Broken Bonds (Club Imperial Series) (16 page)

“Let me deal with this and then let Emmy explain it later.”

“Fuck you.” Nathaniel snapped his head up at her, shocked at her language. “I’m staying. She’s my sister, and that was my father who knocked her unconscious. I pointed a gun at my own father!” Her voice started to tremble. “I need to know…”

“This is not a good idea.”

“Whatever. Not moving.”

The desire to physically remove her from the room almost won, but he finally realized this was taking too long. “Fine. Fine. Grab a robe out of that closet,” Nathaniel growled. Ally leapt up and ran to the closet. She came back out a moment later with a short robe for her. Nathaniel motioned for her to lay it down next to her, all while Emmy’s trembling hands fought to get back to the clasps of the bra. Nathaniel motioned for Ally to help Emmy unfasten the bra.

The clasps came free and Emmy clawed at the straps, scraping herself. Nathaniel grabbed her hands and moved to her lap. He ran his hands up her arms reverently, and pulled the straps off and down her arm. She tried to keep it on for as long as she could, but at the end she relented.

Nathaniel took her face, covered in tears, in his hands and looked into her eyes. “Emmy, I don’t care what’s under there,” he said. “But I need to see it. I need to know what exactly he did to you.” He kissed her gently and pulled the bra off and away from her.

“Oh, God,” Ally said, putting her hands over her mouth.

Nathaniel’s heart dropped to the floor, and he wanted to cry for just a moment. Then he wanted to murder Sean. Or worse. But the part that hurt him the most was he understood why she was hiding herself in the bra all the time.

Even while Emmy tried to cover herself with her arms, he could see the skin all over her breasts was mangled, clearly having been burned severely and not treated properly. There were scars that were clearly ruptures and as well as pitting on the sides, where the burns had probably been infected. The ruined tissue ran all the way around her whole breast, stopping just before her chest and just before the areola.

Ally went running out of the room gasping and choking on her sobs. Nathaniel was briefly angry that he hadn’t kicked Allison out; she hadn’t needed to see this. Grabbing the robe on the bed next to Emmy, he helped her slip it on, wrapping it around her and tying the waist. “Lie down, Emmy. Lay back and relax.”

“I’m a freak,” she whispered.

“You are not,” he said, kissing her forehead. “Just stay here. I will back in a few minutes.” He looked at her. “Stay here?”

She nodded mutely.

He put the cover over her carefully, and walked out of the room. Walking into the kitchen, he found Quinn holding Allison back from her father. Whatever she was screaming at him was completely unintelligible. She saw Nathaniel walk in, and started screaming again. This time, he could understand.

“He did that to her! He did it! He ruined my sister’s body on purpose! I want to kill him! I want to kill him before he does that to me!! Let me kill him!”

“Quinn, could you take Ally upstairs to my room and help her start a bath. I think she needs one to calm down,” Nathaniel directed. Quinn didn’t hesitate or struggle trying to convince her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her up the stairs.

Sean, he noted, was holding his crotch and his eyes were fire, glaring at Nathaniel. He walked right up to the man in cuffs. “You are a sick, disgusting fuck. How could anyone hurt a child? Never mind one who was given to your keeping because her father was killed.”

“Expensive bitch was hard to keep and cost me what needed to go to my daughter,” he coughed.

“You don’t give a shit about Emmy
or
Allison. I should gut you where you stand,” Nathaniel growled, walking away. “You are spineless.”

“Allison helps me get what I want and deserve. She deserves it all because she’ll give it to me.”

Nathaniel said, stopping and turning to him, “Allison will have it all. And she will never ever pass another cent on to you. You will never and can never give her everything you claim she needs.”

“I give her everything,” he yelled. “Everything! She’s my meal ticket!”

“Your meal ticket.” Nathaniel laughed harshly. “You denied her a sister. You drove her sister away. And now, by ruining her sister, you’ve driven Allison away. Do you think she’s ever going to want to be in the same house with you again now that she’s seen what you did to Emmy?”

“Emmy deserved it,” Sean spit.

