Little Doll (12 page)

Chapter
Sixteen

Laila

Aiden had remained
at Hector’s insistence in the lounge while Carlos and Raul escorted me to my room.

My mind was
fighting a losing battle with a barrage of emotions. I wanted to be angry, to lash out at someone. I wanted to cry until the tears stopped flowing and my body ached. I wanted to be kissed again, the way Aiden had done only moments ago.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
I shouldn’t be feeling this way, especially after his deception. I always knew he was one of them, hoped he would set me free if he cared, but he was no different to the others.

“Wait
!”

The two brutes and I turned simultaneously at the sound of the voice.

Juan powered confidently down the hall, alone and on a mission. With the slightest flick of his fingers, he indicated for the guards to move away from me. The usual panic I felt when he was near surged through my body once again, the hairs on my neck standing on end. Taking my arm in his hand, Juan pulled me against his hard body, his eyes penetrating mine. With his other hand, he pointed to the bruise and cut skin on his face.

“Don’t be fooled by this
or his little game. I’m coming for you later.”

Before I even had a chance to respond, Juan
turned on his heel and headed back down the hall.

Fuck!

My chest hurt
from my pounding heart. I was scared and I knew I wasn’t hiding it well.

Turning and pushing
my way past the bemused brutes, I slammed the bedroom door behind me. Still not feeling safe, I locked myself in the bathroom, collapsing against the door, falling onto the cold tiles.

Aiden. Juan. Hector. My future sale. It was all too much!

I couldn’t think straight. I was going bat shit fucking crazy in this house of horrors. The problem was, I didn’t know who I had to work out first, who I had to place as a priority. The man who promised me safety and betrayed my trust by nominating himself to train me? The man who was hell bent on personally seeing to my destruction, or the man who would own me and subject me to a life of slavery? What a choice!

In the end, Aiden won. He was my future for the next two weeks and somehow I needed to learn how to deal with it. I
needed
to make sense of it. More importantly, how could I, under the nauseatingly sordid circumstances, have allowed myself to kiss him back? I hadn’t even been granted the time to recover from all that Juan did. Instead, the man I foolishly thought would care for me, somehow managed to amplify the amount of hurt I was feeling.

A gentle knock on the door
startled me from my thoughts. Panic quickened my heart rate again.

“Laila
, open the door,” Aiden said in the gentle but assertive way only he could.

“Go away,
I don’t want to see any of you,” I choked, overwhelmed with sadness.

“It
’s just me here,” he soothed.

“
Any of you includes you!”

“J
ust let me explain.” He sounded almost desperate, a stark comparison to the demands he made of me earlier. He was a chameleon, changing whenever he felt necessary to get what he wanted. 

“
Go away, Aiden!” I yelled, ignoring his pleas.

“I won
’t hurt you, I promise, just open the door and let’s talk.”

“
I don’t want to talk with you? You’re just as sick as all the others,”

“
Damn it, Laila.” He sounded frustrated. “I know it seems like that, but…”

H
e seemed to be struggling with my accusation. Whatever sick game he was playing, he could keep it to himself. I knew I would be the loser in it.

“Seems?”

“
I don’t want to be discussing this through a door so just unlock it and I will
try
to make sense– ”

“
I don’t want to hear your excuses. There are no words you could
say
to make this better. Just…” I struggled to swallow the painful lump in my throat. “just don’t pretend to want to help me anymore, you only make it worse.”

“Lail
a
–”

“Please
… just please go away.”

How dare he insult me by believing words could repair the damage
he had caused tonight? I had been the one on the receiving end of his treatment, not him. I had been the one humiliated and violated for the millionth time, not him. And yet he had the audacity to assume I would want to talk about it? I was stupid for believing the man who had helped me earlier could have given even the remotest shit about me.

There was once again silence on the other side
but I had no clue if he was still there, waiting for me. When I heard the faint click of the bedroom door closing, I still didn’t dare move. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of tricking me into thinking the coast was clear only to be ambushed as soon as I opened the door.

M
y options were limited and comfort played no part in it. I laid my towel next to the door on the cold tile floor and closed my eyes, allowing exhaustion to take its hold. It wasn’t ideal, given my aching battered body, but I was so tired… of everything!

***

I awoke with a terrified start. With the heavy drapes pulled closed, the room was as dark as a moonless night, but I didn’t have to see my surroundings to know where I was. The question of how I got there raced through my mind as my heart pounded like a drum in my chest. The softness of the pillow beneath my throbbing head, and the mattress nurturing my weary body told me I was back in my bed.

Turning on the lamp on the side table
, I waited until my eyes adjusted to the soft glow illuminating the space around me.

Sliding off the mattress
, I was momentarily surprised by the feel of silk fabric running down my legs. I was no longer wearing the indecently short negligee from the night before; instead, the piece I wore now was a far more modest length, hanging just above my knees. Blood drained from my face as I clung desperately onto the edge of the bed. Whoever had moved me from the bathroom had also taken it upon themselves to redress me. I couldn’t recall being woken at any stage throughout my few hours’ sleep and I certainly was not aware of a surplus of more conservative clothing floating around.

I
simply did not remember a thing!

