Page 54

Remi

I sighed as the TSA announcements about delayed flights, boarding’s and forgotten baggage blasted overhead non-stop since I sat down. Exasperated, I casually glanced at the fellow passengers. Most of them were traveling alone, unlike me, who was traveling with four overly alpha men, one of which was currently arguing with the flustered woman behind the counter. Apparently, Max thought if he talked to her, he could get more information than I did not even ten minutes ago. When he angrily plopped his ass in a seat next to me, I tried not to smirk.

“And how did it go?” I muttered, flipping the page in the book I bought in one of the many gift shops.

“Weather over Kansas.”

“Huh. Funny, ‘cause that’s what she told me.”

He growled. “This fucking blows.”

“Well, if you had taken Maxim up on his offer, we could have been halfway home by now.”

“I don’t want anything from him. You know that.”

“I do, which is why you have no reason to complain. So be quiet and let me read my damn book.”

Not even five minutes later, he asked, “Babe, can I ask you a question?”

“About what?” I muttered, flipping the page.

“Your time with Petrovitch.”

Frowning, I looked at the love of my life and slowly closed my book. “You’ve never asked before. Why now?”

Sitting next to me, Max shook his head. “There is a woman everyone’s looking for. You both have similar backgrounds. I just wanted to know if maybe you had met her.”

“I’ve met a lot of people over the years, Max. You know that.”

“I know. Her name is Thena Hartley. Like I said, everyone is looking for her.”

“Who is everyone?” I cautiously asked.

“Everyone. The Soulless Sinners, Crispin Sinclair, Fedorov.”

“Why?”

Shaking his head, he replied, “Don’t know.”

“What is your gut telling you?”

“That whoever this Thena Hartley is, she’s important. I just don’t know how.”

“Important to the Golden Skulls?”

“No,” Max said, leaning forward. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

Leaning back in my chair, I sighed. “You’ve got a lot on your plate already, Max. Do you really have the time to go on a wild-goose chase for a woman who apparently doesn’t want to be found?”

“No.”

“But you want to?” I asked.

He nodded, looking at me. “I asked Ghost to look for her.”

“And what will you do if he finds her?”

“That’s just it, babe, I don’t know.”

Sighing, I said, “Generally, if someone doesn’t want to be found, it’s for a reason, Max. So I would tread carefully. You may not like what you find.”

“American Airlines flight 1223 from LaGuardia to San Francisco is now boarding.” I heard over the loudspeaker.

Gathering my things, I stood and headed for the ticket counter when Max said, “Babe, you didn’t answer my question.”

Turning to look at my husband, I simply responded, “I know.”

The flight home was long, and by the time we pulled into the compound, I was fucking bone tired.

All I wanted was to take a hot shower, climb into bed, and sleep.

Max and the others took off and headed for church. I knew they would, and if I was right, they would be there for a while.

The entire flight home, I couldn’t stop thinking of what Max said to me. I knew he was suspicious when I didn’t answer him. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell him what I knew, I just couldn’t.

The fact was, I did know who they were looking for and I prayed they never found her. If she had truly escaped her nightmare then she deserved to live what life she had left in peace.

All of them did.

I wasn’t keeping anything from Max, but this wasn’t my story to tell. While Thena and I had similar backgrounds, my life was nothing compared to hers.

Stepping under the spray, I closed my eyes and tried to wash away the memories of the last time I saw Thena. The night she helped me escape and I was forced to leave her to those monsters.

“I can’t,” I whispered, my body shaking uncontrollably. I hurt everywhere. I didn’t want to move. I just wanted to sleep. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept.

“You have to, Remi,” she firmly said. “If you don’t, they will kill you.”

“I don’t care anymore.” I closed my eyes, leaning my head against the cold concrete wall. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t matter. No one can help me now.”

Shaking me, she snarled. “You are not giving up. I won’t let you.”

“Please, Thena. Just let me go.”