“What?” came a meek voice from the door. They all turned and saw Alyssa standing there. “What did my daughter deserve?”

Sean didn’t answer her. He just stared. Alyssa’s eyes filled with tears, and Nathaniel realized Alyssa either had no idea what her husband had done to her daughter or she’d willfully blocked it out. “You’ve never seen her scars.”

She swallowed and the tears spilled down her cheeks. “What scars?” she asked softly.

“Go upstairs,” he directed. “Your daughters need you. Go and see what this so-called man has done to Emmy.” Her lip trembled as she started to walk up the stairs. Nathaniel stopped her with a hand on her arm. “You have a choice to make, Alyssa. Your husband is about to be arrested. You can go with him back to Boston and never see your children again, or you can stay here and never see your husband again. There is no option C.”

She looked at Sean, who glowered at her and she dipped her head. She walked up the stairs away from the kitchen. Sean turned his eyes to Nathaniel and tried to stare him down.

Nathaniel was having none of that bullshit. He walked over to the handcuffed man, and spoke clearly and calmly, just inches from his face. “Here’s what’s going to happen, Sean. You’re going to the police station and you’re being booked on whatever the hell it is they can find to throw at you. Assuming I find nothing else to throw at you and put your ass in jail forever, I’m going to have Quinn bail you out and you’re going to get on the next plane to Boston. You will come back, escorted by my body guards, only for your court dates. Once that’s done, once you’re done with your jail time, you will never, ever come back to Pittsburgh for anything ever again.”

“You can’t—”

“I can, and I will,” Nathaniel bit out. “You are also losing Allison. I am going to sue you for custody of her. With what’s about to go on record for Emmy, and with my money, you don’t stand a chance of getting her back. Ever.” Nathaniel didn’t like playing the money card, but this was for Emmy. He wanted her safe, and if that meant playing the rich asshole, then he would. He nodded at Wright and Perez, and they were about to drag him out of the house when someone came tearing into the kitchen.

“Where—” It was Franz.

“Get him out of here,” Nathaniel said to Wright, pointing to Sean.

Franz turned and looked at Sean. Nathaniel saw Franz’s eyes flare with anger. His face went red and his eyes grew insane. Before anyone could get close enough to stop him, Franz threw his fist at Sean’s face, smashing his jaw in a right hook, and then a left hook, and then he grabbed his head and smashed it into his knee.

Victor and Nathaniel grabbed either arm, and pulled Franz back away from Sean. “You sick son of a bitch!” Franz yelled. “You are a fucking asshole! She got away from you! She wasn’t your problem anymore! Why did you have to come out here and fuck her up again?” Franz was struggling against them.

“Get him out!” Nathaniel yelled at the bodyguards holding Sean. “Get him out!”

Wright and Perez dragged the now-completely bloodied and drooping Sean out the door, as another man walked in. Nathaniel relaxed his grip on Franz and pointed at the newcomer. “Who the fuck are you?”

“That’s Emmy’s psychiatrist,” Victor explained, as security disappeared around the corner with Sean. “Doctor Mueller, my brother, Nathaniel.”

The youngish looking man with kind eyes walked over and shook Nathaniel’s startled hand. “Mr. Walsh. Where is Emmy?”

“Upstairs,” Nathaniel answered. “In her bedroom.”

“Show him,” Franz ordered. “Take him up there.”

“What is he doing here? How did he get here?” Nathaniel shook his head in confusion.

Victor nodded. “As soon as I heard Sean was here and you were running back, I called Franz to find out who her doctor was. She’s going to need him. If for no other reason than to give her a sedative. I wanted to get her there, but he offered to come here.”

Nathaniel looked at his brother, then Franz, then motioned to the doctor to follow him. He led the doctor up the stairs and Franz followed. Nathaniel stopped in front of the door and pointed. “She’s in there.” Franz reached for the doorknob. Nathaniel grabbed his arm. “No. I don’t think so.”

“I’m one of her oldest friends and I know her better—”

“That’s exactly what I mean,” Nathaniel snapped.

