Hope Restrained (Estate Series) (10 page)

She went limp over him, a consequence of her exhaustion from
captivity combined with the physical exertion of the fight. But, it wasn’t
sleep that found her. He knew that she floated within a dream, her body so
responsive to sensation that, finally, her mind had been granted divinity and
bliss.

Pulling away was difficult, but he knew that Aaron would
come slamming through those doors if the room went completely silent. Placing
the sweatpants back on her body, he also dressed himself and picked her up to
leave the room. Pushing the wooden door open with his shoulder, he looked at
Aaron.

“I won.”

An eyebrow arched in mockery on Aaron’s face when he
responded, “So, I heard.”

Xander didn’t respond, his intent to return Hope to his room
too urgent for polite conversation. He groaned when he heard Aaron following
behind him.

“Do not forget, Xander, she has information that we need. Was
it absolutely necessary to knock her out after fucking her?!”

Xander stopped in his tracks, allowing Aaron to catch up and
walk beside him. When they started forward again, Xander answered, “I didn’t
knock her out. She passed out.” Under his breath, he quickly added, “She has a
tendency of doing that around me.”

“Get the information, Xander. You’ve played your bullshit
game. I’m not happy about how much fucking time this is taking!” Breath

Stopping and turning to look into infuriated green eyes,
Xander responded, “As soon as she wakes up, I’ll get whatever information we
need.”

Aaron stopped in the middle of the corridor, allowing Xander
to march off carrying Hope in his arms. Reaching his suite, he opened the doors
and quickly traversed the space to his bedroom where he laid Hope on the
freshly cleaned sheets, binding her wrists just in case she woke up and he wasn’t
there to restrain her.

After securing her, Xander went into the bathroom to
retrieve hot water, a cloth and a medical kit he kept in order to tend to minor
injuries. He cleaned the blood from her body where the wound on her shoulder
had ripped and he also cleaned the wounds on her ankles and wrists from the
shackles that had also seeped wisps of crimson liquid. Searching her skin, he
found areas that had started to swell with the beginnings of a bruise. Cleaning
those, he then applied a salve in an attempt to keep the wounds from becoming
worse. Once he’d completed what he could, he walked back into the bathroom and
examined his own body in the mirror. After looking over the developing bruises
and cuts on his face, he stripped off his shirt to find the matching bruises to
his arms and chest. Laughing to himself, he was impressed with the amount of
damage she’d done to him in so short a period of time. He wondered, if she’d
been at full strength, if the fight had been fair, would she have managed to break
bones, to tear at his skin, to win against him.

Returning to the bedroom, he looked her over, noticing how
the pain of her injuries still affected the way she held herself even when
unconscious. He wanted to wake her and take her again, but the stitches in her
shoulder had split and he forced himself from the room in search of someone who
could help him repair the damage.

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“She’s been stitched up again, but there will be a scar. The
wound has been reopened too often and the skin torn.”

Hope wasn’t sure she heard the small, delicate voice that
spoke whisper soft somewhere within the room.

“Why are you looking at me like I’m the monster? It was her
stubbornness that caused it.” Another voice; deeper, more wild — his
voice.

There was no response, just the sound of boots as they
exited the room and the muted sound of a door closing in the distance. Without
opening her eyes, Hope knew someone was still close by, watching her while she
slept.

Her arms were bound, but she didn’t feel the same cold bite
of steel encircling her ankles. She moved to relieve the muscle and flesh of
her body where it lay against the mattress. Blinking the room into focus, she
saw Maddy sitting at a table in the corner of the room. She held a book open in
front of her, laughing quietly at something written on the pages. Hope pushed
herself up into a sitting position, crossing her legs at the ankles and bending
her knees to bring her legs up in front of her chest.

“How are you feeling?” Maddy closed the book and placed it
on the table. Her hair flowed down her back like ebony silk. Her blue eyes
shone out and caught the small bits of light in the room, sparkling like
precious jewels set into the smooth, alabaster skin of a porcelain doll. Her
beauty was unreal.

