What if he never let me go? What if I never made it out alive? Panic started to prickle at my vision, and I was seconds from letting it take me under, but I was too afraid of what was going to surface when it did.
A knock sounded, hardly audible through the lush, white, soft walls. I tried to move, wiggling to get away and toward the door. Maybe it was someone sane. Maybe it was someone who could hear me yelling.
Richard’s large hand grabbed onto my leg, and that was when I realized I was wearing a gray medical gown, the same color that the pretty girl had been wearing the last time I was conscious. Was that real? Was she real?
“No!” I yelled, suddenly snatched from my confusion. “Stop!”
Richard’s legs came down as he straddled me, his middle pressing against me so hard that I bit my tongue to direct the pain somewhere else. His hand came over my mouth as he glared like the devil down into my face. “Just be the good fucking girl you’re supposed to be, Gemma. I’ve spent nearly eighteen years taking care of you and waiting for you to grow up. I am no longer going to be patient. You will do as I say. You’ll be begging for me after they’re through with you. I don’t want to let them break you, but I think it’s the only way. Why are you women so unaware of what a man like me could give to someone like you?”
My mouth opened wide against his skin, and I clamped down as hard as I could, tasting his blood in my mouth.
“You just have to be fucking difficult!” he yelled, anger taking a hold of his brown depths. His fist came up quickly as his face contorted, and I was suddenly silenced by the pain.
The room was wobbly as my head fell to the side. Dizziness swallowed me, and suddenly, I was back on the merry-go-round. My body was tired, and I was questioning reality again.
“Why is this happening?”I whispered, shutting my eyes because it felt so good to see nothing but the abyss.
Something sounded in my ears, and I opened my eyes again, sour vomit hitting the back of my tongue. The door was open, and I saw Richard standing there with blood dripping from his hand. Did I do that? I licked my lips. Yes, I did. I bit him.
“Good.” My voice was louder than I thought, and he looked back at me for a brief second before looking at someone else. The room was like a tunnel, and hope sparked in my chest when I caught a blur of a maroon tie.
“Isaiah?” My eyes opened wider, and a ragged breath left me. Could I breathe? I moaned. It felt hard to breathe. My chest hurt from the thumping inside.
Wait.I blinked a few more times, trying to right the room. “Can someone make the room stop moving?” I yelled out, but my voice didn’t sound right. It was rough. My throat ached.
“It’s none of your business, boy. I switched vendors for a few reasons, one of them being because the Huntsman raised his prices. Don’t you think for a second that I owe you now. I don’t owe anyone. It’s the other way around.”
The Huntsman.
“Help!” I yelled, fighting through the fogginess of my head.
“I understand what you’re saying, but I have a proposition for you.”
I recognized that voice.
Was that...? “Bain?”
Richard’s glare snapped to me as Bain stepped farther into the room. He was half inside now, and when our eyes connected, his grew wide for a split second before he turned to look back at Richard. “You want Isaiah, right?”
Richard turned his back to me as I squeezed my eyes shut for a second. Everything was fuzzy, like a radio that had too much static. “I can lead him here. He’ll want to come after Gemma. He will bring his father, too. He knows I’m the one that gave you the proof of their relationship. Not to mention, the Huntsman is aware that he is no longer in business with you. He knows that you’ve switched sellers. They’ll want blood.”
“No.” My eyes were open again. Did I say that?
Richard and Bain were both looking at me. I could feel their stares without even truly seeing them. “Bain, no,” I repeated, trying to focus on him. When we finally seemed to lock gazes, his mouth moved silently. “It’s okay,” he mouthed. “Shh.”
What? It was like seeing that girl again. Was this real?
I closed the room out because I was too confused, and the longer I kept my eyes open, the more nauseated I felt. I didn’t want to see him anymore. Or Richard. I didn’t want to believe what I was hearing.
Was Bain going to bring Isaiah here?
Richard would kill him. Richard killed my mom…and Tobias.
He would kill Isaiah too.
I cried.
I knew I was crying, because I could hear myself, even if I did feel like I was floating.
Something felt wrong.
It was like I could feel my body, but I couldn’t feel my body.
“Survive, Gemma.”
“Huh?”
“It won’t be long.”
I knew I was imagining things. The first voice sounded like Tobias, but the second sounded like Bain.
And neither of them would be telling me anything encouraging. One was dead, and the other had sold me to the devil.