I flipped over quickly, wanting to keep my eyes on my predators. Chris lingered by the window, his focus on the outside world. Jeremy stood at the end of the bed, his hands clasped behind his head as if he was attempting to shove a sense of determination and fear in the air. A determination I refused to allow him to have, a fear I didn’t ever wish to feel again.

“Chris, tie her up. Hands behind her back,” Jeremy instructed.

I tore my gaze from Jeremy and watched Chris stalk toward me. Every step he took was heavy with arrogance and purpose. His hands fell to his belt buckle, and I swallowed the bile rising from the pits of my stomach as he fumbled with the clasp and pulled it so slowly out of the loops. He snapped it violently as he stood beside the bed and smirked at his grand prize.

A grand prize which was me.

“Fuck I am going to enjoy this,” he hissed brutally into my ear. His unforgiving hands ripped at my wrists and pulled them behind my back. My shoulders screamed at his force. The leather of the belt dug into me, burning the top layer of my skin as I fought the restraints. I shuddered as his tongue speared along the rim of my ear and along my jawline. My eyes remained fixed on the wall mounted television all the while chanting to myself. I will not break. I will not break.

“Back off asshole,” Jeremy growled from the end of the bed.

Chris pushed off the bed and took his position by the window again.

I didn’t know how long the standoff between Jeremy and I lasted. I sat back on my heels glaring at him, and he didn’t flinch. He made no attempts to touch me, to speak to me, to engage with me. I could see Chris hovering in the corning of my eye, but at that moment it was Jeremy who was in my sights.

I flicked my wrists behind me which only intensified the burning on my skin.

“Do your fucking worst Jeremy,” I hissed between clenched teeth, the standoff finally getting to me. The waiting and the anticipation of pain that was coming mixed with the confusion as to why he was pacing the room and preying on me like a rabid infested animal.

I was propped up against the head of the bed like I was some kind of fucking trophy and the longer he kept me waiting the quicker delusion set in.

Any fear I had escaped and now raw anger seethed through my pores. The thought of him touching me couldn’t become a reality. Just the thought of it forced me into protective mode, and a will to fight overcame me.

Finally I had something good happening in my life; I was finally on the path to living again. I had someone worth fighting for.

“You’ve gotten a backbone since I last saw you.” He stalked toward the bed and I noticed the gleam from the knife he had clasped in his hand. My breathing stilled. The thought that this could be how my life ended finally opened the doors and all of my fears and regrets trampled through.

Every single regret I experienced was at the hands of the man in front of me. That one act, four years ago, had put my life on a path of no return. I didn’t live. I was breathing, but I wasn’t living. I hadn’t been living until Ky came into my life. Just at the thought of him, I felt my emotions bubbling over. Ky was now my world, and I might not ever get the chance to tell him. He had spent the past four years in a world full of regrets and this would kill him. Jeremy didn’t just have the potential to ruin my life in his hands, but he had the potential to completely destroy Ky.

I needed to stop thinking about Ky.

Thinking about him would only distract me.

Jeremy hovered at the side of the bed where I sat. Suddenly I felt claustrophobic, as if the air was being sucked out of the vents and my attempts to breathe were halted. The moment he forced me into the car, I became his possession, yet it was his unpredictability that frightened me the most. I focused entirely on the sharp edge of the knife as Jeremy stalked threateningly toward me. My gasp rang through the room the moment the cold tip hit the skin on my jaw. With slow precision, he ran the knife back and forth along my jaw before it landed on my neck. The slightest of movement from his brutal hands would end my life.

“What do you want from me?” My voice came out weaker than I had anticipated, my façade fading fast. He immediately relished in my fear.

“What do we want from her cousin?” Jeremy sung out to Chris, his eyes never leaving me. Immediately my hands struggled for freedom, but it only tightened the belt. Chris now stood in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall closest to the window.

“I want her pussy.”

The air in the room suddenly became extinct as Chris’s words repeated over and over again in my head. I refused to break eye contact with him. I needed to find any strength I had left in my body as it slowly began to shut down and go into protective mode.

Jeremy took a step away from the bed as he unleashed his request into the room. “Undress her Chris. Down to the lingerie that I know the little slut is wearing.”

I felt my stomach churn.

“I enjoyed the set of your panties that Chris brought me as a gift when I left prison. I am surprised you didn’t miss them. I jack off to them every single fucking night. I cannot wait to pay you back for putting me in there. Do you understand what it was like? Four fucking years of my life gone because you couldn’t handle my fucking cock.”

“You raped me!” I screamed with the full power of my lungs. My body thrashed around the bed as rage pulsated through my veins. Screaming was now my defense mechanism, if I screamed loud enough someone would have to hear and come and find me. “Somebody! Anybody! Help! Get away from me you asshole!” I begged until my voice was hoarse.

“Shut your fucking mouth.” Jeremy’s hand pressed tightly around on my throat stealing my ability to breathe. I gagged as I desperately searched for air. My pulse beat frantically as my vision started fading in and out as unconsciousness swam toward me.

As I fell down the final steps to oblivion, Jeremy released my throat and I gasped as air flooded my craving lungs. “Strip and gag her,” Jeremy demanded to Chris.

Chris stalked across the room, his hungry eyes locked onto my breasts, until he stood at the foot of the bed.  My heart pounded urgently and my chest heaved as a constant reminder that I was still alive, and that I needed to fight. The moment his clammy hands touched my skin and ran over my bare arms, I roared to life. I couldn’t go down like this. Not again. I couldn’t be that girl for the second time.

My knee shot out and with every ounce of my strength I could muster the hardness of my knee cap collided between his legs, connecting with his balls with a strong snap. Chris collapsed onto the bed clutching his quickly bruising balls with his face twisting in agony.

“You fucking bitch,” he roared and flung himself at me. His clenched fist came toward my jaw as if it was in slow motion yet I still didn’t have time to brace myself for impact. The side of my jaw took the brunt of his attack and the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth as a pain so aggressive shot though me. “You try anything like that again, and I will break you. I will fuck you so hard that you’ll be no good to anyone. You hear me slut? You. Fucking. Hear. Me!”

“Get off her Chris,” Jeremy hissed from the end of the bed. With brute force he ripped Chris from my body by the back of his shirt. Chris crumbled on the floor and crawled to the chair in the far corner. He glared at me while he cupped his balls, massaging them so sickly that I had no clue whether it was because of his intent to carry through with his promise or because of the pain I had caused.

“Already causing trouble? I’ve got to admit I like this new feistiness. It’s going to make for some very enjoyable moments between us.” Jeremey stalked around the bed until he reached me. His hands slid up my thigh, over my hip, and disappeared under my shirt to rest on my stomach. “Do you remember what I said to you the last time we were in this situation?”