Seduced in the Dark (45 page)

“
Ahhh! Damn it!” Caleb rolled on the
ground while holding his head. He kicked with his feet as he tried
to assuage the pain. He could hear Rafiq laughing
uproariously.

“
I told you! You silly boy!” Rafiq
stomped his foot as he laughed.

Caleb shut his eyes again and tried to
breathe through the pain. He would give anything to return to the
moment Felipe had offered him the truth and deny he wanted to hear
it.

You knew it could come to this, Caleb. Only
now, you don’t have to feel guilt. It’s a gift.

Caleb shook his head, but gripped the knife
tighter. He couldn’t lie to himself. He had known it might come to
this. He had hoped to sacrifice his own life, but in the back of
his mind, he knew the survivor in him would fight to the bitter
end. Rafiq had to die.

He took a deep, steadying breath and knocked
on the door.

The beating of his heart swayed his body by
the barest of degrees, building his adrenaline and his anxiety.

Caleb heard cursing, followed by rapid steps
toward the door. He braced himself and a shiver ran down his
spine.

The door opened and Jair stood in the
doorway naked. His swarthy chest was slick with sweat.

“What do you want?” Jair sneered.

Caleb tried to remain calm, but all he heard
in his head was:
Kill.

“Where’s Rafiq?” Caleb said urgently.

Jair registered Caleb’s demeanor, his gaze
focused on the blood on Caleb’s forehead. “What happened?”

Caleb swallowed. “Felipe attacked me. I have
him tied up downstairs in the shower room.”

“Does everyone hate you?” Jair turned into
his room with a sneer in Caleb’s direction.

Caleb spoke in Arabic. “He was planning to
kill Rafiq. He wanted me to help him.”

Jair turned his head toward Caleb as he
pulled on a pair of pants and replied in the same language. “Why
would he ask for your help?”

“He thought he had something to offer me.
Obviously, he doesn’t know how deep my loyalty runs. Where is
Rafiq?” Caleb asked, again. He was having a difficult time
restraining himself. Nancy was tied face down on the bed. He could
see her shaking and had no clue how he felt about her plight.

“Everyone seems to question your loyalty,
Caleb. Perhaps there is something to question,” Jair put his arms
through a shirt.

“Fuck you, swine. Where is Rafiq? I won’t
ask again.”

“Fuck you, Caleb. You and your little
whore.” Jair turned to retrieve his shoes and Caleb could no longer
hold himself back.

As soon as Jair’s back was turned, Caleb
kicked the back of his knee and threw his weight onto Jair’s back.
He pushed his knife between Jair’s ribs and into one of his
lungs.

Jair bucked wildly, shock and adrenaline
making him strong as an ox. Caleb wrapped his left arm around
Jair’s throat and held onto the knife in Jair’s side as he was
flung to the left and right with incredible force. Caleb didn’t
dare do anything but use his strength to stay on Jair. He could
hear Nancy whimpering, but she had yet to scream.

Jair crawled, staggering across the room on
his hands and knees while his blood soaked his shirt and Caleb’s
hand.

“No!” Jair gurgled. “No!” His arm reached
back for Caleb, trying to drag him off.

Caleb shifted the knife in Jair’s side, his
body sliding against Jair’s sweat and blood. He shut his eyes and
listened to Jair’s death rattles until he fell forward onto the
floor. Caleb held on for a minute…waiting. There was nothing. He
loosened his arm around Jair’s throat and one last whisper of
breath escaped him. Jair was dead.

Caleb shifted, straddling Jair’s limp body
and pulled out his knife. He could hear Nancy crying into the bed
and trying to quiet her panic.

“I’m not here for you,” Caleb whispered.
Nancy wept harder. Caleb lifted the knife and looked down at Jair’s
lifeless body. He stabbed him twice more to be sure.

Slowly, he stood and approached Nancy. She
flinched, her chest rising and falling to the rhythm of her
panic.

“Please!” she cried. “I’m so sorry. I’m so
sorry for what I did. Please, don’t hurt me. No more. Please, God,
no more.” She sobbed and shook her head.

Caleb sat on the edge of the bed. “Are you
sure you want to live?” His voice was wooden and detached. He felt
so many things, but they were distant. This was not bloodlust.
There was no satisfaction in what he’d done, or what he was about
to do. “You won’t forget,” he continued. “Every time you close your
eyes…it will be waiting there. Every time a man touches you, you’ll
struggle not to cry out. Are you sure that’s what you want?”

