“That was visually dynamic!” Shane exclaims. “There! Another one successfully sent!”
“I bet you Fitz is losing his fucking shit,” Sean says psychotically as he types something on his phone dramatically, then he tosses it aside and looks at me. “Let’s see how much he cares for his whore.”
“Aww, it would be such a shame if he doesn’t bother looking for you,” Shane mocks, looking down at me. “But then again, you’d realize that he doesn’t give a fuck about you and that your betrayal of our school got you here.”
I blink silently, tears running down my face.
Oh my gosh, I can feel the tears! I’m regaining some feeling!
When I regained consciousness a few minutes ago, it didn’t take long for me to realize that I’m no longer in the freezer. Looking up, I notice the high ceilings. It’s like I’m in some kind of warehouse and both Sean and Shane are sitting there, right next to me, touching my body.
No, don’t think about that. Focus on your surroundings.
“When does the drug wear off?” Shane asks his brother but looking at me. I try not to look at him, internally screaming bloody murder. “We need those answers, remember?”
“I don’t really give a fuck about that.”
“Bro, we made a deal—”
“I like how she keeps her bits hairless,” Sean says, cutting him off. “Whores these days, so exquisite, isn’t that right, Mia?”
I only stare, fear making my heart pound furiously in my chest. Another light breeze wafts over me, and the pain starts filtering in.
“Maybe we should take another picture, you know, to document our precious, limited time together. Don’t you think, Mia?” he taunts, and then he makes a show of reaching between my legs.
Horror and anger rush into me and with a burst of energy I didn’t even know I had, I start kicking at him, trying to scream but still can’t.
“Well, I guess the drug is wearing off,” Shane says with an amused laugh. “I think she doesn’t like being touched, bro.”
“Aww, isn’t that cute?” Sean mocks and they start laughing. “You have things to tell us, Ice Queen.”
“Get away from me and don’t touch me!” The scream tears out of me, the words tumbling out of me like an erupting volcano.
“She’s a little fighter this one, huh?”
“Hmm, she’s not so smart though,” Sean says, peering over me. “Hold her down so we can have a fruitful conversation.”
“I don’t owe you a damn thing!” I shout, still kicking and fighting but I’m not really succeeding. If anything, I’m awakening all the agony from all the aches and pains my body suffered. “What did you do to me?”
“Oh, we just had to teach you a lesson,” Shane, the asshole I naively thought I had a crush on says with a smirk on his face. “Let’s just say you didn’t want to come nicely.”
“So, you beat me up,” I spit out angrily.
“Oh God no, not me. Sean did it,” he says dramatically clutching his chest, a faux look of horror on his face. “I could never raise my hand to a hopeless girl who has pined over me like a pathetic little puppy.”
“I’ve never pined over you, you disgusting pig!” I shout, kicking still, but I’m like a futile child that amuses them.
“Oh, that mouth of yours is the reason why you’re here,” he says. Kneeling down beside the dingy bed, watching me. “Is that tongue how you got that bastard scot-free of all charges against him?”
Julian! He’s free! I fall still, the fight almost leaving me as I look at Shane. I can imagine how I look, like a wild, bloody and bruised thing, naked and pathetic but falling still with some semblance of peace at the news of Julian’s trial.
“He’s…” I stutter but keep going anyway. “He’s okay?” I whisper brokenly.
My anxiety from earlier now makes sense. I was losing my mind, wondering if the trial was going to go through or not. If Courtney was going to betray me or not…
“Look at that, the bitch whines for its mongrel,” Shane spits. “Didn’t know an Ice Queen like you has feelings.”
“We don’t give a damn about her fucking feelings! How did she do it? He wants to know.”
What?
“Who?” I whisper, a new chilly shiver of fear snaking its way around my throat to strangle me.
“The person who owed us a shitload of money and directed us to do this, of course!” Shane says, laughing. “Damn, I never thought you’d be hated this much but damn!”
Someone who owes them gave me up to them? Oh my God.
No, it can’t be.
“You’re lying,” I mutter, but he only laughs.
“Oh really?”
“You’re doing this because you want to get to Julian! Because of your sick, twisted vendetta against the boys that are better than you in every way…”
I hear the cracking of the slap before I even feel it. It’s takes me an embarrassing extra second to realize that Sean just slapped me across the face.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch!”
I can feel the blood on my tongue. The throbbing in my head starts intensifying, doubling, taking me over. I wince, my vision doubling for a second. Maybe I do have a concussion.
Shaking my head is so out of the question. I’m not a masochist, but I have no choice but to ride out the pain and focus.
“Truth hurts doesn’t it, Sean?” I mock, my voice hoarse and low. “How does it feel, always being second best at everything, huh?”
“I’ll answer that if you tell me this,” Sean says, his menacing, thunderous face right in my face as he leans down. I can almost smell his foul breath. I almost gag. “How does it feel to be sold by your own father?”
Everything in me halts to a painful stop at those words. A silent gasp escapes my lips like the wind has just been knocked out of me as the meaning of those words settle into me like a plague that quickly breaks down all my defense system, rendering them useless.
“What?” I can feel my heart stutter in my ears, above the throbbing of my head and the soreness of my body. “No.”
No… He can’t have sold me off already, has he? To them? No.
In my panic, I can hear them laughing ruthlessly at me. Mocking me. Making me feel so small and worth nothing.
My self-esteem and confidence are nowhere to be found now, gone and shot to hell from the moment I regained consciousness in the freezer but now, hearing this while I lie bare before them, my body a conundrum of aches and untold horrors, I can hardly breathe, except to deny.
What else can I do?
“That’s a lie…” I whisper and he laughs maniacally. Even I ca hear the doubt in my own voice. “You’re lying.”
My father would never… right?
But he did. My father did this.
He told these guys to abduct me, to hurt me… my own father and now I think that piece of paper I signed… is now in the possession of the most despicable and vile pair of brothers I’ve ever seen.
“Aww, I think we just broke her little heart,” Shane says mockingly, a huge grin on his face. He’s obviously enjoying my pain “Hell, I think she’s about to cry.”