Beyond Ransom (The Ransom Series) (9 page)

“What do you mean?”  I pull back and
look at Leo, needing to see his face.

A crashing sounds from down the
hallway.  Someone is nearby.  The thought of getting caught like this with Leo
makes my heart race, though not completely out of fear.

Leo looks mortified, immediately
releasing me to turn toward his clothes long forgotten on the floor.  “You need
to finish.  Quickly.”

I take only a minute to scrub myself roughly
with my hands, the dull, throbbing pain in my shoulder completely unnoticed in
the residual effects of what just happened between me and Leo and in the
adrenaline shooting through my veins.

Leo helps me get dressed without a
word, and the moment we step out of the locker room we’re back to what we
really are: a captor and his captive.

Reality

By the time I’m back on the cot in my
cell
,
my heart rate has slowed significantly.  I feel
like I can breathe again.

I won’t deny the exhilaration I felt in
getting intimate with Leo in the shower and almost getting caught, which is
stupid because everything about Leo’s attitude when I stand up to the rules tells
me that going against Mark is a bad idea.  I should heed his warnings about
Mark, but I’m stubborn, and I’m enjoying the small moments I get to rebel.

Leo’s only been gone a few minutes
,
but it feels like hours.  I may have had the opportunity to get
some of this feistiness out of my system in the shower, but I still feel drawn
to him.

He’s getting water for me.  In my rush
to be done with the shower and get dressed
,
I didn’t
think to take advantage of the gallons of liquid pouring over my body that I
could have been drinking from.

I barely hear Leo’s footsteps outside
the door in his approach.  The way that he walks, almost as if on his toes so
that his feet barely make a sound when they touch the
floor
, is so distinguishable to me now.  It’s the perfect complement to
the way he carries himself: smooth, strong, and confident.

My pulse quickens again as Leo appears
from behind the door.  I was attracted to guys in high school, and even dated
some of them, at least as much as my dad would let me, but I’ve never felt this
pull toward another human being as much as I feel it with Leo.  I don’t bother
trying to truly analyze it or understand it.  I don’t know what he represents
to me yet, but I’d like to find out.

Leo slips inside the door and closes it
behind him.  I readjust on the cot as he sits down and hands me the water
bottle.  An appreciative smile smoothes out my face.  “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”  He grins and watches
me as I down half the bottle before taking a break to get some air.

“What did you mean before?” I
ask,
know
ing
he won’t want to talk about
it
but
unable
to
control
my curiosity.  “When you said
you weren’t protected, what was that about?”

The smile quickly fades from Leo’s
face.  “I shouldn’t have said anything.  I don’t think you want to hear about
that.”

“More like you don’t want to talk about
it,” I retort.  By the slight smirk that’s worked its way into his features
,
I know he knows I’m right.

“You really want to know?”

I nod my head at the same time that I’m
trying to drink from the bottle, ready to finish it off.

Leo sighs heavily.  “Mark’s more than
just my boss.”

I drop the bottle from my lips and my
eyes widen.  “Don’t tell me he’s your–”

“No, he’s not my father,” Leo
interjects.

“Thank God,” I breathe out.  “I can’t
imagine someone like you being created by that monster.”

Leo gives me an uneasy look.  “That’s
the thing.  In a way
,
he did make me who I am.”  Leo’s
eyes drift toward the closed door.  “He sort of unofficially adopted me when my
parents died.  I was only eight.  My dad was high-ranking on Mark’s crew. 
People came for us–Mark’s enemies–and they killed my parents in our home.  They
almost got me, too, but Mark intervened.  He saved my life.”

I stare at Leo, my lips parted in
disbelief, but internally all the pieces are coming together for what happened
next.  I’ve felt the scars on Leo’s chest.  I’ve seen what Mark’s capable of in
his physical and mental abuse.

“Mark essentially raised me,” Leo
continues.  “He taught me everything I know.  He helped me get through school. 
He even took care of me financially.  He was great at giving me everything, but
he was just as good at taking it all away.”

Setting the empty water bottle down at
my feet, I take Leo’s arm between my hands and inspect it in the fluorescent
lighting from above.  I trace my fingers over the tattoos on his smooth skin
until I reach a jagged line almost two inches long.

