Page 28 of Grave Kisses (Graveyard of Hearts Collection #1)

Kendra

Something is attached to the rope around my wrists before I hear footsteps go back up the stairs.

Everything is dark, and I don’t know where I am.

I don’t move at first, but eventually, I move myself down to sit in a corner.

It feels like a concrete wall and floor, so maybe a basement. That would make sense.

I hear something that’s like a scuffing sound against the dirty concrete floor, and I snap my head in that direction. I still have the hood over my head, but the tie is behind my neck so I can’t get it off. “Who’s there?” I squeak out. Wow, Kendra. Can you sound any more pathetic?

A scream rips out of me when someone grabs my wrists and pulls me away from the wall.

The hands move to my neck and start working on the hood tied around my throat.

When I feel it loosen enough, I yank it off.

A sound that is equivalent to something like a wounded animal comes out of me when I throw myself away from Archer.

My ankles are tied so I can’t maneuver well, which ends up just making me look like a worm.

“Stop. Kendra. Stop. I’m trying to help,” Archer says, grabbing the rope binding me and pulling me toward him. Sobs shake out of me as he unties the rope. When my legs are free, I scramble back to my corner and pull my knees to my chest so I can bury my face in my arms and cry.

“Kendra,” Archer says softly. I hear him get closer and I whimper as my entire body starts to tremble. “I won’t touch you but I need you to look at me. Okay? Just look up at me.”

I force myself to look up and I see that he is chained to the same hook in the floor that I am. The concrete room has a small bathroom area and a simple cot. It’s dimly lit and there is a ground level window on the other side that sunlight is coming through. “I don’t understand,” I sniff.

“You know you have a twin?” he asks.

“What the fuck do you want from me?” I snap.

“Look… I am shit person. I will admit that. What I did to you… Dad had every right to cut me off…” he starts to say.

“What do you want?!” I yell.

“To help you,” he says with a heavy sigh. “There is so much you don’t know… I don’t want to blow up your life again.”

“Just fucking say it,” I snap.

“That detective. Jeff Collier. He is the one who brought you here. Your twin, Tina, helped him,” he says.

“That… doesn’t surprise me,” I say quietly. “And?”

“And I’ve been here since… Fuck, I don’t even know.

There was an apartment fire. I was with Tina but she convinced me to drive with her.

We got pulled over and it was Jeff. He said I was being arrested for the fire but then I woke up here.

I don’t even know what happened. I’ve tried to remember…

I don’t know if I want to,” he explains.

“You didn’t set the fire? There were propane tanks in my apartment, Archer,” I say. “Why should I believe you?”

“When he gets back, you’ll see,” Archer says with a sad smile. “I don’t want to dump everything on you but you should know.”

“Just tell me and I’ll decide if I believe you,” I sigh.

“Okay… Jeff is Dad’s little brother. He was raping Kimberly and is the one who gave me all the drugs and shit I took back then.

I was so goddamn high when he killed her…

He didn’t mean to. He had fucked with her like this so many times before.

This time he started cutting her while he raped her, but she wouldn’t stop bleeding.

I tried to tell him that she had that bleeding disorder, but I just…

couldn’t. I couldn’t speak. It hardly felt real.

Dad loved Jeff so much. He trusted him with us…

I’ve always thought he killed Mom too… I never told Dad because I didn’t want him to feel guilty.

He already felt like he failed me and her, but I didn’t want him to think that trusting his brother got his daughter killed.

I took it all on and disappeared when he told me to because it felt safer. ”

“Why did you do all that to me?” I ask quietly.

“Because I’m a fucking idiot,” he sighs.

“Dad was so goddamn convinced that I killed Kimberly. I knew the truth, but I was afraid of telling him. I was afraid that Jeff would kill Dad or me. I figured that if I was such a fucking monster, then I might as well do something to make me a monster… I did all that… I shouldn’t have.

Obviously. I don’t know how I got so addicted to drugs, but I was.

I stayed high, and it kept away the nightmares of my sister’s screams. He had me sitting in that shed where she was tied up.

He left for a while, and that’s when she told me that this had been going on for a long time, but she was too scared to tell Dad.

She made me promise that I wouldn’t say anything because I would die too, and then Dad would be without all of us…

Look, I don’t wanna give you some fucking sob story.

I did horrible things to you, and there is absolutely no way I can make up for that.

I own it, and I don’t want forgiveness. I am so fucking sorry for hurting you, but it doesn’t matter now.

The only thing that matters now is getting you the fuck out of here.

You don’t deserve any of this, and the only reason you are a target is because you had the property where he hid the bodies, and he is trying to pin all of the other murders on me.

If I have all of the blame, he continues to get away with it. ”

“I don’t know what to say,” I admit. “He thought you did all of the other murders too.”

“Yeah,” he says, dropping his head to look at his hands. His knuckles are scabbed in some spots but bloody and raw in others. Like he’s been repeatedly hitting something. He looks broken and tired. I never thought I’d have empathy for my rapist, but… Jesus. If what he is saying is true…

“I’m pregnant,” I say after a long silence. Archer snaps his head up and looks at me. “I’m with Marcus and Bellamy. I don’t know who the father is, but I’m pregnant with twins.”

“That’s amazing, Kendra. Really,” he says. “I can’t promise he won’t hurt you, but I’ll do my best to take on as much as I can. He’s… demented.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Because I know what you sound like when getting raped, and I’d rather take all of that on than to ever hear you sound so broken again,” Archer says bluntly.

“He rapes you?” I ask.

“Uh. Yeah,” he says nervously. “He’s fucking sick about it too. He… you’ll see.”

