Page 96 of With Love

Adrienne

I can hear his voice in my head. Lock’s. It floats in and out and is filled with evil and terror. I beg to be pulled from this nightmare when I hear it coming through more clearly.

“Ah, look who’s back,” I hear him say from behind me. My head rolls forward and my eyes snap open. It wasn’t a dream.

Blinking, I try and get my bearings and figure out where I am. Once my vision clears, I see that I’m in the middle of a massive, decrepit industrial building and I’m tied to a chair.

“I was hoping you’d be awake for this,” he circles my chair, his arms spread wide.

“This place, it holds so many memories. It’s where I made my first kill. He took something that belonged to me. He needed to be punished. I strung him up right here where your stupid, pathetic little knight in shining armor is. Apparently, he doesn’t know not to use his debit card when he’s on the run. But what a treasure I found. When I went looking for him, I had no idea that I would find both of you. Imagine my surprise when the door opened and you leapt into my arms.” He’s standing behind me now, where I can’t see him. I hear the sound of something being hit and a groan of pain following it.

His footsteps begin again and I hear him getting closer. He slithers back into my line of sight and grabs ahold of my chin forcing me to look at him. Out of defiance, I look everywhere else, but he squeezes my chin so hard that I look at him just to make the pain go away.

“I knew you couldn’t bear to live your life without me. I’ve missed you, Lana. So much.”

“My name is Adrienne, you stupid mother fucker,” I spit in his face. I am shaking but I’m not sure if it’s more from anger or fear.

He pulls out a knife and I scream.

“Shut up, whore.” Holding it out in front of my eyes, I close my mouth. He places the flat side of the blade on my bottom lip before he begins to lightly drag it down my chin, my neck, and between my breasts over my shirt. When he gets down to the hem, he grasps the fabric and uses it to clean his face off.

“Don’t make me hurt you before it’s time, okay? We still have a lot that we need to take care of before then. In the meantime, there’s something that I want to show you.”

Standing up, he walks behind me and tilts my chair before turning me around. When he puts my chair back on 4 legs, I look up to see Owen, hanging from a chain attached to the high ceiling of the building. He is naked and badly beaten. It’s like Barrett in the pit all over again and my heart breaks. As much as he scared me and as angry as I was at him earlier, that doesn’t mean that I want Lock to filet him. And I certainly don’t want to watch or participate.

Owen looks at me through his swollen eyes with despair.

“Adrienne, I’m so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen,” Owen pleads.

“Please, no,” I cry.

“Oh, please!” Lock says, rolling his eyes. “What’s wrong? He was hurting you. I heard you scream. I know it’s been a while, but I know what your screams sound like when you’re in fear, remember?”

I don’t answer.

“Do I need to remind you?” He walks back over to me and crouches down behind my chair. His mouth is at my ear. “Do I?”

He wraps his arm around me and places the knife at my throat. Finally I shake my head squeezing my eyes shut as I feel a deluge of tears beginning to form.

“Alright, then. We’ll save that for later too. God you smell amazing.” He kisses my temple and inhales my scent before walking over to the table that is laid out in front of Owen. He picks a few instruments up and examines them, turning them this way and that, before he puts them back.

“You know,” he starts, picking up his Kukri. His favorite. He runs his finger over the blade, testing its bite. He turns and looks at me, “this place holds great sentimental value to me. I never told you this, but once upon a time there was someone in my life who was the epitome of all that was good. She was an angel. She was the strongest and smartest person that I knew and she made me the happiest person in the world.”

He walks over toward me again and uses the knife to point at me.

“Not like you. You, are a massive disappointment,” he stares at me with a look of crazed anger in his eye.

“Anyway--”

“Carolina,” I say and he stops dead in his tracks.

“How do you--”

“Oh, I know all about her. I know that she was pregnant with your demon spawn. I know that she’s the lucky one because she didn’t have to endure your cruel, psychotic reign of terror. That baby was lucky too. Lucky that he didn’t grow up and turn out to be just like you.”

Lock moved so quickly I barely had time for it to register before the back of his hand connected with my cheek. He hit me so hard my chair fell over onto its side. I could hear my neck crack as the whiplash caused my head to snap to the side.

Standing over me, Lock looks more menacing than I’ve ever seen him look before.

“Don’t you ever say her name again,” he crouches down and grabs my hair, using it to turn my head and look at him. He gets right up in my face and spits, like I just did to him before letting my head go and kicking me in the ribs.

“Pick her back up,” he grunts to one of his guards. The guard puts me upright again as Lock comes closer to me.

“Since we know that you’re worthless when it comes to killing someone, I am going to take care of Owen. But save your energy because I have other plans for you,” he licks up the side of my face. I didn’t know that I was bleeding until I saw it on his tongue, mixing with his saliva before he swallowed it down.

“Now, where were we?” Lock asks as he takes the curved knife and stalks toward Owen.

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