“This is how he took it away from you,”
I say, running my fingers lightly back and forth over the scar.  I move them
along his arm just under the sleeve of his T-shirt to find another raised area,
circular and smooth.  “Is this a gunshot wound?”

Leo’s hand quickly grabs mine.  He
pulls it into his lap as if I’ve just found one of his secrets that I shouldn’t
have.  “It is, but not from Mark.  That’s from the bullet that hit me the night
my parents were killed.  Only a few inches to the side and it
could
have killed me.”

I want Leo to keep talking.  It’s
soothing, almost comforting to hear him speak, especially in the quiet voice
he’s using to avoid any possibility
of
garnering
attention from the rest of the building.

“Tell me about these.”  I use my free
hand to run a finger over the beautiful artwork etched on his skin.

I study the patterns and images that cover
him from his wrist
s
all the way up his
arms
.  When I actually take the time to look at the designs up close
,
I realize they aren’t the skulls
,
crosses
,
and serpents that are
the more
typical
tattoos
.  These markings seem to be deliberately chosen
and
uniquely designed.  T
hey seem almost piecemeal, as if he’s
been slowly adding to them over time with no thought given to how they all
relate to each other.

I find a perfectly round black outline
of a circle just past his inner wrist with only a small notch missing from it
on the right side, making it look like an almost fully enclosed letter C.  The
simple marking intrigues me as I trace it with my forefinger.

“This one looks unfinished,” I say
jokingly.  “What does it mean?”

Leo turns to look at me, still holding
my hand in his lap.  “It’s a reminder of where I am and what I’m going to do.”

I
give him a confused look
.

“I’m in this endless circle,” he
explains.  “I had no idea what my dad really did for a living when I was younger. 
He was my hero, but it turns out he was a criminal, and ultimately being in
this business destroyed him and his family.  Now here I am, right where my dad
was in the thick of Mark’s crew, but I won’t let this cycle continue.  I won’t
start a family and get them involved in this life.  I’d rather die alone than
let anyone else from my family line be destroyed by this business.”

My gaze falls down to Leo’s arm again,
my fingers tracing the large design that takes up the majority of
the
top of
his forearm: a large tree, its trunk and lower
branches thriving and vibrant with life that fades into desolate, ragged, empty
branches at the top.

“Can’t you get away?  Why can’t you
leave?”

“I owe Mark everything,” he says defensively. 
“Despite what he’s done to me over the years, I still owe him my life, and I
need to make up for so much more
.”  He pauses uncomfortably.  “
I will work for him until he lets me go… if he ever lets me go.”

I squeeze Leo’s hand lightly and lean
my head on his shoulder.  He’s too damn loyal for his own good.  “So you want
to save me instead.  That’s what this is about.”

“I owe it to you,” he says, his voice
unsteady and strained.  “What your father did, putting Mark in prison… that
changed the course of my life.  The moment he was in prison the beatings and
belittling and abuse all stopped.  He was locked up, and for the first time in
over ten years I was out of his reach.  I had nowhere else to go, and I owed
Mark for the good he did for me and for other things, so I helped continue his business
while he was on the inside.  By the time he got out
,
he was impressed with what I had accomplished and how I had grown up in his
absence.  He finally showed me respect.”

“And you’re his right-hand man now.” 
The reality of what I’m saying hits me square in the chest, and I suddenly feel
a little light-headed. 
I’m inexplicably and utterly attracted to my enemy’s
most trusted man and adopted son.

Leo’s hand grasps mine even tighter as
he turns to look at me, pulling me out of my temporary stupor to look at his
pained eyes.  “Don’t you see what this means?  The event that turned my life
around ultimately landed you where you are now.  Your father putting Mark in
prison was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, but the trade-off is it
led to this, to Mark needing to exact revenge on your father for the six years
he lost.  This is why I need to help you in any way I can.  This is why I need
to care about you, because I owe it to you and your father for what his actions
ultimately did for me.”

“I understand,” I say with a nod,
though my mind is still wrapping itself around all of this.  Our lives were
both significantly changed the day my dad finally put Mark in prison.  Leo got
his life back that day, and it ultimately led to my life being taken away.

