Defiance (New Adult Romance) (Isaac & Maya) (35 page)

“Sixteen. She’s very pretty if she would
show you her face
,” he barks toward her, jerking the leash so harshly she nearly falls over.

“Let me,” I whisper. I can’t be too gentle, it could kill the whole thing. It’s been so long since I’ve treated someone like an animal. “Hey,” I snap. “Look at me.”

I want to reach out and stroke her back, or some similar soothing gesture, but I can’t, so I grab her shoulders instead and spin her around so that she’s not facing the corner anymore. I can’t let my knees touch the ground, that’s highly symbolic and I’m probably too low as it is. I make up for it by wrapping my hand into her hair and jerking her head back. She yelps loudly, the sound is so pitiful I’m afraid I’ll be sick. I have never seen someone look this terrified. My father snickers behind me and steps closer, casting his shadow over the girl as she starts to tremble.

“Stand up,” I order, but she doesn’t know what I’m saying. This is the part where I would probably want to evaluate her body and see if it’s suits my tastes.

“This will be difficult until she understands you.”

“I think you meant to say this will be fun,” I rasp. My voice is fucking horrifying. The innocent eyes of the child in my grasp widen as she goes pale. “She understands me, she just wishes she didn’t.
Get. Up,
” I snarl into her ear, sniffing her as I pull her hair upwards until it hurts and she stands automatically to relieve the pain. “See.”

“So you want her?” my father says, more like an observation than a question.

“What are the strings?”

“There aren’t any.”

“There always are,” I chuckle, keeping my gaze locked on the girl.

“You’ve already earned her and Glory wants you to have her. She’s worried about you.”

I look over at my father, forcing my eyes to meet his. “Thank you,” I whisper, dropping my chin into some form of a bow that hopefully conveys gratitude without weakness.

“Don’t you want to see her body?”

“I thought you said she was all mine.” I can’t strip this poor girl naked in front him, I don’t have it in me.

“Well, I’ve already seen it, if that’s what you’re getting at,” he says. “I couldn’t give my firstborn son defective merchandise.”

His firstborn son. Wow. “Did you check to see if she was really a virgin?” I ask.

“I kept my fingers out of her. She is indeed all yours. I was more concerned about the authenticity of her breasts, I know you’re not the biggest fan of fake tits. I kept the fondling to a minimum.”

Holy fuck. This is so sick. “What about her mouth? How pure is that?” It seems like someone as twisted as I’m supposed to be would be concerned about that.

“Now, that I’m not sure of, but it wasn’t me,” he replies. “I’d be surprised if she’s been used that way, she’s very sheltered from a reliable source.”

A reliable source. How many more are there? Will this really stop them? “May I take her home now?”

“You may,” he replies, handing me the leash. The girl starts crying and pulls away as I grab her arm

“I’ll still come see Glory,” I tell him. “I’ll check on her tomorrow afternoon.”

“I’m sure she wants you to take some time off. She’s doing quite well according to the therapists. You can’t leave your toy alone very often, especially in a hotel.”

“I’m getting an apartment next month.”

“I’m aware of that, Gloria told me. Do not let this girl run away. I’m trusting you, Isaac.” He really is, I can’t believe it.

“I know. But I still have to see Glory, I need to know if she’s okay. I can’t just abandon her.”

“Twice a week, then,” he breathes. Does he not want me around her anymore? That would be fucking ironic. “Open her mouth, Isaac.”

“What?”

“You can’t bring her up there shaking and crying. She needs to be sedated, there’s no other way.”

Fuck. “Of course. I would have done that,” I assure him.

“I suppose you do always have something on you.”

“Actually, I don’t,” I murmur, pretending to ignore the girl’s thrashing and protesting cries as I pull her chin down and wedge my fingers between her teeth. “I would’ve had to raid Glory’s medicine cabinet.”

“Well, that’s a good sign,” he says, shoving the pill deep into the back of her throat. “There. I assume you know the hotel staff well enough that you can carry an unconscious girl up to your suite without drawing suspicion.”

