Page 49

My eyes dart to Rafe, pleading, begging for him to do something, anything. But there’s nothing he can do. Nothing either of us can do. We’re both helpless here. Both caught in his brother’s twisted game.

Alex strides back to me, grabbing my neck and just like always, he’s quick to jab me, quick to stick the needle in and drug me up.

As he steps back, he glances at his watch like he knows the precise time it takes for the drugs to take effect.

“On a normal person it takes ten minutes for GHB to work.” He states so matter-of-fact, like this is some sort of scientific experiment. “But Scarlett here, she’s tired, dehydrated and is suffering from malnutrition, so luckily for us, we don’t have to wait that long…”

My heart skips a beat at that word. GHB. I know exactly what it does from all the times he’s used it before. The first time I came to this house, the first time I met Vincent, he slipped it into my drink. It was why I was so compliant. Why I did what I did.

And why I woke up the next day certain the flashbacks were just crazy, alcohol induced nightmares. Because who the fuck would willingly do what I did? Who wouldn’t fight back when their soon to be father in law and new fiancé were effectively gang raping them?

“While we wait, why don’t we entertain ourselves with some light reading?” Alex says, producing a book from his pocket. He holds it up, right in my face so there’s no doubt what he has.

Rafe frowns, clearly confused by whatever the fuck this game is.

Alex clears his throat before he starts reading an extract, an entry, my words, that I’d scribbled down god knows how many weeks ago. He lets out a laugh as he gets to the end, and then he tears the page out, screwing it up and drops it to the floor.

“Is this how you did it?” He asks. “How you put it all together?”

I can’t answer. Not beyond a gulp. If he found the diary, did he find the other items? Did he find the phone too?

He tilts his head and I hold my breath, waiting for that bombshell to drop. God, if he knows, if he realises what has really been going on this entire time, then all of us are fucked. Me. Rafe. This entire plan goes to shit…

I know the gun is gone. I know I got rid of it days ago, when I was lucid, when I was me. That I knew the drugged up, forgetful version of me couldn’t use it for good so it had to go.

And those notes, I know those nasty little notes were also me, that the painting was me. That all of it was me, trying to warn myself, trying to make myself remember, trying to do everything I could to wake my old self up and ensure that the monster in front of me did not win this.

“I said...” Alex snaps, ripping out another page as I realised I missed whatever bullshit had come out of his mouth. He screws the paper up, then forces it into my mouth. I jerk my head, my tongue trying to push the paper out while he laughs.

“What’s the matter, Scarlett?” He sneers, “Prefer choking on a cock more than your own words?”

I glare back, somehow managing to spit the paper out and it lands in a wet heap at my feet. But what little relief that victory gives is gone almost immediately.

Something prickles along my neck. It’s like pins and needles, only it feels better.

The dungeon felt so cold before but now, now it’s suddenly impossibly hot.

I’m so thirsty all of a sudden. So damned thirsty. I swear I’d sell my soul for a cup of water if the devil offered me one right now.

No. No. I don’t want to do this.

I don’t want…

But my body is doing it. Is reacting.

Sweat pools on my forehead, a throbbing between my thighs is becoming more and more insistent and I hate it. I fucking hate it.

A whimper escapes my lips before I can stop it and it’s all the warning my husband has been looking for.

“Filthy little slut.” Alex says smugly as he leans down to inspect me. “Look, brother, look at what a whore she really is…”

I shut my eyes, fighting back the tears because I don’t want Rafe to see me like this. It’s bad enough that he knows what they did to me, he doesn’t need to see it in real life.

Alex thrusts two fingers deep into me and I yelp.

“Wanna see how easily I can make her come?” Alex says.

I shake my head, playing right into his hands, but I don’t care.

He lets out a laugh before he starts picking up the pace, finding that spot inside me that he knows so well.

“You know she likes to be degraded,” Alex says over his shoulder, as if this is some perverse sex education lesson. “She gets off on being used. That’s why it’s been so easy to do it. She practically spread her legs and begged us to enjoy ourselves every night.”