“Mr. Dorn, please stay out here,” Mueller requested. “Let me talk to her alone, please. You’re a good friend to get me here. Please let me handle this alone.” He looked at Nathaniel. “That goes for you as well, Mr. Walsh.”

The door was nowhere near wide enough for either of them to follow him when he walked in. The two of them were left standing in the hallway. And Nathaniel didn’t like it at all. He folded his arms and stared at Franz. Franz was staring back.

“I’m not here to take her away.” Franz pleaded his case.

“The fuck you’re not,” Nathaniel argued. “After this mess, she’s going to need the club again. You’re here to carry her off to safety.”

“She’s terrified of the club.” Franz dropped his voice dangerously low. “She can’t remember what happened the last time she was there. I am not here to take her away from you. I am concerned about her.”

“I know just how concerned you were.” Nathaniel bit out.

“She was sixteen, you asshole,” Franz growled at him. “She didn’t know whether she was coming or going. I was an
idiot
for letting it turn into a relationship. I knew all along how much shit I would get into for sleeping with a minor. And, shit, do you know what would have happened if they had raided the house? She is my friend. That is it. And I am worried as fuck about her right now.” He stepped into Nathaniel with his finger shoved in his face. “I want to blame you for this, I do. But I do know her well, and I know she was stubborn about trying to get along with him without a chaperone.” He dropped the finger. “I thought he was just an asshole. I didn’t know he was smart and devious.”

“You have no idea.” Nathaniel relaxed a little. “Try spending a few days with him. He’s the shiftiest bastard ever. He scams everyone around him. And you know what? It’s only a matter of time until he tries get Ally into the act.”

“Has she...has she told you the whole story?”

“No,” he said. “I just know her skin is mangled and it’s his fault.”

“You’re gonna be glad he’s in jail when you hear this,” Franz warned. “Because what I did to him, just now, is nowhere near what that fucker deserves.”

The door opened and both of them turned. Alyssa stepped out with tears running down her face. “I have to check on Allison,” she said quietly. Nathaniel walked down to the door to his room and pushed it open, then pulled it closed once she was inside.

Pausing with his hand on the handle, he looked at Franz. “Do you think Alyssa’s going to stay?”

Franz shook his head sadly.

Chapter Fifteen

Emmy heard her mother’s voice, but shut out the words. They were empty. They had been empty for years. She felt her mother’s hand on her hair, smoothing it. It was the least comforting thing she had ever experienced. Finally she swatted the hand away and rolled over, away from her.

Her soul was crushed. Eight years of rebuilding herself, crushed in the space of an hour. She had a throbbing migraine. She had been threatened, humiliated and then forced to show her worst self to the very man who had proposed to her the night before.

She was utterly lost.

The door creaked open and someone walked in. She hoped it was Sean and he was going to finish the job he’d started downstairs. Just to put her out of her misery.

The weight of her mother shifted off the bed, and no one else sat down. It made her think maybe Sean was there, since Alyssa was a spineless coward who couldn’t even stand up for her daughter.

“Emmy,” came a familiar voice. “Emmy, can you roll over so I can see you?”

Doctor Mueller?
She rolled carefully and found him standing there. She blinked a few times and he smiled, encouraging her to keep rolling toward him. Confused, she did.

“Hi, Emmy,” he spoke calmly. “I heard you had a bad morning?”

She laughed with no conviction. “Just a little.” Her voice was hoarse.

“Who brought you up here?”

“Ally,” she said. “Is Allison okay?”

“She’s fine,” he reassured her. “She’s in the other room. Quinn was taking care of her, from what I understood.”

“Emmy, darling...” came Alyssa’s voice, and she pushed forward.

“Go. Away.” Emmy was firm. “I don’t want you here.”

“Emmy, I’m just here to help.”

Emmy sat up violently. “You’re twelve fucking years too late!!”

“Mrs. Greene,” Mueller interjected himself between them, “you’re probably going to want to go check on your other daughter. Emmy needs time.”

“I want to help her...”