“I’m worried about my babies… I’m only ten weeks, but… he knows I’m pregnant. What if he… I don’t want to lose these babies,” I say as I start crying again.

“I will get you back to Marcus and Bellamy…I promise.” Archer says. “Come lie down and rest. I won’t touch you, but you need to rest.”

“I’m fine,” I say.

“Please, Kendra. Just come rest,” he says. “When he gets down here, it will be hell on earth. Rest while you can.”

I sigh heavily and get up to move to the cot. I curl up in the fetal position and face him as he leans against the wall.

“Kendra. Kendra, wake up. They’re here. Wake up,” Archer says with a hushed voice as he shakes me awake. I gasp and sit up, and he sighs. “Fuck, I thought you were dead. He is about to come down here. I think Tina is alive, though. I heard her. I didn’t want you to be asleep when they came down.”

“Uh… thanks,” I say.

“Whatever you do… Do not fight him. Okay? He will snap very easily, and I don’t want him hitting you. I know it’s going to be awful, but just don’t fight him.”

“I’ll try,” I whisper. I flinch when I hear the basement door open. When a woman gets to the bottom, my mouth falls open when I see… me?

Jeff comes down next and chuckles when he sees Archer is sitting next to me.

“Well, Tina, Kendra. Kendra, Tina,” Jeff says simply.

Out of nowhere, he pulls a pistol and fires a shot into the back of her head.

She doesn’t even know what hits her before her body crumbles to the ground.

The scream that comes out of me simultaneously frightens me, and I fall into hysterical screaming.

Archer grabs my face and makes me look away from her mangled head.

“Breathe,” Archer says. “Breathe, Kendra.”

“Why… I don’t…” I gasp, trying to calm down.

“Shhhh. Just breathe,” Archer says. I am stunned by his compassion and how much he reminds me of Alan right now. He whispers in my ear, and it calms me. “No matter if you hate me, you are my sister. I couldn’t save Kimberly, but I will save you. I promise, I will. Be strong for your babies.”

When he pulls away, his body suddenly flinches, and he screams out in pain when Jeff strikes him across the back with a whip. “Strip her. Now,” Jeff says.

“Getting bored of me already?” Archer says.

“I’ll never get bored of the way you come for me, Archer. You are my favorite little bitch boy,” Jeff laughs. “Now. Strip her, or I will.”

“Fuck,” Archer mutters. “I’m so sorry.”

I sniff back tears when he stands and pulls me up with him. When he starts to pull my clothes off, I am crying so hard that I can’t breathe. Jeff groans before suddenly grabbing me by the throat and slamming me back against the wall.

“Stop! Goddamn it, Jeff. Stop it,” Archer screams at him. Before he can charge at Jeff, he pulls his pistol and points it at him. Archer freezes in place, and I struggle to breathe.

“None of this would be happening if you had just let me fuck you in that hotel room,” Jeff says simply. “You just had to go and be a difficult bitch, just like your stupid sister… I don’t want to hear one goddamn sound come out of you unless you are coming on my cock. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” I choke out. Jeff sneers at me before dropping his hand away from my throat to pull a blade out of his pocket. I remain frozen as he cuts the rest of my clothing off.

“Such a pretty little bitch,” he says, dragging the tip of the blade down my sternum and across my abdomen. “Don’t think for one second that I won’t cut those goddamn babies out of you… turn and grab the wall.”

I am not scared of him right now; I’m angry. I am so fucking angry . I turn and lock eyes with Archer, and the tears in his eyes tell a story all on their own. I put my hands on the wall, and he pulls my hips back a few steps to force me to bend over.

“You know what I find funny, Kendra?” Jeff says as he opens a bottle of something.

“Your boyfriends didn’t even hesitate to cooperate with me.

They believed every bullshit word I fed them.

They currently think that I am chasing a lead across the state.

I wish they could see me bury my cock inside their girlfriend. ”

I am trembling and silently crying, but I don’t make a single noise. I hear the gross sounds of him stroking his dick, and I flinch so hard I nearly fall when he presses against me. “Come support your victim, Archer, since you are so righteous now. Either of you makes a noise, she gets punished.”

Archer moves to stand in front of me and hugs me against his chest. I accept the comfort, because I might go insane if I don’t.

I wrap my arms around him to steady myself, right as Jeff grabs my hips and drives into me.

He instantly starts railing into me, and Archer holds me tightly.

I hold my breath and try to not make noise, but then he smacks my ass, and I yelp.

That turns into a crazed scream when he presses what is likely a stun gun against my ass cheek and shocks me.

I cover my mouth, and Archer holds me tighter as Jeff resumes ramming into me harder and harder.

He eventually groans and buries himself inside of me to come.

When he pulls out of me, I collapse. Archer immediately scoops me up and moves me to the cot, muttering murderous threats aimed at Jeff under his breath.

“Clean her. I don’t like rancid pussy,” Jeff says. A few seconds later, I hear the basement door shut, and Archer holds my face and sighs when he looks at me.

“I’m so sorry, Kendra… I promise I’ll get you out of here,” he says, but I am gone. My mind is far away, and I’m completely disconnected from reality. I can hear him, but it’s like watching the situation outside my body.

“Are you in pain?” he asks. I shake my head once, and he sighs again. “Is it okay if I clean you?”

I nod.

“He won’t be down for a while… You need rest,” he says.

Archer stands and goes to the small bathroom area before coming back with wet wipes. It hardly registers when he takes care of me. I just lie here and stare at the ceiling until he pulls a blanket out from under the cot and covers my body.

“Sleep, Kendra. I’ll wake you when he comes back,” Archer says. I don’t fight it. I just close my eyes and accept that I am stuck here. This is my life now.