Unleashed (Mr. Black Series Book 1) (5 page)

RUDE PIG

“Nasima,” I murmured her name quietly to myself, hoping it was nearing the time for her daily visit. It was the only thing, other than death, that I looked forward to during my waking hours. My eyes slowly closed, but then quickly opened when I heard the familiar clanging of the keys coming down the hallway. I raked my dirty fingernails across the floor and tried to muster up the strength to push myself up. Gritting my teeth, I performed one push up, propelling my back toward the wall.

I didn’t want Nasima walking in on me lying on the ground like a filthy animal. It was a small gesture, but one that took all the strength I had left in my meager state. The metal door slowly opened, and Nasima stuck her head through the crack and looked in.

***

Nasima

“Oh my goodness, Elijah, are you okay?” I asked as I ran over and fell to my knees, cupping my hand to his neck.

“Yes, I’m okay,” he replied in a crackling voice as he hooked his fingers over my thin wrist.

I looked at his hand. The touch, although forbidden, brought a smile to my face. I enjoyed the daily time we spent together, even though it was painful to see him in so much agony.

“I have something for you,” I leaned in and whispered into his ear, my cheek slightly grazing his.

“What is it?” he whispered with a slight smile.

I pulled out a piece of bread hidden in the sleeve of my cumbersome black dress. The bread had a small sliver of cooked meat stuffed into the middle of it. I pulled small bite-sized pieces off and gently fed him by hand, waiting as he savored each bite.

“How is it?” I asked softly.

“You’re too kind, but if you get caught you’re gonna be in so much trouble with Amadi.”

“Hush now, you need to build up your strength,” I said quietly as I glanced back at the door to make sure it was still closed.

“Strength for what?” he asked. “This is it for me. No rescue teams are coming, or they would have already been here.”

I wiped away some crumbs from the side of his mouth with the rag I had brought with me, and tilted his head back in order to slowly pour some water into his mouth. “Just tell them what they want to know,” I said as I ran my fingers through his matted hair. “I cannot stand to see you in so much pain.”

“Even if I knew anything, I wouldn’t tell them. I’d rather die than betray my country. Plus, not talking to them is the only thing that is keeping me alive. But at this point, I’m sure death wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

“Don’t say that. I’m sure you have someone waiting for you at home. A wife, perhaps?” I asked inquisitively. I had wondered for weeks if his heart was spoken for, and finally decided to ask him directly.

“No, no one. A plant…but I’m sure that’s dead by now,” he said jokingly, but then cringed when it hurt to laugh.

“I find that hard to believe,” I said with a slight smile, elated that he did not have a woman at home. I wiped some blood away from his face then playfully added, “A man as handsome as yourself with no wife? Surely you are toying with my emotions.”

“I didn’t know you had emotions for me,” he replied.

“Stop it, Elijah,” I scolded, slightly tapping him on the shoulder.

“Fuck, that hurt!” he chuckled.

“Oh, stop being a baby, and stop cussing,” I joked, rubbing his shoulder to appease him.

“There
was
someone once upon a time…but I found her in bed with one of my friends,” he explained.

“Hardly a friend, in my opinion,” she said.

“Hardly a woman in mine,” he retorted. “How ’bout you? Anyone get to see what’s under all that material at night?”

My demeanor changed immediately, offended that he would ask about the body I kept hidden underneath my clothing. “Rude pig! How dare you?” I exclaimed as I threw the rag onto the ground, stood up, and headed to the door. “Let me out!” I yelled, banging on the cold metal.

The door opened, and as I walked through the threshold, I glanced back at him. My glare said it all. The guard slammed the door behind me.

***

Elijah

I wondered what in the world I had just done, as I laid back down onto the hard floor, aching in places I never knew existed. My only connection to the real world, and I ruined it with just a few words. Mulling over the conversation in my head, I slowly drifted off to sleep for what seemed like only a few minutes before I was suddenly awakened.

“Elijah. Elijah,” Nasima whispered, as she rocked my body back and forth, bringing me back to consciousness.

I opened my eyes, which shot wide open when I saw the woman that was rocking me awake. She had Nasima’s voice, but she was not Nasima.

Is she?

“Nasima?” I whispered.

The woman was not wearing a head covering and the huge black dress that usually covered every inch of Nasima’s body. Her long, thick, braided black hair, which slightly grazed his face, hung down past her hips and smelled of wild lavender…a smell that transported me back to a warm summer day on the Indiana farm on which I had grown up as a child. The same farm on which I learned to shoot and hunt with my brothers. The memory seemed like it had happened a lifetime ago, and to someone else.

“Elijah,” she repeated, as she slapped me lightly on the face.

“Huh…yeah…I’m awake,” I answered, snapping out of my memory. I cleared my throat and pushed myself off of the ground to take in her full composition. “Wow, you are beautiful.”

She smiled slightly and blushed at my comment. She was almost exactly as I had imagined. My eyes traced over her long, slender arms, curving around her toned shoulders, and down her chest. Her breasts, swaying back and forth as she jostled my body, were round and plump. Lacking a bra, the silhouette of her small pearl-like nipples were visible through the tight spandex tank top she wore. Her slim waist led into a slightly curved set of hips, which descended into a long, lean pair of legs, covered by a pair of faded gray jeans. The shredded portions about her thighs and knees allowed her smooth brown flesh to peek through.

