In Chains (15 page)

The barman brings over my drink and I take another big gulp. I’d rather not be sober when I do what I have to later. Ben looks at me, a smile on his face. “It’s sex or nothing sweetheart.”

Damn it. As much as I care about Kayden, I’m not willing to do that and I don’t think Kayden would want me to do that. “Okay,” I sigh. “Tell him. I’ll deal with the lecture when it comes.”

Ben is still smiling. “You giving up that easily?”

“Yes. If you’ll excuse me I’m going to the toilet.”

I gaze at my reflection in the mirror as I wash my hands. This has all been for nothing. Will Kayden ever forgive me? Ben’s going to tell Simon and Kayden’s going to get hurt or worse. I cut short my musing as two women enter. From the sounds of it they have both met guys tonight and will be spending the night with them. It’s not fair. Why can’t I be with Kayden? We’re not hurting anyone? Not wanting to hear anymore of their conversation, I hurriedly dry my hands and leave.

Ben eyes me as I walk back over to him. I may as well cut this evening short. I’m only here because I thought it would convince Simon that I love Kayden. Since that isn’t going to happen I may as well go back and face the music. I quickly drain my glass. “I’m not feeling too good, let’s call it a night.”

“What about my blow-job?” he smirks at me.

“I thought you didn’t want it,” I snap.

“Yeah well,” he shrugs his shoulders, “I changed my mind. A blow-job will buy my silence.” He hands my empty glass to the barman and asks for a top up. “You can give it to me in the car when we leave.”

“Okay.” I hate the way he’s leering at me but I’ll do it. It’ll solve one of the problems. I still have to face Kayden. He looked so cut up when I left, I’m worried about him.

A table becomes free. Ben grabs our glasses and gestures for me to follow him. We now have a comfortable chair by the fire. There seems to be all age groups here. Some just out of their teens and old men sitting at the bar nursing their beers. There are a few middle aged men playing darts over in the corner. I startle as Ben slips his arm around my shoulder. “So what’s your favourite position Savannah?”

I frown at him. “Favourite position for what?”

“Sex,” he says, grinning. “I know you’re not a virgin. Your brother said you were with your ex for seven years.”

“I don’t have a favourite position,” I mutter.

“Oh well,” he pulls me closer to him, “guess we’ll just have to experiment and find out. I’ve always had good feedback. You won’t be disappointed.” As he’s saying this to me he’s leering at another woman’s legs. He’s such a lech.

A group of men and women enter the bar. One of them, a long legged woman with short dark hair, smiles and waves across at Ben on her way to the bar. It’s obviously someone he knows because he gets up to go over to her, telling me he’ll be back in a minute. I watch as he puts his arm around her waist and then slowly slips his hand down to rest on her butt. She seems to be enjoying the attention because she’s smiling at him. Maybe I’ll get lucky and she’ll give him a blow-job instead.

Feeling awkward sitting here on my own I get out my phone and use it to play a quiz game. I wish I had some friends I could text or call. I used to have friends before I got involved with Dan, but he kicked up such a fuss when I kept in touch with them, accusing me of arranging dates with them so I could see other guys. It became easier not to contact them.

Ben has a skewed idea of what a minute is. By the time he comes back over, forty-five minutes have passed and he spent that time chatting up and fondling the dark haired woman. He’s probably only come back over for the blow-job. “Shall we go?” he says.

Picking up my things I follow him out the door. His arm is draped over my shoulders as we walk around the rear of the pub. The car park is badly lit but I can easily make out Ben’s car. It’s practically glowing in the dark. His arm falls from my shoulders as he screams out, “What the fuck!”

I’ve never seen anything like it. The outside of his car is covered with paint. Big splatters of white paint and in other areas black paint, slowly drips from the bodywork onto the ground. It looks like a Dalmatian. All four of his tyres are flat and both of his wing mirrors lay smashed on the ground. Ben curses loudly while trying to open the driver’s side door. As I wander over to him I see why he’s having trouble. The door has buckled in-wards, like something has smashed into it.

I’m just staring in complete shock. Ben’s red in the face and he looks furious. Oh God no, please don’t let me laugh. I cover my mouth to try to stifle a giggle. It’s so ridiculous I can’t help it. He swears and kicks his car. Glancing around I spot some empty paint cans that have been shoved beneath a hedge. Gloss paint. Oh boy, he’s not going to be able to wash that off. I start laughing but quickly turn it into a cough.

He’s now on his phone, trying to get the number of a tow truck. He seems to have forgotten all about that blow-job. The thought of that makes me laugh again so I walk away from him and light up a cigarette. He storms over to me. “I’ve got to wait here for a sodding tow truck. If that little shit did this I’m going to fucking kill it.”

Is he talking about Kayden? “It can’t have been him Ben. He didn’t know where we were going.”

“Who else could it have been?” he scowls at me.

“It could have been someone who was drunk and decided to do it for a laugh.”

“Whatever. You’ll have to make your own arrangements to get home.” And with that parting comment he storms off back towards the pub. Jerk!

I walk out of the car park and turn onto the road that leads back to the house. Damn it. I don’t have a torch; I won’t be able to see where I’m going. I root around in my bag in search of my phone.

“Savannah.” I turn my head towards the sound. “Baby, what you doing walking back on your own?” Kayden asks. Oh thank God. I can’t see him but I reach out blindly till my hand comes into contact with his chest.

“Kayden, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean what I said. I love you.”

He wraps his arms around me and lifts me up. I put my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. “I know you didn’t mean it baby. I’ll take you home.”

