Page 28 of Blood Ties

Riley

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“S HIT,” I WHISPER, STARING up at the basement ceiling.

I should be thinking of ways to escape. Remembering my dead friends and my parents and my life outside. But instead I’ve been lying on this lumpy mattress all day thinking about nothing but Kai, Kai, Kai.

This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. I’m supposed to be manipulating him. Using him. I’m not supposed to get attached.

A part of me still wants to kill him. But... God, it’s hard to cling to hatred when he’s the only good thing about my day. Every kindness I receive — food, clothes, a gentle touch — is directly from his hand, and it’s fucking with my head.

I drag my palm over my face. I hate myself for feeling like this. For being so weak. It has to be Stockholm Syndrome, or something. There has to be an explanation other than me being a completely brainless fool catching feelings for a man who helped kill my friends.

My friends . Thinking about them feels like pressing on a bruise, but I force my thoughts to stay there.

I need to think of them instead of Kai. I need to make sure I don’t forget.

I’m terrified of memories slipping away in the long hours down here — terrified that one day I’ll wake up and realize I’ve forgotten the sound of May’s laugh.

“My best friend,” I whisper to the silence of the basement.

I think about her smile, her eyes, her voice.

I never had a best friend before May. I spent most of my life floating from friend group to friend group.

Never friendless, but never a part of anyone’s inside circle.

It was part of what drove me to leave California for college.

I wanted a fresh start, an escape from the person I’d always been: the quiet one, the good girl, the straight-A student who always did what she was supposed to do.

Despite all of my determination, I walked into the dorms freshman year absolutely terrified.

May intimidated me so badly the first time I saw her.

I couldn’t believe I was supposed to share a room with a girl like her — blonde and pretty and confident, all of the things I wasn’t.

But then she smiled at me and said, “I can tell we’re going to be friends.

” The next year proved her right, in a long stretch of late nights talking, and holding each other’s hair back, and the occasional shouting match over cleaning that somehow left us laughing afterward.

Sophomore year we moved into a shared apartment, and became fast friends with another unlikely duo in the place next door: Felix and Caleb.

Other friends came and went, but the four of us always stuck close together. We were talking about renting a house together for our senior year. I thought we were going to grow old together.

But now I’m the only one left.

I shut my eyes and let myself simmer in that pain. That sorrow, that anger, that loss... that’s why I’m doing all of this. I need to stay alive for my friends’ sake, and I need to stop feeling sympathy for the man who fucking butchered them.

While I’m stuck here waiting for Kai, I decide to make some rules.

Rule number one: no emotional attachment.

Lust is fine. Lust is good — he’s a virgin, so it’s an obvious vulnerability I can use. And it’s fine for me to be attracted to him. It makes my life easier. But just because he’s hot doesn’t mean I care about him. I can compartmentalize. I have to compartmentalize.

But it’ll be easier if I draw a physical line for myself as well.

Rule number two: no orgasms.

For me only, obviously. It shouldn’t be hard, right? He doesn’t know what he’s doing. I’ll focus on his pleasure and his pleasure only. I don’t need all of those good brain chemicals getting involved and confusing me if he gets me off.

Rule number three: focus on the goal.

And my goal is the same as it always been — to escape. But more than that, to survive , no matter what it takes.

If — when , I tell myself fiercely — when I get out of these chains someday, if Kai stands between me and my exit, I can’t hesitate.

Not even for a second. I need to be exactly as ruthless as his family has been to me.

If Kai has to die in order for me to live, then I will shove a knife straight through his ribs.

Kai is a means to an end. Nothing more.

But as the basement door creaks open, I’m reminded that Kai isn’t the only part of my plan that could go wrong. From the first thud of a boot on the step, I know Kai isn’t the one coming down tonight.

I shrink back against the wall, hugging my knees to my chest, as Knox descends the staircase.

“Miss me?” he asks.

I stare down at the mattress in silence.

“Nah, I guess not,” he says. “You’ve been plenty busy with Kai, huh?”

My entire body prickles with the awareness of him as he stalks closer. My heart beats faster, my breath quickening. But I refuse to show my fear. I know it only makes this more enjoyable for him.

“You think I don’t see what you’re doing?

I’m not stupid enough to fall for it... but you know that.

That’s why you’re aiming for my little brother, huh?

Getting him all wrapped around your finger?

” He smirks. “Or should I say getting your fingers all wrapped around him?” He makes a jerk-off motion with his hand.

I flush despite myself. Not because of the lewdness, but because it’s weirdly on-the-mark. Does he know? Does Kai tell him about us?

The thought leaves me feeling embarrassed. Betrayed. I assumed Kai didn’t get along well with his brother. But I guess I’ve assumed a lot of things.

At the end of the day, I’ve only seen glimpses of Kai during our encounters in the basement. I don’t know what happens outside of it.

“But that’s fine. You wanna save the good shit for me, I’m all for it.”

Knox drops down to one knee on the edge of the mattress. My spine presses into the wall as I try to back away, but I’m cornered. Chained.

Tears prick my eyes. There’s nothing I can do, nowhere I can go. No matter how much I scream and fight, I can’t get away. It probably only makes it better for him.

Thinking back, it definitely makes it better for him. Knox gave me an opportunity to run just so he could chase me. There’s a grin on his face now as he crawls over the mattress toward me.

He likes the chase. The fight. So maybe... I won’t give him one.

I let my arms fall slack at my sides. Let the tension drain from my body. When he grabs my ankle and pulls me toward him, I go fully limp, letting him drag me across the sheets.