“Get out,” Emmy growled. “Get out of here before I really let you know what I think of you. I love you, Mom, but right about now, I really fucking hate your guts. And you don’t want to hear the rest of that.”

Mueller look at Alyssa. “Go check on Allison, Mrs. Greene. She’s going to need you.”

The tears in her mother’s eyes didn’t interest her at that point. She glowered at her mother until she finally turned around and left the room, the door clicking closed behind her. Emmy slumped, the overwhelming exhaustion of emotions crushing her. She put her face in her hands and started sobbing.

“Good,” Mueller said. “Good, I’m glad you’re crying, Emmy.”

“I’ve completely reset,” she whimpered. “I don’t know how to deal with this. He subbed me, Doctor. He threatened my mother and my little sister. The bastard actually forced me to submit. I haven’t done that in eight years, and in less than ten minutes alone with him, there I was on my knees ready to listen to his directives.”

“You aren’t completely reset, Emmy,” the doctor said, sitting next to her on the bed. “Tell me what happened. Tell me everything, and we’re going to work this out right now.”

Emmy told him what Sean had done, with each painful detail bringing another flood of tears. She told the whole story as she remembered it, right to where he walked in to the room with her. Mueller looked at her with a piercing stare. “So. He knows now.”

“No,” Emmy said. “He only saw. I didn’t explain.”

“Then you need to,” Mueller said. “Franz knows, correct?”

“Only Franz.” Emmy nodded.

“I’m going to send Nathaniel in and you’re going to explain all of this to him,” Mueller said.

“Doctor, I’m fucked in the head. I can’t explain this to him,” she cried. “I’ve reset. I’m a mess.”

“You didn’t reset Emmy,” he reaffirmed. “You did that downstairs to save your sister from your past. From the man who has done everything to destroy you, and would do the same to your sister. You are in a very different place, Em. You have Nathaniel, Victor, Chantal, Gwen, all those new friends you’ve made at the club...think of all those people you can call on to help you. You have the support this time. You have people who love you. And people who need to know the truth.”

He stood and loomed over her. “You should have seen Nathaniel in that hallway, Emmy. He was ready to kill for you. He was ready to take Sean apart in reverse alphabetical order. I have seen anger in people’s eyes before; this was murder. Because he loves you and you were hurt and he can’t take that hurt away.” He took her hand and patted it. “Explain to him. Explain why he wanted to kill a man this morning.”

He walked to the door. “I’m going to see your sister. I think she’s pretty effed in the head right now as well, given all that’s gone on. You’ll probably have to explain this to her as well.” He looked around. “You still have your Xanax?”

“In the bedroom,” she said.

“If you need one, take one,” he instructed. “I’m going to set up a few appointments for you in the next two weeks to make sure you’re doing all right. I’m going to monitor this. But I’m thinking this isn’t a back slide. This is just a hurdle as you’re going forward.”

“Warren,” she begged, quietly. “Don’t go. I need your help.”

“Emmy, I wouldn’t be going if I didn’t think you weren’t strong enough.” He smiled at her. “Nathaniel will be in. Let things go. Let the chips fall. But if you think you want to leave, do not leave him without telling him why he would have killed your step-father.”

Emmy watched as Mueller walked out the door. It took only a moment before the door opened quietly and she saw Nathaniel’s head poke in. A spike of fear ripped through her, and she found herself crying again.

“No, Emmy,” he said, closing the door and rushing over to her. She pulled the robe tighter. “Oh, God, baby. I’m so sorry.” He wrapped his arms around her, and she tried to pull away from him.

“How can you stand to touch me?” she asked. “I’m ruined.”

“You are not ruined,” Nathaniel argued. “I should have never let that man in this house.”

“Let me go, Nathaniel,” she pleaded, softly. She didn’t really want that, but it was the right thing to do. “Just let me go. I can be out of here in an hour.”

“Fuck. That.” He was emphatic.

“What?” she asked.

“Fuck that,” he repeated. “You’re not leaving. You’re staying here with me. I want to know what happened, Emmy. Why did that asshole do this to you? What led to this?”

Emmy wanted to throw up. “I don’t want to tell you.”

