misunderstoodebook (4 page)

Stars danced behind her eyelids. Her lips moved and, in her mind, she said, “please.” In reality, the word couldn’t break free, suspended in the trapped air. He released her without warning.

A sob escaped Kendall. Dizzy, she held her throat, noticing the broken heel of her Louboutin next to her.

“Stupid, stupid bitch,” Spoon snarled, surging forward and shoving his dick into her mouth. “Should I let you fucking live? Huh, Kendall?”

Reminding herself to draw air through her nose, she pounded on his ass and back.
Nothing
succeeded in stopping Spoon from cutting off her oxygen when she hadn’t yet caught her breath from his strangulation.

Her lungs were burning and the coffee and biscuit she’d had was churning within her belly. That would come up and choke her, too.

“Death by dick choke, you fucking slut.” He rotated and she gagged, a sob managing to break free. “You couldn’t fucking do what the fuck was asked of you. You’re too fucking stupid.” He eased his cock from the back of her throat, allowing her a moment of air. “Just when I managed to get in good with the Dwellers’ after I delivered fresh meat to them…” He slammed his cock down her throat again and Kendall shuddered, tears slipping from her eyes. “You fucked up,” he snarled. “Couldn’t fuck the president like you were ordered.”

He reared back, pulled her to a sitting position, before slapping her across the face. She could feel small, little blood vessels shattering beneath the impact, could feel the blood oozing out from the cracks and already forming into an ugly bruise. He backhanded her other cheek and Kendall fell back, dazed.

This wasn’t happening to her. It couldn’t be.

His fist landed on her breasts and her belly and pain pinged through her head, her extremities, her entire body. She was strong. She’d always been strong for a woman. She could level him. If only he released his grip on her.

But, Spoon was stronger. He was a man. Men were stronger.

He flattened a hand against her chest and pulled out a knife from his boot, pausing at her mute terror. He didn’t use it to slash her as she believed her would.

Something else was happening, she realized, when she felt his hands on her. He unbuckled her thin black belt, then ripped her dress open. Cool air hit her skin and she shivered, struggling to stay in the moment. He shoved his hand into her panties, along with his blade. Cold metal burned against her pubic bone like the hottest coal. He twisted the knife, blade up, then yanked, slicing off her pretty panties. The knife disappeared back into his jacket.

He stuck two fingers into her and Kendall whimpered, completely at Spoon’s mercy. Hadn’t he heard Brooks say she’d leave with him? Did Spoon really believe he could get away with the atrocities he was committing against her person?

He added another finger and she moaned, the extra pain nearly breaking her.

“Who’d you fuck, Kendall?” He twisted his hand and Kendall began to cry in earnest. Big, fat, ugly tears not spurring Spoon to slacken. He hurt her worse. “Anybody?” He hooked his fingers inside of her and pulled.

The scream caught in her throat when he slapped the side of her head. Hard.

“Shut the fuck up if you like your tongue in your head. By the way, I’ll fucking kill you if you have allowed any other dick in you except the ones I approve. Right now. You’re mine. Your pussy’s mine. Your mouth’s mine.”

He expanded his fingers inside of her and Kendall wished she could faint. Just to make it all go away. Better yet, she wanted his knife. Yes, his knife, so she could gut him.

“You stupid giraffe, you lost a fucking case for me.”

A moving violation, she thought wildly, not understanding how that mattered right now. He’d insisted on pleading not guilty when she’d advised him to pay the fine. He had too many for her to do anything, anyway. He’d stuck to his guns and his plea of innocence. Not only had he paid a fine, he’d gotten his license revoked. No, she’d been his attorney, so
she’d
had his license revoked.

“I don’t like fucking losing.
You
got your little sister hurt. Logan asked for bitches. Promised to get me in with the Dwellers if I delivered. I owed you. You hear me, Kendall?”

For tickets? She couldn’t have gotten his license back, but she could’ve repaid the money he’d forked over for the fines.

“You heard me?”

She nodded, her insides burning. He had too many fingers inside of her.