Nancy wouldn’t stop sobbing.

“I can make it fast. No pain. I
promise.”

“Please,” she pleaded, “let me go.”

“Do you know where Rafiq is?” he asked, his
tone cold and far away.

“L-l-ast time, we…” Nancy sobbed, but kept
going, “we stayed in this guest house out by the pool. He…he didn’t
want anyone to hear me SCREAMING!” Nancy wailed into the mattress
and pulled on the restraints holding her down.

Caleb couldn’t stand to listen to her
misery. He felt responsible for it. He had brought her into his
world. No matter what she’d done, she didn’t deserve the price
she’d paid. He leaned over her body, wincing at the way she
screamed in horror. He cut her loose.

Nancy didn’t move, she simply continued to
scream and cry on the bed.

“Good luck,” he whispered. He stood and
searched Jair’s things and found his knife and gun. He picked them
both up and walked out of the room.

It was warm outside, even in the dead of
night. Caleb walked toward the guest house with a high level of
trepidation, but an even greater sense of determination.

Part of him wanted to simply go inside and
kill Rafiq as he slept. It would be over quickly. Caleb would never
have to confront Rafiq’s betrayal. He would never have to face the
man he had thought of as a father, brother, and friend, and ask him
what had been real between them and what had been a ploy. He would
never have to see Rafiq’s eyes lose the spark that meant he was
alive.

Still, Caleb knew he had come too far not to
learn the full truth. He needed to know for certain. He needed to
hear it from Rafiq’s lips and see it in his eyes. A part of Caleb
ached to learn it had all been a lie from Felipe.

He was shocked to see Rafiq swimming in the
pool when he approached, gun raised. His heart hammered wildly in
his chest and he felt a little dizzy.

I can’t.

I can.

I can.

I can.

Rafiq emerged from the water and wiped his
face. It took him a moment to see Caleb standing near the edge of
the water. He smiled for a fraction of a second until he registered
the gun in Caleb’s hand.

Rafiq glared and shook his head. “I wish I
could say I’m surprised,
Khoya
.”

Caleb shut his eyes for a moment. When he
opened them, he returned Rafiq’s anger. “I am not your brother,
Rafiq. I doubt you ever saw me as such.”

“You’re bleeding,” he said. His tone was
casual and unafraid.

Caleb wiped at his forehead. “I had a talk
with Felipe. It didn’t end well.”

Rafiq smiled. “Is that all? I don’t care if
you’ve killed him, Caleb. Put the gun away,” he ordered. He was
always giving orders. He’d always believed he had the right,
especially when it came to Caleb.

“I didn’t kill him. I killed Jair,” Caleb
said through a smile.

Anger swiftly came over Rafiq’s features.
“And now you’re here to kill me?! You ungrateful little whore. I
should have let you die in Tehran!”

Caleb felt heat race down his spine and he
straightened. “Get out of the water, Rafiq. Slowly, or I’ll shoot
you where you stand.”

“Do it! I don’t fear you, Caleb.” Despite
his words, Rafiq stepped back toward the steps of the pool. Caleb
followed him around the edge until Rafiq stood out of the
water.

Without hesitation, Caleb shot Rafiq in his
right knee. Rafiq yelled out into the night, his wet body thudding
against the concrete.

Rafiq’s hands shook as he held his knee,
fragments of bone lay around him along with copious amounts of
blood. “I’ll kill you!” he screamed.

Adrenaline coursed through Caleb’s veins.
“How do you know Vladek?!” Caleb yelled over Rafiq’s curses and
wails.

“Fuck you! Give me a towel before I fucking
bleed to death!”

Caleb reached for Rafiq’s towel on one of
the lounge chairs and threw it in Rafiq’s direction. Rafiq shivered
as he applied pressure to his destroyed knee. He was fighting
shock.

Caleb felt sick to his stomach. When he was
able to keep his nausea at bay and speak, his voice was broken.
“Did you make me a whore, Rafiq? Did you take me from my mother?”
It hurt to say the words. It hurt to look upon Rafiq and instantly
know the answer.

It was in the way the anger disappeared on
Rafiq’s face. There was a glimpse of shame, but only that – a
glimpse. When it passed, Rafiq was once again filled with a
self-righteous rage. “How dare you! How dare you ask me such a
stupid question, Caleb! After all we’ve been through and all I’ve
done for you.
This
,” he motioned to his bloody leg, “is how
you repay me? You make me sick.” He spat on the ground.

