Sweet Jayne (36 page)

Water.

Cold ass water.

And lots of it.

Coming up the bottom few steps.

“We have to save them!” Nadia shrieks as she shoves past me, wading her naked body right into the icy abyss. Donovan is on her tail and I follow after them, trying to light the way. Nadia seems like she knows where she’s going. The water is already to her chest and about waist deep for Donovan and I. I don’t understand where exactly the water’s coming from but it shows no signs of stopping.

“There!” she points to an open doorway under the stairs. “Shine the light there!”

I wade over to her and follow her inside. My small beam of light flashes across the bedroom fashioned with a large bed. When my gaze lands where she’s gesturing frantically to on top of a dresser, my whole world spins. Everything around me tilts and whirls. Like I’m on some stupid ride at a carnival.

Hope, that useless emotion, isn’t so useless after all.

My eyes meet the terrified ones of my sister.

Kasey Grant.

Older but still my baby sis.

No fucking way.

But what sets my world on fire with rage and utter confusion are the other sets of small eyes. A boy, no older than seven or eight clutches on to another child, a toddler, also a boy. And Kasey, holds a bundled up infant to her chest.

What the fuck is happening?

“I
t’ll fill up fast,” I yell at Kasper. Of course I know this. Logan drilled it into my head for three fucking years to keep me in line. Icy water, funneled in straight from the lake via six gigantic pipes, would drown innocent people—people I love—in a frigid tomb within twenty-seven minutes.

And we’ve already wasted too much time.

“Donovan, take the baby. You’re tall enough to keep her dry. Hurry. Kasey, get Tay out of here,” I instruct, my teeth beginning to chatter. “Amethyst is somewhere down here. You have to find her, Kasper!”

At the mention of her name, he hands me the flashlight and then splashes away calling for her.

“Come here, baby,” I coo. Van’s frightened eyes light up when he sees me.

“Mamma, I scared.”

His sweet voice is music to my ears and I reach for him. “I know, sweetheart. We’re going to go someplace dry.” He lets me pull him into my arms and I squeeze him tight. I inhale the scent of him that I haven’t allowed myself to think about or obsess over for several months.

All part of the plan.

Even if it nearly killed me in the process.

“Climb on my back, Tay,” Kasey says, her voice calm despite the terrorizing sound of the water rising quickly in the basement. She hands Kassie to Donovan who wears a stunned expression on his face. But as soon as he has her in his arms, he holds her against his chest high above the water.

He starts out of the room and toward the stairs with Kasey right behind him. I hold the flashlight beam in front of me to lead the way.

“MOTHERFUCKER!” Kasper’s voice rings out above the rushing water that nearly deafens us.

“What?” I call out to him in the darkness and quickly sweep the light across the watery abyss.

“She’s stuck! She’s fucking cuffed to a goddamned pipe!”

Panic ripples through me but I remember the key is still on the floor in Logan’s bedroom. “Stay with her, Kasper! I’ll be right back with the key!”

When I make it to the stairs, Donovan is waiting for me. His hand reaches for me and he helps me out of the water. The six of us climb up the stairs, shivering and the kids whimpering. As soon as we’re at the top, I set Van to his feet.

“Donovan, take him and get them out of here. Don’t let him out of your sight. Promise me!”

He scowls at me. “You’re not going anywhere!”

Pushing past him, I run to the bedroom and snatch the key. When I return, he’s clutching Van’s tiny hand and glaring at me.

“I can’t let you go back down there, baby.”

I give him a quick peck on the lips. “Too bad, I can’t let her drown. We’ll be right out.”

He growls but I’m already bounding down the steps. I put the flashlight between my teeth and jump into the frigid water, which is already much higher than it was when we first came down here. In another fifteen minutes or so, it’ll be completely filled with lake water.

“Kasper!” I cry out around the flashlight.

I don’t see them.

Shit!

“Kasper!”

His head emerges from the water and he’s frantically tugging at the pipe. Amethyst is nowhere to be found. Diving under the icy water, I swim to where I can see her arm attached. She’s clawing at her wrist as she attempts to free herself, bubbles of air rushing from her with her panicked exertion.

With the key in hand, I work to unlock her. She wiggles and I lose my grip. The stupid key flutters to the floor. I clutch onto the pipe and launch myself to the floor to search for it. My palm flits over the carpet for a few seconds until I grasp onto the metal. Once I have the key back in hand, I float back up to where she’s attached.

She’s stopped moving and her body goes limp.

The banging as Kasper attempts to pull the pipe right from the wall echoes beneath the water.

Hang in there, Amethyst.

As I work to unlock her again, my mind is back on this morning. When everything went to hell.

“Nadia?” a soft voice calls out, pulling me from my nightmares.