“It wouldn’t be first time they’ve seen me do that.”

We laugh together. His is so genuine that it makes me worry about the way mine sounds. The girl starts to get woozy about twenty minutes later, so we buckle her into the passenger seat of my car and say our goodbyes.

I am so fucking paranoid as I call Nigel while I drive to the hotel, checking over my shoulder the whole way. It’s three in the morning, so he doesn’t answer. Do I call the cops? I can’t do this without representation. I keep calling my lawyer’s emergency number until his secretary answers, who has him call me back immediately. He says he’ll meet me at the hotel suite, and does his best not to be frustrated as I lecture him about how to sneak in.

I don’t come here very often anymore and I find it odd that none of the staff stops me as I carry an obviously unconscious underage girl wrapped in a trench coat up to my room. Nigel’s already inside. He looks weird in jeans and a t-shirt. He brought a similarly puffy eyed and casually clothed agent from Homeland Security so that we have a reliable witness to document this whole thing, who is unfortunately male and speaks Arabic. It was short notice, there will be a woman who speaks several Eastern European languages available in the morning.

Try explaining that to a terrified victim of forced prostitution who doesn’t speak English when she wakes up a few hours later surrounded by three guys with a video camera pointed in her face. The poor girl starts sobbing uncontrollably once she’s fully awake, backing into a corner and wrapping her arms around her knees. I suggest that we just leave her alone, but they refuse because she might try to kill herself and needs to be monitored.

I’m fucking exhausted and I can’t stand the sound of a woman crying. Against my attorney’s advice, I offer her some water and drape a blanket around her shoulders. I want to tell her that I’m sorry over and over again, much to my lawyer’s dismay, who says repeatedly to the cameras that my sporadic apologies are not an admission of guilt.

A group of better qualified specialists show up several hours later to bring her to some facility for questioning. I was expecting the girl to feel better when she saw another woman, but she’s just as terrified of the two female agents. They try to take her away, but she starts freaking out again and she’ll definitely make a scene on the way out of the hotel, so they decide to start the interrogation here.

After several attempts to get her to relax and understand that she’s safe, they persuade her to point out her country on a map. She knows just enough Russian to communicate with one of the agents until they get a translator for her dialect of
Polish. The girl calms down once they have her convinced that I’m not reselling her and she’s going to a police station, not a brothel. She points at me and asks a question, which the translator answers. They go back and forth a few times, apparently for clarification, because the girl is definitely repeating herself even though I don’t understand what she’s saying. Before I get a chance to ask, she gets up from the table and throws her arms around my neck, sobbing into my shoulder as she mutters the same word or phrase over and over again.

“She’s saying ‘thank you’,” the agent explains when I ask them what she means.

“You’re welcome,” I whisper, hugging her back gently before they lead her away.

45

Maya

“Did I wake you?” Isaac asks as my eyes open to a dark room and realize that he isn’t next to me. What time is it?

“No,” I reply, yawning.

“I totally woke you up, Rookie. Sorry.”

“What are you trying to say? That my body constantly aches for you and can sense when you’re more than ten feet away?”

“Yeah,” Isaac laughs, crawling back in bed next to me. “Something like that.”

I scoot closer to him, instantly noticing the pain warping his face that he’s trying to hide. “Another headache, baby?” I murmur. He seems to constantly have one now.

“Yeah. It’s not that bad.”

“You can tell me if it is. I won’t threaten to stay home from school.”

“I know you won’t. It’s your last day,” he says. Skimming my fingers lightly across his face, I press my lips against each of his closed eyelids as he exhales raggedly. “Really, Maya, I’m fine. It’
s the electric shock kind, not the eyeball popping pressure kind.”

“Oh, Isaac,” I whisper, expanding the range of my caress because his arms can bother him during one of these episodes. There’s no point suggesting that he should come off his meds slower, it will only irritate him and make this worse. He’s determined to get back down to where he was before he had to stay at Gloria’s house. “Did you take any magnesium?”