I set my gaze upon her face. So soft and angelic, her familiar blue eyes sat above a petite nose, leading to a pair of lips which begged me to kiss her. But I wouldn’t dare touch her. Not after how angry she had gotten earlier from the simple mention of her body.

“What is it? Have I already been beaten today?” I asked. “Shit, am I that out of it that I’m not even lucid enough to know when I’m being beaten?”

“No. I came back to apologize. I should not have left you the way I did, for simply asking the same question I had asked you. My upbringing taught me that I should have been offended by such a question. But there is something undeniable about you, Elijah Black. When I am around you, and when I am not; my sense of what I should and shouldn’t do is carried away by the wind,” she professed, smiling at me.

It was the first time I had ever seen her smile. Her beauty filled me with a will to live that I hadn’t felt in weeks.

Refreshed by her presence, I laid my hand on her thigh. “No, don’t apologize. I was out of line.”

She rested her palm on my cheek and said, “No, Elijah. You were not. I was. I am going to help you get out of this place.”

My ears perked up. “How?”

“I have a plan, but you need to give them some sort of information, even if it is false…but you have to make them believe you are telling them the truth.”

“How does that help anything? They will just kill me after.”

“Yes, but they will have to take you outside to do so. That is when you make your move to escape,” she said excitedly.

“Where are we? Can you bring me a map?” I asked. “I need to get to the US Embassy.”

“I will try. I have to go before they find me here,” she said.

“Are you a prisoner here as well?” I asked, trying to ascertain how she had so much freedom to come and go.

“No, Amadi is my cousin, and I volunteer to work here so I can keep the prisoners alive. I don’t want anyone getting hurt, but if they must, I at least want to make sure they are tended to after,” she said as she leaned in and ever so slightly touched her cheek to mine, raking her fingers across the nape of my neck.

The sweetness of her gesture intrigued me. I wasn’t used to this sort of woman. I always attracted the fast, loose kinds that were ready to open their legs the minute me, or any other dick, walked through the door. Nasima, however, was nothing like that. I was sure that her visit, not clothed in her usual overbearing garb, was a complete leap out of her comfort zone, to show me the body I had referenced earlier. Nasima stood up and slowly walked backwards toward the door. Her hair whipped through the air as she spun around and reached for the door knob. She glanced back at me. Her look was sultry, and unlike any look I had ever witnessed from her before. For a moment, I forgot where I was as the blood rushed from every part of my body, funneling into my dick. I felt a pulsating pleasure I hadn’t felt in what seemed like an eternity.

“Wait!” I said loudly, my voice crackling from the dryness in my throat that I had long forgotten about.

“Tomorrow,” she said, disappearing through the door.

I watched as the door closed behind her, touching my hand to my cheek and falling back onto the ground to relive the last few moments in my head. My cheek felt rough underneath my dirty palm. Bringing both hands up to my face to inspect them, I realized how dirty I had become since the last time Nasima had bathed me. I wondered what I must look like to her, and tried to remember the last time I saw myself in the mirror.

In another place and time, my rugged good looks would have made light work of this woman’s sensibilities. But now, as I sat there disheveled and unkempt, I felt a slight tinge of insecurity.

Why am I even thinking about this nonsense?
I need to figure out a way to get the fuck out of here.

But what could I possibly say to Amadi? I needed something believable to feed him. As I pondered the situation, my lids began to get heavy, and as I tried to fight back the urge to fall asleep, the throbbing between my legs subsided. Slowly, I rolled over onto my stomach to let the lacerations on my back breathe as I slowly drifted back to sleep, murmuring Nasima’s name to myself.

WATERBOARDING

The next morning, the footsteps and the keys came like clockwork, just as reliable as the sunrise. Except there was something different today; perhaps it had been the hope that Nasima had given me during her short evening visit. But today unlike all the others before it, I felt the creeping desire to live once again. The keys jangled at the lock as the guard seemed to be having a hard time unlocking it. Finally I heard a click and the metal door flung open. It was Amadi with a huge smile on his face. I knew it wasn’t going to be a good day if he was happy to see me.

“Come, my friend. I have something extra special for you today,” Amadi said.

I rolled over onto my back. I just didn’t have the strength for another day. So I finally said, “Just kill me, muthafucker. I’m never going to say anything. Just kill me.”

“Oh no, my friend. I am under strict orders to keep you alive,” Amadi said.

“Strict orders from whom?”

“Does it matter? You get to live,” Amadi said smugly. “Come on, let’s go. I have a schedule to keep.”

“No!” I yelled.

Amadi spun around and echoed my words in the form of a question, “No?”

“That’s right, son of a bitch. No. You wanna beat me, then fuckin’ carry me your goddam self,” I growled.

“Get your ass up!” Amadi yelled in my face, as saliva sprayed into my eyes. He was ravenous at this point, almost foaming at the mouth.

