Over the next weeks, she’d use me in every way imaginable—a toy for her pleasure and a toy to torment because she was a sadist in every sense of the word.
By the middle of the second month, I was half convinced I loved her. Just like the other slaves she brought in and out.
Except that they all consented to be there.
I didn’t.
Which was why I was her favorite to play with. The more I begged for her to let me go, the more she loved to play with me.
By the end, I just wanted to die. I barely remembered who I was.
But Reece.
I never forgot my brother. Flesh of my flesh. The brother with my face.
She broke me down so far that I lost my sense of self, that I could almost forget my life… but I could never forget him.
Every time I looked in a mirror, I saw him. He was the one thing she couldn’t steal.
I grunted in fury, adrenaline bursting in every cell as I rocked my body again. I expected to rocket to a sitting position with the energy of my anger. The fury and rage at what Victoria had done to me, the way she’d made me doubt my own sanity, sexuality, everything—
But I only rolled a little. Still, it was enough to dislodge Ruth from my chest.
Fuck, it hurt to move. It was so fucking difficult. My body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. Two thousand pounds even.
But I thought of my rage at Victoria, of how helpless I’d felt those months of nights, knowing she’d come home and torment me into the long hours of morning. And I roared inside my head and forced my muscles to contract and move again.
This time I managed to heave myself up onto my knees. I swayed drunkenly, but at least my body was upright, my arms tight behind my back.
I breathed out and fought to stay upright. I knew what I needed to do, I just needed to stay conscious to do it. But fuck, the idea of getting all the way to my feet seemed nigh impossible at the moment.
I looked down at Ruth, though, and realized I didn’t have only anger to fuel me.
Like back then, it wasn’t just anger that had kept that last wall of sanity up, safe from Victoria’s total influence and control.
It was love, goddammit.
Love for my brother, and now this new love. Love for Ruth. The woman I wanted to make mine forever.
But I could only do that if I saved her from this hell hole.
I roared again and leaning one shoulder against the side of the shed for balance, heaved myself up on one knee, and then, without letting myself stop this time, continued pushing until I was on my feet.
Ruth made encouraging noises from where she laid sideways in her chair on the floor. I didn’t dare look down. I was barely keeping steady. My head swam crazily and the world tilted even as I got my second foot underneath me. I leaned my whole body against the wall when my knees buckled and threatened to dump me back on the floor. No, goddammit, NO.
I gritted my teeth and forced my knees to lock, keeping me up.
But getting up was only the first part of this trial. I sucked in a deep breath, and before I lost focus, lifted my arms as high as I could behind my back, then brought them down hard against my tailbone.
Nothing happened.
I hadn’t been able to produce enough force. While in my mind the movement had been dramatic, in reality, I’d done little more than lift and drop my arms a few inches or so. That wouldn’t do jack shit, though. For this to work, I needed momentum and force. I’d watched enough YouTube videos on escape techniques to know that.
So I bent over, leaning my shoulder against the wall so I didn’t fall, and lifted my arms again until it was painful—this one needed to count—and then I yanked my arms back down as hard as I could, imagining I was smashing Buck’s face in.
The duct tape around my wrists split down the center, right along the seam in the tape like when you ripped a piece off—a critical weakness that few would-be abductors realized. You could do the same with zip-ties. Enough force and they’d snap the same way, at the seam.
And then I crumpled to the floor, all my energy momentarily spent.
Ruth cried out in alarm. I didn’t have much energy to tell her I was okay, but when I brought my arms out from around my back and crawled over to her, her eyes were wide and excited. I pulled the tape off her mouth first.
“Get my hands,” she said. “Then I can help you with the rest.”