“That’s a fucking lie.” I don’t know where I find the strength to speak. How I can even focus on forming those syllables. But even they sound strained.

I can hear it. I can hear the desperation in my voice. I can hear how close I am to losing control, how close I am to proving I’m everything Alex has made of me.

“You sucked my father’s cock like you’d never tasted anything better.” He states.

I shake my head, refusing to acknowledge it. I might have done that, I might have done anything under the influence of these drugs, but it wasn’t me. Not the real me.

Alex leans in, putting his face right up to mine. In that deep gravelly voice, he says “Look at you, look how flushed you are. You want to do it. You want to perform. I know, I can see it, just relax and let it go, relax and embrace what you are.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.” The word comes out as a scream. A desperate, awful squeal that turns into something horrific. Something unimaginable.

I’m curling my toes, arching my back, straining against the awful ropes and I’m doing it, I’m doing exactly what my husband wanted.

Stars explode behind my eyes. Blood pounds in my ears.

I know this is because of the drugs, that all of this is because I have no control and yet the shame is still there. The awful humiliation sits in my bones.

“See?” Alex says as he pulls his fingers out, as he turns and holds them up so that Rafe can see how wet they are. “You see what she is, what all of them are? She’s a whore. A stupid, good for nothing thing to fuck and nothing else.”

“Fuck you.” Rafe snarls.

I can’t look at him. I can’t bear to see the expression on his face. Would he feel disgust, disgust that I did that, or would he feel sorry for me? I think right now, his sympathy would be just as bad.

Alex throws his head back and laughs harder.

And then he comes up behind me and we hear that tell-tale sound of a belt undoing.

“Don’t you fucking dare.” Rafe growls.

Alex pauses, he lowers his face so that he’s right beside mine, and he traces his tongue down my cheek as he pulls himself free of his trousers.

“Dare?” He repeats. “Fucking dare? I own this cunt. I own all of this bitch. Every part of her belongs to me, and I can do whatever the hell I wish to her.”

“No.” I gasp.

“Yes.” He replies before ramming himself into me.

I guess it’s a good thing he did make me come, it’s a good thing I’m lubricated because he doesn’t give me a minute to adjust. There’s no pretence here.

No attempt to make this feel like anything else.

It isn’t for pleasure, it isn’t meant to be anything but a show of his total dominance, his power. His thrusts are brutal. Unrelenting.

And I know Rafe can see this. He can see all of this.

He can see how his brother is sliding in and out of me, how he’s using me.

More tears spill down my cheeks. It’s pathetic, it’s pointless, and yet now that they’ve started falling, I can’t stop them. I don’t want to cry, I don’t want to show weakness, but he’s broken me, hasn’t he? He’s ruined me.

No. No he hasn’t. I refuse to do that. Refuse to be that. This is temporary. This moment here will pass, the pain will go, and soon, so very fucking soon I will make him pay for this.

But it hurts. Jesus Christ, it hurts.

And what if I don’t, what if I can’t, what if I’m too damaged and too broken, and something goes wrong? What if Alex wins, what if the Forster’s win? What then?

All of this is only worth it if we beat them.

But if we don’t?

I let out a wail. A sob that I can’t contain any longer. I can’t bear the thought of it ending this way. I can’t bear the thought that all of this will be for nothing.

“I love you.”

The words make me freeze.

I look up through tear filled eyes and even in the darkness, I know he’s staring back at me.

“I love you.” He repeats again. Only, he’s not saying it softly, gently, lovingly. He’s saying it like it’s a declaration of war. Like it’s a battle cry. “I love you.”

“Love?” Alex sneers. “Were you really so stupid as to fall for this bitch?”

“Fuck you.” Rafe shouts, seeming to lose it then. He starts lurching, fighting the chains, and the sound of the metal rattling fills the cold, desolate dungeon.

Alex pauses, his cock still buried deep in me and he moves a hand to twist my nipple until I’m screaming with the pain. “I thought you’d grown out of stealing my toys, brother.” He says. “I thought I’d taught you that lesson when you were seven.”

