Page 59 of Dauntless

“You afraid of scars?” I whimpered as the heel of his foot dug into my back. “Afraid you can’t sell yourself like the whore you are at orgies if you’re not perfect?” Ash fell on my skin.

“Patrick doesn’t… doesn’t like scars,” I stammered and gulped in air. “He’s your client.”

“Patrick wants your money,” he said. “He’ll trade you to me once he has it. I think I might keep you. Now that I’m beginning to see how you react to me. That and your almost flawless skin. It’s practically a blank canvas I could form into my image.”

I spoke as quickly as I could, “Why would you keep a whore, as you call me?? Don’t you have someone?”

“—I don’t need anyone,” he replied brusquely. “Enough delays or I will start burning your skin,” he said and walked over to the opposite corner of the room. “You need a lesson in obedience. I want you to crawl to me.Crawl or I will burn your face.” His tone was empty, and he’d gone calm, just as he’d done before he hit Liz. He wasn’t going to ask again.

I placed my hands on the carpet at the sides of my body and lifted up slowly to my knees. I could do this. But with each move on the floor. Hatred grew inside me for him and myself. This was what I had always told myself I wouldn’t do for a man. I’d never allow myself to be treated like I was nothing and worthless again. This was worse than the drugs, worse than his taunts and hits. This was me doing what he wanted. Me giving up on myself.

I collapsed and curled into a ball with my knees up and squeezed my eyes shut. Let him do his worse.No more.

“That’s all the time I have for you now,” he said and crossed to what I discovered was the only door in the small space and paused there. “But you get it. Even moving an inch means you submitted to me. Fuck. I think that was better than my cigarette. Seeing you fold like a cheap suit, over a little pain and scars.And Patrick couldn’t handle you?”

I startled in the shot of pain as the cigarette he dropped landed on my skin and twisted away from it.

His foot came down and grounded into the carpet. “What I’d just done was nothing. You must have seen some of the visuals on Angel’s body. I wasn’t responsible for those. Walter and some of my chosen friends that I allowed to play with her enjoyed her pain. That alone should make you think twice about defying me,” he closed the door with a slam. The scrape of a key in the lock let me know he secured it behind him.

My stomach lurched, and I vomited on the carpet. I looked around for something to clean it up, but there was nothing. I cleaned up as much as I could with the thin blanket and sat back down on the bed. I closed my eyes. This can’t be how it ends for me.

I would find a way to resist. I would survive.

***

I awoke again sweating profusely.

It was too hot, but I took the fresh sheet that I found at the end of the bed and covered myself. My eyes darted to the wall and found the camera he had mentioned. I wasn’t going to help him record any footage to use against me.

The door unlocked a while later with Loren. She rushed over and placed a cool cloth on my face. “Don’t speak,” she whispered. “He said I can bring you food.”

She unpacked a sandwich, fruit cup, and juice pack from a brown paper bag. “This is one of my lunches for the nursery I volunteer at. There are no drugs, I promise.”

I had little choice, and I needed my strength. I ate fast just in case they changed their mind. “There is a toilet and shower stall across the hall. You knock, and I open it when I’m allowed down here.”

I continued to eat, forcing through my semi-haze, from the drugged water to remember what she said. I was even more certain we were at her home. She also said she had to go down to get in here. Was I in the basement?

There were no windows, at least not in here. The only furniture was my bed. The other things in the room are my bedding, a bucket, and a roll of toilet paper.

“That’s if Simon or I can't get down here in time,” she said following my gaze. “At least for the next few days.” She mumbled and covered her mouth. “I…I better go.”

“Please help me,” I begged.

“I… I can’t. I’m sorry,’ she stammered and wiped tears from her chin.

“This was what you did to Angel?” I asked. “Angel loved you. She told me to contact you to help me. She thought you were a friend. She believed you’d help me.”

Loren glimpsed me and sobbed. “I’m…I’m so sorry.”

“She believed in you, and you hurt her. Think on that,” I said as she rushed to close the door back in place.

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