Page 6 of Possessive

"This might suck." He put his knife away and gripped the two sides of the strap. Slowly and carefully he eased it away from my ankle. The leather stuck to my skin and the flesh underneath it.

He was right, it hurt like a bitch. The skin stung, trying to hold onto the strap like it was a part of itself. Every so often, he had to stop and push the skin down to pry the leather off.

"This has to have been there for… If I had to guess, I'd say years." He worked it loose and finally tossed it aside.

I blinked away tears of pain and forced myself to focus on what was more important. I was no longer attached to the chain. I could hardly grasp what that even meant. Was I free after so long, or was this a whole new level of hell?

I guessed Kurt hadn't invited them here. Otherwise they wouldn't have needed to force their way in, or break the lock in the cage. Unless this was some kind of sick game.

"Come on, sweetheart." Gianni backed out of the cage.

After a brief hesitation, I followed, crawling out and grabbing the side of the cage to pull myself to my feet.

"What the hell did he do to you?" Reuben asked softly.

"Where is he?" I peered towards the door. He said he'd come back. If he did, he'd find us all here.

"My guess is he saw us coming and ran," Gianni said. He seemed cheerful at the idea. Like he was amused at Kurt's cowardice.

"We'll deal with him," Reuben said darkly.

"Slowly and painfully," Gianni said. "If you want, you can watch."

I glanced at him. If anyone was doing anything slow and painful to Kurt, I wanted to do more than watch.

"We have some talking to do," Reuben said. He nodded towards the stairs. "Can you walk?"

I seemed to have three options: stay here, be carried or walk. I wasn't doing the first. The idea of either of them touching me gave rise to a spike of panic.

"I can walk," I said finally. "What are you going to…"

Reuben Brantley was high up in a huge organised crime network here in Australia. The Australian mafia, if you wanted to call it that. Before Kurt, our families were at odds. I couldn't rule out his intention to kill me, or worse.

"We're going to get you out of here." It was Gianni who replied. "Right, boss?"

I heard him referring to Reuben as boss several times now. Of course things would have changed since I was here, but the changes seemed to be bigger than I would have expected. I filed that thought away for later.

Reuben glanced at Gianni and stepped out of the room and up the stairs, leaving us to follow.

"I won't let anything happen to you," Gianni said. He made no effort to lower his voice. He wanted Reuben to hear what he was saying, whether he agreed with him or not.

Reuben grunted in response.

I grabbed hold of the handrail and strained to pull myself up the first couple of steps. I knew I was weak, emaciated. Until now, I hadn't realised how badly. I hadn't walked more than a few steps in…

"How long?" I asked softly.

Reuben stopped at the landing and turned around. "According to your father, you ran off to marry some nice boy and live in the suburbs."

Of course that was the line my father concocted. He would have had to tell people something.

"How long?" I asked again.

He pressed his lips together for a moment. "Five years. That was five years ago." He turned back around and continued up the stairs.

I put a hand over my mouth. If Gianni hadn't grabbed me, I would have fallen back down the stairs. Could it be possible? And yet, I knew it was. It felt like a lifetime and it almost had been.

I lowered my hand. "I was eighteen."

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