantime was to inflict pain, but her screams did nothing for my dick.” He shakes his head, looking dejected. “I started cutting her, and she didn’t like that. So when the pain became too much for her to handle, she bolted. She was so desperate to get away, she didn’t eventryto take Collins with her. Whenshe’sthe one who wanted so badly to be a mother in the first place.”
Guy stands and makes his way to a metal storage cabinet in the corner of the room. He opens both doors slowly, and all the blood drains from my face when I see the vast array of tools and weapons stored inside. Floggers, whips, and paddles are the least of my worries when I spot several sharp blades holstered to the inner doors.
He runs his fingers delicately over each knife before selecting what looks like a surgical blade. He leaves the cabinet open as a warning, a reminder of what’s to come. He saunters back over until he’s standing in front of me and stares at the blade pinched between his fingers. A distant reverence settles over his cruel eyes when he speaks.
“I thought I’d be pissed about my wife leaving me. But honestly, she was just becoming an object that was in the way of my newest obsession. I guess if I ever see her again I’ll have to thank her for being a selfish bitch and abandoning Collins with me. She turned out to be my perfect little toy.”
“She’s not your anything, you piece of shit!” I spit at him, my vitriol rivaling his own. “What you are, is delusional and fucking sick in the head.” No sooner have the words left my mouth does Guy’s free hand lash out, and my head snaps back at the force of his punch. Blood gushes from my brow as I bite back a pained groan. His hand grips my hair, lifting my head as he lowers his own, putting us nose to nose. My vision burns and blurs in one eye as blood trickles into my waterline. I’m fucking dizzy and afraid I’m going to pass out again, but I refuse to go down without fighting this fucker every step of the way. I rear back out of his grip before throwing as much power as I can muster behind slamming my forehead right into Guy’s nose with a satisfying crack.
He howls in pain, clutching his face with one hand while the other flips the cap from the knife. He wipes just beneath his now-crooked nose, and blood smears across his face as he growls. “You teach mylittle girlthat move, you little prick?”
It takes me a moment to realize that Collins must have gotten a hit in on him, too. Pride swells in my chest for my brave girl just before Guy drives the blade down into my right thigh. It’s a new kind of shock to my system and this time, the pain is too much to stifle a cry. He pulls the blade from the muscle, and I’m momentarily relieved to see that the blood isn’t spreading too fast, having missed the important arteries. My leg now throbs in tandem with the pulsing pain in my shoulder, reigniting fever chills all over my body.
“Sheismine,” Guy snarls, wiping my blood from the knife onto his now blood-stained khakis from his broken nose. “We were only just getting started two years ago. I’d just introduced her to the spreader bar and showed her all the perfect places she could bruise and cut without being seen. I was going to own everything about her. Teach her how to crave it, but I had to bide my time until she aged out of the system. Her case workerfucking watched me like a hawk when my wife up and left. I had to be careful.”he says, turning toward Collins. “But this littlecuntescaped the pretty cage I’d built for her in my home, and it worked… for a little while. However, money always talks, and with the right connections and technology, I was able to hunt her down.”
He trails the blade from her cheek to her chin, the tip leaving a red welt in its wake before dropping to her sternum. He briefly pauses there when I yell out, jerking against my restraints. “Get thefuckaway from?—”
“You see,” he starts, giving me a pointed look and waves the bloody knife in my direction, continuing as if I weren’t screaming at him, “that’s almost the exact warning I gave to Collins when she’d been spotted at the mall with you a few months ago. To keep herfucking handsto herself. But alas, she didn’t listen.” He presses the blade against her sternum once more, this time with more pressure, and a tiny trickle of blood bubbles up beneath the blade. Collins whimpers but otherwise remains unmoving. She’s deep inside of her mind right now, and I hope to God she stays there.
“Every time she was spotted in public after that, she had her fucking hands and eyes all over you. Imagine my surprise when I find out she’s not only defying me by fucking you, but she’s got your best friend on his knees for her as well. And that cocksucker is even worse than you are when it comes to her.”
The blood rushes from my extremities at the mention of Creed. What if Guy got to him, too, and we really are fucked here? I mentally shake my head because I can’t lose hope. There are a fuck-ton of people out there who are doing nothing short of tearing this country apart piece by piece to find us. To findCollins.
I scream and curse him when he moves to cut her again. I jerk so hard that the chair thumps loudly on the ground,startling Guy. He meets my eyes, and it’s downright horrifying to see the complete absence of humanity in his gaze. The way he’s looking at me is utterly frenzied and unhinged, but worse than that, he’s fucking aroused.
“You’re fucking sick!”I scream, making as big of a scene as I can in my weakened state to attempt to keep his attention on me. “You’re a fucking sadist.” The words leave my lips as more of a growl, and I lean forward, ignoring the stab of pain in my shoulder and thigh. “You wanna hurt somebody? Fine, fucking hurt me. You tried to kill me once, and you fucking failed at that, so come at me again you fucking pussy!” I challenge. When he continues to stare at me, I thump my chair on the floor again, taunting him. “Fucking do it!”
Guy looks at me bewildered for a moment, before he begins to laugh. It starts low but grows in both volume and malevolence. Through his laughter, he drags a hand through his perfectly styled hair. “You stupid fuckingboy.”
He crosses the floor in two steps and grabs me by my jaw with a bruising grip and lowers his face until he’s inches from mine. “While I will enjoy hurting you, I’m no real sadist.”