Cursing my own stupidity
, I made my way over to the ominous bathroom door. Pushing it open I discovered that the towel I had used for my makeshift bed had been cleared and a fresh one hung from the rail. I definitely wasn’t responsible for that.

The
bedroom door unlocked behind me and I spun on my heel to meet my intruder.

Aiden stood
expressionless, arms crossed so that his biceps bulged. The raging anger I felt toward him wavered slightly as I took in the sight before me. While I no doubt looked as awful as I felt, Aiden still managed to appear devastatingly handsome in a tight-fitting black shirt and jeans that hung perfectly off his hips. He was fresh and gorgeous. Asshole!

Regaining my composure and survival objectives
, I stood, stoically holding my stance until he finally broke the silence.

“Sleep well
?” he asked calmly.

“What happened?”

I didn’t care for small talk. I had gaps to fill.

“A lot happened.”
The corners of Aiden’s mouth twitched. “To which are you referring?”

“
This,” I said and gestured from the bathroom to the bed and back again. His gaze didn’t need to follow my motions; he already knew what I was implying.

“
You’re welcome! I’m no expert, but I do know that cold tiles could not be overly comfortable.” He was clearly amused. I, however, was not. There was something about the confidence he exuded in this situation that pissed me off. He was so assured with the velvety smooth words rolling off his tongue.

“The door was locked
'” I complained, but my response sounded pitiful even to my own ears.

“And you were being so stubborn
, I knew you would stay in there all night so I carried you out.”

I hated the fact he was mocking me.

“That doesn’t make sense! I was asleep, not dead. I would have woken and felt myself being carried.”

And there
it was, a megawatt beautiful smile I found both so charming and condescending.

“Oh, you felt me pick you up. You even wrapped your arms around my ne
ck.”

“I did not!”
I replied, incredulous and mortified.

He simply nodded.

“I hope you don’t mind that I changed you into something more… you,” he said, gesturing at my nightdress. My cheeks flushed furiously at the thought of him doing something as intimate as undressing and redressing me. Unconsciously, I wrapped my arms protectively around my chest as if it would create a boundary between us.

Aiden’s brows creased together
, his head tilting to the side watching my reaction. “You know I have seen you naked already and in rather… revealing positions, so there is no need to be shy.”

Although m
y blood began to boil at his attempt of familiarity, I was truly grateful the surface area of clothing I wore in this place had drastically increased and that he, after all that had transpired, had been decent enough to think of me.

My gratitude didn’t stop my curiosity.
“How do you know this is more me?”

“Juan has your luggage f
rom the hotel you were in at San Diego.” His smile faded and the light I had seen in his eyes now replaced with a hardened emotion. “I saw some the items while they were searching through it.” His tone made no apologies.

“Oh
.”

It
was all I could say. I had been unwillingly cut off from the outside world and the life I led before travelling to San Diego in search of Ethan. I had hoped my belongings at the hotel would alert the local police that foul play had been involved. Such a foolish thought had pulled me through the endless days of torment knowing surely a search had been undertaken. There was a fragment of me that believed my left-behind suitcase with ID would be my savior; now I was truly lost with no evidence to point authorities in the right direction

“
Juan came after you last night.”

It wasn’t a question. I simply nodded, not really knowing what to say.

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

A sickening flashback of the night before blurred my vision.
“Are you included in causing the hurt?” I asked softly with a bitter edge.

The vein in his neck twitched,
the expression on his face changing to something I didn’t recognize.

“No, I’m not
.”

Aiden walked toward me
and I took a quick step back into the bathroom, clutching the door ready to slam it shut if he drew closer. He stopped abruptly when he saw my nervous reaction.

“Laila, I need you
to listen to me,” he began. “You have to understand you are in danger.”

I scoffed as if the severity of my situation had only just dawned on him.

“Ok,” he said, self mockingly. “That was an asinine thing to say. But, it is about to get a lot worse for you if you do not hear me out.” His voice was urgent, a flicker of caution darting across his eyes.

“I seriously doubt that what you say to me now can be any worse than what I have alrea
dy experienced under this roof.” My tone was harsh and defensive, but I had every right to be that way.

“This is where you need to listen t
o
–”

“And furthermo
re,” I said, cutting him off mid-sentence, “why in hell should I listen to you after the way you treated me last night, as if I was just a… a slave to you?”

Anger coursed through my veins and my voice was becoming louder with each word.

“I had stupidly bega
n to think you were better than Juan, but you humiliated me. You made me trust you, only so you could use me for your own benefit.”

My words
wavered as my chin quivered with uncontrollable pent-up emotion.

“I am sorry about that
, Laila. But I did it for your own good,” he said quietly yet it didn’t lack the punch.

“My own good? How is treating me
like that for my own good? I am a human being, Aiden! A human being who, before meeting you or the other fucked-up people in this place, had rights! Rights to my own freedom!”

“Firstly,”
he said, as his eyes grew dark and his hostile tone mimicked my own, “if I had not stepped in last night to become your teacher, Juan would use the opportunity to rape you every day and night just for fun because that’s the kind of shit that gets him off. Or have you forgotten already how much he likes to have his own way?”