Page 4 of Coercion

“Get the girl.” Levi barks as he struts out.

I shut my eyes, wishing I knew how to fight, how to stop this.

Hands reach around me, picking me up from my waist and I’m carried out over someone’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

My room is cramped.Dark. There’s bars at the window as if they really have locked me in a dungeon. I don’t know how long it took for us to arrive here, wherever we are. A doctor saw to my wrist, putting it in a cast and then I was locked away, out of sight, while Levi cemented his victory.

I huddle under the meagre blanket. The room is cold. Dank. I can smell the moisture in the air. I don’t know what time it is. I’m so hungry my stomach has twisted around with the pain.

All I had to wash with was a freezing cold bowl of water and I know my skin is still smeared with blood. My father’s blood.

I want to get it off, to get fully clean, but once I do that, the last remnants of him will be gone. I’ll have nothing left to remember him by because I don’t doubt my uncle will destroy every photo, every trinket, everything that belonged to my parents. He’s stolen their business, stolen the mines, if my mother is even alive, she’ll have nothing but the clothes on her back.

For a moment I think of Jett. No one has said whether he’s alive. No one dragged his body back. I can only hope that he did as I asked, that he ran and never came back. That he’s out there, somewhere, that he’s alive and he at least as escaped whatever horror I have to face now at my uncle’s hands.

I stiffen at the sound of footsteps. It’s been days since they locked me here and for some reason I’d convinced myself that they’d leave me alone. That perhaps I’d been forgotten. I was even happy about that. I could hide away, disappear, forget myself in my grief and die in this darkness.

Only, that’s clearly not what they intend for me.

The door creaks open.

I wince at the noise. My head feels fuzzy and I don’t know if it’s from lack of food or lack of sleep, or something else entirely.

A huge form is illuminated against the light of the hall beyond. I hold my breath, staring back at whoever it is, hoping that maybe they can’t see me. That maybe with all the darkness I’m invisible.

Only, I’m not that lucky, am I?

He steps inside, shuts the door, and hits a switch. I cover my eyes to shut out the sudden blazing brightness while he clearly takes the moment to assess me.

“Get up.”

His voice is gruff, harsh, as cold as my uncle’s. I don’t move, I just blink, trying to force my sight into clearing.

He’s almost twice my height, a great brute of a man. His hair is completely shaven off, his eyes are so black it’s as if he has no irises at all. It makes him look almost demonic. But it’s the scars that reach up either side of his mouth that are the worst. Sometime, years ago by the looks of it, someone cut his face, gave him a Chelsea smile, and though the wounds have clearly healed, they dominate his already harsh features, morphing his face into something truly horrific.

He crosses the room, grabs my arm, and hauls me out of the bed, leaving me swaying in front of him.

“Little whore.” He murmurs.

“I’m not.” I whisper back. It’s as much as I dare and, somehow, I know he’s going to punish me for it.

He grabs my face, striking me hard before pushing me back and I stumble, falling over myself, and end up colliding backwards with the hard bed.

“Do you know who I am?” He asks as he moves closer.

I shake my head. I don’t know who any of these men are, none of them beyond my uncle. He had to hire mercenaries, outsiders, because none of my father’s men would have betrayed us. They were too loyal to even consider such a thing.

“Your uncle’s asked me to teach you some manners.” He says, as he starts undoing his buckle, and my fear multiplies.

Is he going to beat me with it?

When he undoes the button on his jeans, I realise that’s not it. It’s going to be much, much worse than that.

My eyes dart to the door, to the exit so impossibly far from where I am.

“We’re going to have some fun, you and I.” He murmurs. “Though I suspect I’ll be enjoying it more than you.”

I shake my head, pushing my body back, pushing myself into the wall like I might be able to melt into the brickwork.