“Fuck, your breath stinks. Why don’t you gargle with gasoline? It’d be a definite improvement,” I taunted.

Amadi tried to pick me up by my shirt, but was unable to hold the full weight of all my muscle, so he dropped me back onto the ground. “Fuck, come pick him up,” he ordered the other guards.

I laughed. “You weak muthafucker.”

The guards picked me up by my arms and stood me up as Amadi ran up to me and punched me in the face, knocking me back to the ground.

I pushed myself up off of the ground and slowly stood. Wiping the blood streaming from my mouth, I asked, “It’s easy to sucker punch someone, but how about when they’re ready for you?”

“Grab him,” Amadi yelled to the guards, who quickly kicked me in the back of the knees, causing me to lose my balance and fall back to the ground. “Pick that bitch up and let’s go.”

The guards picked me up and dragged me toward the door, kicking me in the shins until I started to move under my own strength. My energy dwindled with each step as I made my usual trek down the hall to the interrogation room. As I looked from the floor to Amadi’s back, I caught a glimpse of Nasima walking with another guard, rounding the corner and disappearing. I wondered if she was headed to another prisoner’s room to tend to their wounds, but she wasn’t holding her usual bucket and cloth rags.

Upon entering the interrogation room, I saw buckets full of water and a table where the wooden chair usually sat. I knew what this was. Hell, I had done this to a number of men before.

Ain’t karma a bitch?

“So, it’s come to this?” I asked sarcastically. “I thought we were friends.”

Taking a deep breath, I said a little prayer to myself, and with the urging of the gun held to my back, I made my way to the table. The guards strapped my arms and legs down, and laid a towel over my face so I wouldn’t know when the water was coming.

“Waterboarding?” I asked “I thought you had a better imagination than that.”

“Do you feel like chatting with me today, Mr. Black?”

I could hear the smile in his voice and smell the cheap cigar smoke filling the room.

“Do you wanna talk about how shitty your cigar smells?” I asked through the mildewed towel.

A stream of water poured down into my nose and mouth, and although I tried to hold my breath and close my mouth, some of the water had already made it in, lodging in my lungs. I felt like I was drowning, but I was reminded of the training I received during BUD/s, where my class had spent countless hours lying on the shore of the cold Pacific Ocean, the incoming surf relentlessly washing over our bodies. Those training exercises had prepared me for this moment. I tried to zone out, but there was already too much water in my lungs, and I couldn’t breathe.

The barrage of water suddenly stopped flowing over my face. “Again…do you feel like chatting with me today?” Amadi asked.

I coughed, sputtering water out of my throat and asked, “So is that a no on the cigar topic?”

“You must love being tortured,” Amadi said. “Maybe you should have kept to your stupid American code of conduct. I am not too sure I like this side of you.”

“That’s not what your mom said last night,” I replied smugly.

Amadi angrily stepped onto the table to stomp on my hand. The sharp pain of his heavy military boot smashing down on every small bone that made up the skeleton of my hand was excruciatingly painful. I ground my teeth together to keep from letting out a moan, which I knew would satisfy the evil in him.

“I can do this forever…fuckin’ American!” Amadi said in between puffs of his cigar.

“Funny, so can I,” I retorted as I coughed the water from my lungs.

“Do it again,” Amadi ordered. The guards poured more water onto my face as I gurgled and wrenched my neck from side to side, trying to move away from the deluge of water that was essentially drowning me. The guard just continually moved the stream to accommodate the position of my face.

“Okay, stop,” Amadi ordered.

I caught my breath and said, “No, don’t stop…it feels so good.”

He laughed. “Finish up here but don’t have too much fun without me,” Amadi said to the guard as he headed for the door. “I’ll be back later.”

“You’re not staying, dear?” I asked. The guard continued to pour bucket after bucket of water over the towel that covered my face. This lasted for a few more hours until I eventually passed out from sheer exhaustion of coughing and drowning, coughing and drowning. I woke up a few hours later to find myself back in my cell.

Well, at least I got a full shower out of the deal.

Coughing the excess water out of my lungs, I pushed myself off of the floor. As the weeks leading up to this point had gone on; the guards had, for some reason, felt the need to chain me to the wall less and less. Being unchained gave me the freedom to move around the cell and gave the skin on my wrists a slight reprieve.

Feeling somewhat invigorated from the waterboarding, I decided to stay up and anxiously await Nasima’s arrival. The fact that I didn’t smell like shit today gave me a tad bit more confidence, as I reminisced about her body from the night before. I had not been with a woman in what seemed like years, and just the thought of her body made mine throb in anticipation of her visit.

The minutes slowly ticked by as I paced the cell back and forth, looking at my worn feet covered with dust and bruises, wondering where Nasima could be. The minutes eventually turned into an hour, then two, as I began to grow weary from pacing.

It wasn’t like her to miss my daily triage session.

Maybe they told her I wasn’t that hurt, so she skipped me today.

Then I heard the jangling of the keys and the footsteps I knew so well. A sound that first wrought terror, now brought a smile to my face, because I knew it was Nasima visiting. The keys jiggled in the door lock, and then
click,
the lock gave way, allowing the door knob to turn.