Chained (Caged Book 2) (5 page)

I wasn’t sure if I was angry or sad. My emotions were all over and I couldn’t keep track. “You just called her a whore.”

“She is.”

“But… you still used her.”

He inhaled sharply. “That’s what whores are generally for.”

Flinching with the callous way he spoke, I nodded again. “Is that what I am? To you?” I whispered, apprehensive of his answer. “A whore?”

He chuckled coldly. “You think I’m using you?”

“Well, aren’t you?” I snapped, sick of his damn riddles. Another wave of nausea rolled over me and I placed my cup onto the table. “You already told me I’m here for the game you’re playing with your father.”

“And you are,” he uttered. “But I don’t need to fuck you to use you, Kloe.”

“Oh, that’s just a bonus then, is it?”

He laughed, making my teeth vibrate with rage.

Blowing out a breath when my skin turned clammy, I slid the blanket off me and closed my eyes. Vomit scurried up my throat and I rushed for the bathroom, only just making it in time before the meagre portions of food I’d managed in the previous few days made a swift return.

My stomach heaved over and over and tears ran down my face with the force of the sickness that overtook me.

“Jesus,” I huffed out when I finally managed to lean back during a break.

“You okay?” Anderson watched me with a severe frown from his position against the doorframe.

“Yes,” I uttered. “But I have to say I’m surprised you even care.”

He looked furious, his eyes narrowing and his teeth clenching together, and I scuttled back when he was suddenly crouched before me. His fingers pinched my chin cruelly and he snapped my head back so my eyes were on his. “Oh, I care!” he growled. “And to be honest, I’m not even sure why.”

My lungs became a little too tight with his closeness, his fury climbing inside me and lighting the parts of me I despised. Tears prickled my eyes and I pulled back. “What the hell is it with you? I can’t keep up. Make your damn mind up, Anderson. Either hand me over to your fucking father, or just end it. Right now. Right fucking now!”

I was stunned when a wicked smile curved his lips, and his eyes blazed with emotion.

Gasping when his fingers curled around the front of my throat, I froze and pressed back into the pedestal of the toilet. The scent of vomit drifted up my nose and I heaved again.

Anderson dropped his hold on me instantly and guided me over the toilet bowl. His fingers bunched my hair, pulling it from my face as another round of retching saw me slumped over the loo.

“Have you eaten something dodgy?” he asked.

Thinking back, I shook my head. “No. I don’t think so.”

“So it was just the tea?” He frowned, his brow creasing with concern as he placed the back of his hand on my forehead. “You don’t feel hot.”

As soon as the vomiting allowed me a little relief, Anderson whipped me up into his arms and carried me through to the bedroom. After gently tucking me under the duvet he disappeared and returned with a bucket, placing it beside the bed. “Sleep,” he ordered.

He settled himself into the chair set away in the corner. His face was tight, but his soft gaze was troubled. Clicking his tongue, he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Kloe.” He whispered my name but the anguish in his tone was loud and fierce.

“I’m okay,” I replied just as quietly. I even gave him a soft smile of reassurance. “I’m okay.”

“Are you?”

“It’s just a virus, Anderson.”

He hesitated, blinking before he clicked his tongue. “Is it, my little wolf?”

Frowning, I shrugged under the duvet. “Sure, what else….”

My heart stopped. I sucked in a long breath. And shot upright.

Anderson swallowed loudly, wincing when he saw the fear swarm across my face.

My head shook, my jaw trembled, and every fibre of me cried out when horror trickled into my veins. “No. No.”

Anderson rushed to me when a funny keening noise broke from me and the room swam. I couldn’t breathe. Agony tore through my chest when shock froze my lungs.

I tried to think. I couldn’t think. Dates merged in my head, causing chaos as I shook in Anderson’s fierce hold.

“Breathe, Kloe. Come on, breathe.”

His face grew out of focus as my brain struggled with the lack of oxygen.

“Calm down,” he urged, tightening his fingers into the top of my arms.

Closing my eyes, I concentrated on breathing, slowly inhaling and blowing it out. My heart rate was threatening to send me into panic and my rolling stomach offered more nausea.

“Shh,” Anderson whispered softly. He nodded when I secured my gaze on him, concentrating on the intense look in his eyes. He smiled when my breathing started to regulate and my pulse no longer pounded in my ears. “Good girl.”

I lowered my eyes, staring at the floor. “This can’t happen,” I choked out. “I can’t be. I… me and Ben tried for months, years but… nothing.”

“And you just presumed it was you that was at fault.”

I nodded. “Well yeah, after my past… you know.” I shrugged, wincing at my own stupidity. “I haven’t taken birth control since my teens. There didn’t seem any point after Ben, and failing to get pregnant.” I looked at him and grimaced. “I’m sorry. I never…”

Anderson moved his gaze away and stood up, sighing as he crossed his arms over his chest. “This isn’t your fault, Kloe. Hell…” He winced, shaking his head angrily. “And anyway, it could just be a virus.”

I nodded, hoping,
praying
, that he was right.

He guided me back to the bed. “Sleep. I’ll be back in a while.” Pulling the duvet back over me, he narrowed his eyes. “Red is outside. She won’t let anyone in. Get some rest.”

His soft tone, his worry, his compassion - they were each so different to the Anderson that had walked through my front door mere hours ago. I saw the worry on his face, the hope that also lay in my own eyes. I couldn’t be pregnant. Not like this. Not after this.