“Yeah, just now. I don’t think it’s as effective for the shocks, though.” Isaac shudders and pulls me closer. “This works so much better,” he murmurs, kissing my fingertips as they glide across his lips.

“Really?”

“I swear.” Wincing, he brings his arm up between our chests, stretching his fingers and rubbing his wrist with his other hand. I pull it away and start to soothe the offending extremity for him, dragging my lips and fingernails along the defined tendons in his forearms. “That feels so good,” he breathes.

“Do you think you’ll be able to fall back asleep?”

“If you keep touching me like this, yeah. But you need to rest.”

“This
is a lot more relaxing than knowing that you’re sitting in the living room in pain. Starting tomorrow, you’re waking me up so I can touch you when this happens.”

“Okay,” Isaac whispers, kissing my forehead. That was easy, he didn’t fight me at all. “I’m so glad you’re done with school, Maya.”

“Me too.”

“Are you going out tonight with your classmates?” he asks, opening his bloodshot but still beautiful kaleidoscope eyes. I love this little kid face, I can’t get enough.

“Nope. I’m coming right home after I’m done with that exam and I’m not leaving the house until we start to feel cooped up and need a day trip.”

Isaac’s eager smile presses into mine for a few soft kisses as his eyes flutter closed. It only takes a few minutes until he drifts off, but I keep caressing him anyway. Being his personal, drug free painkiller is so satisfying, I could touch him like this forever.

He’s in the same position when I wake up again in a few hours, his hand resting on my waist, his peaceful face so close to mine I can feel the warmth of his breath on my lips. The alarm starts ringing quietly a few moments later, getting louder and louder with each beep until Isaac’s eyes fly open. I would’ve let him sleep longer, but he’d be so disappointed. It’s the last morning we’ll perform the sacred ritual of sending me off to school.

“I’m not going to miss this part,” he grumbles, pecking the tip of my nose and stretching before he flips over and turns the alarm off.

“Neither will I. But I will miss this part,” I coo, snuggling up against his flank and sliding my hand down the chiseled muscles on his stomach. My fingers linger at his waistband for a moment, tickling his sensitive skin as I run them back and forth along the line of fabric stopping my advance.

“What? The part where you seduce me in my vulnerable waking moments when I’m trapped in a sleepy haze with a giant erection?”

“Yeah.”

Isaac’s laughter vibrates through his abs into my wrist as my hand disappears down his pants and wraps around him. “You’re so fucking bad,” he breathes. “Something tells me this part of the morning routine will be around for a long time.”

He fucks me, a quick, cuddly fuck full of giggling and kissing. Then he makes me an elaborate and nutritious breakfast, demanding that I eat every bite.
This
part of the morning routine will not be around for a long time and I can’t wait to start arguing with him about it. The only thing more enjoyable than appeasing him while rolling my eyes at that cocky grin on his face is defying him while pouting and watching his eyes flare. There is a lot of punitive teasing in my near future.

The last day of the semester. My last day of college. It’s so weird to think that I’ll never step foot on this campus as a student again. A chapter of my life is closing and I should be at least a little sad and nostalgic like all the hugging, sniffling seniors that surround me, but I’m not. All I want to do is ace this test and go home. I’m so glad it’s over, I’ve never been more ready to be done with a life stage before.

At least I have something to say now when people ask me about my plans for next year. I’m moving to California for a fresh start, possibly getting a teaching certificate before I apply to grad schools, but I’d like to take some time to explore the coast and settle into my new life. 

Isaac might propose tonight. He’ll have some kind of celebration planned, that’s for sure, but I can’t stop wondering if I’ll be falling asleep with a ring on my finger. It’s entirely possible he’d rather wait until this is all over, but I think Isaac is done with waiting. I don’t know what it is, he wasn’t acting any sneakier than usual, I just think he’s going to ask me tonight.

