Be My December (47 page)

I looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to untie the leather belt that dug into my bloodied wrists so I could use the bathroom like a normal human being. 

Jeremy snickered and shook his head dismissively and with that one movement determined my fate. I was nothing but an object to him. A toy he planned on playing with whichever way he so desired. I stumbled over my feet as he pushed me in the back, floundering like a rag doll down the hall, in the direction of the bathroom. “There is no way in hell that I am undoing your hands. You need to piss, you do it in front of me.”

I didn’t even bother arguing. By now I was completely entranced with the thought of protecting myself. Call me weak, call me pathetic, call me a pushover—I didn’t give a shit. Jeremy was manic. He lived in a different reality, a reality where he clearly thought this was the norm and if going to the bathroom in front of him bought me some moments without injury then so be it.

Once I had finished, Jeremy led me back into the main room and I took the same position on the bed. I was still only dressed in my panties and bra, and I shivered uncontrollably as the chill in the room hit me. My head fell to the side and my eyes followed Jeremy as he moved through the room like he didn’t have a care in the world, like this was normality, like I was enjoying being bound and gagged. 

What the hell was that noise?

Swipe! Click! Snap!

Curiously got the better of me and hauled me away from the trance of watching Jeremy in the kitchenette. At the foot of the bed Chris was hovering, holding a phone up which I instantly recognized as mine. I sucked in a breath as the noise sounded again, and I realized exactly what he was doing. He was smugly taking photos of me.

My first instinct was to cower and cover myself. The thought of a photo being taken of me in such a submissive state petrified me. I had fought too long and too hard to be shown in this humiliating state. I wasn’t weak any longer, I didn’t deserve this. I tugged on my wrists for any sign of freedom. The more I struggled the tighter the belt got and the pressure on my raw broken skin intensified.

The ear splitting sound of what seemed like hundreds of photos being taken tainted the room and infuriated me beyond limits.

“Fuck off!” I spat. “You are a sick fucking bastard. You won’t get away with this.”

His evil grin sharpened with my empty threats.

Photo after photo of me sprawled out on the bed, barely covered by my panties and bra and with my injuries on full display were being taken and there was nothing I could do about it. 

“Yo Jeremy, what do you say? Should I send her boyfriend a nice wake-up message?” Chris taunted and continued his assault with my camera.

Hearing them mention Ky sent me into a whirlwind of emotions and a bone shattering hope soared within me. Ky would save me. He had to save me. He was the only one who could. It was amidst the cruelty of Chris taunts with the camera that I realized how different this was to four years ago.

Four years ago, in the loneliness and eeriness of Jeremy’s dorm room, I lost everything. I was ripped away from a life that I didn’t know could exist. I was a nineteen-year-old girl who didn’t have anything to fight for and certainly didn’t have a future waiting for me on the other side. Most importantly my heart and body hadn’t belonged to someone else—but now it all belonged to Ky.

“Hold up.” Jeremy slithered into the room like a poisonous snake getting ready to devour the mouse before him. He slid onto the bed, a knee falling each side of my hips as he straddled me. The pressure he forced onto my core shot pain through me. My pain register was sky high and every time I inhaled, my shattered rib made me collide head on with my nightmare. 

“You ready to show your boyfriend who owns you?” he murmured as his thumb ran along my bottom lip. His eyes looked glassy and didn’t hold any conviction of reality as they glared back at me.

“You will never own me,” I spat, refusing to break eye contact.

He pressed down harder onto my core, mercilessly grinding his erection deeper. I couldn’t stop the painful whimper that hissed between my clenched teeth. He knew he was punishing me, and he was gleeful in the knowledge. “That fucking mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble
Princess
.”

“I’m not your princess. I’m not your anything.”

With a loud snap his hand connected with my face, sending my head swinging to the side. The moment my eyes opened, I heard the sound of yet another photo being taken. Jeremy ran his hands over my stomach, pressing down where he knew I was hurting. I gasped in pain and my head swung back and forth yet I refused to beg for mercy. I clenched my teeth together and gritted on for dear life. His hands cupped my breasts and his thumb rubbed my nipples through the pathetically thin lace. The lingerie I was wearing was Ky’s favorite. He loved the way the red fit against the curves of my body, but now it would be forever tainted, and all I wanted was to burn them into a pile of ash.

“Get off me,” I shouted.

I thrashed around on the bed as best I could. Jeremy’s weight lay unscrupulously hard on top of me halting my desperation to escape. The more I struggled, the harder he pushed down on me. I didn’t care about the pain anymore. It had disappeared into my will to fight. It had ceased to exist the moment Ky had pierced into my thoughts.

“Take the fucking photo Chris! Make sure you get a shot of my tongue down her throat and my cock grinding up against her sweet pussy.” His face inched closer to mine and his hideous breath hit my lips. “You ready to put on a show for your boyfriend Princess?”

“Fuck y—” My words were stolen as Jeremy forced his tongue into my unwilling mouth. His brutal lips collided with mine in a kiss that stole my breath but for all the wrong reasons.

Jeremy ground his arousal against me causing the lace of my panties to rub against my core. A burning sensation swam through me at the roughness of his assault and tears sprung to the corners of my eyes. His hands slid between our bodies and he grasped my breasts roughly and squeezed so hard that I knew bruises instantly formed. I wanted to be sick. I needed to be sick. I would rather choke on my own vomit than continue with this.

I allowed myself to float to an alternative world, a world where none of this was happening, where it was just Ky and me in our cocoon that couldn’t be reached. Where laughter was the only thing I heard, freshly baked muffins from the diner was the only thing I smelled, and Ky’s kiss was the only thing I tasted.  

“Get the fuck off her!”

Time froze and the world stopped and tilted on its axes the moment I heard Ky’s panicked voice fill the room. 

