Chapter 28

Pain filled Rory as she tried to stand. Her life would be easier if she obeyed, but she bristled against the rules and wanted to hurt everyone who tried to make her do stuff. They’d beat her hard from the soles of her feet to her shoulders. They hadn’t broken any bones, but her body was bruised. She was sure her days of wearing heels were over.

She had survived this long but wondered if it was worth it. They hadn’t given her over to the guards, but she thought the time was close. They’d taken away the clothes they’d given her, and she was naked again.

Sultan told her last night he was very disappointed that she’d tried to escape. Of course, she was going to try to escape. She wasn’t here voluntarily. Escaping in one way or another was her primary goal.

After she finished in the bathroom, she crawled halfway to her bed when the door flew open. Sultan stepped in, his frown deep as he stared down at her. She was already on her knees, so they didn’t have to hit her to make her go down. She flinched at the thought of being hit again. If she had a knife, she would gut Sultan.

This man was just like every other pompous asshole who tried to act like they were above her. She’d met men like this in the Marines, but honestly, those men didn’t last long in the military. They learned that hard work was rewarded, and posturing people were left behind. Though some idiots got promoted in the military, most of the people who got ahead did so because they did their jobs.

Sultan’s frown grew deeper as he moved closer. “You upset the other women. You are a bad wife.”

A snort escaped her lips. “I’m not your wife.”

The strike to her back doubled her over. Anger seethed through her. This man was crazy. He thought he could force women to want to be with him. Sure, there were about twenty women who had taken to the role and acted like they loved this man. She would never be one of them. He would have to kill her. She wouldn’t ever comply with his demands. He could hit her and punish her, but she wasn’t his to dominate.

“You have no other options. This is the life you are in. You should enjoy it instead of being a bitch. I have no choice but to lock you up in a cage. You’ll be given water but no food for three days. You should take this opportunity to grow and learn from this experience.”

She wanted to tell him to fuck himself, but the sting of being hit still radiated through her. Giving up wasn’t her way, but she had so little fight left in her. Three days of not being touched by this maniac would be a reprieve. She had no idea how long she’d been here in this compound, but it had been too long.

No one was looking for her. She still didn’t know what country she was in, but she figured it was somewhere close to the equator and in a tropical area based on the trees and how much it rained. The few women she’d spoken to had no clue where they were. They were all prisoners just like her and weren’t given any information. She did learn in her few conversations that no woman had left the compound and returned.

Because she was new and had no clothes, most women avoided her, so her conversations had been limited to women who weren’t the favorites. She wondered if the women who wore jewels and had nice clothes were given more information, but none of them would even acknowledge her presence. She understood they were just looking out for themselves. Humans were rooted in the need to survive. Mechanisms in the brain reset humans back to the same level of emotions, allowing them to survive even in the worst conditions. She understood that people got used to whatever they were subjected to. This had become their new normal.

One of the women she had spoken with had been here for years. The woman guessed she’d been in Sultan’s home for five years but wasn’t sure. There was no way to know when they weren’t given access to calendars or allowed to mark the days in any form. So far, Rory had counted fifteen days, but she could be off because they did things like force sleeping pills down her throat, and then they woke her at odd times. She could have been here for a month or maybe eight days. It was too hard to keep track.

The cage wasn’t big enough for her to stretch out lengthwise or to stand in. They seemed to want to make her miserable, but being miserable and alone was much better than being subjected to the jerk. She hated him. If she ever got hold of a weapon, she would kill everyone in the compound. Not the women, but the men. She would end their lives. The only thing she would regret about killing them was their torture would be over too fast. She wanted to make Sultan pay, but it would be better to just end him and escape.

The idea of turning a gun on these people appealed so much to her that she worried about what was going on in her mind. Maybe this was how she would go. She would be so tortured inside her head that she would keep making decisions that would get her locked up in a cage with no food for days. She wouldn’t starve to death this time, but after a few more stays in this cage, she just might not live much longer.