Page 56 of Retribution

I’m hauled across the house and along a hallway to what I remember as Joe’s office from when I was here for Thanksgiving. The nurse trails after us, muttering that I’m making a fool out of myself.

In the office, the hated metronome is clicking in its terrible rhythm. Joe is sitting behind his black desk. It’s slightly messy, as if he didn’t plan for me to be coming here today.

I try to focus on what’s around me to try to calm my fears.

A half-empty China cup sits next to a notebook and a tablet on the dark desk. There’s a prescription pill bottle on its side under a pile of papers. Is he trying to hide it? I can’t make out the whole sticker, but I’m sure it’s fentanyl. Joe must be in a lot of pain to be given such a strong painkiller.

Good.

‘Ah, there you are.’ He stands and looks at me. ‘That is a very short dress,’ he remarks. ‘Nurse Smith, did she put it on voluntarily?’

The nurse, standing to my left, gives me an odd look. ‘Of course she did. You saw the underwear. You saw what kind of a girl she is. She loves the attention.’

‘I put this on because you told me you’d lock me back in my room with no food if I didn’t!’ I snarl at her.

She gestures at me. ‘You see? This is what she’s been like. I know you probably hoped I was embellishing, but she’s completely intractable. She does nothing I ask, just acts out. When I went through her room, I found food, the lingerie, a razor and she had a phone.’

Joe’s eyes leave me, locking onto the nurse.

‘Where is it?’

‘We haven’t found it yet,’ Nasty Nurse replies with an angry look at me. ‘But we will.’

Joe comes out from behind his desk, shaking his head and tutting. ‘Oh, my dear Marguerite,’ he says. ‘What am I going to do with you?’

When I don’t answer, he motions for Jacob to release me, which he does immediately, though he stays close by.

‘You’re being very disobedient. Nurse Smith doesn’t like it and neither do I. Do you think this is how women of our station act?’

I say nothing. I listen to the tick of the metronome, even though I despise it. It reminds me that nothing they do will be worse than The Heath. I square my shoulders and look straight ahead, trying to calm my racing heart.

Joe doesn’t look away from me as he takes out his phone. He taps something and puts it to his ear.

‘Could you come in for a minute?’

He puts his phone down on the desk and I hear the door open.

‘Oh, she’s here?’ I hear Marcus say. ‘You want to do this now?’

‘I do,’ Joe says with a small smile at his younger brother.

‘Okay, but we’ll need to keep her quiet. Laurie’s in the other room.’

Before I’ve even processed what they’re saying, Marcus and Jacob are on either side of me, grabbing my arms and shoulders. They pull me quickly back to the couch and push me down to sitting, holding me there while the nurse stands behind and grabs my face, putting her hand over my mouth before I can scream.

Belatedly, I do now, but it’s muffled. I struggle, but Marcus and Jacob are too strong.

Joe comes to stand over me. ‘I told you what I would do if you didn’t obey me. You brought this on yourself, Marguerite. I want you to know that. This is what you’ve forced on me because of your behavior.’

He brings his hand up. In it is the Stinger from the black box he showed me before. It’s smaller than the one I wore at The Heath, I notice. Flatter and not so hefty.

I buck at the sight of it, trying to escape and screaming loudly behind Nasty Nurse’s hand. I kick out at him, catching him in the knee and he hisses in pain.

‘Hold her legs!’ he snarls, and Marcus and Jacob’s hands smash my thighs into the couch.

He’s talking. I can’t work out everything he’s saying because I can’t focus, but it’s something about putting it on the same leg as The Heath.

My left leg is raised up forcefully and the straps put around it. They’re cinched tight, high on my thigh and I yell again as I try in vain to shake my head to get her hand off me.