“I’ve been better.” Hope answered after deciding that struggling
against Maddy was pointless. “I could really use some water.”

Maddy stood quickly and disappeared into the bathroom before
reappearing with a filled glass in her hand. Sitting on the edge of the
mattress, she handed the glass to her. Hope took it, eyeing the glass while her
hand shook from the weight — her body having been pushed to limits that
made her weak. Maddy must have noticed her hesitancy.

“It’s only water. Drink, it’ll make you feel better.” Reaching
up, Maddy helped steady the glass when Hope brought it to her chapped lips. The
liquid flowed over her tongue and throat, cooling the skin and muscle that
burned from a lack of moisture. When she’d finished, Maddy placed the glass
aside. Both women had nothing to say to one another and after a weighted pause,
Maddy finally spoke into the silence.

“He’d be pissed to find me sitting here. Both of them are
overprotective to an extreme.” Her face scrunched up in annoyance. “Sometimes,
I don’t know what’s worse: this place or being made to feel like I’m fragile
and easily broken.”

Hope blinked in surprise, her mind not comprehending how
Maddy could be calm in the light of everything that had happened. “They
kidnapped you. How can speak about them with endearment in your tone?”

Maddy’s blue eyes were relentless in their depth. “Joseph
Carmichael kidnapped me. Aaron and Xander did what they could to help me. Their
methods were not their choice, but the only option they had.”

“And what were those methods?” Not being able to hold her
curiosity, Hope quickly voiced her question.

“They trained me.”

“To fight?”

“To be a slave.”

The confusion must have been evident in Hope’s expression
because Maddy elaborated, “Sometimes, when you are trapped in a situation with
no escape, taking a role of weakness protects you. Fighting against a force you
have no expectation of defeating will only make the despair that much more devastating.
I see Hell in your eyes, Hope. I see a nightmare behind the gold — a
nightmare that once existed in mine.”

“You’re still here,” Hope interrupted.

Maddy smiled. “There is beauty in everything, even in the
things we hate the most. I am still trapped by The Estate, yes; but I chose to
remain here.”

“Why?”

“For love. Aaron and Xander are not good men. But, buried
somewhere deep within their souls is a brilliant light, one that grows brighter
once it’s found. It exists within you as well and I think Xander is intent in
bringing it out of you. He’s become protective of you, although he won’t admit
it.”

“Xander has done nothing but abuse me.” Hope’s words were
saturated with venom, with the hatred and puzzlement that she felt. She found
it unnerving that her heart rate could speed, that her skin could tingle, that
a warmth could develop inside her even though she wanted nothing more than to
hate him.

“Is that all?” Maddy’s smile crooked up, her expression
speaking to some knowledge or thought unknown to Hope.

Thick silence fell over them again, only lifted by Maddy’s
next words. “When is the last time any person made you feel something —
anything?”

Hope immediately thought of her sister, the only light that
existed in the abysmal truth of her life. She didn’t want to speak of Honor,
her heart gripped with fear that her sister no longer existed. “I don’t know what
you mean.”

Maddy paused a bit before saying, “You don’t have to tell
me. But think about it for yourself. I assume you feel nothing — that you
have to be cold to hunt and kill, to take people’s lives for nothing more than
money or request. Beyond that, who has made you feel anything? Love, hate,
happiness, or misery? Who has been able to affect you so much that you feel human
and not like a machine?”

“Why does that matter?”

Maddy shook her head, amusement playing over her face. “Why
do you think it matters? It must be lonely, never connecting to anything or
anyone — a life always moving, always hiding in shadows. I understand the
need to grow cold, but if something can create a spark within you, can break
through the fog, I think you should give it a chance to show you just how alive
you can become.”

Hope’s brows furrowed over her eyes at Maddy’s bewildering
words. Before she could respond, the sound of the front door opening announced
the presence of another person in the suite and Maddy stood up to return to the
seat where she’d originally sat when Hope had awoken.