“Anderson,” I whispered as he took a step out of the door.

He turned back to me, his eyes finding mine in the dim light of the room.

I licked my dry lips, attempting to find some moisture to form words. “What if…?”

He held my gaze, the gentle side of him staring right back at me. He was scared, no, he was terrified, and the sight of such a powerful emotion in his eyes made my heart weep.

Finally, he lowered his eyes to the floor beside the bed. “Then we deal with it, little wolf.”

He said no more. He just turned and quietly slid the door closed behind him.

R
OBBIE STARED AT ME
. I could see the horror in his eyes, the pain for me that he knew I also felt.

“So,” he muttered quietly, lowering his eyes from me. “You deal with it. It’s just a quick procedure now…”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

He flinched at my glare and the fury that spat from my mouth. “Anderson. You can’t… it’s…”

“Impossible?” I finished for him. “Is it?”

I could still see the image of the little plus sign on the test Kloe had done not two hours ago, the cross burnt on the back of my retinas and my soul. Vomit clashed with hope and I couldn’t keep up with the fluctuating rhythm of my heartbeat.

“It’s a baby, Rob! MY baby!”

Shaking his head, he stepped towards me. “But it isn’t. Not yet. It’s just a cell. A blob. It doesn’t have features. It hasn’t even established a character yet.”

He didn’t understand. He
couldn’t
understand.

“Rob. This is my child. The child that could,
and will,
change the course of my life. You couldn’t understand, and I don’t expect you to. The future holds nothing but pain for me. Pain and loneliness. I don’t have hopes or aspirations. I can’t even contemplate what is to come. Because I know there’s nothing
but nothing
. And at the very best, nothing but death and destruction.”

“But this is Kloe,” he reminded me quietly, as though I had forgotten. Like I could ever forget. “What does your future hold with her in it? Alive?”

And that was the problem. And we both knew it.

My soul wouldn’t settle until I had sought revenge for what he had done, and what she had done. Both were more alike than they realised. Both took what they wanted from me and then cast me aside like rubbish. Together they were the final amen in my silent prayer.

I wanted to hurt them. I
needed
to hurt them.

My soul couldn’t lie down and rest until her agony engulfed me. I wanted to hear her screams puncture my ears; the only sound that would serenade my pain. Her spilled blood could be the only substance to sate my hunger. Yet now, now her screams would contain the tears of my child, and her blood would possess the heartbeat of my own flesh and blood.

“I don’t know,” I answered eventually.

“Where is she now?”

“I took her back to mine. She’s going nowhere for the time being.”

He shifted uncomfortably, looking at me curiously from the chair he sat in opposite me. “And Robert? What do you intend to do with him?”

That was a turn up. Kloe had perfectly deposited a bullet bang central in the cunt’s forehead. It was strange to think the girl I lived my life for now had terminated the life of my half-brother, the half-brother I didn’t know I had until a short while ago. I didn’t feel any connection with him. He wasn’t of any importance to me. Yet, when I’d seen him at Kloe’s I couldn’t resist sticking the knife in his gut and twisting. I’d seen the flicker of recognition in his eyes when he’d seen me standing over them both as he tried to bring Dave back to life – the dog he had not hours before wrapped a damn rope around its neck and squeezed every bit of life from. I could only think it had been part of their plan, to bring Kloe closer to him, to make her dependant on him. However, he hadn’t banked on my sudden appearance. And when I’d told him I was fucking Kloe, the rage that had boiled in his eyes had given me back an ounce of the pleasure he had taken from me.

Nevertheless, he was now out of the equation, even if I had wanted to be the one to suck his last breath from his lungs.

I wouldn’t have thought my little wolf had it in her. And when she’d shot at me, well… I knew she wouldn’t hurt me. The silly girl was in love with me.

And that was another thing that didn’t make sense to me. How could you fall in love with someone who was hell bent on destroying you?

Unless you prayed for destruction every single day. And your destroyer granted you everything you craved.

I could see the need for violence buried deep within Kloe’s eyes, the hunger for depravity begging me every time she looked at me. She yearned for something she could never understand. Her soul was so gentle, so compassionate, that I knew when I finally gave her exactly what she thought she craved it would extinguish everything good about her.

My dick hardened with that thought, and as if sensing my arousal, Robbie tipped his head. “You need it?”

“Nah.” I shook my head and stood, unapologetic about the hard-on that pushed against my trousers. “Although, I think it’s time we both gave Kloe exactly what she thinks she needs.”

His eyebrows lifted. “Now?”

“Tonight.” I snatched up my jacket and shrugged it on. “I have a fight. Afterwards.”

He nodded, watching me walk away. “Anderson.”

I didn’t verbally acknowledge him but paused at the door.

“Whatever happens, you need to think about what you really want. You know I’ll support whichever decision you make. But you need to accept that there’s two options now. You make one without giving the other the attention it deserves then you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

I nodded, allowing him his honesty. “I already have too many regrets, Rob. I’m not about to indulge in any more.”

It had all seemed so easy. Bring Kloe to my father and watch him fall to his knees as he witnessed the life drain from the only thing he had ever loved. To take from him what he had taken from me.

But now, to do that, would take from me the only thing I would ever love.

My own child. My salvation. My redemption. My atonement for every sin I had ever executed.

Life has a cruel way of mocking you. Of making you pay for your hopes in the cruellest way possible.