Leo sighs next to me.  “I’ve accepted
where I’m at and what I have to do for Mark on a daily basis, but I didn’t sign
up for torturing women.”  Leo breaks the connection of our hands and leans away
from me.  “Mark, me, all these guys… we’re not good people.  We’ve done some
really awful things in the name of the business, but I’ve never condoned
something like this: taking someone’s kid, beating her, torturing her with mind
games.”  He shakes away the thought.  “You have your whole life ahead of you, and
Mark’s going to ruin it.  He’s going to destroy everything you have for the
sake of revenge.”

A heavy silence fills the space between
us.  In the absence of conversation
,
my fingers travel
to Leo’s upper arm, discovering another tattoo.  It’s a beautiful depiction of
a sun, but its center and rays are colored completely black, giving it an
almost menacing look.

As I encircle his arm with my hand,
squeezing slightly to gauge the strength of the prominent muscles underneath
his skin, a different sort of conversation develops between us.  When I look up
from my hand around his arm
,
I become very aware that
my face is within inches of Leo’s, our lips with the potential to meet with the
smallest movement.  There is an almost palpable sexual tension between us, and
it’s escalating.

“You may think I’m losing everything,”
I say, looking directly in his eyes, “but I’ve at least gained something.  A
couple things, actually.”

“Don’t even say it, Morgan.  This thing
between us, this is nothing.  It can’t be anything.”

“It can be everything.  You don’t have
to run from this.”

But he’s already running from me.  He’s
up from the cot and three feet away before I even finish speaking.

“I’m not bringing you down with me. 
I’m not tainting you.”  He’s already made it to the door.

“Maybe I want to be tainted.  Maybe I
want something different.  I want to feel alive.”  I can’t help biting my lip a
little before I say my next words.  “Maybe I want you.”

“I will not ruin you.”

He shoots out the door.  It locks with
a definitive click.

“Don’t run, Leo.  You have to stop!”  I
call out after him, but I hear nothing.

I’m left with nothing.

Sunshine

I don’t remember how I got here, and
I’m not sure where here is yet.  My last conscious thought was lying down on
the cot after Leo left, giving in to my mind’s need to sleep to escape reality
and enter my dreams, even if it meant revisiting nightmares.

I wonder if I’m in one right now.

My head wobbles back and forth groggily,
but I feel something wonderful and warm over my entire body.  Sunshine.  The
beautiful rays of heat stream down on my
skin,
and I
wish I could open my pores to absorb every bit of
them
. 
It’s hot under the blazing sun.  I can feel a layer of sweat having already
formed on my skin, but it feels amazing in the slight breeze that blows across
me.  For a moment I wonder if this is actually a dream, but my eyes open to
confirm the nightmare I
should have
expected.

After a few moments of blurry vision
and blindness from the extreme light
,
my eyesight
settles and comes back into focus.  I can clearly make out Mark and Leo
standing before an endless sea of desert in front of me.  I’m absolutely
horrified, not because of the hopelessness of the desert around me or the fact
that my wrists and ankles are secured tightly to a chair, but because I’m sitting
here in nothing but my bra and underwear.

“What’s going on?” I ask, my voice
raspy.

Mark saunters his way closer to me. 
“You’ll find out, dear.  Did you like this little surprise of waking up in the
sunshine?  I thought it would be more fun to drug you up before bringing you
out here
.  I wanted to l
et you enjoy waking up to the
sun on your beautiful body.”

Despite the heat of the sun beaming
down on me, my body shivers at Mark’s comment and the subsequent scan he
performs of my overly
exposed
body.  My thoughts are still fuzzy but now racing with mental images of what he
could have possibly done to me while I was unconscious.

“Do you know why you’re out here,
Morgan?”

There’s a subtle hint of anger in
Mark’s voice.  I can’t deny the dread and panic seated deep within me at the
thought of this latest show of his power.  I’m not ready to play this mind
game, but I’m not sure this is a good time to test his patience, either, so I
try to respond appropriately.
 
“No.  Why am I here?”

It’s then that I notice the empty water
bottle discarded in the dirt at Mark’s feet, taunting me, telling on me,
whispering my secrets to the man above it.

Shit
.

“Do you know what happens to people who
mess with my crew and disobey me?”  Mark approaches me slowly, stalking me, a
predator narrowing in on its prey.  “Do you think you’re on vacation?  That
this is some kind of hotel with amenities and room service and such?”

