“Baby, it’s me. It’s Jared.”
“F-Fergus, no!” she cried, too far gone to pay any attention to the words coming from the man’s mouth.
All she knew was that he was bigger than her and that he might hurt her.
So she did what she knew Fergus loved. She got on her knees and laid her chest on the floor, her head to the side, her arms splayed out.
Completely at his mercy.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t stop the shaking or the tears dripping down her face. But that didn’t matter.
Fergus loved making her cry.
“Fuck. Fuck.”
“She’s stuck in a nightmare,” another voice said.
A whimper escaped her. Oh God. There was someone else with him. Sometimes he did that.
Brought someone else with him to punish her.
She couldn’t . . . she couldn’t.
“She was having a nightmare and I came in to wake her. Only I fucking scared the shit out of her and she ran and hid. And now . . . now this.”
There was a broken note in his voice which made no sense. Actually, his voice wasn’t really making any sense. Why did he sound so upset?
Shouldn’t he be happy that she was breaking? That she was so upset?
That she was submitting to punishment even though she didn’t know what she had done?
Maybe it was because she’d fallen asleep. Perhaps she’d slept through dinner. He hated when she did that.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Baby, please, you have to stop,” someone begged her.
Someone who wasn’t Fergus.
Because Fergus didn’t call her baby. And he would certainly never beg.
“Angie, you’re not there. You’re here with Jared. And with me. North,” the other man said coolly.
Strangely, it was his voice that cleared the fog of terror from her mind. Maybe because it was so matter-of-fact.
He didn’t sound worried or concerned or upset.
He sounded like nothing. And God, she wanted that right now. To have no reaction. No fear. No terror.
“You need to sit up now. You’re upsetting Jared,” North said. “This is unacceptable.”
“North,” the other voice warned.
“No. She needs to sit up. Right now. This isn’t who she is anymore. She’s not someone who just gives in to the fear. She fights it. Fight it, Angie. Show us all how strong you are.”
But she wasn’t. It was all an act. A stupid act.
“I’m not strong,” she said as she realized what had happened.
