Ibanged my head pretty hard during that fall. When I came back upstairs and the boys saw me swaying, Fiz made me up a bag of ice and demanded I sit with it the rest of the evening. It’s not my skull that hurts. It’s this foreign guilt twisting my stomach into nauseating bunches that’s making me sick.
Sure, stuffing her in my basement, which also serves as a morgue, with a shock collar on might be overkill, but I lost it. I just fucking lost it and I didn’t know what else to do to make her stop. That whining, those teary eyes. We’re so lucky we didn’t break anything down those steps, although my ribs feel a bit off. Not that I’m about to tell them that and have them fuss over me more.
It wasn’t just that. Milo had got back to me and couldn’t find any proof about any rumours about her, it’s just word of mouth. She had a shitty upbringing and never had any friends. The girl’s pathetic. And it made me mad that she’s fighting off the one good thing that could come to her. She could have a good life here and she’s refusing. It’s driving me insane already.
Fiz and Alf have crowded me on the sofa, sitting too close to let me breathe easily, despite my insistence that I’m absolutely fine.
“This isn’t looking too good, buddy,” Fiz says.
They didn’t comment when I told them what I did with her. It’s certainly not the worst thing I’ve done to another person, but they seem to like her, Alf especially. I was expecting a little beratement at my dramatic punishment.
“You can’t keep on doing this with her,” Alf says, “if it’s this bad, you can’t take a lifetime of it. You’re going to have to come to some sort of agreement.”
“There’s no agreeing with her. There wasn’t any leeway before this, so now?” I say and trail off. There’s no way she’s going to comply after locking her in a room full of dead bodies.
Alfie clasps his hands together and rests his head on them. “You’ve got to think of something.”
Fiz jumps in with the enthusiasm of a child. “Why don’t you make a bet?”
I sigh, not having the energy to indulge him right now. “Fiz.”
“No, seriously, why don’t you bet something with her? If she loses, she has to stay and behave. Suck your cock at the click of a finger. And if she wins, she can go.”
“Fiz, I can’t let her go, can I? Do you not think if I had any choice in this marriage she’d already be gone?”
Fiz just chuckles. “Obviously, dummy. You make a bet she can’t win. Duh.”
Alfie lifts his head. “That actually might work.”
I let my head drop onto the back of the couch. “What makes you think she’ll uphold her end of the deal when she loses?”
Alfie sighs. “You just make her life as much of a hell as you can. She’ll soon come to her senses. Realise she’ll never get out so might as well stop fighting it. Won’t be hard, just make hersleep in bed with you every night. That’ll make her reevaluate her objectives.”
I shoot him a glare. “I’m not that fucking bad.”
Alf chuckles. “No, not like that. Each time I’ve gone into your room to get her, she’s been lying on the floor. Has an aversion to mattresses, apparently.”
My head flips upside down, launched back years to my time in the military. After a year of sleeping on cots and rocks, I couldn’t bear the softness of a mattress for months. Is that what Elodie’s been going through, has she not even had a bed in her own home?
I haven’t slept in my own bed since she arrived. Haven’t dared to be that close to her. I assumed she’d be in the bed, not on the damn floor.
I blow out a long breath, bringing myself back before the flashbacks kick off again. “Making her sleep on a bed would only be the tip of the iceberg if she didn’t uphold her end.”
Fiz chimes in. “Don’t worry about that for now, just focus on thinking what you could convince her to do. Make the stakes something she can’t refuse. Offer her loads of money to get going with, offer her a one-way ticket to the other side of the world or something. Just make the bet something she could never win.”
A lightbulb goes off in my head. “I think I might know just the thing.”
***
I leave her down there for the night, let her think about her actions, in the probably futile hope it’d crack her unyielding spirit, perhaps make her more amenable by morning. I went back to my own room to sleep, a spare bedroom doesn’t provide the same comfort as your own sanctuary. I collapsed into bed, head still spinning. Even though I knew now she doesn’t sleep in there, that sweet scent of hers was everywhere.
She suffocates me with it every time I’m near her, but she wasn’t even in the room and I could smell it. It clung to the air and invaded my body with every breath I took. I groaned and shoved my head under the pillow and remained like that until morning.
Looking at me, you wouldn’t think I slept in my own bed. My eyes are still bloodshot, sunken over purple sacs. I look dead this morning. Elodie probably looks worse though. Every now and then I buzzed her collar, just to remind her why she was there.
I have breakfast with the boys before going down to her, Fiz and Alf following closely at my heels.
Once we reach the basement, I turn the light on for the first time since I brought her down here.
