Page 37 of Bren

“Can you open it?” I want to know.

Ellie shakes her head, standing up slowly, her face pale in the dim light of the room. It’s only then that I notice she’s cradling her arm to her stomach. I see straight away it’s broken.

Hissing, I reach for her, “Ells, why didn’t you say anything?”

“It’s okay,” Ellie whispers. “Can you help me see if there is anything in here to strap it up?”

“Sit,” I tell her softly, pointing to the one chair left in the room. Quietly, I open drawers to see if there’s anything we can use. If there isn’t, we’ll have to use one of our shirts. I hit pay dirt in the second desk when, in the bottom drawer, I find an old rusty first aid tin. Opening it up, I’m relieved to see that the sling is still in there. I’d been hopeful because I remember Lana telling us a few years ago that it was the one thing that was hardly ever used. Taking the triangle of fabric from the disintegrating plastic bag, I shake it out and walk back to Ellie. Hurriedly, I strap up her injured arm, noting that, like me, she still holds her knife.

Nodding to it as I tie a knot in the sling, I ask, “Do you have both in your boots?”

Ellie nods, the tension in her face relaxing slightly now that her arm is somewhat secured. “Okay,” I inform her, “I’m going to try and unlock the door.”

“Okay, I can talk you through it if you want.”

“You may have to,” I reply. “We both know it’s not my strength.”

And it wasn’t; I’d always been rubbish at picking locks, whereas Ellie had excelled at it. But I knew if we wanted to get out of here, I’d have to try before whoever had kidnapped us came back. With Christian in custody, the only other person I could think of was his father.

Kneeling in front of the door, I study it, wondering if I could open it with my knife or if I should use the bobby pins I’d stuck in my bun this morning.

“Bren,” Ellie whispers, wheeling her chair closer. Turning to look at her, I raise a brow in query, “You can do this.”

“I can,” I agree, and eventually, I did. It took me nearly ten minutes and a lot of swearing and a sliced finger, but finally, the door unlocked. Opening it slowly, I look out. The office we were in was on a mezzanine. I stood still, listening, but nothing seemed to be moving. There was industrial machinery on the floor of the building. “Come on,” I whisper to Ellie, “we need to get away from the office before whoever took us comes back.”

I cringe at the noise the stairs make as we take them, but for now, it seems that we are alone in here. We’re on the last step when the shutter doors go up. Grabbing Ellie’s hand, I pull her along with me until we’re behind the biggest piece of machinery that I can see. I push her down to the floor out of sight. We hear them before I can see them, and my eyes widen in surprise when I recognise the one voice.

‘How is that possible? He’s meant to be in custody,’I think to myself. The overhead fluorescents come on, and my eyes widen again when I see not only Christian but an identical man with him. How did we not know he had a twin brother? Both are covered in blood; they’re laughing and joking. Ellie tugs on my trouser leg, and I sink down next to her.

I hold up my fingers, showing that there are two. We sit quietly as they laugh and talk. Christian finally asks, “Did you get her?”

“I got both of them, brother,” he replies gleefully, “one for you to play with and one for me.”

“Fucking awesome, that bitch is going to pay for disrespecting us,” Christian laughs manically. I shudder slightly, knowing that without a doubt there is no way I can allow them to get hold of us. I just hope that the brotherhood isn’t far away.

“Where are they?”

“In the office, tied up and ready for us to do whatever we want to them.”

We hear them clattering up the stairs, and Christian sings out, making my blood run cold, “Bren, oh Bren. I’m coming for you, little bird. I’m going to enjoy teaching you a lesson.”

His brother laughs just as manically. We know as soon as they realise that we aren’t in the room because Christian lets out an unholy scream. Picking up the corner of the tarpaulin covering the machine we are hiding behind, I look under and see there is enough room for both Ellie and me to hide. Ellie shuffles over, holding back a gasp of pain as she bumps her arm. It’s a tight squeeze, but I’ll take the discomfort over whatever the two of them have planned for us.

The two brothers are fighting, and Christian is demanding to know where we could have gone. They come pounding down the stairs again. His brother mutters, “They have to be around here somewhere; we’re in the middle of nowhere. They weren’t on the road; we would have seen them. Spread out and make sure they’re not hiding in here before we look outside for them.”

The two of them are loud as they start to throw things around the warehouse, but what chills us is the name-calling and the taunting, “Bren, Bren, I can’t wait to fuck every hole you have, then do the same to your little sister. We’ll make you watch as my brother and I use her. Then when we’re finished with her, we’ll slit her throat. It’s so satisfying watching the light die in their eyes. It makes us cum hard every time.” His brother laughingly agrees.

“Then when we’re finished with you, we’ll let our guys outside have you before we get rid of you,” he continues.

‘Fuck, they’re not alone and we have no way of letting Dad and the rest know,’I think.

They’re getting closer and closer to our hiding place; I’m praying that the MC makes it here before they find us, but I know we’rerunning out of time. Gripping my knife tight, I brace as they pull the tarpaulin from the machine next to us. We can see their shoes under the edge of ours. Next to me, Ellie slumps against me; alarmed, I peer at her in the darkness. Her eyes are closed, and she has a small smile on her face. The tarpaulin is ripped from our machine and Christian’s grinning face is there.

“Tut, tut, Bren, you’ve been a bad girl,” he smirks. Fisting my hair, he pulls me up, and I go because the alternative is to have him rip it out. I hold my knife down by my side, waiting for the right opportunity to use it. “I warned you, didn’t I?” he growls, licking my neck all the way up to my ear. I shudder in disgust. “Kris, get her sister, and we’ll have some fun.” Behind us, I hear Ellie’s cry of pain as she’s pulled from our hiding place. Rage, like I’ve never known it, comes over me, and I turn in Christian’s hold. Not caring that a hank of my hair is pulled out of my head, the only thing I care about is getting to my sister. I thrust my knife upwards as hard as I can, hoping that it hits something important; all our lessons on the best placements of a blade leave me. All I can think of is getting to my sister. I must hit something, though, from the look of shock on Christian’s face as he lets go of my hair and staggers back, falling with my knife deep in his chest. He’s still alive but blood is pooling around the knife.

Turning towards Ellie, I find her fighting to get loose from Kris’s hold. Bending, I take my second knife from my boot and rush towards them. She rips herself away from him just as I get to them. He’s staring with a stunned look at the body on the ground, as if he can’t believe that his brother is lying there, a puddle of blood pooling around him. Taking advantage of his inattention, I go low and tackle his legs, my only intention to get him away from my baby sister. He falls backward, hitting his head hard on the machine behind him. When he doesn’t move,I turn to Ellie and wrap my arms around her. I’m not sure who’s shaking the most, me or Ellie. Through chattering teeth, she manages to whisper to me, “Dad and the guys are here.”

Relief fills me that we aren’t alone; we can hear sounds of fighting outside. The pedestrian door cut into the roller shutter bursts open, and then Alec’s there shouting my name. Behind him come Dad and Beau. A sob breaks free; dropping my knife, I stumble towards Alec, and then his arms are around me, and I start to cry.

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