Knox pauses. “What? Giving up already?” He slides his hand up the inside of my leg, caressing my thigh. I stare into space.

His hand moves further up, palming me possessively between the legs.

“Ready to finally admit you like it?” he asks, his voice rough.

Still, I don’t move. Don’t speak. He shoves a hand under my shirt and pinches my nipple until it hurts, but I tamp my response down to the smallest wince.

I let him manhandle me, yanking my shorts and underwear down and shoving my legs apart to expose my body to him. He seems faintly puzzled — and more than a little frustrated. I was right. This is making it less fun for him.

“Not bored of me already?” he asks. “But... eh, maybe you’re right. We gotta up the stakes a little.” He shifts back, releasing me, and looks around the basement. “Mmm... let’s see...” Knox’s eyes land on my backpack.

I shouldn’t react. I shouldn’t do anything. But the backpack is all I have left. It holds my only possessions, the only things that are still mine now that even my body is beyond my control. My only reminders that a world exists outside of the basement.

Including one important thing, which I suspect Knox knows, too.

I know it’s a mistake, but I lunge toward the bag anyway.

Knox kicks it out of the way before I can grab it, and the shackle around my wrist snaps taut. My hand is stuck, straining, an inch from the strap.

Knox lets out a low laugh. “Nice try.” He crouches down and upturns the backpack, shaking all of my possessions out onto the dirty concrete floor.

My hand droops in the air, and I pull back, huddling on the mattress and watching miserably as Knox combs through my things.

He tosses my few pairs of clothes aside, along with the last of my makeup. My books scatter across the dirty concrete. My tampons roll out of reach. Each loss stings, but I shove it down. None of it really matters.

Then he pauses, head tilting to the side. “Mm. Something’s missing.” He taps a finger against his lip. “‘Cause I know a smart girl like you would’ve insisted on a condom that first night unless she had something else...”

I hug my knees to my chest and glower at him, refusing to show any other reaction even though my heart is starting to race. He knows .

“But where have you put it?” He kicks the now-empty backpack aside and approaches the mattress, slow and deliberate. He lowers himself to a crouch just beyond the edge, studying me where I sit, curled up and tense. “Hiding it somewhere on you?”

He grabs me by the ankle and yanks again.

I kick at him with the other foot, but he catches that one too, and drags me across the mattress.

I kick and yell, hoping against hope that Kai will hear me and come down.

But after a few minutes of struggling to no avail and screaming myself hoarse, Knox has me pinned and I’ve lost any hope that Kai will prove to be some kind of hero.

Knox straddles my hips. His hands are rough, pinching and squeezing as they rove over my hips, my stomach, my chest.

His hard-on presses against me. He likes me struggling and fighting him. It leaves me with one last, twisted hope — that he’ll be distracted by my body and forget what he’s looking for. So I keep struggling, keep fighting, even though I know it’s only making this better for him.

When he reaches for my neck, I sink my teeth into the meat of his palm. He grunts and jerks and I feel his dick twitch.

“You crazy bitch,” he mutters. He grabs me by the face and leans down to kiss me.

I try to bite him again, but his fingers force my jaw open so he can shove his tongue into his mouth.

His hips grind into mine. When he releases my face and pulls back, he’s breathing hard, his face flushed and his eyes heavy with a crazed sort of lust.

I’ve got him , I think. At least I can find solace in that, even though I know he’s about to have his way with me no matter what I do.

Then he reaches behind me and grabs my pillow.

“ No !” I surge up, trying to stop him, but he keeps me pinned down with one arm while he yanks the pillowcase off with the other. A box tumbles out and clatters to the floor. The one item I bothered to hide, and exactly what he was looking for: my birth control.

He smirks at me as he tosses it over his shoulder, out of my reach. “You’re not gonna be needing that anymore.”

Panic wells up in the back of my throat. I can’t hide my fear now, and I see the way his eyes darken as he takes in my expression. He reaches down to undo the button of his pants, fondling his hard length through his boxers.

“God, I love it when you look at me like that,” he says. “I can’t wait to fill you up.”

“No,” I whimper. I try to shove him away, but his torso is all solid muscle; it’s like trying to push a brick wall.

He grins, shoving down his boxers and stroking himself once before lining his cock up with my core. “Your body says otherwise,” he says, sliding his head over my slit. He’s right; I’m wet, my body trained to respond from the orgasms he forces from me. “So ready for me. Deep down you want this.”

“No!” I claw at his face.

He gasps as my nails rake his cheek, and then he shoves into me with a low moan. He fucks me into the mattress. The more I fight, the rougher he gets. He sinks his teeth into my shoulder, and I cry out.

“That’s right,” he murmurs into my ear, in between his ragged breaths. “Scream for me.”

I bite my lip as tears well in my eyes, trying to keep myself silent. But when he bites me again — the sensitive skin of my neck this time — I can’t help but whimper in pain.

“You’re gonna take me just like this,” he pants. “Take every fucking drop.”

His full weight presses against me, his chest crushing the breath from my lungs as his hips slam into mine, hard and fast. His teeth are still against my neck, marking me, as his cock claims every inch of my pussy.

“You’re mine,” he growls against my skin. “My little whore to chain up and breed as often as I like. And I’m going to do it, again and again, till I put a baby in you—”

He cuts off with a groaned swear, his thrusts within me going choppy as he spills himself inside of me. I’m limp beneath him as he thrusts through his orgasm before finally stopping, breathing hard against my neck.

I stare up at the ceiling through the blur of tears. I thought there was nothing wrong for Knox to take from me, but I was wrong. And if he gets what he wants from me, it’s going to get even more terrible than I can imagine.