Aligned: Volume 4 (18 page)

We don’t have neighbors, though. Not any close enough to hear me. He made sure of that.
 

“Your screams are music to my ears. Let’s see if we can make you take it up a notch.”

He moves back to my breast hitting me with one long stroke. He’s right; I scream louder until my saliva and sweat are choking me preventing me from screaming any longer.
 

He strokes my cheek as I choke. I turn my head and spit on his hand. He laughs and then slaps me hard across my face forcing my head to turn.
 

The move makes me feel defeated. Even defiance won’t work with him.
 

I try my original strategy of not making a sound and just focusing on Landon, but when he hits me again this time on my pussy, I can’t hold back my cries.
 

“Please ...” I beg through the cries, and then I hate myself for begging. I bite my lip to keep my mouth from begging again.
 

I feel his thumb on my lip forcing me to let it go.
 

“You can’t beg if you are doing that, and I love it when you beg. I won’t stop until you beg me, until I believe you won’t survive if I hit you again.”

He hits me again on my pussy forcing another scream, but then his hand goes inside my panties. He rips them down and then starts massaging my soft bud. I feel my body coming alive at his disgusting touch. He hits me there with the belt and then immediately massages me with his hand. He’s conditioning me. He’s turning me on and making my body respond to the pain just like before. I won’t let him.
 

Images of women that he did this to float in my head. Images of faceless women he raped and tortured like this and then killed scroll across my eyelids. I have to stop him for them and for all the women he will hurt after me if I don’t.
 

He hits me again, but this time, I don’t move. I don’t scream or cry. I feel the women giving me power. I feel them giving me strength. I have to fight back.
 

The belt hits me again, and I laugh. I laugh in response to the pain. “Is that all you got?”
 

I open my eyes through the tears, and I see his face redden. He hits me harder. “You’re such a pussy.”
 

“You’re a slut who likes to be raped and tortured.”
 

He hits me again, and I smile.
 

“I don’t believe you raped dozens of women.”

He pauses for just a second and then hits me again.
 

“I don’t believe you killed them either. You’re just trying to scare me.”
 

He pauses. “What makes you think that, when you’re tied to my bed getting whipped within an inch of your life.”
 

He hits, but this time, his heart isn’t really in it. The pain is less. He didn’t use his full force. I can do this. I can stop him.
 

“You tried to kill me, twice. But you failed. You failed because you aren’t really a killer. You won’t kill me. You’re too weak for that.”
 

“Stop.”
 

I smirk. “You’re a mamma’s boy. Your father left you because you are such a weak pussy. You won’t hurt me. You definitely won’t kill me.”
 

“Stop,” he warns again as anger grows darker in his eyes until his eyes are completely black. I know it’s coming. The unbearable pain that will break me. I just have to break him first.
 

“You won’t kill me. I’m going to walk out of here alive. But first, I’m going to kill
you
.”
 

He punches me hard in the ribs. So hard I can barely breathe. I struggle to breathe as I watch him run from the room. When I catch my breath, I’m relieved. He’s gone. If only for a few minutes, I’m still safe. I can regroup. I can find my strength again.
 

He bursts through the door what seems like only seconds later. All I see are pictures, flash drives, and CDs. Several tumble to the floor. He takes the first and presses it to my face.
 

“This is Samantha. She was homeless. Just sixteen. She was my first. I raped and killed her. She’s at the bottom of the ocean now.”
 

“And this one.” He thrusts a picture this time of a woman’s body cut into pieces. I feel like vomiting after seeing the picture, but I don’t let him see it. “I burned her body until she turned into ashes.”
 

“This one. This one I kept for a week. She could handle pain like no woman I ever had. Other than you, of course.”

He throws the loads of pictures of the women he raped and killed until they are floating around the room.
 

“Still don’t believe I raped them? Still don’t believe I killed them?”
 

“No,” I spit out. Although I don’t know why I’m still inciting him. I got what I want. I have the evidence. It’s floating around the room. Now, I just need him dead.
 

That does it. He jumps on top of my body agitating the wounds he’s caused, but that’s not where the pain comes from. The pain comes from his hands choking me. I can’t breathe. His hands are suffocating me. I pushed him too far. This is how I’m going to die.
 

His eyes watch mine. He watches the fear and watches the life drift out of my eyes.
 

“Still don’t think I’m a killer?”
 

And with the last breath I breathe, I say, “No.”
 

You shined a light when no one else was there.

You saved me
 

And showed me how to be a father.
 

I pull up in front of the house that Ethan bought for her. The house is amazing. Easily one of the grandest I’ve seen. This is obviously why she didn’t want a big, expensive house. It reminded her of Ethan. Or she knew it could never compete with the house Ethan got for her.
 

I try calling her phone again, but this time, it doesn’t even ring. It just goes straight to voicemail. The feeling of pain intensifies when I get out of my car. Something is wrong. I just don’t know what.
 

The garage door is closed, so I don’t know if her car is here or not, but I feel her. I know she’s here.
 

I run to the door and ring the doorbell, but I can’t wait for the doorbell to get someone’s attention. I need the door open now. I try the doorknob, but it doesn’t open. So I begin pounding on the door loudly.
 
I pound, but no one answers.
 

“Alex! Ethan! Someone come answer the door.”
 

No one comes, though.
Dammit!
 

I walk off the porch through the landscaping in front of the house to look in the large windows. I don’t see anyone. I know she is here, though, and I know something is wrong.
 

I should just leave. She’s made it clear she wants nothing to do with me anymore, but I can’t leave. I can’t. Not until I know she’s safe, and I know that she is happy with him.
 