“I can’t do that. You have to live.”

“Why?”

“Because only you can stop them.”

I smirked. “Thena, I can barely keep my eyes open.”

“What about Max?” she blurted. “You said Max will protect you.”

Shaking my head, I muttered, “It’s been so long, Thena. He won’t even remember me.”

“But you have to try. Try for me, Remi. Please,” she damn near cried, which was odd, because I’d never heard Thena cry once. She was so damn strong. Stronger than I was.

“Now get up,” she ordered, helping me to my feet. “Iris is waiting for you.”

“I’m so tired,” I cried. “Please just let me die.”

“No,” Thena growled. “You will not die, Remi. You will escape this hell and live. Do you hear me?”

“Come with us, Thena. Please. I can’t do this without you.”

“Yes, you can. Just think about getting to Max. He will save you.”

Nodding, Thena helped me through the tunnels. I was so cold. Every step hurt but I knew she was right. I really didn’t want to die. I wanted to feel the sun on my face again. To see the ocean one more time. Mainly, I wanted to see Max.

Walking in the dark, through the muck and sludge, I tried not to think about what I was walking through. The smell was bad enough. Up ahead, I saw a light and Iris, who was hanging onto the wall for support. Reaching her, I held onto her tightly when we both heard Thena say, “The second you are out, run. Don’t look back. Just run and keep running. Do you hear me?”

“Please come with us, Thena,” Iris whispered, her voice just as shaky and scared as mine. “They will kill you.”

“Better me than you two. You two need to live and you will. The both of you will have the most amazing lives. I know it. But more importantly, you will have a life. A beautiful life.”

Hugging us both, Thena wedged the metal door open while hot, muggy air seeped into the tunnel. Iris wiggled her way through the opening.

Turning to Thena, I whispered, “I’m going to miss you.”

“Remember your promise, Remi.”

“I will,” I said just as the alarms went off.

“GO!” she shouted while a tear rolled down her dirty face, and I shimmied my way through the opening. The second I was outside, I stumbled, hand over knees, blindly not caring what direction I went in. I was coughing and bile was still seeping out of my throat. My knees were raw, bleeding, and weak as I tried desperately to get away. Off in the distance, I heard their shouts and calls behind me as they tried to find me through the brush.

They were getting closer.

Every retching breath I took threatened to reveal where I was if I wasn’t careful. Another cough and sputter escaped while I expelled more bile from my body. I could feel my sticky, damp legs dripping as my ass and pussy did the same. Exhausted, my legs gave way when I crawled haphazardly, falling breathlessly to the ground.

“No,” I chided myself desperately. “Get up, Remi. You are strong. You can do this.”

With a determined, renewed effort, I scrambled back up and continued to run away as fast as my tired limbs could take me. The men and even a few women, called out to me in horrifyingly soothing voices, which contrasted starkly against the loud, demanding roars and screams.

“Remi, we will catch you. We don’t want to hurt you.”

I knew that was total bullshit. My body was still sore and leaking from what they did to me. Aching from the endless torture. My pussy and ass continued to seep with the fluids they forcefully pumped into my petite body.

Looking over my shoulder, I sighed as one man began to catch up to me. I slowed my movement. I didn’t want to risk him seeing the shuffle of the grass. Thankfully, it was only one man who had made his way this far. His face contorted while he relentlessly searched rather than shouting.

Why couldn’t he be like the other idiots and simply pass over me?

I turned away from him, barely able to see past the tall grass. My vision blurred until I saw there was a downhill slope somewhere up ahead where I could gain some distance by rolling down the other side. I pushed my burning body to move faster. My breathing became heavier as I struggled along with barely half my strength. Finally, I came upon the hill and plunged down.

The tall, damp grass cut at my body and pulled at my arms painfully, until I reached the bottom. I took a second to catch my breath before a shout came from above that sent chills down my spine.

“I have tracks! She crawled this way!”

