Page 22 of Blood Ties

Riley

A s I hear the door unlock, I sit up quickly with an apology on my lips.

I know I pushed Kai too hard last night.

He raced out of here so fast, and hasn’t come back all day; he must be embarrassed, maybe even guilty.

I’ve been waiting to tell him that what happened is okay, that I consider it a compliment.

But it isn’t Kai coming down the steps.

I shrink back when I see Knox’s usual grin. He crosses the room and stops a foot away from the edge of my mattress. I glare up at him with as much strength as I can muster up.

“Where’s Kai?” I ask.

“How would you like a real shower today?”

I blink. Blink again. Try not to think about how good it sounds to have warm water on my skin, a chance to actually wash my hair. I set my jaw. “Where’s Kai?” I repeat.

Knox huffs a laugh. “He’s off hunting with Dad. Just you and me today.”

My mouth goes dry. “When will he be back?”

His grin turns vicious. “Didn’t you hear me?” Quick as a snake striking, his hand is around my neck. He drags me forward, off the edge of the mattress, so my knees scrape painfully against the concrete. He looks down at me, forcing my chin up. “You’re mine today, little whore.”

I try to speak, but his fingers are digging into my neck. I’m helpless to do anything but tremble in his grip. If Kai is really gone, then we both know Knox can do anything and everything he wants to me, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Still holding my neck, Knox lowers himself to a crouch. I force myself to maintain eye contact even as I shake, hoping my gaze conveys all of my hatred.

When he reaches into his pocket, I brace myself. I’ve made a mistake in antagonizing him. I fully expect him to pull out a knife — but instead, when his fingers unfurl, he reveals a key.

My eyes widen.

“Our little secret,” Knox whispers. He slides the key into my handcuff. When it turns, I hear a click, and the weight drops off of my wrist for the first time in... I don’t know how long it’s been. A week, at least.

Knox releases me and stands again. Still on my knees on the concrete, I reach over to rub my scraped raw — but now free — wrist. My eyes dart to the stairs, and I try to remember if I heard him shut and lock the door behind him. I don’t think so.

My eyes flick back to him, and I see him watching me.

“Not gonna get up?” he asks.

I swallow hard. This is a test. It has to be. “Am I allowed to?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper. Thinking back to our first night together, I add, “Sir?”

He looks surprised for a moment. And then he laughs.

“What a good girl,” he says, mocking. He grabs me by the hair and yanks me to my feet, and I yelp as he drags me close to him.

“I liked you better when you had some fight in you,” he whispers in my ear, and kisses me.

I try to pull away, but it’s no use. I never had much of a chance of competing with someone Knox’s size, and after days of wasting away in the dark with hardly anything to eat, I’m weaker than ever.

He tosses me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing at all.

I thrash against him, beating my fists against his back, as he carries me up the stairs.

As much as I’ve longed to escape from this basement, right now I feel nothing but panic, and a flicker of déjà vu as he hauls me up to the second floor.

I scream — but Knox only laughs, and nobody comes running.

The house is empty as he carries me up the stairs.

Without even Kai around to witness, what will Knox do? Is he going to kill me?

I fight as hard as I can the entire way, my vision obscured by my own lank, greasy hair.

When Knox finally comes to a stop, I’m panting for air.

He flips me and sets me on my feet — and I’m shocked to look around and realize I’m in the bathroom.

It’s cluttered and not exactly clean, with grime in the grout between tiles and mineral build-up around the sink faucet, but it’s still leagues better than my nasty set-up in the basement.

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” Knox mutters. He’s breathing a little harder, too, as he locks the door behind us. “All that drama over a shower?”

I’m frozen in place, nails digging into my palms. Did he really release me just to give me a shower? There has to be some kind of trick. Knox would never give me a gift without strings attached.

I flinch when he reaches my way, but he only leans past me to turn the shower knob.

The water begins in spurts, and soon it’s a steady stream.

Warm steam drifts off of it. I want so badly to get in there, but I can’t bring myself to take my eyes off of Knox.

There has to be some cruelty hidden in this kindness.

He growls under his breath. “C’mon. I don’t know how much time we have.

” He grabs the hem of my shirt and yanks it up.

I let him pull it over my head, and then step back, moving to discard the rest of my clothes myself.

There’s no point in trying to be modest. It’s clear he doesn’t intend to leave me in here alone, and it’s not like it’s anything he hasn’t seen before.

I keep my eyes fixed on my dirty feet as I discard my shorts and panties, leaving me entirely bare before him.

Knox only leans back against the locked door, watching me, so I turn and climb into the shower.

The sensation of warm water makes me want to cry.

I shut my eyes and tilt my head back, letting it cascade over my face, my hair, my body.

For a few seconds I just stand there, enjoying the sensation.

Then I remember that I don’t know how much time Knox will give me.

I open my eyes and reach hastily for the toiletries.

I wash my hair, groaning in pleasure as I massage it into my scalp.