Self-preservation instincts kick in,
but I have nowhere to go.  There’s absolutely nothing I can do other than
answer all of his questions at once.  “No.”

Mark crushes the water bottle, its
crinkling sound pitiful under his weighted and purposeful steps to close the
distance between us.  His hand finds my tender shoulder, yanking at me to demand
my full attention to look into his furious eyes.
 
“You
won’t ever take advantage of one of my men again, agreed?”

The fuzziness is gone.  This wakes me
the hell up, my brain kicking into high gear, transcending
me
over the confusion and muddled thoughts to look directly at Leo. 
It’s a stupid move to show my concern, but I can’t exactly think straight right
now.  Mark’s still expecting an answer, so I nod slightly.

Leo looks fine.  He’s keeping an even
face, but I can see the worry in his eyes.  He doesn’t like where this is going
any more than I do.

“Good.  In that case,” Mark says,
turning to Leo, “will you do the honors?”

He’s hesitant to move before stepping
to the side to grab something from nearby: a large bucket of water.  I have no
idea what to make of it until a towel is pulled tightly over my face and I’m
tipped back in the chair.  It’s then that I realize what they’re going to do.

Oh my God
.

What feels like oceans
’
worth of cold water is
slowly and
steadily
poured on the towel over my mouth and nose, relentlessly blocking my air
passages from breathing.  My gag reflex immediately kicks in, and I feel like
I’m drowning, like all the oxygen in the world is replaced with water and I
have nothing left to breathe.  The amount of time it goes on for seems like an
eternity to my body in its depravation of oxygen.

When
the water stops and
the towel is finally removed
,
I choke and
gasp for air, desperate for anything to get oxygen into my burning lungs. 
Tears mix with the remnants of the water that still trickles down the sides of
my face into my soaked hair.

The chair is lifted back up to its
normal position, and Mark is immediately beside my ear.  “How did you enjoy
your extra water, dear?  I’m sure you were still thirsty, even after last
night.”

I sense a double meaning to Mark’s
words but am having trouble finding the brain power to process it in my current
state.  I can’t speak, and I don’t want to.  My vision is turning red, but I
can still make out Leo’s concerned face
only
steps
away from me.  Just seeing him standing there gives me a small amount of strength
and comfort.  I feel a slight hardening in my resolve.  He will help get me
through this.

I regroup, relaxing my chest, finding
somewhat normal breathing again, though my lungs still burn.

“Did you learn your lesson?” Mark says
while circling me.

“Yes,” I manage to choke out, but my
voice is weak.  Mark grabs my ear and pulls, viciously yanking at the sensitive
skin and cartilage.  “Yes!” I yell more clearly, and Mark finally releases me.

“That will be all, then,” Mark says to
me.  “Enjoy the sunshine while you can.  You may never feel it again.”

He nods toward Leo, indicating for him
to follow, but
Leo
doesn’t move.  My heart races for
him.  He’s not supposed to show any emotion toward me in front of Mark.

“We shouldn’t let her see the area.  We
need to cover her face,” Leo suggests.  He removes his T-shirt, the skin of his
chest and abs glistening in the bright sunshine, and walks over to me.  With a
barely noticeable nod
,
he throws the shirt over my
head and ties it tightly at my neck.

“Good thinking, son.”

I cringe at Mark’s use of the word “son”
when referring to Leo.  Mark may have helped raise Leo, but he is so far from
being a father or any kind of real family to him.

I barely hear them walk away in the
quiet crunching of their footsteps in the dirt.  I don’t know whether to be
relieved or terrified that I’m being left alone out here.

It’s so quiet.  Other than the
occasional sound of the wind around me, I hear nothing.
  I
already know it’s pointless, but I struggle to try to release my
wrists and ankles anyway, almost tipping the chair over in the process.  The
thought occurs to me to let the chair tip, but I decide against it.

It’s not until at least an hour passes
that I realize why Leo insisted on putting his shirt over my head, and I’m so
grateful for its presence.  The sunshine that felt so warm and comforting
before is starting to work against me.  I can feel the dangerous rays burning
my skin with each passing minute that I remain out here exposed to them.

I struggle against the restraints at my
wrists and ankles again, my efforts becoming desperate in the panic taking over
my body, but I still can’t break free.  I’m only increasing the heat and
exhaustion in my body the more I fight them, and eventually I give up.