Save Riley (16 page)

“Oh who gives a fuck? Let us out of here!” Tempest finally screamed from her corner.

“Just shut up. You’re the reason we’re both in this room,” Riley snapped at her.

“I’m the reason? It seems to me like your little boyfriend is a fucking freak and you want to keep him happy by doing the same sick shit he does. I will promise you this much, if I get out of this alive, I’m turning you
both
in,” she said through clenched teeth.

I watched them carefully. Tempest looked like she wanted to rip Riley to pieces and Riley looked like she didn’t particularly care one way or the other.

After a moment, Riley turned her attention back to the camera and spoke. “Does the ultimatum still stand?”

“Always,” I replied.

She nodded and got to her feet. I took a deep breath and waited as she leaned over the side of the bed and pulled something out from under the pillow. She turned and faced Tempest who was now on her feet, hands balled at her sides, ready for what she knew was about to happen.

“If we do this together we can both get out of here,” she said uncertainly to Riley.

Riley looked down for a moment, chuckling, before she slid the razorblade between her fingers, “I’m not interested in leaving. With as fucked up as this may seem to you, I’m wanted here. For the first time in my life, someone wants me, body and soul, and I refuse to lose that. I’m sorry that I deceived you, Tempest. And I’m sorry that you won’t stay with us, but I won’t allow you to destroy what Jaxton has built.”

Tempest let out a scream of rage as she flew at Riley. I’d seen that rage before; I had it in me at one point. It was the rage of being deceived, used, and unwanted. But it was also the rage that told me that we never would have been able to keep her because unlike me she wouldn’t have been willing to take her punishments and learn to control her anger.

I immediately left the den. Because I knew that anger so well and had yet to see it in Riley, it was possible that she would need my help.
But no one helped me, so why help her?
“Fuck off,” I muttered to myself.

I ran the whole way to the Alone Room. I was getting that bad feeling again and now that I knew that they were going to either fight or fuck each other to death, I needed to be in there for her. I punched the code in and pushed at the door but something seemed to be blocking it. Confused, I pushed harder forcing it open.

The first thing I saw was the trail of blood and the small limp white arm. It was badly gashed open and it the hand was almost hanging from the wrist. It was a terrible sight to see but even worse when I saw Riley standing there looking at me with vacant eyes. I approached her slowly and took the razor from her hand. I pulled her close and felt her heart beating erratically deep inside of her.

“Listen to me, love. I want to tell you my story. I was fifteen remember? I was drunk on the streets, yeah? I was taken by my mentor and his whore. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me and I thought that if I fucked her I would get to leave. I was wrong, so damn wrong. I wound up being used by both of them, sexually used. What I did to you upstairs to punish you? Oh God, Riley it’s what
he
did to
me
when I needed to be punished. I’m so sorry, but I was taught that was the only way.” Tears slid down the side of her face; I felt them land on my arm.
I won’t have enough time to tell her everything,
I thought in a panic. “When I was seventeen they decided that I should be able to hold my own and began construction on this prison. Not just so that my captives couldn’t escape but so I couldn’t either. But I became strong when they weren’t noticing. I became smarter than them. I killed them Riley; I killed them both and dropped their bodies to rot in the Tasman. Now I know that I did it for you. Even though I didn’t know you then, it was always for you. You understand what I mean, yes? Please tell me you do, love.”

“Yes,” she gasped. “Thank you.”

I ran my hands back over her hair and felt my lip trembling dangerously. I was actually going to cry and it was so undeniably weird to me to feel this.

“For wanting me,” she whispered.

I had never felt so ashamed of my actions in my entire life. I wanted nothing more than to be her protector now, but I knew that I couldn’t. I wanted to be her lover, but I knew that I couldn’t. I wanted to be everything that she needed but I had to be everything that she hated.

“Oh Riley,” I sighed as the tears finally fell. I stood up and turned to face Tempest. “We have to clean this mess up, love. We have to burn her and drop her in the Tasman, yeah?”

“I didn’t mean to do it. Not like this,” she whispered into my chest.

I looked down at the girl in my arms and wondered how else she could have possibly meant to end the life of another.  I had never seen something as vicious as this and only now I wondered if Riley could possibly be more dangerous than me.

“Don’t think about it. I’ll clean up the mess and I’ll burn the body and dump her. You just go upstairs and get washed up,” I said trying to pull away from her. But Riley tightened her grip and wouldn’t let me go.

“Jaxton?” she whispered.

“Yes?”

“Is it weird that I’m turned on by this? That all I want to do is fuck you right now?” she asked in a shaky voice.

Oh God, she
is
just like me. I’ve always been aroused by killing a captive. Maybe this can work after all.

“No. I’m going to go burn the body. Wait for me in my bedroom,” I said, kissing the top of her head and carrying her over the mess.

I watched Riley walk quickly down the hallway. I closed my eyes and waited, listening for her the sound of her bare footsteps as they faintly ran up the stairs before I turned my attention back to Tempest. I went over and crouched down next to her body and noticed that her chest was still slightly moving up and down.

“Not dead yet eh,” I mocked giving her a poke. “You will be soon enough. I just hope for your sake that it’s before I burn your body to ash and bone.”

I decided to leave her there to bleed out on the floor and went to the door of the Last Day room. I always did feel a weird excitement opening this door, almost like it was Christmas time again and I got to open a shiny new present each time. I walked in and stood there, looking over my options.