Heavy boots fell rhythmically across the stone floors and,
from the corner of her eye, Hope could see broad shoulders when Xander entered
the room. “Cricket, I need you to leave.” His words were curt yet forceful, his
tone business-like in its formality.

Maddy didn’t object, instead she eyed Xander for a moment
before quietly grabbing her book and walking from the room. Xander waited for
the door to open and close before turning his attention to Hope. “You have
information that I need and I’ve played your silly games. Tell me why you are
here.”

She was struck by the urgency of his words. “Why should I …”

His hand was around her face, his fingers digging painfully
in her cheeks. With a voice low and barely controlled, he interrupted, “I’m
tired of your arguments. You asked to be defeated. I’ve done so. The next
option is death. Do NOT think we can’t discover the information ourselves.” His
voice grew frustrated, his eyes squeezing shut before opening again. “I know
what network you are from. We will kill them all, one by one, until we have our
answer. If you care anything for the people with whom you are connected, you’ll
tell me what I want to know.”

She glared up at him, noticing quickly his unyielding stare.
Shaking her face from his grip, she yelled, “And what makes you think it is MY
network that attacks you? Maybe you should spend less time raping women and
more time checking on your own men!” She couldn’t help her sudden release of
anger. It was HIS people that forced her into this, HIS people that held her
sister.

He looked shocked and angry, but eventually his expression
grew bored once again. “It’s about fucking time. Tell me more so we can get
somewhere.”

Frustrated tears leaked from her eyes. She feared he would
kill every person in that house, not taking the time to judge them for guilt or
innocence before cutting them down. When she didn’t respond again, he breathed
out an exaggerated breath and sat down beside her. Her chains rattled when she
moved as far away from him as possible. Heat burned along her skin to look at
him, making her more angry and confused at his presence.

“What is so important that you risk your life to protect it?”
His voice was softer, hinting at concern she did not want to believe he felt
towards her. When he reached out to touch her arm, she was angry at how her
body tingled, how she wanted to lean into him, to feel him cover her body with
his. Her thoughts drifted to what Maddy had said before Xander arrived. Yes. He
made her feel things she’d never felt before, made her shiver in memory of the
peace he’d granted her mind with the pain he’d granted her body. Lost to the
realization, she was startled when his words broke through her thoughts.

“Will dying protect the reason you are here?”

She was unable to talk; her mind reeling against his
presence, her heart torn apart by the fear that Honor was gone. It disgusted
her that her body was reacting with heat towards a man that had done nothing
but take advantage — his methods were objectionable and immoral. Yet,
somehow, despite her desire to hate him fully, to reject him as thoroughly as
she should, she found comfort with him by her side.

Xander grew restless next to her, but appeared sad when he
looked away and said, “I have no choice but to allow Aaron to drag the
information from you. I doubt you’ll survive his methods.”

Her eyes shot to his when he looked back in her direction. “If
I tell you it was your men who sent me, what will you do?”

“Not that it will be any of your concern, but they’ll be
executed immediately.”

“That’s why I’ve haven’t told you. You’d kill
indiscriminately. It’s well known that The Estate leaves nothing behind in its
wake.”

“Why do you fucking care?!” The volume in his tone increased
sharply.

“Because they have my sister!”

His eyes widened with understanding, and he didn’t even
flinch in reaction to the way she yelled back at him, mimicking the intensity
of his anger. He spoke slowly, pronouncing each word with care. “We’re going to
start from the beginning. I need every detail you know.”

“Why?” She glared up at him again. “So you can find out what
you want to know only to kill me and my sister while punishing your men? It
seems to me that if I keep my mouth shut, I’ll live a longer life.”

He smiled and reached out to grab her chin. She attempted to
pull away but his grip was too strong.

“You must not remember what I told you in that gym” The hint
of a dark thought graced his expression.

Her eyes peeked up at him from beneath her lashes.

“You are owned, Hope. I have far more uses for you alive
than I do if you were dead.”