In Chains (13 page)

“Kayden,” I squeak, “you’re crushing me.”

He loosens his grip. “I’m sorry.”

I wipe my hands across his cheeks to dry his tears. “Let’s go home. We can have a couple of hours sleep together before my brother gets back.”

We snuggle up together on Kayden’s bed. We’re lying on our sides facing each other. One of his arms is underneath me and the other is slung over my waist. My arms are pressed against his chest. Our noses touch. We have two hours before Simon is due home. I know Kayden is tired because he hasn’t had much sleep. After the days revelations I’m drained myself. I make sure to set the alarm just in case we’re both too tired to wake up. Kayden falls asleep within seconds. He looks so peaceful when he’s sleeping. His long, thick lashes rest against his cheek. He’s beautiful and I love him so much that I can’t help smiling to myself. I reach out and gently stroke my fingers along his cheekbone. “Sweet dreams darling.”

I wake up fifteen minutes before the alarm is due to go off. I’m about to wake Kayden up when the door to the caravan bursts open and slams against the wall. My head snaps up to see Simon and Ben standing in the doorway and my eyes fall to the thick leather strap in Simon’s hand. “Simon. No.”

“I get home early. I see your car is here but I can’t find you in the house.”

Kayden has now woken up but I can tell he’s not fully awake yet. He’s staring in shock at my brother and Ben. Simon continues, “I look around the farm for you. The last place I expected to find you is here, in its bed.” He looks at Kayden with disgust. “Get out of its bed Savannah. Now.”

Jumping up I run towards him and grab his arms. “Simon, don’t do this. I love him. We’re not doing anything wrong. We’re not hurting anyone.”

“It’s a slave Savannah,” he scowls at me. “No sister of mine is going to have a relationship with a bloody slave.” He screams at Kayden, “You. Get out of bed, right now.” I look across at Ben, he’s sneering at Kayden. Kayden gets out of bed. I’m glad we’re both dressed at least. “Savannah, go and stand outside with Ben. I’ll be out to speak to you in a minute.”

Kayden looks across at me. He doesn’t look afraid. “Don’t worry Savannah, I’ll be okay, you should go,” he says.

I gasp in shock as Simon swings the strap and it hits Kayden in the mouth. He’s split his lip and blood runs down his chin. “Don’t you dare call her Savannah, she’s Miss to you slave.” Kayden’s eyes dart to mine and his eyes gesture for me to leave. The only thing keeping me sane right now is that he still doesn’t look afraid.

Ben takes my arm and leads me outside. He stares at me and then shakes his head. “Do you like a bit of rough? Is that why you’re slumming it?”

I hear a cry of pain coming from inside the caravan and it chills me to the bone. I run for the door just as Simon steps outside. “We’ll come back and deal with this in a minute. Let’s get Savannah back home first,” he says to Ben.

Simon puts his arm around my shoulders but I shrug him off. “What did you do to Kayden?”

He sighs. “I wish you’d stop calling it that. I told you it doesn’t have a name.”

“Simon, he has a name.”

He sighs once again. “It’s done a marvellous job of manipulating you Savannah.”

“What?”

He takes my face in his hands. “It can tell you have low self-esteem. Anyone can tell that. It knows you’re soft hearted and lonely. You were an easy target Savannah. It’s not your fault.”

I shake my head. “Don’t do this Simon. It’s wrong. Please don’t hurt him.”

He starts walking again, his arm back around my shoulders. “It’s after an easy life. I bet you’ve given it food haven’t you?” He looks at me and nods his head. “I knew it. You’ve probably let it sleep in your bed as well. I bet you’ve helped it with its work, or covered for it when it didn’t do its work.” He stops and looks me in the eyes. “It doesn’t love you. It’s been using you.”

“That’s not true.” I shake my head and fold my arms across my chest.

“We’ll talk about this when we get indoors.”

He sits me down in the armchair and hands me a glass of wine. “Drink that, you look like you need it. I don’t want you spending anymore time with it Savannah. Have some self-respect. It obviously didn’t get the message last time. We’ll see to it that it understands this time.”