My stomach flutters in anticipation as I rush to the car waiting to take me home. My eagerness to jump into Isaac’s arms turns out to be a mistake. Lisa always waits outside, leaning against the passenger door and watching over me as I approach. She isn’t there today, but I don’t notice. I barely look up as I climb into the car, I’m too busy staring at my phone and texting Isaac that I’m on my way. I realize that it’s unnecessary because he’s waiting for me in the back seat. Of course he’d pick me up on my last day.

“Hello, cutie,” a familiar voice rasps as I shut the door. Holy fucking shit. My head jerks up and I’m face to face with Luke as I hear the doors lock and feel the car pulling away. I’m frozen in his gaze for a few heartbeats, my brain unwilling to process the information that my eyes are transmitting. “Did you have a nice last day at school?” he asks, snickering.

Blinking in disbelief, I stare at him blankly with my lips parted until I notice that the driver is taller and hairier than she should by. My head turns toward the front seat to see an unknown figure at the wheel.

“
Lisa?” She’s slumped over in the passenger seat and there’s blood mixed with little pink chunks splattered across the dashboard. “Lisa!” I yell.

Luke laughs at me. “She’s a little too dead to answer you, Maya. Can’t you tell?” His smile is so cruel, but that’s not why it looks different. His teeth have changed, they’re too white and the little chip on his left canine is gone. They’re fake. Isaac must have beat them out of his face. “You didn’t answer me, cutie. How was your last day at school?”

All I can manage is a whimper, pulling at the door handle even though the car is traveling at least 50 miles an hour. At least it’s possible to survive that, in theory, but it won’t open so I can’t test it.

“I’ve been waiting for this day as long as you have,” Luke says. “I hope it was good. I wanted you to feel like it was over, like you were safe. I wanted you to be excited and happy when you crawled in here with me. Did you really think I’d forget about you?”

“No,” I murmur.

“So you were trusting him to protect you then, huh?” he asks. I finally nod, there’s no point pretending. “Well, he failed.”

My eyes tear up as my fingers get so cold it feels like they’re dipped in ice. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know,” Luke laughs. “I don’t even know who he fucking is, but I have my suspicions.”

“Luke—”

“I don’t care who he is, not right now anyway. We’ll get to that.” Luke glances down at the hand resting on his knee as he lies to me. It hasn’t moved at all, that must be the broken one. There is no way this man doesn’t care who took his teeth and his hand, he’ll probably torture the name out of me. I wonder how long I’ll last before I give him a fake one. He slides toward me, running his fingers across my cheek. “You felt safe with him, didn’t you?” he snarls, his hand wrapping into my hair and tightening into a fist. “Answer me!”

I refuse, my entire body stiffening as his face draws nearer to mine. I don’t like the way he smells, I never really did. His breath heats my neck, his lips so close to my skin he can probably taste my betrayal. Grunting, he pulls me toward him as I yelp. Luke wasn’t bringing me in for a kiss, he was increasing the distance between me and the bulletproof glass window so that it hurts more when he slams my head into it twice.

My ears ringing, the sensation of my racing heart pounds in my temples as my eyes struggle to see through the white haze. Luke’s voice is far away, but it’s still menacing. If he’s asking me a question, I can’t understand it. I think his good hand is groping my breast but it’s hard to tell and I don’t really want to know for sure anyway.

“Please don’t kill me,” I whisper. I don’t really care what he does, as long as I survive and get a chance to go home to Isaac.

“Oh, Maya,” he laughs. “You don’t get to die yet. You’re going to suffer until you’re begging for it.”

The tremor starts in my jaw and rolls though my entire body until I taste the acidic remnants of the last meal Isaac will ever cook for me. Luke growls in disgust and my cheeks get hot. How odd to be embarrassed at a time like this. At first I think he’s bringing this white cloth to my face to knock me out like they do in the movies, but he’s just wiping my chin. Then I feel a pinch on my neck. The haze that defiles my vision gets thicker and darker, spreading to assault the rest of my senses until everything turns black.