Shaking the thoughts from my head, I’m not going there this time, my finger curled beckoning her to me. She jumped to attention without hesitation and was standing in front of me before I stopped calling her. She needed to be put back in her place before she got to me and a mistake happened. Her breasts heaved up and down, begging me to take a nipple into my mouth. I hardened my stance, resisting. “Back to the basement for you, my dear.”
The tears came before I barely finished my statement. “Please. Don’t put me back there. I’ll do anything,” she pleaded, the fear written all over her face and tears rolling freely down her face.
Natalie fell to her knees, her cheek resting against my crotch. She’d do anything. Visions of us fucking across the tangled sheets, in the shower, tied to the chair, and plastered across the window traveled across my thoughts. Not this time, Nat. No mistakes. No loose ends.
Wrenching her from her knees to her feet by her elbow, I forced her away. Her hands covered her face as her shoulders shook with the sobs coursing through her body.
I softened. Maybe that wasn’t a bad arrangement if she could behave herself. She’d be entertained and could care for her needs as needed; she wouldn’t be at my whim anymore. It might even soften her to my plight when I was able to explain it to her.
Taking two short strides towards her, and with a finger under her chin, I pointed it up to face me. Natalie’s hands fell away from her tear-soaked face. “I’ll let you stay in this room as long as you don’t try anything.” I snarled and added, “The minute you do anything, I will lock you back in the basement and throw away the key.” I finished, staring directly at her with all the harshness I could muster.
She nodded in response, and I saw relief visibly seen sweep through her body.
Why the hell I’d let her emotions get to me I’d never know. It was becoming harder each day to resist her tactics, and part of me didn’t want to anymore. I wanted to give in, take her in my arms and apologize for all the things I’d done wrong to her. Explain the whole damn situation and come clean. I imagined what it would like to have Nat comforting me as I spilled the whole damn saga to her. Her arms holding me tight, her kisses covering my face, her words of understanding whispering in my ears.
The phone buzzing pulled me from my thoughts, and when I answered, it was Morton. He was frustrated that I hadn’t confirmed our deal yet with the first payment. I knew our time was running out.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Natalie
I could hear Duke’s end of a conversation through the door when I pressed my ear to listen better. The things that stood out were the words...hit, payment, deal. There was never a doubt that Duke was into something bad, but as time went on and things began to shift between us, I could begin to imagine it wasn’t something as awful as I had first envisioned. That conversation confirmed my first thoughts when those images of dead women popped up on the laptop screen; he was a murderous monster.
The next time the door unlocked didn’t send as many chills down my spine as it probably should have. Being in that room with sunlight and running water somehow made it feel okay that I was a prisoner. Duke entered with a tray of food—the most I’d seen since we had dinner together in the basement dungeon.
“I’m not sure when I’ll be back, so make sure you ration this,” he announced, placing the food on the end stand next to the bed and then quickly backing away. His look lingered on me from the doorway, and then he was gone. I quickly moved to the window where Duke’s car roared down the driveway away from the house.
That was my chance. Clearly, he was going to be gone awhile based on the amount of food he had dropped off. If I could only work the lock on the door, I could be gone before he returned. There had to be something in this room that I could use to jerry-rig the lock.
Throwing on the clothes that still sat waiting in the bathroom and searching the room thoroughly, a feeling of failure filled the room when I dropped into the chair in defeat. There was nothing in that room that could be used to pick a lock. Even the screws on the bed frame were too tight for my fingers to twist off. Then my eyes fell on a small box that was sitting on the bookshelf being used as a book end. When I opened it, a small ballerina spun around and beautiful music filled the room. I searched the contents of the music box for anything, letting my fingers feel around the velvet lining for any hidden bumps that might be useful, but it was empty too.
Feeling guilty for having to do it, I ripped the ballerina from its spot and felt relief when she had a sharp metal point holding her in place. This would work perfectly I hoped.
Kneeling in front of the door, I tried to use the ballerina as a way to pick the lock. Sighing in frustration after the millionth attempt, I admitted to myself the ballerina failed. I plopped down on the bed with tears stinging my eyes when the squeak of the springs caught my attention. Maybe?
Pulling myself under the bed, I began the grueling process of testing the springs for any loose ones, and it took all my strength to claw one from its spot, thankful the whole time for older beds.
I took the spring and shoved and twisted it into the lock hole on the door. Relief filled me when the lock clicked open. The first time that sounded pleasurable.
Springing to my feet, I tore the door open and ran down the hallway to the stairs. Taking the stairs two at a time, I was at the landing below in no time. The basement door loomed before me, but my sights were on the front door. It was all my sights were on when out of the corner of my eye, a door to my right caught my attention. Something about the way it was cracked open called to me, but I was torn between it and fleeing. I didn’t know how much time there was before Duke returned.
Curiosity won, and I crept toward the door. Slowly my fingers pushed it open, and I stood in the doorway, letting my eyes adjust to the shadows bouncing around the room. When they finally focused, I saw all the clippings and pictures, but my eyes fell upon the picture of the woman beaten and dead with red markings over her body. It drew me toward it, and when I was standing in front of it, my finger came up to graze across it, hoping to give the woman some comfort with my touch. I scanned the clippings and stared into the haunting eyes of the person in the middle that all the other items were attached to by a string.
It was because I was so absorbed in everything in the room that I didn’t hear the car pull up or the front door open and close.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Roared through the room. I spun around to find Duke standing in the doorway, looking as menacing and hateful as I had ever seen him. The article that was in my hand fluttered to the floor in shock. He took a step into the room, his body blocking the only exit, and I knew I was trapped.
I ran to the back of the desk to put something sturdy between us, and there was a file with my name on it. I picked it up and spat back at Duke. “What’s this? You’re investigating me? Going to take out my friends and family?”
“You have no idea, Natalie,” he growled, taking another two steps toward the desk that then stood between us. “I’ve given you every chance to be safe and protected, and you keep pushing me!” he cried violently.
“Starving me. Making me piss in a bucket. Leaving me alone for hours on end. That’s what you call protecting someone?” I barked back, not willing to give up the last standing I had, but my eyes scanned the wall behind Duke, and I saw all the other women he had tortured, but the room they were in didn’t match the one he held me in. I knew there were other spaces in this house, but there was something dark and damp about the space that didn’t match the feel of this house. Slowly the thought that maybe there was another explanation for what was going on crept into my mind.