Caleb broke.

He fell to his knees on the concrete and
hung his head. His sobs shook his chest and robbed him of breath.
His mind raced with images of his torment. He relived the rapes and
beatings. He felt the loss of his friend upon learning he’d been
burned alive. But the worst…were the memories of Rafiq and the life
they had lived together – good and bad.

“It’s not too late,
Khoya
,” Rafiq
said softly. His voice trembled. “Help me inside.”

Rafiq’s words brought the world back into
focus for Caleb. He stared into his lap, saw the gun lying limply
in his hand, and made a decision. He went into the guest house and
found what he needed before coming back outside to Rafiq.

Rafiq wasn’t doing very well. He shook badly
and the color was drained from his face. “What are you doing,
Caleb?” he asked. For the first time, there was fear in his
eyes.

Caleb ignored the question. He stretched the
length of cord he’d brought out and gestured toward Rafiq’s hands.
“Give them to me.”

Rafiq shook his head. “No. You’re not
yourself, Caleb. Don’t do this!”

Caleb held the cord taut in his hands and
reached around Rafiq’s head. He pulled back with both hands,
dragging Rafiq into the house by his neck. A trail of blood
followed them.

Rafiq didn’t thrash around the way Jair had.
He was too well trained as a soldier to make such a mistake. He
placed his hands around the cord, taking tension off of his
throat.

Once inside, Rafiq reached back for Caleb’s
arms, bracing the weight of his body and rolled toward Caleb. It
was enough to throw Caleb off balance. Rafiq dragged himself on top
of Caleb and punched him in the same spot Felipe had struck with
the gun.

Caleb’s head snapped back and his vision
blurred. He felt Rafiq’s hands wrap around his throat, his thumbs
pressing along his windpipe. Caleb lifted his leg and kicked at
Rafiq’s injured knee. It was enough to regain the advantage. As
Rafiq instinctively recoiled and went for his knee, Caleb rolled on
top of him. He kept punching Rafiq in the face until he went
unconscious.

***

When Rafiq opened his eyes, Caleb could see
he was instantly afraid. Caleb had tied him down on one of the
lounge chairs that had been by the pool.

Caleb felt dead inside, but his thirst for
vengeance had not abated. He had waited his entire life for this
moment and it could not be denied.

He sat on the ground next to Rafiq. His
knife sat delicately on his knee and still gory with Jair’s blood.
“You’re going to die tonight, brother. I want you to know that,”
Caleb whispered. “I can kill quickly if you tell me the truth,” he
paused, “or I can use my knife and practice all the things you’ve
taught me about torture.”

“Caleb…” Rafiq’s voice shook.

“That’s not my name, Rafiq. I don’t remember
my name. It was taken from me,” Caleb said dully. “Do you know
why?” Caleb looked up at Rafiq, his expression hard.

“You don’t want to do this, Caleb,” Rafiq
said.

“No,” Caleb replied and shook his head, “I
don’t want to do this.” He picked up the knife and poked at Rafiq’s
knee.

“STOP!” Rafiq yelled. “Stop!”

Caleb returned the knife to his knee. “I
never wanted to hurt you, Rafiq. Never! But you have to suffer for
what you’ve done.”

Rafiq’s body shook violently. Sweat covered
his body. “And what is it you think I’ve done?”

“I’ll ask the questions. I’ll start with the
most important one: Did you give me to Narweh?”

Rafiq stared at him for a long time.

Caleb felt a tear race down his cheek and he
wiped it away quickly with the back of his hand. He didn’t know he
was crying. It had been so long since he’d cried and he suddenly
seemed unable to stop. He cleared his throat, “Your silence betrays
you, Rafiq. I had hoped you would deny it. I almost killed Felipe
for even suggesting it.”

“It’s not true, Caleb. Felipe is a liar,”
Rafiq whispered.

Caleb shut his eyes and wiped at his face
again. He unexpectedly laughed. “You’re late. And unconvincing. But
thank you, for trying.”

“I raised you,” Rafiq implored.

“You did,” Caleb nodded. “I think that’s
what makes your betrayal so much worse. I worshipped you as a boy.
You were my savior.”

“I treated you well, Caleb. I gave you
everything your heart desired.” There was sincerity in Rafiq’s
words.

“I always wondered why you came for me. At
first, I thought you took pity because of what Narweh had done. I
thought you rescued me because you were too late to save your
sister. Felipe tells me you killed her…and your mother. Is that
true?”