Jerking his hand away, he wrapped his fingers around her feminine folds and squeezed, shoving his other hand in his pocket and pulling out his gun.

“Please, Spoon. Please,” she begged in a raw voice. The only other time she’d begged was for Caroline. It hadn’t worked then and it wasn’t working now.

He pointed the gun at her face. “Shut up or I’ll kill you.”

Her shoulders heaving with her wild breathing, she squeezed her eyes shut. “Caroline,” she croaked.

Cold metal pressed against the entrance of her pussy and sweat poured down her body.

“Should I use it to shoot you or fuck you?”

She shook her head, mute. The tracks of her tears burned her cheeks and she stared at the ceiling, her scalp throbbing. She couldn’t imagine what held Brooks up, why he hadn’t come in to investigate. Hadn’t she made noises? Emotions tangled through her, almost too many to comprehend. Anger. Humiliation. Fear. Shame.
His
face came to her again, his silver eyes filled with passion and tenderness. He smiled at her, caressed all the visible places of her pain. If her memories of him eased her passage into the next life, she welcomed them. She didn’t care anymore. She’d gotten Caroline…
hurt.
Just like Spoon taunted.

The gun barrel slipped into her and she convulsed in terror.

“If I pull the trigger, will it tear through your insides and explode through the top of your head?” He smiled at her, his eyes glacial, his words torturing her. His psychological violence was as bad as the physical. With each word, each grind of the barrel, she expected him to pull the trigger.

He turned the gun, flicked his thumb over her clit. Once, twice, a third time before leaning down and replacing his thumb with his tongue.

Sweat beaded Kendall’s skin, hot and cold melding and almost consuming her. But it didn’t. She remained there, suffering all the pain and the shame, the humiliation Spoon was determined to wreak upon her. He tongued her with relentless intent. She told herself it was mind over matter, but her body wouldn’t listen to her and she shattered, the pressure and stimulation of his tongue leaving her helpless.

Spoon licked her nipple and pressed the gun against her aching mouth, stuffing it between her lips. “Lick your
cunt juice off my gun.”

Kendall blinked, Spoon’s brand of shock treatment crushing her.

He laughed and wiggled the weapon, banging it against her teeth. “I can still kill you. Then who’d help sweet Caroline? Your fucking drunk of a mother?” He cocked the barrel. “Now, lick it or chew on the bullet. Which will it be?”

Holding onto the thought that Caroline remained alive, Kendall stuck out her tongue and twirled it around the metal, tasting her juices and the polish, her pulse pounding with the anticipation of the gun firing.

Her compliance satisfied him because he shoved the gun into his pocket. His erection lay exposed, rising from his open zipper. Of all the days he’d gotten erections, it was
today
. How much Viagra had he taken to do this to her?

He brought his cock to her mouth and tapped against her cheek until she opened up, beyond the point of caring.

“You want Caroline back?” he grunted, moving in and out of her mouth.

He guided his cock, so she couldn’t stop sucking him to answer, although, as he continued, she realized he didn’t want one.

“She’s gone. You fucked up. I had to pay, so I sent her to Logan.”

He moved against her tongue, controlled now, not brutal, not with killer intentions. He was softening, getting squishy and gross, discussing her little sister with a tone he might’ve asked a stranger for the time.

“You want her back, you have to do everything I tell you.” He pumped into her mouth and moaned, massaging her scalp. “That’s my girl,” he moaned, then tightened his grip on her hair and pulled out of her mouth, spraying his semen against the bridge of her nose and her left eyelid.

A moment later, his laughter reached through her shock. “Get up, Kendall.”

She blinked, not thinking she could move. Every cell in her body ached.

He kicked her, the steel toe of his boot hitting her lower calf. She scrambled up and crawled to her knees. The room spun, made her sway. Spoon grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to her feet. He shoved her toward her private bathroom.

“I’m going to talk to Brooks. Tell him you’re taking the day off. Don’t worry he’ll believe the story. I’ll make sure he does. Go rest and I’ll call you later. Logan is going to keep Caroline for himself right now. He’s giving me one more chance, so I’ll give you one more chance. If you want your sister back, you wait for my fucking instructions and then follow them to the letter.”