“Simon no.” I put the glass down and stand up. “We love each other. I know you don’t like it but that’s how it is. You can’t stop me seeing him.”

“True, I can’t stop you,” he picks up my wine glass and takes a sip, “but I can stop it. I think you’re forgetting that I own it. If it continues to disobey me, I’ll sell it back to the Compound. You’ll never see it again.” I wrap my arms around myself, I feel sick. He turns to Ben. “Let’s go take care of this. We’ll be back soon Savannah.”

I’m still in shock. I down the wine in one. I’m worried sick about what they’re going to do to Kayden. I love him but I can’t put him through this. I can’t be the cause of this pain for him. Is Simon right? Is he using me? He doesn’t deserve to get beaten for that though. I did tell him about Dan and he probably can tell I lack confidence. When I asked him about other women he knew who weren’t slaves he did say he didn’t want to go anywhere near them. Is it like Simon says, he didn’t want to go near them because he knew they were confident? Why did he single me out? I rest my head in my hands. Everything was going so well, I was so happy. I don’t know anything anymore. I don’t know what to believe. Tears roll down my face. It doesn’t matter anyway, I can’t see Kayden anymore. For his sake I have to end it.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Savannah

I go to my bedroom and lie on my bed. I cuddle Kayden’s little bear, he smells of him and my tears start to flow. I hear Simon come in about an hour later. Eventually I succeed in crying myself to sleep.

I wake up at my usual early hour judging by the light in the room but I can’t be bothered to get up. Even if Kayden is using me, I still love him and without him I don’t have a reason to get up. I close my eyes and drift back to sleep. I’m having a dream. I’m stuck down a well and someone’s calling my name. “Savannah.”

My eyes blink open and I come face to face with Kayden. My heart almost stops beating. The entire left side of his face is black and bruised and his left eye is swollen shut, his eyelashes encrusted with blood. His lip is swollen and scabbed. “Kayden, you shouldn’t be here.”

“It’s okay, your brother’s gone. He won’t be back yet.” He strokes his hand across my cheek. “I’ve been worried about you. Are you okay?”

I shake my head. “No. Do you have any other injuries?”

“Did he hurt you?” he asks, frowning.

“No.” I sit up. “Do you have any other injuries?”

He moves to sit on the bed next to me and puts his arm around my shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. It looks worse than it feels.”

Getting up I move away from him to stand by the window. I cross my arms over my chest, I can’t look at him. “Kayden, this isn’t going to work. We have to end it.”

He walks towards me and I turn my head to look out of the window. He cups my face in his big hand and turns me back around to face him. “What do we have to end?”

“Us,” I say, swallowing hard.

His face softens and he strokes his thumb over my lips. “It’ll be okay. We’ll just have to be more careful.”

“No,” I shake my head vehemently, “it won’t be okay.” Walking over to the bedroom door I open it. “You need to leave Kayden. It’s over. I’m sorry.”

He reaches the door in seconds, pulls my hand from the doorknob and holds both my hands, placing them against his chest. “Baby I love you. Don’t do this. We just need to be more careful, that’s all.” His eyes are pleading with mine. “Don’t throw us away like it doesn’t mean anything. You said you loved me.”

I pull my hands free of his. “Kayden, please go.”

He grabs me and winces, breathing in sharply as he crushes me against him. “No.”

I try to break free from his arms but he’s too strong. “Kayden please.”

“No.” He draws in a deep breath. “You’re upset, I understand. My bruises have shocked you, I get it. You can’t make decisions like this when you’re upset.” He loosens his grip slightly. “I’ll make us a coffee. Get back in bed, you’ll get cold.”

He disappears and I hear his footsteps going down the stairs. Sitting on the bed I put my head in my hands. I didn’t realise this would be so difficult. I need to end this but I don’t know how and I know he has worse injuries than the ones I can see and it’s my fault. I have to convince him this is the best thing to do. A few minutes later I hear him coming back up the stairs and I’m no nearer to a solution. I climb back into bed and pull the covers over my head to try to block everything out. I hear him put the mugs down on the bedside table and I feel him climb into the bed. His arm circles around my waist and he pulls me close to him so that my back rests against his chest. I decide to try a different approach. “Kayden, you don’t need to date me to get food, I’ll still cook for you.”

