Page 70 of Bared Betrayal

Is that…do I hear…is that my name?

My heart explodes inside my chest as I try to yell, “Here!” But it’s barely a whisper. My lips are dry and cracked, my throat painfully raw from screaming when the monster had Maya in the room next door and I was forced to listen to her cries.

“We’re here,” I try again, my voice getting a little stronger. I move to the bars, grabbing the chain shackled around my ankle. If they can’t hear me, maybe they can hear if I bang the chains against the bars.

With every last ounce of strength, I raise my chains to hit the bars when the door bursts open, and for the briefest second, I think we’re saved. Our hell has finally come to an end. No more pain. No more fear. But that sliver of hope is short-lived when his broad frame fills the doorway, his menacing shadow falling over me.

“No,” I croak as I watch him grab my little sister. “Not her, please, not her. Take me.” He ignores my pleas, and I can hear her whimpers. “Please take me instead. I beg you.” I’m on my knees now, crawling to the door of my prison. “Don’t hurt her. Hurt me. Kill me! Motherfucker!”

He slams his fist into the bars, and my spine reverberates with it. “Shut up!”

“Please don’t hurt her.”

“We need to leave,” he growls as he holds her up, her dirty hair covering most of her face. Her body is weak, her limbs lifeless as he moves her around like a ragdoll.

“I can only take one of you with me.”

“Take me!” I plead, and he shakes his head.

There’s the barking again. The dogs. Voices coming closer, shouting our names.

Panic soars, and adrenaline floods my system as I lift the chain high above my head and hit it against the bar.

“Stop!” he demands through clenched teeth.

I hit again, each strike giving me more strength.

“Do that again, and she dies, I swear to God.” He jerks her against him and wraps his hand around her throat, her eyes meeting mine as she mouths, ‘Do it.’ She isn’t afraid, not anymore. She just wants it all to be over.

I hit the bars again and again. The barking gets louder, my need to be saved more desperate.

A loud bang echoes through the air, and light bursts through the dungeon. There is so much noise, shouting, banging, and barking. The lights are so bright, they hurt. It’s too much after what feels like an eternity of mostly nothing but silence between long bouts of pain. The monster thrusts my sister in front of him, using a child as a human shield. There are more beams of light coming from the entrance and shouts I can’t make out. I have no idea what’s happening through the eruption of chaos that surrounds us.

I watch in horror as the monster doesn’t realize how weak Maya is. He tries to hold her up with one hand so he can get a weapon with the other, but she crumples to the ground in a heap. I scream as shots echo in the concrete room, and I fall to the ground, trying to crawl my way to her.

“Help her,” I whisper through the chaos while my sister just lies there, unmoving, her body frail and broken. “Help her.”

“Kallie!”Gabriel’s voice rips me from the memory, and my legs give way beneath me. He catches me and tries to swoop me up, but I find my footing and press my palm against his chest.

“I’m fine.”

“You sure?” he asks, studying me.

“Yeah. I’m just dizzy.”

“You need to lie down.”

“You can’t tell Sebastian,” I blurt, and Gabriel stills in front of me.

“He doesn’t know?”

“Of course he doesn’t.”

“And you don’t think it’s a good idea to tell him?”

“Have you been paying attention?” I carefully put one foot in front of the other, walking across the carpet to the living room, and take a seat on the couch with Gabriel now towering over me. “Your son is a Hollywood star, Gabriel. The last thing he needs is my past to overshadow everything he’s worked for.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” He slants his brows, placing his hands on his hips. “You think he’ll care about his goddamn career when he finds out what happened to you?”