“Let her go. Let her go and you can kill me.” Rafe pleads.

“No.” I shout.

Alex looks between us, and I don’t have to see his face to know he’s smirking.

“Why would I do any of that, Rafferty? In three days’ time I will have everything.

I will have our family’s fortune back. I will have all my inheritance and yours too.

And Scarlett, my poor dear wife, she’ll be gone, dead, and I will finally give my family the justice they so desperately need… ”

“Justice?” I spit. “It’s not justice. You stole that money in the first place, you were all screwing my father over, doing deals behind his back, and then when we found out, you murdered my mother, you…”

His hand silences the last of my words. “I don’t want to hear your bullshit.” He says. “I don’t care for your side of the story. History is told by the victors and you, Scarlett, you’re not the winner here.”

“I will be.” Those are stupid words. A stupid thing to say. I need to keep my mouth shut and not let him realise that there’s more to this. If he gets suspicious, if he realises what else is going on, then it could ruin everything.

“Take a look at yourself.” He sneers. “Take a good hard look. You’re tied up, incapacitated, your only chance of escape is in chains opposite you, and you currently have my cock so far up your cunt you can taste it.”

He’s right. Everything he’s saying is right. But only in this moment.

I dig my nails into my palms, forcing myself not to say those words, not to speak them. He needs to believe he has beaten me, beaten us.

And clearly, he does. Clearly, he sees my silence as confirmation.

He starts fucking me again, grunting, groaning, slapping my breasts as he puts on a disgusting show for Rafe’s benefit.

I don’t know whether the GHB has worn off or I’m so appalled by this situation that there’s no longer a hint of pleasure. All I feel now is the horrific brutality of what he’s doing to my body.

Rafe starts shouting, telling me over and over that I’m strong, that I’m so strong, and that I can take this, that it doesn’t matter, that nothing Alex ever does will tarnish me in his eyes.

Only, I don’t know whether those words help or make this worse. Hearing his voice reminds me that he’s here, that he’s present, witnessing this. I can’t disassociate, I can’t pretend, I can’t deny what’s happening.

But it is a comfort. It is a relief to know that in this horrific moment, I’m not alone.

When Alex finally comes he pulls out, moving to cover my body with it as another act of degradation.

He runs his hands through it, smearing it all over me and as if that isn’t enough, he then wipes his hand over my face, covering my eyes, my nose, my lips, all of me in him. I can taste him. I can smell him. My eyes sting from the come that gets in my eyes.

I’m going to kill him.

One way or another I am going to kill this man.

“I’m offering you a final gift brother, call it a gesture of goodwill.” Alex says as he strides off to the corner of the room before he picks something up.

Rafe follows him with his eyes, but he doesn’t speak.

“I’m sure you enjoyed that little show just as I’m sure you enjoyed her cunt.

So, this is my gift to you, brother to brother.

” He kneels down beneath my thighs, placing something there that is big and heavy.

A piece of machinery I can’t quite figure out, but I’m trembling all the same.

“While I’m gone, attending to things, you can stay here, watching as my beautiful wife gets fucked.

You can hear the way her cunt squelches, you can watch the way this toy penetrates her, and you can die having seen what she really is… ”

Before I can truly take in those words something hard, something unforgiving rams into me.

I scream, more from shock than anything.

It’s a vibrator, a toy. As it slides out, I get a moment of relief but then it slams into me again, forcing my insides apart with its ridiculous girth.

“Fuck!” I scream. It hurts. It hurts so much.

Alex gets to his feet, patting my face lightly with his fingers. “I know how much you enjoyed my father fisting you, so I got you a toy that would do just that.”

There’s a toy like that?

I can’t think. I can’t breathe. The thing slams into me over and over, and every single thrust feels like a blow, a punch to my insides.

I have three days left, three fucking days. Is he going to keep me like this? Leave me like this?

My eyes land back on Rafe and I already know the answer to that. Of course he will. This is about humiliation. Not just mine, but Rafe’s too. He wants to torture us both, and what better way to do it than this?