I shouldn’t do this. Not after I just got my charges dropped, but I don’t have a choice. I continue down around the side of the house to the garage that’s connected. I test the door on the side that leads to the garage. It’s locked, but the knob is weak, much weaker than the front door.
 

I glance around to make sure no one is watching, and I pop the lock open. The door opens easily. I sneak into the garage without being seen and without setting off any alarms. I’m sure there are alarms, but no one ever seems to remember to put alarms on the garage doors. That’s why Drew and I used to sneak into other people’s houses through their garages. We never stole anything but food. I’m not proud of it, but it does come in handy now.
 

I glance around the garage. Alex’s car Tessie sitting in the first spot. She’s here.
 

I walk silently to the door that leads into the house. I test the door, but it’s unlocked. I smile. No one ever thinks to lock this door. They think they are safe as long as their garage is locked. They aren’t.
 

I just have to hope I don’t trigger the alarm. Even if it does go off when I open the door, I don’t care. I just need to make sure she is safe. I’d gladly go back to jail for breaking and entering.
 

I take a deep breath and push the door open as silently as possible. I poke my head in the house. It’s silent, and I see no signs of people.
 

I close the door and begin moving as silently as possible through the house. I almost turn right, but my body forces me left. Almost like it’s drawing me to her.
 

I find the stairs and creep up them. It’s then that I realize I have nothing to protect myself with. If someone dangerous is here, I have no form of protection.
 

I round the corner at the top of the stairs. I glance down and notice a beam of light streaming from under a door. I glance in the other direction where there are several more doors. No signs of life in that direction, so I creep to the door. I force my legs to move slowly and silently, even though I want to move quickly. I want to run and crash through the door.

I make it to the door as my heart races in my chest. She’s fine. She’s survived everything. No matter what I face behind the door, I know she is going to be fine. She’s a survivor.
 

I lean against the door, but I can’t see through the crack in the door, and I can’t hear a thing. I have to push it open.
 

I do quickly and silently, and then I see my worst nightmare. I gasp for air immediately sucked from my lungs at the sight of her tied to a bed bloody and beaten. Duct tape covers her mouth, and her eyes are closed. I force my eyes to look back to her chest despite how much pain it brings me to see the welts, lacerations, and blood covering them. I need to make sure she is breathing.
 

My first thought is I just interrupted a crazy sexual fantasy that she is playing out with Ethan. A fantasy that in my opinion has gone too far. She likes it darker than I ever imagined.
 

Her eyes shoot open at the sight of me. Her eyes don’t say she wants this, though. Her eyes beg for help and beg me to run at the same time.
 

I run to her, my hands go to her face trying to comfort her.
 

“I’m going to get you out of here.”
 

My hands move to the handcuffs. I try to force them open, but they don’t budge. I can’t open them.
 

I try to glance around the room for a key, but I don’t see one. I move to the tape to get it off her lips. So she can tell me what the hell is going on.
 

“Freeze.”
 

I look at Alex’s eyes that have gone wild with fear. I can’t get her out of here. I failed.
 

I turn slowly to face the direction of the voice. When I turn all the way around, I see him. Ethan standing in the doorway of the bathroom with a gun in his hand pointed at me.
 

He smirks when he sees me. “You got out of jail even faster than I imagined?”

My nostrils flare, and my face reddens as I glare at him. “Yeah, they tend to release you when you’re innocent.”
 

“Aw, but are you really innocent?”

“Yes,” I say admitting it to Alex and myself for the first time. “I’m innocent. The truth came out. I was defending Caroline from her drug-addicted brother, just like I’m going to defend Alex against her psychopath husband.”
 

He cocks his head sideways and takes a step closer still pointing the gun at my head.
Let him
, I think. As long as he’s pointing the gun at me and talking to me, he can’t hurt Alex.
 

“I’m a psychopath, huh?” One more step closer and then he smiles. “Yeah, I guess that would be about right.”
 

“Let her go.”
 

He shakes his head side to side. “I can’t do that. She knows too much. And now, I’ll get the honor of killing you too.” He rolls his neck side to side as if the thought of killing me is almost too much joy for his body to handle.
 

“Just let her go and we will too. It was just rough sex gone too far.”
 

He points the gun from me to her and then back at me. “You think that’s what this is? You think this was just a one-time thing? This has been going on since the moment I met her. I raped her and then framed another. I hired the guys to kill her and fake a car crash. I attacked her and framed James.”

He glances down, and I follow his gaze. It’s the first time I see the pictures scattered on the floor. “All of the women in these pictures on the floor. I raped them. I tortured them. I killed them. And now, I’m going to do the same to her.”

“You don’t need to do that. We have money. Lots of money. We can pay you.” I stay calm even though I want to run straight at him and pummel him to the ground. I want to hit him so hard that what I did to Caroline’s brother is going to seem like a scratch in comparison. I can’t, though. If I do, there is a good chance he’ll shoot Alex. And I can’t let that happen.
 

“I don’t want your money.” His eyes widen as the idea crosses his mind. “I have something better in mind. You coming is really a bonus, see. Because before I was just going to rape, torture, and kill Alex for the cameras. To relive over and over in my own brain, but now that you are here, you get to watch the love of your life being raped, tortured, and killed.”
 

He grips the gun tighter.
 

“Put your hands up and move to the corner of the room.”
 

I put my hands up but hesitate to move. If I do, my body will no longer be between him and Alex.
 

“Now!”
 

My body shudders at his words.
 

“I’m moving.” I slowly walk away from Alex to the corner he indicated. I watch in disgust as he takes my place next to Alex. He strokes her cheek making her flinch. She keeps her eyes on me despite how hazy and tired they are. They stay on me. At least I will have her beautiful eyes to look into when we both die.