Beyond Ransom (The Ransom Series) (4 page)

Awakening

Sleep is such a beautiful state.  It’s
peaceful, unknowing, unaware.

The moment I realize I’ve been pulled
from sleep, my heart drops.  The jingling of keys and clicking sound of the
lock turning on the other side of my cell are stark reminders of where I am. 
My eyes squeeze shut and my body stills completely as footsteps approach me.  The
quiet hours in which I have been safe alone in this enclosed box are coming to
an end.

A strong arm grabs me around the waist
and rolls me roughly off the cot and onto the cement floor.  I land flat on my
back, and even though it’s only a
two-
foot drop, it’s
enough to knock the wind out of me momentarily.

I lie here coughing and gasping, trying
desperately to catch my breath as a heavy boot connects with my side. 
Instinctively my body begins to curl up into a ball to protect itself
,
but I’m not fast enough.  The boot finds my stomach this time. 
Over and over it kicks me until I manage to flatten myself out and get my limbs
in a position to make an attempt to crawl away.

I can see my hands shaking in front of
me as my arms make slow and pathetic movements to crawl forward.  My breathing
is ragged and uneven.  My stomach and side
s
burn
fiercely, the pain only exacerbated by the fact that I’ve put all my weight
down on my belly in this feeble attempt to put space between me and whoever
gave me this rude awakening.

Though I know I’ve only gone a few feet
away and am still trapped by the walls that surround me, the boot doesn’t find
me again.  My coughs and painful attempts at breathing are the only sounds that
fill the air as I reach the door that is left open just a crack.  My unsteady
fingers grasp the cool metal of the door and I pull it toward me.

Multiple men are standing there staring
at me, almost amused at the show they’ve been given through the small window
and
crack
in the door.  I hate being under their gazes like
this.  I feel like an animal trapped in this cage, some abused and mistreated
beast whose sole purpose is to entertain.  I feel like their plaything that
they can do with as they wish, and I fear what will become of that and what
will become of me.

Some small part of me wishes Leo was
among the men enjoying the show, but he’s not here.  If he was
,
maybe he would have stopped the man who seem
ed
so intent on breaking my ribs and robbing my body of oxygen.

“You have some fight in you, girl. 
Quite the show of endurance.”

The voice comes from behind me, and I
immediately know that Mark is the man behind the boot.  I shouldn’t have
expected anyone else.

Though I’ve just woken up, I already
feel exhausted.  The amount of effort I’ve just put into trying to protect my body
and crawl a few feet away from Mark has taken a lot out of me.  I don’t feel
the fight in me anymore, but I can’t let him know this.  My forehead drops to
the cold cement.  “You can thank my dad for that.  He taught me well.”

“Ah
,
yes, the
daughter of a police detective.  It’s too bad you were stupid enough to ignore
everything else he’s ever taught you.”

I hate that he’s right.  I
t
was
careless for me
to leave the house
against my dad’s wishes.  I should have known better than to be anywhere near
that black car with tinted windows that was clearly not the cab I called for. 
I should have run and screamed and fought harder against the men who surrounded
me on the sidewalk.

It doesn’t matter now.  What’s done is
done.  I just have to find a way to survive this long enough for Dad to find me
or pay the ransom to this lunatic.

Hands forcefully grab me by the
shoulders and flip me up and around so that my back is against the wall next to
the door.  The new position intensifies the stabbing pains in my torso, causing
me to take in a sharp breath.

Mark kneels down in front of me
,
inspecting my face while my ragged breathing continues.
 
He touches the gauze on my forehead with his thumb, pressing in on
it enough to make me wince before drifting his fingers over the butterfly
bandages and down my cheek.  It’s that sensual touch again that makes me want
to shed my skin and run for it.

“Leo fixed you up,” he observes.  I
remain still, avoiding any reaction at his mention of Leo’s name.  He moves in
closer to whisper in my ear.  “It won’t be the last time.”

I try not to let the fear show openly
in my face, but I’m sure he can see a hint of it in my eyes as he pulls away
from me.

In the same movement of Mark’s return
to standing, he pulls me up by the arm like a rag doll.  I unsteadily find my
footing and am able to remain standing when he loosens his grip of me.

“You will get five minutes in the
bathroom,” Mark says
as he
toss
es
me out
into the hallway
.  I barely find
my balance to avoid crashing back down to the floor.  “Hutchinson will escort
you.”  He nods to a gruff-looking, short man next to me.

As Hutchinson’s smile widens, I can
feel the color draining from my face.  I’m really going to be alone with this
man and his wicked intentions for five minutes?  I’d almost rather be at the
mercy of Mark’s beatings and punishments under the spotlight in the main room.

Hutchinson
grabs me by the arm and tugs me toward him until I’m pressed up against his
chest.  Mark and the other men turn away from us, walking down the hallway.

“Mark,” I call out after him.  I’m
ready to beg.  I’ll do anything to not have to spend the next five minutes
alone with this man.  “Mark!” I scream, but to no avail.  He keeps walking,
completely
unaffected.

Hutchinson
’s
arms wrap themselves around my waist.  “You really do smell good.”

He’s rubbing his head into my hair now,
the stubble on his cheek easily felt through our contact, and his hands are
roaming.  With his arms and body all around me, I can smell the potent and disgusting
body odor emanating from him.

I try to wiggle away, but with his
tight grasp around my waist, any movement I make to slip out of his arms away
from him only aggravates the pain in my stomach and side
s
.  I double over, gasping for breath again when my struggle twists
something just the wrong way in the injuries inside me.

When Hutchinson recognizes the fight
has left me, he drags me along behind him down the hallway, my feet barely able
to keep up and remain steady enough to prevent me from collapsing to my knees.

