Fragile Truths (12 page)

“Just…” she pursed her lips as she struggled with her thoughts. “Well, I know why I’m here, but why are they holding you?”

My heart beat picked up as I stared at her in panic. Her brow creased further as she saw my reaction. God, she would think I was some crazy stalker if she knew and I rapidly struggled with what to say. “I…uhh, I was returning your bag. You left it at the club, I think you dropped it when… well, when we…” I shrugged but her eyes calmed with my explanation as her cheeks flushed furiously.

“Oh,” she stuttered, obviously embarrassed with the reference to our ‘encounter’. “Thank you.”

She closed her eyes quickly as shame coursed through her then settled down to sleep. My eyelids grew heavy with the comforting sound of her soft breaths and I was soon falling too.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered into the darkness.

“What for?”

“Well for this, because I dragged you into this.” Her voice was full of guilt but she didn’t open her eyes.

“No worries, I was bored anyway.”

Her eyes snapped open and I winked at her with a smirk. She stared at me in bewilderment for a moment then her face broke into a grin, “Well, now I know that, I don’t feel so bad.”

“Good, you were doing me a favour.”

“Of course,” she agreed. “Who’d want to be doing boring paperwork when they can be doing this?”

“Absolutely.” I agreed. She nodded but swallowed with a sad smile. “Go to sleep, babe. You’re starting to get on my nerves.”

Her eyes widened then she sniggered, “Ditto, Jesus.” She smirked at me but then tucked her hands under her cheek and relaxed against the bed.

She dropped almost instantly, her soft snoring bringing a smile I couldn’t hold back as she wriggled in her sleep. I followed her within minutes but not until after I saw us being watched in the window by a shadow I couldn’t distinguish when they switched all the lights off.

13
^th
January 2014

Tate

What the hell?

The bed was vibrating underneath me as a weird eerie noise echoed loudly in the room, its hum resembling a mixture of a scream and a gurgle. I opened my eyes when my body lifted off the mattress, one of my legs dropping off the edge of the bed with the strength of the tremors around me.

Shit!
Frankie was thrashing wildly, her breathing uncontrolled and harsh as a long loud hum resonated from her.

“Frankie?”

She continued to flay and I reached out to her, slowly feeling for her in the darkness, “Frankie, listen to my voice, babe. Just concentrate on me.” I gripped her arm when my fingers found her and started to stroke up and down, my fingertips tickling her clammy skin in a rhythmic motion. “I’m right here. You’re safe and I’m right next to you.”

“Dark… too dark,” She rasped, her tone panicked and terrified.

I gripped her more firmly, hoping that the faint pain would give her a focus for her concentration. “Close your eyes,” I demanded as she jerked wildly, her panting still frantic and crazy. “Close – your – eyes, Frankie.”

I wasn’t sure whether she’d obeyed my command but I had to presume she had. “I want you to picture a safe place in your head.” I paused as I heeded my own directions and closed my own eyes, a field of dandelions filling my head as the long grass swayed in the breeze and a large tall tree loomed overhead above me, its long branches providing shade against the hot rays. “Look up to the sky, Frankie. Look up and see how bright the sun is today, it’s warm and brilliant, the sky a mass of blueness as the dandelion seeds float around you.”

She gasped and I cringed. Ahh, Fuck!

Her panting now became silent as the air jammed in her throat with shock.

Shit, shit, shit!

“How do you? I don’t…”

“What?” I asked, feigning confusion as I stiffened. I sensed her puzzlement but hoped I could redirect it and steer her down a different route.

“The dandelions? How did you know?”

“I don’t understand,” I lied.

“How did you… how do you know about the field?”

“The dandelion field?”

Think damn it!

“Yes, the field, Tate.” She was growing irritated as if she sensed my diversion.

“You told me,” I offered, cringing and praying she believed me. I was so glad it was dark right then and she couldn’t see the worry on my face as I pleaded with everything for her to accept my answer.

“I did?”

“Well, sort of, you were asleep and mumbling about the field.” She remained quiet as I presented an explanation. Her silent expectancy took me back to my childhood when Mr Heywood, the head teacher at school, would stand with his arms crossed waiting on an explanation for my latest ‘bad’ behaviour. “Apparently you used to go there when you were a child, or it sounded something like that.”

