“What? Your uncles? Why?” Chad asked her. She looked up at him and then at Michael.
“I don’t like to talk about it. I got out of there, thanks to Susanna. Sally and I went through a lot.”
“Please, baby, help us to understand your fears. We don’t want to do anything to upset you. Why don’t you tell us why you freaked out last night when I came behind you?” Michael pushed. He couldn’t help it. He was a great interrogator, but he also needed to find out more about Alexa. She’d become so important to him in such a short period of time. He stared at her. Her glossy blue eyes misted over with tears about to be shed, and her delicate, perfect face, like an angel, just asked to be touched, caressed, and kissed. He could kiss and lick every inch of her. She was just so damn appealing. He felt his cock harden, and he shifted. He wanted some answers. He wanted to know more.
“I suppose it’s only fair that I tell you, but I’m scared to remember it all. You’ve told me so much about both of you and it’s all so heroic and amazing. I don’t have anything amazing to share. I’m afraid my life up until six months ago was nothing but fear and uncertainty as I waited and started praying for death.”
Michael cringed. This was major serious. He took her hand from the picture and brought her knuckles up to his lips. He kissed them as he held her gaze.
“If it’s too difficult, we’ll wait until you’re ready.”
She shook her head. “I should tell you.
“You see, my family, if I can even call them that, is from the backwoods of Georgia. There are generations of them all involved with illegal activities. Well at least my uncles were until Susanna gathered the information she needed to save us. But there are still others out there. They’re just not interested in making us suffer. My uncles had an organized operation of hunting, gaming, selling illegal arms and then drugs. Our mother was killed after one of the dealers decided he no longer wanted her. She was raped and murdered, left for dead somewhere. The local authorities, who were on our uncles’ payroll, notified us. They were arrested, too, when our uncles’ operation was brought down. Monte and his connections helped to do that.” She looked at Michael and he nodded his head. He had only heard part of the story from Monte and of course Mason. Michael and Chad helped to gather some of the information about the location in Georgia but without knowledge of why or for whom. Things were falling into place as Alexa explained.
“My sister and I were allowed to stay together. That wasn’t because my uncles cared to allow us that connection. They were heartless bastards that would kill their own mothers, never mind sell their own nieces to the highest bidder. That’s what their plan was. The more we grew and matured into women, the higher the price on us got.”
“Sweet Jesus, they were going to sell you as sex slaves?” Chad asked with an angry expression on his face.
“I don’t know what they were going to do, but I know they didn’t want us to lose our virginity. Any one of their men that came around and touched, harassed, and pushed themselves on us could have raped us easily. They were always armed and ready to kill.”
“Son of a bitch,” Michael stated. He felt sick, damn sick, to his stomach hearing this. They must have been terrified.
“One night, after one of their hunting exhibitions, they came for us. I’ll never forget that night, or the nasty, violent storm. We had been told to remain indoors whenever the hunts were on because of the danger.”
“What do you mean by hunts?” Chad asked.
“They would organize these terrible, brutal hunts when they had these men come from numerous places who brought a lot of guns or drugs for them. There were always deer and other things to hunt, but that particular night, they were hunting two men.”
“What?” Michael asked. He must not have understood her, but t
hen he saw the tear roll down her cheek as she clasped her fingers together. The blanket fell from her shoulder and he could see her shaking.
“Two men double-crossed our uncles, and their men tortured them then let them loose. The other men who were there, the ones who brought the guns and drugs, got to try out some of the sample weapons. They hunted those men, they let the dogs loose, and that was it.” She shook her head.
“I’ll never forget that night. It was the last straw. It was the last time we would ever allow ourselves to be scared like that and treated that way. Sally was held in a different location that night than I was. I think our uncles knew that we were conspiring to escape, and they wanted to scare us into staying. The thunder was rumbling and the lightning was so fierce. No one in their right minds should have been out in it. I hate storms, Michael. God, I just hate them because I remember what I heard.”
He caressed her leg. Now he understood about her fear.
“As the hunt went on, we could hear the gunshots, the dogs barking, and men yelling. I covered my ears and was curled up on the bed when the door to my room opened and two men, wearing masks, came in. They grabbed me by my arms and yanked me from the bed. I was screaming for help and they hit me, multiple times.”
Michael and Chad looked at one another. They’d asked for this revelation and now Alexa wasn’t stopping.
“They took me outside. I could hear the tortured sounds of men screaming as the dogs tore at their flesh. It was terrible and I cried and prayed that Sally was okay. The men threw me against the side of the house. The thunder rolled.
“‘You have five seconds to run. If you make it to the fences, you’re free to go. Your uncles gave the word.’ That’s what they told me. I–I looked around for Sally, but she was nowhere I could see. They did that on purpose. It was pitch-black, and only the slight bit of light from flashlights could be seen from where I stood. Then when the lightning struck, it illuminated the barrels from the guns that the men held and pointed at me. They yelled for me to go as they pressed the barrels of their guns against my ribs and breasts. They counted and I took off running.”
She began to cry now as she sped through her story. Michael and Chad kept a hand on her thighs.
“I ran like hell toward the fence line but not to the middle. I figured that was where they would be waiting for me. But then shots were fired. They were actually shooting at me and I felt the bullets whiz by my head, my shoulder. I stifled my screams, ducked behind trees and tried to see where I was. It went on for what seemed like an hour when I heard a bunch of dogs barking and then heard Sally screaming. I feared for her life as I retreated toward the direction I thought she was instead of for the tree line. As I made it to the edge of the woods, there she was, surrounded by vicious dogs. They were going to eat her,” Alexa cried.
“What happened next? How did the two of you escape?” Chad asked.
She was silent a moment as the tears continued to fall.
“We didn’t. I was hysterical, crying, and sopping wet and cold. I was grabbed and brought to the cabin by two of my uncles’ closest guards. The dogs were called off from Sally, and we were both brought back to our cabin. I couldn’t see her, but I heard Sally screaming no and for them to stop touching her.” Alexa shook as she cried. She was speaking in a shaky voice, trying to get through the details.
“They threw me against the wall, outside of the cabin. The two men took turns hitting me until I couldn’t stand up, and I cried for them to stop. They wore the masks but I knew who they were. I tried to escape and they laughed as I ran some distance away, but then they pulled me back by my hair and shoved me against the wall. Face forward, so the wood cut into my cheek. He was a mean, large man. Way stronger than me and so…big.”