He pulls me through an open doorway,
the missing door apparently ripped off its hinges and nowhere in sight.  The
bathroom is filthy, dust and dirt covering most surfaces of the pale yellow
tiled space.  There are a few stalls on one side of the small room a few metal
sinks on the other side.

I’m pulled over to one of the stalls
and practically thrown inside.  I pause for a moment as Hutchinson stands there
watching me.  Any second now he should be shutting the door to let me do my
business.

“I’m not closing this door, darling,”
he says in a playful tone.

I really have no intention of pissing
in front of this man.  “Please,” I ask.  “Just give me this one minute.  One
fucking minute.”

Hutchinson
shakes his head before nodding at the toilet behind me.  “Get on with it.”

He’s not backing down
, and
I don’t know that this is a battle I can win.  I fear that if I
don’t do this he’s going to start ripping at my clothes to force me to do this,
and that will only make things worse for me.

I reluctantly lower my shorts and underwear
and sit on the toilet to
piss
.  It’s the first time
here that I’ve felt truly violated, that
it seems like
all rights have been stripped from me and I’m left exposed,
vulnerable, and at the mercy of the men holding me captive in this building.

The toilet paper is the thinnest,
dingiest kind I’ve ever seen, but I couldn’t be happier to see it.  Once I’m
finished, I pull up my clothes in a quick movement as I stand up, hoping to God
that the man watching me didn’t get a peek where
he wasn’t
meant to see.

I flush the toilet and am almost afraid
to turn around and look at Hutchinson.  When I do, my worst fears are
confirmed.  His eyes are hungry.  The slight upturn of his lips tells me he’s
enjoying every second of this.  The bulge in his jeans informs me he’s ready
for more.  His violation of my privacy and personal space is far from over.

He pulls me out from the stall by my
arm and pushes me across the room until my back is pressed up against the cold
tiled wall.  His hand instantly moves under my shirt and bra, grasping and
squeezing my breast.  His other hand is at my waist, working its way into my
shorts.

I struggle to push him away, my arms
flailing against him and making some progress until the hand at my shorts pulls
my shoulder off the wall and crashes my head back against it.  The force of the
hit in the same swollen area where my head hit the cement yesterday instantly
makes me dizzy.  The fight in my limbs subsides against my will, and I’m left
helpless as he successfully slips his hand into my shorts this time and runs
his slobbery lips across my face and neck.

“What the fuck are you doing?” a voice
calls from the other side of the room.  It takes a moment for my disoriented
brain to place the voice, but when it does, my heart just about jumps out of my
chest.

“I’m enjoying,” Hutchinson replies
between
sloppy
kisses.

He’s working his way down my chest and
approaching the top of my breast, and then suddenly he’s not.  Leo is on top of
him, pulling him off me and throwing him into the middle of the
bath
room.

Leo places himself between me and
Hutchinson.  “
Mark
said hands off, remember?”

“Fuck that, man.  Look at her.”  Hutchinson looks frustrated, about ready to plow right through Leo to get back to me.  “How
can we pass that up?  God, I need a good fuck so bad right now.”

Leo narrows his eyes at him.  “Go
somewhere else and deal with it.  I’ll take care of this.”

Hutchinson
remains silent for a moment, standing his ground.  He groans in frustration
before turning around and fuming his way out of the bathroom, slamming his fist
against the wall on the way out.

When he’s gone from my sight, the
breath I’ve been holding in for too long finally escapes me.  I feel strange
relief at being handled by Leo instead of the sick bastard who was with me
moments before.

Leo turns to face me.  “You okay?”

I nod, still trying to calm the
adrenaline shooting throughout my body.  “Thank you for stopping him,” I
whisper.

Leo grasps my trembling arms and holds
me there for a moment.  His touch is different
from
Hutchinson’s or Mark’s.  It’s gentle and soothing, not
representative at
all of someone
trying to hurt me or take advantage of me.

“When I saw the group come back without
you and Hutchinson, I knew something was going on.  It wasn’t hard to find
you.”

I take a deep breath.  “You’re not
always going to be able to stop them.”  My own words crush me as I say them. 
“You can’t always be there.  One of these times I won’t be so lucky.”

He stops to think for a moment.  “Are
you a virgin?”

I’m stunned by his sudden personal
question but nod cautiously.  He looks at me skeptically
until
I roll my eyes at him and reinforce my answer with words.  “I’m
only eighteen.  I wasn’t one of those girls who slept around in high school.”

A smile curves up his lips, and it’s
slightly intoxicating.  He looks away from me for a moment, and by the time his
eyes meet mine again, the smile is gone.  “If anyone tries this on you again,
you tell them you’re a virgin.  They won’t want to risk taking that away from
you and having Mark find out.”

This is such a strange conversation to be
having with this man, but I nod my understanding.  “Okay.”

“You need to be prepared,” he says
reluctantly.  “I don’t know exactly what Mark’s plan is here, but I know him
well.  This is about revenge, and having his enemy’s daughter within his grasp
will give him endless ways to seek that revenge.  He’s going to take full
advantage of this.”

My hand automatically moves to my
side.  My midsection knows exactly how
much
Mark likes
to
get
his revenge.

A look of concern flashes over Leo’s
face as he notices my hand, and before I can drop it away from my side he grabs
it gently.  “What did he do?”

I shake my head at him.  I don’t want
Leo to see it.  Hell, I don’t even want to see it.

He slowly lifts the bottom of my shirt a
few inches, and his eyes widen.  “Jesus Christ.”  His gaze meets mine, his
mouth agape.  “From this morning?”