There’s even conditioner, and face wash.

I scrub every piece of my body until my skin is pink and sensitive.

There’s no razer in here, so nothing to do about the hair growing out beneath my arms and between my legs, but I still feel a million miles better.

Even when the water starts to run cold, I stay under the stream, shivering and clean.

Then Knox reaches in to shut off the shower, and reality sinks in again. I blink away droplets of water and turn to look at him. Goosebumps ripple over my skin as I see the way he’s staring at me, making me freshly aware of how naked and vulnerable I am.

“Get out,” he says. Quiet and dangerous.

I swallow and obey. The tile is cold against my bare feet and my nipples are pebbling in the cooling air. Water drips from the ends of my hair, running down over my hips and pooling at my feet. I resist the urge to cover myself, and instead stare Knox down, willing myself not to be afraid.

His lips quirk. “I’m going to give you a choice,” he says. “You can have your clothes back... or you can have a twenty second head start.”

I blink. I don’t quite understand, but there’s a chill growing inside of me. “A head start to do what?”

He tilts his head, eyes narrowing. “Run.”

I stare at him for a moment. If I ask for my clothes back, does that mean he’ll just take me back to the basement? If I try to run, will he kill me if he catches me? How much am I willing to risk for a chance to escape?

Maybe my hesitation makes the decision for me, or maybe Knox sees my answer in my eyes.

“Twenty,” he says.

I lunge for the locked door. My wet fingers slip against the lock.

He laughs. “Nineteen... eighteen...”

I fling the door open and run. Knox doesn’t move, but the sound of his voice follows me as I sprint down the hallway, soaked and naked, bare feet leaving wet footprints behind me.

“Seventeen, sixteen...”

There’s no point in hiding when I’m leaving a clear trail. I have to run.

My feet slip against the stairs as I race down, but I make it down to the living room. I try not to think about that last night here, about spin the bottle, about whether or not Knox is going to kill me if he catches me. I focus on the door at the front of the house.

By the time I reach it, Knox’s boots are pounding down the stairs.

That bastard— There’s no way that was twenty seconds— But the door is open and I’m running, kicking up dirt, my clean feet quickly caked in mud.

I remember getting lost in the maze of the junkyard, so I head the opposite way, toward the barn.

Fuck, I’m weak. I’m already waning, a stitch cramping my side, my bare feet stinging. But there’s nothing to do but keep running. I don’t dare look back to see how close Knox is. I can’t hear his footsteps over my own frantic panting, but I know he’s coming.

I yank open the door to the barn and stumble in, and—

And stop, my mind going blank with horror. This isn’t an animal pen.

The concrete floor is stained rusty brown. So is the metal table in the center of the room, which has straps on the sides to restrain someone. My eyes dart from the rusty drain on the floor to the tools hanging on the wall. A bone saw, a meat cleaver—

A weight slams into me from behind. I cry out, and a hand clamps over my mouth.

“Looks like you found the butcher room,” Knox whispers into my ear.

He sounds giddy, barely even out of breath.

His other arm snakes around my waist, holding my naked body against him.

He’s rock-hard, erection straining against his jeans as he grinds against my naked ass.

Too late, I realize this was all just foreplay for him.

He cleaned me up and chased me down knowing it was always going to end like this.

“This is where my brother chopped up your friends.”

“No,” I moan, muffled against his palm.

“Yes.” His hand slides from my mouth to my neck, his grip almost a caress, his breath hot in my ear. “Kai dragged their bodies here and he cut them into pieces. Then he fed the pieces to the pigs.”

Tears run down my face. “Stop. Stop—”

“No,” he says. “I caught you. You lost. Now it’s time for my prize.”

I thought I was getting numb to the horror of this situation.

But when Knox shoves me forward and I realize what he intends to do, I scream and recoil.

It’s no use, I’m already exhausted and so much weaker than he is.

I can’t stop him as he bends me over that bloodstained metal table and unzips his pants.

He grabs me by the back of the neck and shoves me facedown on the table, my cheek pressing hard into the metal.

He pushes into me from behind in one brutal thrust.

It hurts — the stretch of him inside me, the table’s edge digging into my hips. But I almost relish the pain, because it’s a distraction from the bone-deep terror of this room, and the mental image he planted in my head.

I had almost fooled myself into thinking that Kai wasn’t a complete monster like the rest of them, that maybe there was something gentle and good in him. But now all I can think of is him standing over this table with a cleaver in his hand.

Knox grunts and swears. “You’re so fucking tight.” His hips slam against my ass as he fucks me, a dull slap of flesh that makes me think of a blade sinking into meat. Kai swinging the blade.

The only blessing is that it doesn’t take long.

But when he jerks and gasps and thrusts deep inside of me as he finishes, I just lay there, limp.

Even when he zips up and scoops me off my feet to bring me back to the basement, I can’t bring myself to move.

I’ve lost the will to fight. Maybe that was his goal this whole time.