My naked breasts still heaved while I gasped. If they had tracks, then I would have little choice but to keep moving. It would be harder for them to locate where I was after my little tumble, but only if I pushed myself now. Sweat made my long, curly blonde hair cling to my face while I forced myself to keep moving, running swiftly, using what adrenaline I had left as I shuffled through the grass. Several more men shouted and ran in my general direction.

They would be on me soon.

Knowing that my life as I knew it depended on my next actions, I made myself crawl faster.

I grunted and crawled, still too weak or scared to think of standing yet. Several men passed by me, barely missing my sensitive, mud-covered body through their aimless searching. In my delirious state of wild fleeing, all I could do was be thankful that they trained these people to capture the innocent, not the escaped.

Panting and crawling, I forced myself to collapse into a pit of mud amongst some tall, thick shrubbery to better hide. I slowed my heavy breathing and listened as I heard a voice that sounded horribly familiar. I turned to see none other than the man who started all my nightmares many, many years ago.

“Come on, darling! You are too old to be playing hide and seek!”

Tears stung my eyes while I remembered what seemed like so long ago when he played simple games like that with me. Now he would just as soon drag me back if I dared to reveal myself and try to convince me otherwise. How many others were here? So many others, lost and forgotten, never to be found again. There was nothing I could do for them. Biting back heavy sobs, unable to stop the slight sniffle, I made my way through the thick sludge.

Moving carefully through the thick swamp, it was impossible to tell the difference between sweat building on my skin or if it was the mud plastered all around me.

I didn’t care.

I gained my freedom with every step I took.

I was not going back.

After another quick rest, exhaustion wanted to claim me, and I fell over. The thick mud damn near blinded me. I was so tired, coupled with the ungodly humidity, it made it impossible to remember which way I was supposed to go.

The voices of my pursuers slowly faded into the distance while I rested on a soft patch of moss to regain my breath. When I felt confident enough and strong enough to stand, I got to my feet, leaning against a nearby tree. Bracing myself, I rose on my shaking legs and looked around warily, prepared to fall back into the deep mud at a moment’s notice. It looked as though I was alone. Better still, I could see where I had come from at my vantage point. Turning, I saw that the swamp thinned in the direction I needed to go. With shaky legs, I plowed slowly through the mud, my head throbbing and my body aching horribly with how much effort I had spent to make it this far.

Very little stood out to me as familiar while I lumbered along for the first few hours. A growing hunger and thirst attacked my body. Then came the aching and cramping of being starved for days on end. At least my body was no longer trying to expel the bodily fluids from my last punishment.

Eventually though, my eyes came upon something that made my heart jolt with renewed hope. It was the unmistakable sight of car lights passing by on a moonlit highway.

I stumbled toward it quickly, ignoring once more my tired and sore body. My body hurt in so many places. Some places I didn’t even want to think about. Cuts and bruises were the least of my problems. I could barely see out of one eye. My nose felt misshapen, making it hard for me to breathe. There was a stabbing pain in my left wrist, and it hurt when I moved my fingers. I knew there were probably much more important injuries, along with malnutrition and God knows whatever they injected me with. I was a complete mess, and I was done with this shit. I’d rather die than get captured again.

The closer I got to the road, the freer I felt.

I was almost there.

I could taste my freedom. Just a few more steps and my feet would touch the asphalt, and everything would be over.

Making that step, I touched the rough treaded surface on the ground and cried.

I was free.

“Baby?”

Blinking, I found myself huddled on the cold, tiled shower floor while ice-cold water rained down over me. I said nothing when he twisted the shower knob off before wrapping a warm towel around my shivering body.

Staring into his eyes, I whispered, “Promise me, Max.”

“Anything.”

“Don’t look for her. If she’s out there, she’s free. Please let her live her life. She deserves peace.”

He blinked, saying nothing as he slowly nodded his head. “Alright, baby. I won’t look for her. I give you my word.”