“I want to know,” he said, sitting down next to her. “I only know the venom Sean was spitting down there. I need to know what really happened.” He had his hand on her leg. “I need to know.”

“You don’t.” She shook her head.

“I held a gun on a man today, Emmy. I threatened to kill him. I have never done anything like that in my life. I would rather hug a tree. I need to know what made me do that. I need to know what he did to make you go submissive. That, more than anything, scared the shit out of me. Seeing you, my gorgeous Domme, in a submissive pose.”

Emmy marveled at him; she couldn’t believe there wasn’t disgust or pity in his eyes. She wanted to run away from the words, but she couldn’t. Not this time. He’d seen her deep dark secret; she had to tell him the truth. She pulled the robe even tighter.

“He whored me out.” The urge to throw up came back with a vengeance.

“What?” The tone was absolutely deadly.

“His friends would pay to fuck me.” Emmy’s heart was frozen in her chest.

His breath stopped in his chest, and then a moment later, “Jesus Christ.” Nathaniel ran his hands through his hair and stood up. He walked away and Emmy curled in on herself. That was that. As soon as she could pack her things, she would beat a hasty exit. She—

Nathaniel was suddenly kneeling on the floor in front of her. “How did it come to that? How did this start?”

“You really want to know?” she asked, confused.

“Yes.” The answer was simple.

“Sean was always jealous of what my father gave me,” she said. “Daddy loved me, and always gave me gifts. They weren’t extravagant, but they meant the world to me. He seemed to know a girl shouldn’t get everything she wanted, while lacking for nothing she needed. When Allison was born, he started to send an extra hundred a check to help out. Because he considered his daughter’s sister a step-daughter, and he wanted to make things easier for Mom.

“I went away for that glorious year, all the fantasy and princesses and swirling dresses a twelve year old girl could want. And when I came back, I knew that something was wrong. Mom had withdrawn. Allison was quiet. But I was twelve and had just come back from a fairytale.

“The news came that Daddy and Sarinya were dead.” Emmy’s voice trembled. “Sean wanted the estate liquidated, but the lawyer said it was held in trust for me and me alone. No one was going to liquidate. Sean was pissed because he wanted to buy Allison the gorgeous life he thought I had. He wanted to make sure she was better than me, more well-dressed than me, more cultured than me. And he didn’t have the money to do it since the estate wouldn’t liquidate.” She coughed, the bile rising again. “This is hell. I can’t do this.”

“Emmy, I need to know. I swear to you, this will be the only time you ever have to talk to me about it.” 

Grabbing his hands, not looking at him, she forced herself to continue. “Mom went out to dinner and movie with some of her friends one day. Sean made me drink a huge glass of milk with dinner. Huge. I didn’t really like milk, but he made me drink that whole thing. And I’m pretty sure he had rohypnol in it. The milk was to hide any taste.

“I woke up the next morning, covered in blood and ejaculate. I didn’t know what had happened. I hurt, everywhere. When I went to the bathroom, there was blood. I screamed for my mother, but Sean busted in. He told me if I ever said anything, he’d kill Mom and Ally.”

“Every Sunday morning I was waking up like that, for weeks,” she gasped. “I...would drink the milk and pass out pretty quickly. But then as he started messing with different drugs, I woke up, but couldn’t move and couldn’t talk. He would pick me up and walk me over to the bed and tie me down. I was only alone for a few minutes, tied down, before the door would open. Someone I knew as one of his friends walked in and handed Sean something. Money. Sean would close the door and the guy who just walked in would...”

Emmy clenched his hands, hard and shook her head. “Bathroom, now.”

He swept her off the bed into his arms and ran to the bathroom. He put her down in front of the toilet carefully, and she leaned down and lost everything in her stomach. She thought it would never stop—she felt like she was puking up ever last bit of filth in her body, and all the memories of the three years Sean did this to her.