I decided to leave the rope behind because I was fairly certain she was afraid of it. I wanted this time to be mutual; to be something we would both enjoy and want again. So I chose a leather collar I had not yet used, a two foot chain to attach to it, a pair of leather handcuffs, and a special box that I hadn’t opened yet. One that I had wanted to use so badly on a captive but honestly was afraid of killing them with what was in the box.
I can control myself with Riley. I know I can.

I tucked everything into the box and placed it under my arm as I closed the door to the Last Day room. I walked past Tempest and pulled hat door firmly shut behind me as well. I made my way quickly upstairs toward my bedroom. With every step closer to the door that I took I could feel the anticipation arousing me in a way I had not yet felt before.

I pushed open the door to the room and smiled when I saw Riley leaning against the balcony, her back to me, and the moonlight once again dancing on her body. I tossed the box on the bed and went out onto the landing. I pressed myself roughly against her like I had in the airport terminal. I ran my hands up through her hair and roughly pulled her head back. I leaned down and kissed her neck as she reached up and wrapped her arms around me. I inhaled deeply and grinned. “I can smell your sweetness already,” I whispered to her.

“Jax,” she whispered back. Her hands run through my hair rather wildly as I push harder against her. Her gasp for air makes my dick harder and I take one of her hands away from my hair, placing it on my now throbbing bulge. I want Riley to pull it free, I want her to do it because she wants nothing more than to put her hands on me as I’m putting my hands on her.

I left a finger slide into her wetness and she arches her back as her body starts to tremble slightly. I still have a firm grip of her hair in my other hand, so I gave it a hard tug.

“How’s this, Riley? Is this what you wanted?” I ask not recognizing the tone of my own voice.

“Yes,” she grunted through the pain.

“Good girl. Stay here and stay just like this, I’m going to get somethings for us to play with,” i whispered to her.

I stumbled back toward the bed for the box. I was to a point of sexual arousal that I had never been to before and I was loving every moment of it. I opened the box and threw the lid aside grabbing the collar and the chain. I went back to the balcony and secured it around Riley’s throat and hooked the chain on. She moaned quietly as I pressed myself against her again and balled the chain in my hand. I gave it another tug but this time something went wrong. Horribly wrong.

I heard a whimper and a snap and then Riley’s body pitched forward and fell over the balcony. I ... I had killed her.

What have I done?
I thought frantically to myself. I looked over the side of my house and saw her body had landed at an odd angle. Her eyes, her beautiful haunting blue eyes were staring up at me vacantly. Her head rested on her shoulder and a small trickle of blood poured from the side of her mouth.

The one moment I considered us equals, the one moment I wanted to tell her that I loved her was gone now.

I would never have a chance to love her again, to feel her warm body in my hands. I had just murdered the one person I honestly loved.

Any ounce of sanity I had was finally gone.

I
was never a religious person really. I mean I believed that there was something up in the sky floating out there in the universe watching us, but I never actually prayed to anything.

Not until the day I was taken, not until the day everything went awry and Jaxton lost his mind. Not completely of course, but enough to make me do whatever he wanted and agree to everything he said.

I was scared of him now more than ever. A terrible thing was unleashed from him the night that Riley died. He had come back to the Alone Room when I was on my last breaths with someone. An older man I couldn’t quite make out. The older man stitched me up and hooked me up to what I think was an I.V. I got better a few days later and the older man left. He told Jaxton he would have to be more careful now because if he messed up once more it was his last time helping him. He said that he wouldn’t clean up any more of his messes.

After that, Jax would pace the upstairs hallway every night talking to himself. I could never make out what he was saying, but to be honest, I was too scared to ask.

He hadn’t said much to me. Only twice did he really talk directly to me and that was to ask me what Riley said to me before she attacked me

“She said to tell you that she loved you and was afraid because of it. Afraid of what she would become if she let herself stay with you knowing that she would do anything for you. She said to tell you goodbye and that she hoped you’d fine peace one day. She said she was going to turn the razor blade on herself once I was dead.”

He laughed at first. Then he cried and then he got angry. So insanely, terribly angry that I started to pray that very night.

I didn’t pray to just one being either, I prayed to anything and everything that would listen. Hoping that maybe I would get out of this before he destroyed us both.

Last night was the scariest moment of all. He had invited me into his room but stood on the balcony after giving me permission to sit on his bed. I was wearing a terribly uncomfortable corset and he told me that the reason he made Riley wear one so tightly for a few months was because he had gotten her pregnant and didn’t want to risk a child of his being a monster like him. He said that the corsets being tightened would abort the baby naturally and that Riley never knew.

I knew that Jaxton Whitlock was a monster, but I never knew to what extent until he told me that story. I had nightmares every night since and no amount of prayer seemed to be saving me or stopping the nightmares.

But tonight was different. Tonight there was no pacing and there were no hurried voices in the upstairs hallway. There was simply the sound of footsteps as he walked down the hallway and descended the staircase with a blank face. I stood at the bottom as I always did on his command. When he reached the main floor landing he smiled at me, a friendly smile and ran a hand down the side of my face.

“I’ve thought of something great. Something that will make us both happy and something that will keep us both alive,” he said cheerfully. “Would you like to know what it is?”

“Yes sir,” I whispered.

“
You
are the reason Riley went away for a little while and I know how you’re going to repay me that debt. Your name isn’t Tempest. It’s Riley. Do you understand that? Your name is Riley, my Riley,” he said happily. “And now we get to have the forever that I wanted us to have. But first I have to train you to hunt, to be like me and then we’ll live our lives together.”

My body began to shake violently. I was never going to get out of this place and he looked so happy and sure of his plan that I would have to play along just to survive.

Dear God, won’t someone help me?