Page 100 of A Dark Duet

I’m trying to see the naked form on the bed but hands keep holding me back, clawing and scratching me, I can’t speak, I can’t scream. I can only hear the whimpering of pain and agony mixed with a wicked laugh. My eyes try to see the figure on the bed but when I’m suddenly let go, a voice I can’t recognize says, “You want to see what we have done to her? You think you can save her? No one can save her. She has to pay her debt with the only thing she is good for.” I’m thrown forward, staggering to my feet and what I see has me screaming. The form on the bed is Briana, badly beaten and bloody. Her legs are full of angry hand marks, dirty with blood and urine. Her face is unrecognizable and there are many bruises marring her delicate skin and it is clear she has been violated. Her head lolls to the side, whimpering in pain, coming in and out of consciousness. No, no, no, baby! I scream but then nothing comes out. Then, the deafening sound of silence.

I jolt awake and arms are wrapped around me. “Shh. Shh. It’s okay.” Briana holds me as I’m sitting upright, the door to my room is open, and she is on the bed holding me. “It’s okay. I’m here. I’m right here,” she says softly.

My eyes are burning, and my throat is raw. My hands reach out to touch her soft ones. I grab her and place her on my lap, checking her arms, her face, her legs. When I’m satisfied that she is okay, I touch her face with my fingers. “I had a bad dream and they hurt you. They hurt you really bad. Who hurt you?”

Her eyes are wide and then I notice she never fell asleep. She is wide awake and when I look at my nightstand, I see that my phone and the picture frame are not there. They must have fallen when I thrashed my arms in my sleep. She notices and she moves, placing her feet over the edge of the bed to retrieve my phone. She finds it and hands it to me and when I check the time, 3:34 a.m.

Her hands pick up the picture and when she turns it over, her eyes find mine. The light from the screen of the phone and the glass floor-to-ceiling window leading directly to the pool casts an illuminating glow in the bedroom. She looks down at the framed photograph and her brow furrows as she recognizes herself in the picture. The picture was taken when she wasn’t looking, her smiling after I made a joke. I remember that day. It was the day I realized I made her smile.

She looks up at me and the energy in the room crackles like an electric charge. She gently places the frame back in its place on the nightstand and notices that it’s the only picture in the room. The only picture in the entire house is sitting on my nightstand and it is of Briana.

“Who hurt you? I need a name,” I ask her.

“It doesn’t matter. It changes nothing. You have done enough for me. You can’t risk your career or your future for me. I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you.”

“I’m going to find out, Brie. When I do, not even the devil would be able to help them.”

I mean every word. Whoever they are, death will come knocking and it’s not going to be quick. It’s going to be painful. A pain that will be inflicted ten times worse than the pain she has endured in all the time she has suffered combined. Nothing and no one will be able to stop me.

She shivers and I raise the blanket off my bed so she can crawl under. She slides in next to me and I begin peeling off her sleep shorts and top. Sliding my boxers down my thighs, we remove our clothes until we are both naked in my bed so I can hold her, skin to skin.

When we were together, we never slept with clothes on and always slept naked. We could feel the heat of our skin, the smell of each other’s scent while I silently prayed sleep would come and find me. Now, I realize she was silently praying for the same thing. Holding her to my chest, I inhale her vanilla scent until sleep finally claims us both.

Jaden

I’m hitting the bag at the gym, pissed off that she left before I woke up. She didn’t take any of the cars I offered her from the garage. Her bag is gone so she left with the intention of not coming back. Checking the cameras, I saw she left in an Uber at seven a.m. She was heading to school like she told me she would.

“What’s up, brother?” Nate asks. The sweat sliding down my bare chest.

“Nothing, I’m good.”

“How’s the shoulder?”

“The pain comes and goes. Depends how hard I hit and train on it. Janine will stop by later for a couple of hours to relieve the tension out of it.”

He shakes his head, clearly not agreeing.

“How is Brie? Heard you snatched her from her apartment like a thief in the night.”

“I asked and I didn’t kidnap her.” I shrug. “That fucker Ethan probably is watching her or has her placed bugged. You know he is a control freak.”

Nate raises his brow. “That is some creepy shit. Why the fuck would he be watching her?”

“The fucker has this weird thing for her. Probably lack of pussy and a small dick. I don’t know but I’m about to make good on my promise and gouge his fucking eyes out and rearrange his face.”

Nate chortles. “That bad, huh?”

My eyes glare at him after I hit the bag with a combo and a roundhouse kick.

“He kept texting her last night. I didn’t go through her phone, but it lit up and he told her that I knew about their arrangement and that he missed her. Fucking creep. First he is claiming he loves his dead wife and then he is professing that he misses Brie like a lovesick fool.”

Nate grins. “Maybe he does really miss her. He gave her a quarter-million-dollar Bentley.”

“That she left at her apartment along with her motorcycle. She didn’t take any of the cars I offered last night to get around.”

Nate pinches his brow in confusion. “Where was she staying exactly?

“Where do you think she stayed, my house.”

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