Nathaniel’s hand was rubbing her back slowly, holding her hair out of the way. Now instead of just puking, she was crying. She sat back on her legs and knew if she didn’t finish the story, she never would. The words tasted as bad as the vomit. “They would come in and have sex with me. Anal, vaginal, whatever. How I got the fuck out of this without an STD, I’ll never know. I had two miscarriages, though.”

Nathaniel leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest. Emmy laid her head there, listening to his heartbeat for a moment. He was still here, still holding her, still listening.

“Sean had to start getting more creative with getting the drugs in me because it didn’t take long for me to realize he was putting them in the milk. So he started to make me a submissive. I don’t know where the hell he learned that shit. He beat my ass into submission, though. Between believing he would kill my mother and Alyssa and telling me I wasn’t worth even the fifty bucks a fuck he charged for my ass, I was twisted around and brought down.

“Just once, I tried to rebel against him,” Emmy said, playing with a button on his shirt. “He wanted me to take on three guys at once. At this point I was numb to being used by one or two, but three...I didn’t get it. To me, it sounded like it would hurt. To him, it sounded like five hundred dollars. So I tried to stand up to him.

“He drugged me. He tied me to the bed. He boiled oil.” Emmy took a deep breath. “He soaked a rag in the oil and wrapped them around my breasts. He made sure it didn’t leak anywhere but where he laid those rags. He replaced them once and then left me there all night, naked and crying. I couldn’t move; there was nothing but pain running through my whole body.

“I have no idea to this day where my mother was for the three days I was strapped to that bed. The blisters were huge and horrible. When he finally let me up, he wouldn’t let me out of the room. Another three days, trying to find relief for the burns without anything more than the glass of water he would bring me.

“And finally, a week later, he brought those three men in and let them have their way with me. They were rough and I was left to bleed and hope to God the blisters they’d ripped open didn’t get infected.

“The next day, Uncle Charlie called. I had been beaten and raped and whored out for three years by that time. He wanted to see me. He said it was in my dad’s will that I be allowed to see him and it was time for him to see me. Sean had me on a bus out to see him that Monday. I never had a chance to say goodbye to my mother. I never regretted that either because I still don’t know how much she knew. I’ve had my head in the sand about that all this time.

“I got out here and when Uncle Charlie saw me, he took me straight to the hospital. He never asked me what was wrong, he just took me there. They could only do so much with the burns. He wanted me to press charges immediately against whoever did it, but I couldn’t. Not with Mom and Allison there.” She paused. “He had his friend, Franz, check into the situation to make sure they were okay and there was no immediate threat to them.”

“Your uncle introduced you to Franz?” Nathaniel was surprised.

She nodded. “He never knew what Franz was. They were old war buddies; Uncle Charlie a retiring captain while Franz put in his paces as a jarhead in Afghanistan. Franz was happy to help him make sure his brother’s widow was doing all right.

“When I was in the hospital, they made me take a pregnancy test, and I was pregnant. Again. For the third time. And for the third time, I had a miscarriage. But this one...I caused, on purpose.”

“Caused on purpose?”

“I couldn’t bear to think...well, I just would have rather died than have a baby from that situation. There was no way to find out who the father was and I didn’t want to know. I was in no position to have a child, and who the fuck knew if the kid would be healthy.” She sighed. “I called one of my friends in Salem. I knew more than one or two witches up there. They sent me to a Wiccan who had moved out to Pittsburgh with her husband, to start over. A fantastic herbalist, they said they would all still call her for advice. “Her name is Siobhan,” Emmy said quietly.

Nathaniel looked at her sharply. “Siobhan? The one who gave me the bra for you?”

Emmy nodded. “She was my confessor for a while, until Uncle Charlie insisted on sending me to a shrink. She knows everything. She and Franz were the only two.”

“So how did you cause a miscarriage?”

“A tea infusion I drank three times a day. I only had a short window to make it work; I was already six weeks. Siobhan and I made that tea every day, and she would do white magic for me to cleanse the action with the Goddess. I was a fool for that. I could have died from that shit, but I didn’t care. I wanted the baby gone.” She looked up at him. “You understand that, right? Being pregnant with the child of some man my step-father, the pimp took money for, wasn’t something I could handle.”