“Turn it up,” I barked, aware that I was being rude, yet too concerned by his image to care.
My heart rate picked up as the volume rose, but initially, there was nothing to hear except Harper’s panting breaths.Then, as though my worst nightmares had come back to taunt me, it was Jackson’s voice that splintered the silence of the suite.
“You deserve worse than this, Adam.”
The self-styled president’s tone was predictably imperious, but it was the unfolding scene that disturbed me more.I gripped the edge of the seat beside me as the camera drew away to reveal Harper’s plight, my mouth drying at what I saw.
Stripped from the waist up, Harper’s muscular arms were bound above his head, tied to what looked like a wooden rafter of sorts.He was on his knees, a position I knew would not enthrall him, but worse, as the camera panned to take in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree circle of him, I took in the bloodied lashes already carved into his broad back and shoulders.
“Oh, God.”My free hand rose to cover my mouth at the sickening sight.“Look what they’ve done to him!”
“Shall I switch it off?”Akari asked, her gaze darting between me and the screen.
“No!”I shouted, drawing nearer to the screen as though there was some way I could intervene in the barbaric display.
I’d been prepared to witness his pain.I’d been the one who’d warned him about the consequences of stepping foot in Jackson’s territory again in the first place, after all, but I’d never thought through what that would truly mean, and never in my most heinous nightmares had I contemplated watching his suffering live on television.Only Jackson could have conjured vengeance so revolting that it stirred actual nausea.
“We both know you deserve worse,” Jackson shouted, no doubt for dramatic effect.“For what you’ve done to your country, for what you’ve done to me, you deserve to hang.Don’t you?”
“Yes, Mr.President.”
Tension resounded in Harper’s voice, his fingers stretching around the ropes holding his wrists in place as though he was clinging to the bondage for dear life.There was a bitter sense of irony in seeing him so belittled and abused.I’d had the pleasure of getting to know the man beneath the uniform, but his affection for me didn’t negate the things he’d participated in before we met.Harper had presided over the agony of Fortorus.He’d overseen the capture and captivity of thousands of innocent women, knowing full well they’d be subject to similar binds and tribulations.
My eyes flitted fleetingly closed at the bewildering paradox.Once upon a time, I was hungry to see men like Harper on their knees, suffering the way we had all suffered.But witnessing his pain had proved there was no satisfaction in the act, and it wasn’t only because I loved him.Leaving Fortorus had helped me to see there was little solace in retaliation.The best revenge for what Jackson and his cohort had done to me, and to my country, was for me to move on, to heal, and ultimately, to be happy.I knew that would stick in his craw far more than anything the ICC could hand out.
“Yet somehow, here you are...”The camera panned to show Jackson, sitting proudly on what looked like a golden throne, staring smugly at the man he’d called a friend.“Getting away with fucking treason.”
“Treason?”My focus flitted to Akari, who looked equally as dumbfounded by the unraveling events on board the Traditional Values.
Jackson had no tangible reason to think Harper was treasonous.His commander general had left him and absconded with a prisoner of the state, but as far as the grubby, fat man sitting on the throne knew, Harper had divulged nothing to the foreign authorities that suggested he wanted to overthrow the British government.If my assumption was true, the whole sorry performance being aired to goodness only knew how many countries was all only for Jackson’s pleasure.If he’d truly known what Harper had told the Swiss, then my master would surely be dead already.
I shivered at the prospect while the camera flicked back to its original angle, highlighting Harper’s face while Jackson spoke.Harper’s brow rose, presumably at the idea that he was ‘getting away’ with anything, and despite my heartache at the burden he faced, my lips twitched at the gesture.Even then, in the midst of dreadful pain, he was still the man I’d fallen in love with.Still the same ‘know-it-all’ Harper.
“Adam.”My voice was thick with emotion as I issued the futile call.
He couldn’t hear me.He was God knew how far away, at the whims of a madman.I knew he couldn’t hear me.Yet I needed to cry out to him regardless, as though, somehow, he’d sense that I was there for him.Even if only in spirit.
I turned away as the unknown bastard holding the whip swung the thin tail at him again, cringing at his audible sharp intake of breath.Tears brimmed in my eyes as I imagined how much each strike must have hurt, and suddenly, I was in awe of how Harper was managing the affliction.
I knew from bitter experience how awful punishments like that could be, having witnessed scores of them at Fortorus, but I’d never had the misery of seeing one in such close-up detail.I also knew how the women receiving the whip had screamed and cried.I could only think Harper was holding back his natural responses in an attempt to deny Jackson what he wanted the most—to glory in his power over the weakened and humbled commander general.
“This is awful.”Akari was shaking her head as I turned back to look her way.I intentionally chose to avoid the screen as another crack filled the airwaves.
“This is exactly what Jackson wants.”Despite my heartache as the camera scanned across the dreadful scene, determination was coursing through my system, and I heard it laced in my voice.“He wants us to hurt watching this.To fear him, to fear the consequences of leaving him and to make sure no one else ever dares.”My hands balled at the bastard’s audacity.“He’ll fucking love this.”
My old friend anger was returning, its poison swimming through my veins in the way it always had when I’d been Harper and Mitchell’s prisoner.They had no right to keep me captive, just as Jackson had no right to hurt Harper that way.If Jackson had any genuine grievances to iron out with his so-called friend, then he should have been handling it man-to-man, not allowing somebody I’d never seen to thrash the life out of him.
“These fucking men.”Rage rolled over me in waves as I contemplated just how those men had systemically stripped me of my home, my rights, and my dignity, all in the name of taking power and spreading fear.“Haven’t they done enough damage?”
Akari inhaled as though she had no response, but the answer was smacking me in the face.
They had done more than enough.
“Have you got anything to say for yourself?”Jackson rose from his seat, his question stirring me from my bitter monologue.Motioning for the guy with the whip to halt his vile progress, Jackson loomed over the man I’d come to adore.
“Only what I’ve already said, Mr.President.”Harper glanced up at Jackson, those same expressive blue eyes that had surveyed my misery and humiliation on so many occasions finally subject to his own wretchedness.
Once more, I was struck by how I should have been ‘enjoying’ his torment.I loved him, yes, but Harper was an architect of the regime that had nearly destroyed me.He deserved to pay for the things he’d done, even if I was reticent to lose him to the penal system.But yet again, my lack of gratification was telling.After so much hate and hurt, there was nothing fulfilling about watching him suffer.Standing there, all I longed to do was to save him.
