Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Lulu

Picking up the picture frame from my bedside, I smile sadly.

I wish I could say goodbye.

Three girls stare back from the photo. My two best friends, Sam and Shelby, and me. The three of us were inseparable in school, and then life happened. I regret not making more time for them.

Swallowing hard, I turn to Ajax, my face heating as our gaze meets. His eyes haven’t left me since I started. My skin has long warmed but not through the heating nor embarrassment. I look good. One glance at his crotch tells me that he agrees.

What will happen between us when we leave? Will he take me again? Will I let him?

Squeezing my legs closed, I fidget .

Shame. That’s what warms me.

Ajax smirks, his eyes fixed to where my body betrays me.

“Write a note.” He nods to my dresser, where a notepad lies. “Say how Andrew was cruel and that you can’t take it anymore. Write that you’re leaving this afternoon. Then date the top of the page like a diary.”

My mind shuts down as I follow his order. I don’t think; I just write the words he tells me.

Standing behind me, Ajax strokes his hand over the back of my hair. My body thrills at his touch.

Taking the finished note, he folds it before placing it on the nightstand.

Please don’t open the stand drawer.

Something on my face must give me away because that’s exactly what he does.

I grimace. “It was a joke gift. I’ve had it for years.”

Chuckling, he lifts the small vibrator and makes a show of throwing it into the case to come with us.

“I need to go move Andrew and clean up the mess we made.”

I cringe as he stresses the word we .

“I need to be quick, and it needs to be perfect, so you’ll stay here.”

I shake my head before he even finishes.

“What did I say about disobedience, Louise?”

I open and close my mouth.

“What if my mom wakes up?” I ask, desperate to find a reason we should stay together .

“She won’t,” he argues.

My stomach sinks. If he leaves, I won’t have a reason not to go to the sheriff. I can’t stay here and pretend this isn’t happening.

As if he can read my mind, Ajax comes closer. Taking out my grandmother’s quilt, he zips up both the case and the bag. Once he’s placed them on the floor, he spreads the quilt over the whole bed.

What is he doing?

My breathing grows heavy when he picks up the rope.

“No, no, no.” I shake my head, backing up.

“Lulu,” he warns.

I don’t want him to tie me up again. “I’ll be good. I’ll stay here. I promise.”

His large hands capture my wrists. “I know you will,” he agrees, causing me to cry. “Shh,” he reminds me. “One day, this won’t be necessary. But today is not that day. I won’t be long, and then we’ll leave.”

My tears fall harder.

The rope is tight like before, binding my hands together. Encouraging me onto the bed, Ajax guides me to lie down. His larger form joins me on the bed, straddling my hips. Leaning over, he loops the rope through my old bedframe. The base creaks with our weights, and the metal whines when he pulls tight.

It’s too much. The way the rope bites into my skin, the softness of the quilt beneath me, the brush of his clothes against my naked skin, the knowledge of where we are, and that I need to stay quiet. My body reacts without permission. My hips lift, seeking him as Ajax crawls down my body and off the bed.

“Fuck,” he curses. “We don’t have time.” His face looks pained as he shifts his crotch.

Embarrassed, I close my legs, but the friction it causes only makes things worse.

Ajax takes one last look at me and then turns for the door. “I’m not going to gag you or tie you down more. Don’t make me regret that, Louise.” He doesn’t wait for a response, leaving me to blink after him.

With nothing else to do, I lie here reprimanding myself for tonight’s events.

I fucked a killer.

My mind replays everything that happened. The deep aches in my body tells me it wasn’t some sick dream.

It really happened. All of it.

Ajax’s words about my mother not waking sneak back in. What did he mean? Fear churns my tummy.

Andrew was different. He deserved it. Ajax wouldn’t harm her, right? My heart stops at the thought.

My neck bows as I stretch to glance at the wall behind my bound hands. I should check. Maybe she’s passed out drunk, and that’s what Ajax meant.

Tugging at the rope, I cringe at the noise it makes. Stilling, I hold my breath, waiting for movement that says I woke her, but nothing comes.

Maybe she left to stay somewhere else for the night? She doesn’t have anywhere to go.

I pull again and again. Almost frantic, I jostle the knot back and forth as if it will somehow undo the bind.

Suddenly, a loud clang sounds, and my hands pull backward as the headboard drops, separating from the bed.

I roll onto my stomach and onto my knees.

Holy shit.

Climbing off the bed, I grasp the top end of the mattress and pull, shoving my weight into the side at the same time. Slowly, the base and mattress move enough for me to shimmy between the headboard and the bed.

The metal is worn and cheap. The two screws that attached it to the base have pulled loose. The metal slats are long but don’t connect to each other. I can slide the rope off the end of the slat that I’m tied to.

My eyes tear up.

Breathing heavy, I make my way to the next bedroom and pause, standing there until my feet ache.

Reaching out, I grasp the doorknob. Turning, I push it open.

All air leaves me.

The sight before me tears me apart. Horrified, I suck in a lung full of air and scream at the same time that a hand latches onto my face, covering my mouth. The sound comes out muffled.

Thrashing, I fight his grip. The smell of blood surrounds us. Kicking my legs, I fight with everything I have.

He killed her !

He didn’t have to; she wasn’t like Andrew.

Despite my struggles, Ajax manages to corral us into my bedroom. Seeing my bed, he chuckles, the sound vibrating through his body and into mine.

“Little shit.”

An arm worms across my chest and the other scoops under my legs. Lifting, he tosses me onto the bed. My breasts bounce, reminding me that I’m naked.

Fury runs through me. Whatever he thought was happening isn’t. Fuck him! And fuck his rules!

Jumping off the bed, I make a run for the door, but he catches me easily, throwing me back onto the bed.

“We don’t have time for this,” he growls.

Snagging the end of the long rope, Ajax tackles me, laying us out on the mattress. He pins my hands above my head when I try to swing my closed fists at him, but my knee connects with his side, forcing a grunt from him.

Straddling me, he traps me beneath him. Even as his weight pushes me into the bed, I try to knee him in the back.

One minute, my hands are tied in front of me, and the next, I’m on my stomach with my hands being retied. Ajax swings his leg over to kneel on one side of me. Grasping my ankle, he bends my leg at the knee, weaving the rope around one foot at a time until I’m lying face down, my hands and feet bound together near my ass .

It’s uncomfortable and awkward. I tell him so.

“Then you should have thought about that before you had your little tantrum.”

My mouth drops at his words.

“I told you; disobedience has consequences in this family, Lulu,” he reminds me.

Turning my head, I watch as he climbs off the bed.

As if my current state wasn’t punishment enough, the asshole slaps my ass. The sounds of his palm hitting my bare skin is loud.

Bending at his hips, he braces himself on his knees. “I’m going to put your mother with your stepfather because that’s where she belongs. She chose him over you, Lulu. Many times.”

I turn my face the other way. I don’t want to hear this.

Ajax sighs. “I’m choosing you, Lulu. Now and always. There is nothing and no one that will ever separate us. Think of that while I clean up this mess.”

A tear breaks free. Rolling over my nose where is drops to the cover below.

The wheels of my case catch on the doorframe before my only exit clicks closed.

Lying here, I think of how different things would be if I had told someone. Made an official complaint with the sheriff, went to live with the Cromwells like Sam offered, or even if I had run away at eighteen like I always wanted. But instead, I chose to stay, to see if my mom would love me if only she saw what a good daughter I was.

This is my fault. All of it is because of me.

One tear turns to many, and as Ajax moves around my parents’ room, I don’t try to tame or quieten my sobs. I let them out until eventually I have nothing but exhaustion left.