The quiet was agonising as I held my breath but she answered my prayers herself when she abruptly changed the subject, “Do you think there’s a light switch in here. I really don’t like the dark. I’m shitting my pants here.”

“There won’t be a switch.” I blew out a relieved breath, then trying to lighten the mood I leant forward and whispered in her ear, “and you’re not wearing any pants.”

“But can’t you go check?” she whinged as she ignored my humour and a shiver racked her body. “Please.”

I sighed heavily, hating the fear in her tone. “Frankie, I can assure you, there won’t be a switch but hey, look at you, you’re doing fine,” I praised with proudness at her progress.

She shuddered but remained quiet again, the only sound in the room was our breathing but it was comforting against the harshness of the silence.

“Go back to sleep, it’ll help.”

“Yeah,” she whispered as another shiver vibrated the bed.

I had so very nearly fucked up. I couldn’t allow her to know who I was, the last thing I needed was the Knight’s to know of my association with her, they would hurt her further with the information, and she would definitely not understand the motive for my behaviour, the reason why I had watched and protected her from a distance. Well, I had tried and failed to keep her safe.

“Tate?” Her voice was quiet and inquisitive, causing me to close my eyes in dread of her question.

“Yeah.”

“I wonder why…” She hesitated and sucked air through her teeth, “why they haven’t asked yet?”

I smirked to myself in the darkness. Not this time sweetheart. “Asked about what?”

I sensed her smile even if I couldn’t see it, “What they want from me.”

“And what do they want?”

“Something,” she murmured. Just as I was about to probe further she snuggled down and whispered night, cutting off any more of my questioning.

Frankie

Light flooded my eyes as harsh voices filled my ears and the warmth from Tate’s body beside me disappeared.

“Get up.” Someone snarled at me as fingers curled around my hair and dragged me from the bed. My body hit the floor with an almighty thud, my face smacking against the cold tiles and the sore skin on my back screaming in torture as the movement revived the pain.

I was yanked upright, my hair ripped out by the roots in the harsh grasp. It was only then I realised someone had removed my cuffs then decided to get angry. If they had been that infuriated they would have woken us before freeing me. It was all just a show – Bastards.

“What the fuck?” Tate exclaimed, his tone full of shock and disbelief.

I looked over to him and stared whilst a huge guy, as wide as he was tall, wrapped chains around Tate then proceeded to fix them to brackets attached to the wall. He was staring at the man holding my hair, his eyes furious as his jaw clenched strictly.

“Let him go!” I yelled as I struggled under the hold, the action pulling my hair harder but Tate’s imprisonment was all my fault and the guilt overwhelmed the pain. “It’s my fault. I asked him to lay with me. He didn’t want to but…”

I yelped as a hand curled around my throat, fingers squeezing so tightly it immediately restricted my air supply. A hot breath rolled across my cheek as a mouth rested against my ear, “Shut the fuck up.”

“Well let him go then.” I demanded with outrage. “I told you…”

He tightened his fingers as my pulse throbbed profoundly in my ears and my legs started to tingle. My chest heaved as my lungs desperately tried to keep functioning when its supply of oxygen ground to a halt. I curled my own fingers around his as I frenziedly tried to loosen his grip but he remained firm in his hold. “I told you to shut the fuck up. Don’t fuck with me; it turns me on when you struggle, makes me feel all the more superior, Tiger.”

My legs were failing and my feet were scrambling around on the floor, frantically trying to find a surface to support me as I choked and wheezed. His grip vanished suddenly and I dropped to the floor in a heap, my fingers instinctively encircling my throat to rub at the pain and alleviate the bruising.

I looked up and found the bastard grinning at me. He winked slowly then snorted before he walked across the room towards Tate. He was tall, his muscular body covered in tattoos from what I could see under his clothing. He wore faded denim jeans and walked with a cocky strut. His blonde hair was short and I had the feeling it would be perfectly mused whether he’d just awoke or if he’d styled it for an hour before a party. The vibe he gave off was terrifying and I was ashamed to say I withered under his stare.