Jeremy pulled away with a snicker, and I took the moment of reprieve to collect a deep gasp of much needed air.

“Ky?” I whispered hesitantly, not believing what I was hearing. My head fell to the side in the direction of his voice. My body was quickly overcome with weakness due to over twenty-four hours with no food or water, the simple movement was torturous. Chris stood beside the bed holding out my phone and that was when I saw Ky’s beautiful face filling the screen. “Ky!” I shouted as loud as my dehydrated throat would allow.

“Eden, baby, hang on. I will find you.”

“You are a fucking weak prick Crawford. What’s this? The second time you’ve allowed me to get my hands on her. You aren’t worthy of this pussy,” Jeremy spat toward the phone. My eyes were transfixed on Ky. The pain etched over his face was excruciating to witness as he listened to Jeremy’s taunts. This would be killing him. He blamed himself for the first time and now this. I didn’t know if he would get past this.

Ever since I arrived his protection of me had been paramount. Ky had been the reason I was the person I was today. He had unleashed the fighter within me. He’d encouraged me to be the girl who refused to be the victim. He’d motivated me to find my voice, and now I refused to remain silent. Now it felt like I had to protect him. I had to give him his voice back, and I had to return everything he gave me.

I mustered every bit of strength I had before I spoke. “Ky owns me Jeremy. I give myself to Ky and Ky only.”

Jeremy growled like a wild animal and ripped me by my aching shoulder until I was sitting up against the wooden headboard. I screamed at the stabbing pain that seared through my body.

He snatched my phone from Chris who had remained silent as his cousin completely lost it. “See this little bitch,” Jeremy jeered as he thrust the camera into my face. I closed my eyes and looked away. I didn’t want Ky seeing me like this. “She is mine Crawford. See these tits. They are mine. See this sweet delicious pussy. That is mine. She put me away for four fucking years so now it’s my time for payback.” As he spat his taunts, his hands ran over my breasts, squeezing them merciless and then he cupped my core roughly. “Answer this Crawford; do you want to watch me fuck her because I am going to fuck her right now? Your fucking choice!”

I felt a piece of me die inside as it hit me what was going to happen. Ky couldn’t see this. He would never come back from witnessing it. This was my moment to protect him as the risk of my safety. I had to grow the balls that I didn’t have four years ago. I had to play the game.

“Jeremy, don’t share it with anyone. It was just you and me the first time so it should be just me and you this time. Do you really want to share me with Ky or Chris?” I swallowed the vomit that sat precariously in my throat, I just hoped like hell it worked. I looked at him with pleading eyes and pushed my body forward so my chest was against his in an act of submission.

My pleas weren’t for me; they were entirely and without hesitation for Ky.

“Eden! What the fuck are you doing? No! Fucking no! Get away from her asshole.” I heard Ky’s anger spearing through the phone still held near my face, but my gaze didn’t fall from Jeremy.

Evilness spread over Jeremy’s face, and I knew I had him. It had somehow worked.

“Goodbye Crawford. I’m going to fuck my girl.”

It was official. I was going to kill a man with my bare hands.

I paced my apartment crossing every inch of the living room with demanding steps, all the while twitching and fuming like a mad man. Anger seethed within me, piercing my very core with murderous thoughts and ways that I would eliminate Jeremy Davis forever. My reaction to the call was immediate, desperate, and frantic. My eyes had witnessed images of Eden that I knew would be tattooed in my memories for life. They would be the knife in my heart that would continue to taunt me for the rest of my living years and into my death. Seeing Jeremy’s hands and mouth on her body was like putting acid on open wounds. My girl was hurting, fuck she was more than my girl, she was my world. And now she was locked away, facing the evil of a ruthless maniac head on. I felt completely and utterly useless. 

The living room was abuzz with frantic energy. My ears ached from the constant noise. Douglas was shouting orders to the police officers and the calls were being traced. Mom and Eden’s mom huddled together on the couch, quietly sobbing from what they had both witnessed, and Dad and Mike were in quiet conversation in the kitchen.

Jeremy Davis was a dead man fucking walking.

My gorgeous, courageous, strong girl was fighting him. She was fighting the fuckwit that had taken her. The sheer determination on her face and her clear desire to survive hit me so deep that it had knocked the air from my lungs and twisted my heart.

“Ky, get over here,” Dad bellowed from the kitchen. I hurried toward him and noticed that Douglas had joined them along with a man in his early forties who held paperwork in his hands.

Douglas turned his large frame toward me and leaned back on the kitchen island, his arms crossed over his chest. “We know where she is. The motherfucker isn’t a smart man, and we were able to trace her cell phone and know the exact location she is.”

“We have to go now,” I demanded and stormed out of the kitchen in search of my keys. Hearing that they knew where Eden was like music to my fucking ears. They didn’t follow me. “What are you waiting for? We know where she is!”

I couldn’t understand why they were standing around looking at me like I had completely lost my mind.

“Ky, we have to ensure that the premises is secure. If we barge in guns pulled and he isn’t there this whole thing will be useless. He could be watching and what do you think would happen then? He will take off with her, and he will not make contact again,” Douglas said, trying to calm my erratic behavior.

“He has my girlfriend. He has my life in his fucking hands, and we have to wait for confirmation,” I breathed out in frustration. I roughly ran my hands through my hair and gritted my teeth. “He has my life.”

My dad’s hand fell to my shoulder, and he gave me a slight nod. A nod that I knew meant that I should listen to what Douglas was saying.

I couldn’t stay there. I needed to get away from all of them. How could they just stand there when Eden was going through…Fuck I didn’t even want to imagine what was happening to her.

“Ky would you come and sit with me?” Anna Rivers’ soft voice fell to my ears halting my escape. I turned to look at Eden’s mom, and my heart broke all over again.