I crack my eyes open to see an angel staring down at me. My entire body aches and burns from Logan’s ruthless attack. After he raped me and forced me to watch as he did so, he’d shoved me to the floor and forgotten about me. I was in and out of consciousness as he made breakfast, went downstairs to visit Kasey and the kids, like he does every morning, and then as he dressed for work. He never offered to un-cuff me or feed me or anything. Hell, he didn’t even speak to me.

“Nadia, oh God,” Amethyst murmurs as she kneels beside me. “What has he done to you? I’m going to get you out of here!”

I’ve come-to enough to realize it’s already too late. He’ll see her on the video feed. Logan doesn’t leave loose ends. Amethyst’s fate is about to match that of Kasey and I.

“Go! Amethyst, you have to leave right now!” I croak. “He’ll come back!”

She shakes her head as she helps stand me on my feet. “Let me grab you some clothes and we’ll leave. Together. End of story. I’ll call Kasper once we leave.”

Time ticks by way too fast as I beg for her to leave. She ignores my pleas and shoves items into a bag.

“Where does he keep the handcuff keys?” she questions.

“You mean this handcuff key?” a deep voice booms from the doorway.

We both jerk our gaze to see Logan’s giant body leaned against the doorframe. I’d expected to see rage or hate, but instead I see amusement. Just like that first day I came to see him for information. The day he’d easily lured me into his house, hit me upside the head with the butt of his gun, and I’d woken up in the basement to Kasey tending to my wound.

“You’re a monster,” Amethyst hisses and her eyes skitter around in search for something.

“Semantics,” he said with a shrug. “Do you really think you’re going to save my pet, hero girl?” he taunts and aims his gun my way. “I don’t think so.”

“I should have burned your car with you inside of it!” she snaps.

His eyes darken and his jaw clenches. I know the look—the look right before the devil emerges.

“Logan, I’m not going anywhere. Just let her go,” I plead in a calm voice hoping to distract him.

Amethyst makes a dive for her purse which jolts Logan into action. She’s barely retrieved a knife from it when he tackles her to the floor.

“Stop!” I screech and throw myself at him. My arms are still cuffed but I have to try and help her. Everything happens quickly. He rips the knife from her grip, shoves her away, and then yanks at me by my hair. The cold bite of the metal pierces the flesh on my throat and I feel blood trickle down.

“You’re going to do exactly as I say or I’ll cut her to fucking chunks right in front of you,” he snarls as he quickly moves to his feet with me in his grip.

“Just run,” I choke out. “Run!”

The knife is pulled away from my throat and an instant later pain bursts from my thigh as he slices it across the skin.

“Chunks...”

Amethyst meets his glare with a teary one of her own but doesn’t try to move, clearly heeding his warning. “Kasper will come for you. He knows I’m here.”

His breathing is heavy behind me and I know he’s furious. “So fucking what. He’ll find nothing. Nadia won’t speak a word of it. I’ll toss you down there with Kasey and things will keep going as planned. Nobody will miss you.”

She flinches, like she’s about to attack, and he slices at my flesh several more times. I scream in agony. When I start choking on my sobs, he tosses me face first down onto the bed so I can’t see her.

“Over there,” he barks out.

I hear a shriek and soon he walks to the other side of the bed, clutching at her hair.

“No, Logan! Don’t do it!”

He ignores me as he wrangles her into his guillotine contraption. She fights him off but he manages to slam the wood down over her neck. Our eyes meet and hers are tear-filled yet angry.

“It’s my fault. Leave her alone and punish me, Logan, please.”

He ruffles her hair and grins at her. “Your lucky day, hero girl. Nadia over here wants to take your punishment. She’s kind of a masochistic bitch like that. Haven’t laid a heavy hand on ‘ol Kasey in months. I’d never been with someone before who begged for such intense pain and humiliation. If it wasn’t so fucking fun, I’d deny her simply for the fact she so desperately craves it.”

In a way, he’s correct. I’d always felt responsible for losing Kasey. For nearly a decade, I’ve blamed myself. The punishment he doles out, though, feels like retribution for all the years she’s had to suffer while imprisoned by him. If anyone deserves his rape and beatings, it’s me.

She curses at him but he ignores her to dig around in his chest of horrors. Once he pulls out the ball gag and anal hook, I start screaming to distract him. I hope to God those are for me and not her.

Again, my cross to bear. Not hers.

When he makes his way to me, I let out a gasp of relief. I try to go to my happy place—to my Donovan—but I can’t take my eyes off of Amethyst’s terrified ones.
Stay with me. Focus on my eyes. We’ll get through this together.

Logan does what he does best, all the while with Amethyst watching in horror, and soon I’m ready for his next act.

“Now watch me punish her, hero girl. You did this to her by trying to save her. Look into her pretty brown eyes and see her pain. Pain you rained down on her. Fucking watch, bitch.”

She sobs and I try to tell her with my eyes it’ll be okay. When I hear his zipper go down, I close my eyes for a brief moment. For one second I try to grasp at Donovan. But when she starts screaming, I have to look at her.