Page 36

Carly

TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter contains a graphic representation of sexual assault and physical abuse from multiple assailants. If you suffer from any triggers, PLEASE, PLEASE, take extreme caution before reading this chapter. Your health is more important to me than my fictional story.

“Get up, Charlotte!” my instructor yelled. He continued to taunt and teach me a lesson I would never forget. For months, he tried to be logical, civil, to be circumspect with his actions, but Mother was not happy with the results, and when he hauled off and backhanded me across the face, I fucking knew this would be a lesson I would always remember.

“Success in a fight is contingent upon a thorough knowledge of one’s opponent, requiring careful study and analysis of their capabilities and strategies. Situational awareness is the best weapon in the tool of any fighter. More so, because you’re a woman. So, tell me, Charlotte. What do you know? What do you see?”

“I can’t,” I cried, spitting blood on the mat.

“Yes, you can!” he shouted, kicking me hard in my stomach.

“Stop. It hurts.”

“Pain is nothing but a feeling. What do you do with your feelings?”

“Ignore them,” I muttered, holding my stomach while I looked up at him, just as his fist collided with the side of my face.

“Just because you are a woman doesn’t mean the world will be kind to you. Men beat, rape, and kill women every day because women won’t defend themselves. That will never be you. So, get up and fight!”

“You’re too strong.”

Grabbing my hair, he yanked my head back, roughly jabbing his finger against my forehead, and said, “There will always be someone stronger, Charlotte. Your greatest asset is your mind. Use it. There isn’t any situation you can’t get out of. How do you get out of this? Look at your surroundings. Anything can become a weapon. Fight!”

A blurry haze surrounded me as Steele circled, his vile taunts ringing in my ears, his laughter sharp and clear. “Remember me, Charlotte?” he spat out, his words dripping with disdain. The contempt and hatred in his voice were palpable, a chilling contrast to the pounding of my own heart, which hammered a frantic drumbeat, warning me of the present danger and the undeniable reality of my situation.

I was acutely aware of my predicament, the gravity of it settling heavily upon me.

I was a woman who held a vast knowledge of a great many things. As a female, Mother molded and designed me from the moment I was born to be a leader in a world of depraved men. Sadly, I was grossly familiar with sexual harassment, having faced threats and even sexual assault on previous occasions. Over my years in Mother’s world, I sadly learned a significant number of the men present were simply looking for an opportunity to make physical contact with a woman, but a small few had more sinister and predatory intentions in mind.

Men like Steele had a predictable pattern in the way they approached women, often methodical and linear. A man like Steele only saw a victim to assault. He attempted to overpower me swiftly, despite being aware of my extensive training and expertise. He wouldn’t want anyone to think I gave him a tough fight, that he had to struggle to defeat me.

Concurrently, a hidden fear lurked deep within the depths of his eyes. A fear stemming from a slight possibility that I possessed abilities exceeding his capacity to control me. His aura held a strong sense of foreboding, of his own failure and of something he might be powerless to escape. Which was why he had to make it quick and banish the fear—to protect his masculinity. Men like Steele’s type typically relied entirely on the element of surprise when attacking a woman. Their lack of other strengths or skills left them unable to compensate once they lost the advantage. However, when Steele’s predictable pattern fractured, the shift was immediate and profound, altering the dynamics completely, like a sudden crack in a dam.

And Steele broke that pattern.

He knew me.

He had seen what I could do, even watched with Mother many times to observe and offer his constructive criticism. So, when I left Christian’s penthouse and went down to my apartment to retrieve the book I needed and saw him, I expected an immediate attack. Not for him to smile and say, “Time to go home, Charlotte,” as someone came up from behind me and injected me with a sedative.

I should have known.

I should have prepared better.

Moves and countermoves. That’s what Mother always said.

‘Never become complacent, Charlotte, because the second you do, you’ve lost the game.’

So, when I woke up and found myself stripped naked and hanging from the ceiling, I wasn’t surprised.

“What’s the game here, Steele? Rape me and force me to take control of the Society , while you hold all the fucking strings?” I whispered, looking around the old, dusty barn.

Fucker brought me back to the place where everything started.

“Oh, I’m gonna do a hell of a lot more than that, but first, you need to tell them where that cunt is.”

“Them?”

From out of the shadows, two familiar men emerged.

Shaking my head, I snickered. “I should have fucking known. Tell me, boys, what is the plan here? Beat me until I give you the information you want. Because that’s going to be hard, considering I have no idea where she is at. Even if I did, there is no fucking way in hell I would ever tell you. So that brings me back to you, Steele. What is your endgame here?”

“You are a mouthy bitch.” Steele grinned, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. “I am going to have so much fun breaking you.”

“Good luck with that,” I clipped.

Gray Greer growled, stepping forward. “Where is she?”

“Tell me, Gray. What was it like looking at your own face? I bet that really fucked with your head. Your own face glaring right back at you, knowing that he was Daddy’s favorite. Didn’t matter if you both shared the same DNA, you would never be equal in Daddy’s eyes.”

When Gray said nothing, I turned to the other and smiled.

“And you, Dakota. You had the ultimate prize in your hands, and you let her slip right through your fingers. That must have hurt.”

“Where is she?”