I watched both him and Tate as they faced off. Tate’s chest was heaving severely, his shoulders rising and falling significantly as he glared with blazing eyes at the man. Blondie dropped to his haunches in front of Tate, his forearms resting on his knees as he leaned forwards slightly. “I heard you’d graced us with your company.”

“Go fuck yourself, Jude.”

Jude tutted then pulled a packet of cigarettes from his pocket. He tapped at the bottom of the box until one slid out an inch then pulled it out with his teeth and lit it, blowing the smoke over Tate’s face when he exhaled. “Now, now, that’s not a very nice reunion.”

Tate smirked but didn’t reply as Jude tilted his head and laughed, “Well come on, how have you been?” I heard the mockery in his tone as if he really wasn’t bothered about Tate’s reply and frowned in confusion at their obvious history.

He pulled in another drag of his smoke but this time blew the smoke out to the side as he squinted at Tate, “Aww, you not feeling up to talking?”

Tate was ravaging his bottom lip between his teeth as he glared with a fury I hadn’t witnessed in him before. I was starting to grow more concerned that Tate was edging his way towards a beating whilst the huge sumo guy stood jeering as if waiting for the command to beat the crap out of him.

Jude’s head tilted in the opposite direction as if he was really studying Tate with an intense scrutiny. He tapped at the cigarette, knocking the ash off the end and onto the floor as he leaned further in towards Tate. “Let’s make sure you haven’t lost your tongue, we wouldn’t want that, Tate.”

I squealed as Jude pressed the hot end of the cigarette onto Tate’s arm and twisted it cruelly. Tate clenched his teeth against the pain, his eyes firing with the agony but he remained quiet and still as a stench of burnt flesh filled the air.

“Stop it!” I yelled out as I started to crawl towards them, my legs still trembling with both fear and numbness.

Tate snapped his eyes to mine and shook his head. I stopped when Jude turned his head and smirked at me over his shoulder before turning back to Tate. “Aww how sweet, your pet is worried about you.”

He stood up and turned towards me, his eyes roaming greedily over my exposed body even in my huddled mess on the floor. “Don’t worry about Tate, Sugar, he’s got thick skin.” He laughed loudly, finding humour in his sick joke and I glared at him.

“Just leave him alone, he hasn’t done anything.”

Jude lifted his brow and pursed his lips as if deliberating my statement. “He hasn’t done anything?” he asked. I knew he was mocking me but I needed to defend Tate, he’d gone through enough already because of me.

“No, he hasn’t” I stated as firmly as I could. “It’s my fault he’s here. He has nothing to do with any of this.”

“Frankie, leave it.” Tate urged but I kept my gaze on Jude.

He rolled his lips as he tried to stifle his laughter and I glared at him angrily. “Right,” he exhaled slowly. “I suppose I better take your word for it then, Tiger.”

I swallowed as he stepped towards me and then crouched on the floor, his face in line with mine as his cruel smile grew into a wicked grin. He glanced down at his cigarette then back up at me with a frown, “But you see; now I have a problem.” I blinked at him as my heart rate picked up and my skin crawled with apprehension. I didn’t like the look in his eyes but I held firm and kept my stare on him. “Now I don’t have an ashtray,” he finished with a sneer.

Panic ripped through me and I slid backwards on the floor, desperately trying to get away from him but he was too quick and on top of me within moments. I screamed out, trying to kick at him as he straddled my body and grabbed both my wrists in one of his large hands, pulling up my arms and holding them strictly above my head.

“Fuck Jude, leave her alone!” Tate cried from the back of the room. I heard a muffled thud and closed my eyes as tears streamed down my face when I realised Sumo was laying into Tate heavily, the thick sounds of each blow bringing an ache in my chest.

“Please…” I begged as I struggled harder, Jude’s knees squashing against my body tightly to hold me in place as Tate’s groans tortured and damaged something deep within me. “Please… don’t hurt him… please…” I pleaded but I knew it was pointless as Jude scowled at me.

“Don’t worry about him, sugar, you have enough problems of your own.”

I closed my eyes and sunk my teeth into my lower lip when the sear of the cigarette bore into the underside of my arm. The stench was horrendous but not enough to mask the torturous pain blistering through my skin and scorching my flesh. It actually sizzled and I gagged as he lifted it and found a fresh piece of my arm to persecute.