“I don’t care about the food.” He kisses the back of my head. “I just wanna be with you.”

“You didn’t have to use me and play with my feelings. You could have just asked for food. I would have given it to you, or anything else you wanted.”

He leans over me, his knees either side of my body, his hands either side of my head. He scowls down at me. “Why do you keep talking about food, I couldn’t care less about it? Why do you think I’m using you? Is that what your brother told you?”

I close my eyes. “Kayden please leave. I can’t take anymore right now. Please leave.”

“Savannah look at me.” I keep my eyes shut but he shakes my face so I open them, hoping that he can’t see the tears that are beginning to form. “I’m not using you baby. I love you.”

Reaching up, I stroke his bruised cheek. “I know you do. I love you too. He’s going to send you to the pound if you don’t stay away from me.”

He smiles and leans his head towards me, his lips brushing mine. “We just to be more careful baby. It’ll be okay.”

In an attempt to be more careful, we decide not to see each other for the rest of the day. Kayden has work to do and I don’t trust Simon. I wouldn’t put it past him to come home early to try and catch us out.

Opening my word program I type a couple of paragraphs of my story but my heart isn’t in it. I check my e-mails. I have another one from Dan. I have enough to worry about. I over-reacted to his last e-mail. I delete it without opening it.

I do a search on slavery. I need to know more about this. Maybe there’s a way for Kayden to get his freedom. There are so many websites; I don’t know where to begin. Scrolling down I see a government site. This seems like a good place to start. My heart sinks as I read. Even if Simon wanted to, he can’t free Kayden. The most he can do, if he didn’t want him anymore, is return him to the pound. Anyone releasing a slave is prosecuted and fined £10,000. Clay is right, if a slave attacks a human he must go back to the pound for retraining for a year and the owner is fined for not keeping the slave under control. If a slave kills a human, they’re sent to a prison at the pound. There is a trial but only because the owner can also be imprisoned, the slave can’t even testify at the trial. If they’re found guilty they’re executed and the owner gets a three month prison sentence. I force myself to read on. An owner can punish his slave however he sees fit and even kill his slave. It’s clear that Simon holds all the cards here. The only option would be for Kayden to escape. I click through the site, looking for information on the microchip. My last shred of hope dies as I read that the chip is a tracking device. If Simon reports Kayden missing his location can be tracked. I sigh, it seems our only option is to see each other in secret and be a lot more careful. I quickly do one more search to see if it’s possible to destroy a chip, maybe with magnets. My hopes are dashed once again. The only sure way to stop it working is to remove it. There’s no way I’d attempt surgery on Kayden’s neck and I doubt I could find a surgeon willing to do it.

I’m curled up in the armchair reading a romance when Simon arrives home. He pours himself a brandy and sits down opposite me. “Did you see the slave today?” he asks.

I shake my head, not lifting my gaze from my e-reader. “No.”

He sighs loudly. “Savannah, I’m not doing this to upset you. What kind of brother would I be if I let the slave use you?” I don’t look up or respond, I have nothing to say to him. “They’re not human Savannah. I know you think it has feelings the same as you, but it doesn’t.”

I put my e-reader down. “I’m starting my job tomorrow. When I get enough money together for a deposit, I’ll move out.”

He gets up from his chair and kneels down on the floor in front of me. “You haven’t got to move out. I enjoy having you here. I love you.”

I look him in the eyes. “You don’t love me enough to let me choose who to be in a relationship with.”

He sighs and shakes his head. “He’s not good enough for you. You’re on the rebound from that arsehole you were living with. You haven’t given yourself time to find someone decent.”

“So, if I date a lot of guys and then tell you I want to be with Kayden, you’ll trust my judgement, will you?”

His eyes widen. “You don’t need to whore yourself out Savannah. I just think you haven’t given yourself chance to date anyone.”