I shrugged. “Don’t know. Though, given the current state of events, it won’t be long until someone finds her. You boys are on borrowed time. My advice, use what time you have left wisely, because when the truth comes out, there won’t be a place on this earth where you can hide.”

“Enough,” a stern female voice barked from within the shadows.

Looking around the barn, I watched as she stepped out, revealing herself.

“I should have fucking known you were her trump card.” I sighed. “The last Craven sister.”

Jane Margaret Craven. The third eldest daughter of a well-known New York State Senator, Jane was only a toddler when William Doherty kidnapped and raped her oldest sister, Elizabeth. The family looked for Elizabeth for years before the police discovered her body in upstate New York. Elizabeth’s kidnapping and subsequent death decimated the Craven family. They never truly recovered. The discovery of Elizabeth’s body prompted Henry Craven to leave politics and seek a life of solitude. Only, his remaining daughters had other plans.

Charlotte Craven, the second oldest, married James Stone solely to infiltrate and gather as much information as she could, until her son Joshua Stone later discovered her involvement in the death of his father and her association within the Society and killed her.

Angela Craven, the youngest daughter, was married to Alexander Goldman until his death, only to then marry Shane Keller. Unlike her sister Charlotte, Angela was more cunning, more reserved in her actions, maneuvering behind the scenes unassumingly and undetected, until her so-called dead husband, Alexander, killed her, returning her body in pieces to the Golden Skulls.

Like her sisters, Jane was beautiful. For a woman of fifty-seven, she didn’t look a day older than forty. However, it was the cold dead eyes that told me all I needed to know. If I thought the others, including Mother, were sadistic, they were nothing compared to the woman standing before me.

“So, what’s the plan here, Aunt Jane? Kill me and take over everything?”

“No.” She smiled sweetly, running her finger down Steele’s chest as she licked her lips. “I’m not going to touch a hair on your little head.”

Then she slowly turned to me and grinned evilly as all three men started to undress.

“They are.”

My eyes widened a fraction as Jane threw her head back and cackled.

Fuck!

“Now, before you boys have your fun,” the bitch said, holding up her phone, snapping several pictures, “I need her pretty face untarnished so I can put them up on the site. My niece is sure to bring in a hefty price.”

Pocketing her phone, she leaned forward and whispered something in Steele’s ear, before she disappeared back into the darkness.

The second she was gone, Steele wasted no time punching me in the face. A sharp, stinging pain shot through my face as Steele’s hand connected, the sound of the impact echoing in the silence.

“I’m first,” he growled, stroking his cock. “Hoist her higher.”

I gasped when Dakota yanked the chain, the rusty metal biting into my wrists as he stretched me painfully, my toes barely brushing the cold, hard floor. My wrists screamed in protest as the tight metal cuffs dug in, the rough edges grating against my skin. With the awkward position and my limbs twisted at impossible angles, I was completely at their mercy. A raw, desperate wail of terror escaped my lips, exposing my complete vulnerability and helplessness. The sound echoed the fear that choked me.

“Gray, shut that bitch up!” Steele snarled, while his eyes roamed up and down my body. Movement to my left had me trembling as Gray threw his arm back and punched me in the face, knocking my head back.

A cruel laugh escaped Steele’s lips while he watched my discomfort, his eyes gleaming with malicious joy, as he inched closer. Standing in a corner, Dakota indulged in a bottle of whiskey, taking deep gulps while stroking himself to an erection. With a swift, brutal backhand, Steele smashed my face, the impact splitting my lip and sending a searing pain through my head. My mouth instantly filled with the acrid taste of blood as I sobbed uncontrollably. Steele’s heavy hands crushed and brutally groped my breasts.

Licking the side of my face, I shuddered in revulsion when his thick fingers pressed between my legs. The sudden invasion sent a jolt of nausea through me while I kicked and pushed at him. My knee caught him in the groin. It was only a glancing blow, but the force made him stumble backward, releasing me as a pained groan escaped him.

His eyes blazed with furious anger as he straightened, a visible tension in his body.

“You’ll pay for that, bitch,” he whispered menacingly.

Walking over to his jeans, he pulled out a switchblade and flipped it open.

A bright light glinted off the blade, and a cold dread, as sharp as the weapon itself, pierced my heart. I could almost feel the icy weight of the steel. The thought of that knife against my exposed skin sent shivers down my spine. A silent tremor ran through me while I fought to stay still, my head shaking slowly, my eyes begging for mercy.

With deliberate slowness, Steele slid his knife down between my breasts. A sharp, burning sensation shot through me when I felt the warm trickle of blood roll down my stomach. Despite my best efforts to remain completely immobile, a shudder ran through me as the cold steel of the blade made contact with my skin. With a slow, deliberate step, he approached and then, in a cruel and torturous act, ran the knife’s edge across my breasts, inflicting excruciating pain. Repulsed by the powerful smell of whiskey emanating from his breath, a wave of nausea washed over me, prompting me to turn my head to the side to avoid the overwhelming stench.

Impatient, Gray snarled, “Fuck this. You’re taking too long.” He wrapped a belt around my neck from behind, cutting off my air.

My eyes widened in horror when I felt Gray’s cock seeking entrance from behind while Steele lined himself up and jammed his cock deep into my pussy.

Closing my eyes, I silently pleaded for Christian to hurry as the darkness took me.