Luca

All I could think was, ‘Am I next?’ was this grave I was digging going to house my Mother and me? If it did what would happen to Freddie? Who would look out for my little brother now?

I got blisters on my blisters that night digging the ground. Eventually my Father seemed satisfied with my work and ordered me to climb out. He dragged my Mother’s body off the back of his truck, banging her head on the bumper as he did then laughing like a mad man.

“She was a dirty whore so don’t feel sorry for your Mother.” He snarled. “Never could get anything right and she got what she deserved.”

He rolled her body so it fell into the muddy hole I’d dug for her. The table cover offered no protection and she landed face down in the dirt. The final image I have of my Mother is the way her chocolate brown waves fell over the dirt like silk. Her skin, now paler reflecting the moon light. She didn’t belong in this ditch. She didn’t deserve to be treated so inhumanely by my Father. I knew she was a good woman and I vowed right there over her shallow grave that I would grow up to be a better man than him. I’d look out for my brother and get us a good life when we could escape my Father’s house. I’d honour my Mother in any way I could. She always told me I was the love of her life. She told me she loved me every single day and I always said it back. It was our thing. Freddie had his own childish ways of showing her how he felt but for us it was always plain and simple, I loved her and she loved me... unconditionally.

Now that love was gone, and I felt angry that it hadn’t saved her. Why hadn’t she fought harder? Why wasn’t love enough?

I wanted to be strong and fierce when I grew up. A man that was respected but feared, not like my Father but like the men in suits I saw sometimes on my way to school. They didn’t need to hit women like my Mother to be powerful, they just were.

I took a deep breath in as I shovelled the last pile of dirt into the hole to cover her. I’d never say those three special words again, what was the point? Love only led to heart b

reak and I could feel it in my chest already; cracking, splintering and making it difficult for me to even breathe right now.

My Father never did use the gun on me that night. Instead he drove back to our house humming like he’d just been out on a day trip. When we got back he headed straight up to bed. I stayed to clear up the mess in the kitchen. I didn’t want Freddie to wake up and see the chaos that the night had witnessed. There were specks of blood on the linoleum so I wiped it up and when I was sure everything was back in its rightful place I crept back in to bed.

The next morning we both headed downstairs to find my Father burning my Mother’s clothes and belongings in the back yard. He told Freddie that Mum had left him for another man. Freddie cried; he cried buckets and got mad at Mum for leaving us behind. I hugged him and told him to be thankful Mum was in a better place. He couldn’t hurt her anymore. After using up every last tear he could muster he agreed that she was better off away from our Father and his tyrannical ways.

I told Freddie that I would always protect him no matter what, and vowed that when we were old enough and had money we would leave too and find a place of our own.

To this day I’ve never told my brother what happened that night. I’ve never told anyone. I killed my Father and buried my own Mother. I’d spent a life time living in the dark with my demons. My only ray of sunshine was her…Chloe. Now she had been taken from me by demons just like my Father, maybe even worse if that was possible. It was my time again to fight for those that…well that I loved. Only this time I wasn’t twelve years old. I had an army with me and I would stop at nothing to get her back and evoke justice the way I wanted to. I would be this evil mother fucker’s judge, jury and executioner.

Chapter 29

My arms were tied tightly around my back with some sort of plastic, cable ties maybe? They made my wrists sore as I twisted and pulled at them to see if there was any give. There wasn’t. My arms ached beyond anything I’d ever felt before as if they’d been forced into this unnatural position for days. I wondered if they’d ever feel the same again when they were free to fall at my side. Would I ever be untied or was this my new normal?

I tried to move my legs to feel my way around me but they were tied too. I was lying on a cold hard floor and any movement was severely restricted. I had a dusty rag of some sort stuffed in my mouth and another rag tied around my face to stop me talking or screaming. I could smell oil and rust and the vile taste made me want to gag. I felt like I’d been hit by a truck, my body was heavy, my head was throbbing and I had such an excruciating thirst I felt like I’d been in a desert for months.

My eyes slowly refocused and for some reason I wasn’t blindfolded; I could see four men dressed all in black sitting not far away from where I lay. ‘This must be some type of delivery vehicle’ I thought as I looked around me, the walls were a dull metal and where the men were sitting was more a bench than a chair. The hum of an engine sounded over their low chatter. They hadn’t realised I was awake so I closed my eyes, not wanting to alert them to my conscious state just yet.

My mind automatically drifted to Luca, his beautiful rugged face, chiselled jaw and stubble. The smell of his aftershave mixed with his natural scent. The feel of his strong arms around me. I missed him with a pain I’d never felt before, a physical pain that radiated from my chest. What would he think when he got home that night and saw the state of the house? Would he think I’d done that? That I’d left and trashed his house as a ‘fuck you’ gift? I hoped not. I needed to hold onto the hope that he would know I’d been taken, that he was going to come for me maybe. I wasn’t going to pin all my hopes on being rescued though, I knew from past experience that I had to rely on myself to escape, but I could always dream. Dreaming of him and the way he touched me, kissed me, it was all I had right now. I wanted to get back to him, even if it was just to call him out for saying those hurtful things about me. Why did he have to do that? Why were the last words we spoke to each other ones of hate?

My eyes started to well up as the familiar surge to my senses alerted me to the fact that I was on board a plane; it dipped and caused my ears to pop painfully with the change in air pressure. I had to remind myself ‘I have to stay positive and never give up fighting’, despite the fact that I was now heading towards an unknown destination. ‘There is always a way out, I just have to find it’.

I thanked my lucky stars that I was brought up by an army loving trickster like my Father. He prepared me for the perils of growing up in a man’s world and I had a feeling I was about to put every last lesson he’d taught me into practise to try and save me from what lay ahead.

“I think she’s coming round.” One of the men said.

I had no idea how he knew, I was trying to stay as still as I could. Maybe my watery eyes gave me away, damn it.

“Be better for her if she was still under.” Another piped up. “I heard that Diaz is the devil himself. He won’t go easy on her. Quite the opposite. He’s pissed he’s had to wait so long.”

“Boss says he’s throwing some weird sex party and she’s the star turn.”

My tummy turned over as another laughed and said, “I don’t think I’d be able to stomach one of his parties. I’m not that way inclined. Don’t get me wrong I’m not into plain old vanilla sex but what he does is a whole different ball game.”

What the fuck was I going to have to go up against? I had zero experience of sex parties and slaves, I didn’t want any experience. This all just felt horrifically surreal; like I was stuck in my own private horror movie. Well I wasn’t about to be the stupid girl who screams and runs into the arms of the killer, I liked to think I was smarter than that.

I felt a shoe kick me in the ribs hard enough to make my eyes instinctively fly open.

“Wakey wakey little girl.”

One of the men leered over me grinning and showed me how rotten and yellow his teeth were.

“Not long left now and we’ll be landing, then we’ll have you off to your new home.”

He patted my cheek like I was a kid then sat back down.