I looked through the glass panel in the door and saw the laser lights swirling in a mass of bright light. There was no way that any of us could go back that way.
No way in hell.
And now we were all split up.
“Jack can you hear me?” I said into my communicator.
“Yeah. We’re good Xander. Let’s just keep going. Whoever gets to Jia first grabs her. See you outside boy.”
I really hoped so. I really did.
I looked to Giovanni and he frowned.
The two of us stuck together just sucked the hope away from me.
Chapter Sixty-One
Jia
When Pa locked me away in my room when I was sixteen I thought it was the worst thing in the world.
My little room had an ensuite bathroom so it was easy to keep me in there without letting me out. I got food given to me five times a day. Whatever I asked for.
In the beginning I was so distraught over ma’s death that I didn’t really get frustrated about being locked away.
It made sense that Pa wanted to keep me safe. After all I’d been seconds away from death and he’d saved me. That was what happened. So I never said anything when he told me to stay in my room and stationed a guard by the door.
I felt safe.
Unlike the cage I was in, my room looked more similar to a fancy penthouse suite in a hotel with all the stuff I’d loved as a teenager.
I never had posters of boys I liked or bands.
I was different and loved the medieval look. I had a four poster wrought iron bed with the chandelier to match and instead of lightbulbs I loved candles. I had floor boards with various candlesticks decorating the place.
It was beautiful and looked like it had been pulled from a painting.
The first few weeks of being locked up weren’t back but the next few were awful and Pa got aggressive as he looked for the men who’d assisted in breaking into our home. He was out for the blood of everybody. Not just the man who’d been responsible for the damage.
I’d heard gun shots a lot when people pissed him off and soon the whole being locked away in my room thing came to light for what it truly was.
It was somewhere I loved but I was a prisoner in my own home. Not allowed to leave, not allowed to speak to anyone.
It was safety.
Not like this.
I was scared to sleep, because earlier when I dosed off I woke up to find Balthazar watching me and touching himself.
As if he hadn’t creeped the fuck out of me enough.
As if I hadn’t had enough of the disgusting creeps that had come my way, it seemed like my end would come with the worst of them all. This asshole.
It had to be late now. Very late and the room was lit by a lamp.
I sat in the cage waiting.
It was a while ago since I’d seen him but what I wanted to see was him come in and go to bed.
The plan was very simple, quite unlike the plan to escape that had gone to hell earlier.
It was simply this: once he came in and went to sleep I’d sleep too. I’d close my eyes and sleep.
Of course that was providing his promise of having later didn’t mean now, or anytime soon.
He looked like one of those guys, those creeps who liked the game. Who liked the fear. That was what I’d worked out.
I remembered Anya watching one of her criminal mind shows. She loved anything like that. While I’d complained because I didn’t want to miss the start of the Real Housewives of Beverly hills, she’d been glued to the screen watching a show about serial killers. It was supposed to be our girls night in.
The girl had a good head on her keeping up to date and clued up on things like that. Maybe if I wasn’t raised around so much guns and violence I too would have delved into those sorts of shows. What I loved though was more of an escape for me.
If however, I’d watched a little more of criminal minds with Anya I may be able to figure this guy out more than I had.
What I did guess though was that fear was a big turn on. The more afraid I got the more turned on he got. Only time could procure the fear because the longer I stayed in here the worse I got. Add the ways he’d both grossed me out and creeped me out to the mixture and I was one damn mess that would be perfect for him.
Footsteps sounded outside the door.
My heart squeezed at first and was so painful in my chest I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I could barely breathe, could barely take my next breath.
Jesus…
The door opened and I sucked in a few short breaths to keep from passing out and also to steady my fear.
He came in and closed the door behind him.
I was really hoping and praying he’d just go over to his bed and sleep, or go change in the bathroom and then come to bed, but he looked like he had other things on his mind.
His gaze instantly snapped to me in a feral, primal way. It reminded me of some sort of savage beast who’d just picked up the scent of their prey.
Savage, that was him to a T.
He kept his gaze trained on me sitting in the cage with my knees hugged to my chest.
He backed off his jacket, tossed it on the chair nearby and came over to me.
When he opened the cage door tears stung the backs of my eyes.
This was it. God… this was it.
I didn’t know what the hell I was supposed to do now.
What the hell could I do to stop him from doing whatever he wanted to me?
He kept standing this time instead of coming down to me.
“Still awake,” he chanted in a sing song taunting voice. “Still wide awake. She thinks it’s better to stay awake so she can see what happens next. That’s okay, should have gotten your rest though. You needed it.”
“I’m not tired,” I replied. It was a lie and we both knew it was.
Exhaustion had come for me hours ago and I was certain if I felt the way I did –like I hadn’t slept in forever – then I must have looked exactly like that too. I was sure.
He answered with a smile. “You know it’s amazing when you aim for something and end up killing two birds with one stone. You were Plan B, although you were my plan A. It’s so much simpler to just hit where it hurts. Go to the weakness. It never fails. I’d planned to take you from the get go and make your father give me those damn blueprints. If I had everything would be over, I’d be richer, you’d be dead already, him too for being so annoying as fuck. But guess what?” he laughed a crude sardonic laugh that made my skin crawl. “I like it this way. Ethan wanted to do things as clean cut as possible. No kidnapping and no unnecessary deaths. I’m so glad I listened to him. Had I not, I wouldn’t have known how much Xander Cage cared for you. I wouldn’t have known it one bit. I would never have known that the man was still alive and looking for me. I didn’t know how that managed to slip under the net. He’s good like that though. Better than me, but that might be because I like a cameo every now and again. It shakes people up and they know I’m not some myth. I’m their worst nightmare.”
“Do you just like to hear the sound of your voice.” I had to ask because I didn’t know why he thought I needed some content to what had happened. Right now I just wanted to die.
He laughed again. “Just like your father. You really are a Marchesi. I like my women fiery. The point of my speech that seems to have bored you was to tell you I’m glad I’ll get to take another woman Xander holds so dear to his heart. I never got to have fun with the first one. I’d planned to cut her head off and send it to him, but she wouldn’t have allowed herself to get caught the way you did. And fear was lost on her. Nothing scared that woman. Your fear arouses me.”