Kendall stared at him, hearing his words but
not
hearing them. With a last scowl at her, Spoon slammed the bathroom door shut, leaving her alone with her mute horror and battered body.

Kendall gazed at nothing in particular, sitting on the sofa in her mother’s small house. Marie bustled in and out, drink in one hand and first aid items in the other. Later, it was towels. Then, tea. All the time, she gripped her glass of vodka and, all the while, her expression remained a combination of dismay and disgust.

Now that she’d showered and taken some aspirin, she had to tell her mother the truth about Caroline. Kendall had to confess that Caroline wasn’t with a friend and hadn’t refused to leave Seattle. Marie knew what Spoon had done to Kendall, but nothing else.

Now, Marie sat on the sofa, her posture ramrod straight, the hand not holding her drink resting in her lap. The heavy gun bulged from her pocket. The moment she’d heard Kendall’s story she’d gotten her gun. Not because she wanted to avenge Kendall. She wanted protection if Spoon visited.

“Are you going to leave him alone now?” Marie asked after long moments of silence during which time she almost finished her glass of alcohol.

Her mother resembled Caroline. Average-sized. Red-haired. Green eyed. Marie doted on Caroline and, as a result, Caroline doted on herself, but she was only sixteen and Kendall believed she’d outgrow her childish predilection of humiliating Kendall by calling her names when the mood hit. When Caroline was sweet, she was really sweet. When she wasn’t…
watch out
.

“Kendall? Did you hear me? It’s time you left that biker man alone.”

“I will,” Kendall responded, wincing at the pain in her neck and throat, and the hoarseness of her words. She turned to Marie and grabbed her free hand, leaning her cheek against it. Tears slipped down her cheeks. “Mama,” she whispered.

“Where’s my Caro, Kendall?” Marie’s hand remained against Kendall’s skin, but didn’t move or comfort. It just lay there. “She’s my everything. My life.”

A sob welled in Kendall. Long ago, she’d given up on hearing Marie say those words about her, but she knew how her mother felt about Caroline. “I love her, too, Mama.”

Marie studied her, then pulled her hand away. “You were always so quiet. Nothing like her. Caro is bubbly and pretty and fun. She isn’t
you.
”

The words cut deep, as usual, but Kendall knew she couldn’t give into her feelings of inadequacy right now. Not now. Bracing for her mother’s hatred and blame, she blurted, “Caro’s gone, Mama. They took her.”

Marie frowned. “Took her? Who? What are you talking about? You aren’t making any sense.”

No, she wasn’t because she didn’t know everything. She’d only spoken to Logan Donovan after he’d gotten Caroline. And he’d gotten Caroline because Spoon had sent Kendall shopping and insisted she take her little sister so he could foot the bill. Then, he’d invited the two of them to have dinner at his house. He’d said it was to make up for his recent case of roaming dick.

And Kendall had believed him. She’d believed him because she’d been so taken with the fact that a rugged man like Spoon, who had women falling all over him, would want her. She’d gotten to his house, though, and took the Diet Coke, he’d offered. And awakened hours later with her little sister gone.

How could she tell her mother that? Marie would never forgive her. Even after they got Caro back, Marie would hate Kendall.

“Answer me, Kendall.”

Kendall swallowed, squinted at the bulge in her mother’s robe, the outline of the gun pressing against the pocket. It’d be so easy to grab the weapon and end her misery.

“Kendall!”

“She’s gone,” she whispered again. “I…we were out and—“ Her voice broke and her insides felt as if they were caving in. She didn’t know what else to say except her little sister was gone. She sobbed, the hysteria she’d tried to hold back since they’d ordered her to go to the Death Dwellers’ club and fuck a stranger and everything else that followed finally breaking through. At first, she reached for her mother, but Marie pulled away and stared at her. Like she had only one daughter and not two. Like she’d never seen Kendall before.