He starts walking. I’m so relieved that he understands. Ben will tell Simon about this though. What if he sells Kayden, I’ll never see him again. I squeeze him tighter. Then a thought occurs to me, why is Kayden here? “Kayden. Did you vandalise Ben’s car?”

I can feel his shoulders shake as he laughs. “Yeah. His face was a picture.”

My mouth has gone dry and I feel cold. “Kayden you shouldn’t have done that. He’ll tell Simon.”

“He went out with my girl and he punched me in the face, twice. He deserved it.” I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I can’t believe he took such a silly risk.

“I was going to give him a blow-job to get you out of trouble and then you go and do this.” My voice sounds shrill. “I try and get you out of trouble and you go and get into more trouble.”

“You were gonna give him a blow-job?” Oh God. Why did I say that? I don’t have a response for him and we walk in silence the rest of the way.

He puts me on my feet as we reach the house. I don’t want to let go of him. I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again. Squeezing him tightly I whisper, “I love you Kayden. I’m sorry.”

He buries his face in my neck. “I love you baby. Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.” He walks away and I stand at the door and watch him until he’s out of sight.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Savannah

I’m exhausted. I think I only managed to get about an hours sleep. I spent most of the night tossing and turning while anxious thoughts stabbed at my brain.

As I walk into the kitchen my stomach churns at the sight of Simon sitting at the table with Ben. They both stare at me. Swallowing hard I decide the best course of action may be to ignore them. I take my time pouring myself a mug of coffee. The silence is deafening. I pick up my mug and am heading towards the lounge when Simon calls out to me. “I hear the slave tried to stop you going on your date with Ben.”

I slowly turn around to face him. “It was a misunderstanding, that’s all.”

His mouth is set in a straight line and his eyebrows are drawn together. “Was vandalising Ben’s car a misunderstanding as well?”

I twirl the coffee mug around in my hands. “We don’t know who damaged Ben’s car. The slave didn’t know where we were going, so it couldn’t have been him.”

Ben slams his mug down onto the table. “You know damn well the slave did it. That little shit owes me big time.”

I take a deep breath and force myself to meet his gaze. “As I recall we had a blow by blow discussion about this last night. I thought we concluded that someone else must have done it.” I’m hoping he gets the hidden message in my words. I don’t think he’ll want Simon to know that he was going to keep quiet in exchange for a blow-job. I see a flash of understanding in Ben’s eyes, it quickly vanishes and he glares at me but he doesn’t say anything more.

Simon stands up and walks towards me. He puts his hands on my shoulders. “Okay, so it’s not certain what happened with the car but he did try to stop you going on your date.” He brushes my hair off my shoulders and then he freezes, his eyes glued to my neck. I frown at him. What on earth is he staring at? The hairs on my arms stand on end as I remember the hickey. I step back out of his grasp, flicking my hair back over my shoulders.

He points at my neck. “The slave is not only disobeying me, it’s disrespecting me as well.” He shakes his head. “I’m disappointed in you Savannah. Why did you lower yourself? Why did you let someone who isn’t even human do that to you?”

I gaze at the floor. “Simon, please don’t send him back to the Compound.”

He takes a step towards me and puts his hands back on my shoulders. “The slave can’t be trusted. For you, I’ll give it one last chance.” I look up at him with hope in my eyes. “If it disobeys me again, it’s gone.” I nod my head. “But it needs to be punished Savannah. I can’t let it get away with disobeying and disrespecting me.”

Oh no. He’s going to hurt him again. He’s still bruised from the last beating. “Maybe there’s another way to punish him, instead of hitting him. It was my fault too, it wasn’t just him.”

Simon shakes his head. “It wasn’t your fault, you were manipulated. I don’t trust the slave to stay away from you. You need to keep it away. It’ll be punished and I need you to watch, so you can see what happens when you don’t keep it away. Maybe this will give you some incentive.”

Simon takes my arm and leads me out of the house. My stomach rolls, I don’t know what I’m going to see but I know it won’t be good. We walk past the fields and I see the whipping post. Kayden is tied to it, his wrists above his head. He’s naked from the waist up. My hands fly to my mouth. I feel sick.

Kayden lifts his head, his mouth drops open as his eyes lock with mine. He mouths to me, “I’m sorry,” then quickly turns his head away. Simon stoops down and picks up a baseball bat. For a second I stop breathing as he swings the bat and I hear Kayden groan as it smashes into his ribs. Simon swings the bat again. Forcing my legs to work I race over to Kayden and stand between him and Simon.

“Please don’t do this. You don’t have to do this,” I plead with him.

He holds the bat down by his side. “Okay. I’ll just send him back to the Compound.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket.

“Savannah,” Kayden whispers to me, “I don’t wanna go to the pound. Just let him do this. I’ll be okay.”

Simon is dialling a number. I call out to him, “Okay, okay, do it then, just get it over with.” He slips his phone back into his pocket and I attempt to move out of the way. My legs aren’t working properly, they feel like lead. Simon swings his bat and I flinch as it once again smacks into Kayden’s ribs.

He’s relentless, pounding Kayden’s ribs over and over again. I make myself watch, tears streaming down my cheeks. If Kayden has to suffer then so will I. Breathless and red in the face, Simon finally drops the bat to the ground and gestures for me to follow him back to the house. Kayden’s eyes are closed. His skin is pale and covered with a sheen of sweat and his ribs are black and swollen, I think Simon broke every single one of them. He’s struggling to breathe, his breath coming out in little gasps.

Tearing my eyes away from Kayden, I glance over at Simon. He’s standing a few feet away, waiting for me. I force my feet to move towards him. “Let me say goodbye. I’ll end it with him now. Just let me say goodbye in private.” He stares at me and finally he nods his head, before turning to walk away. “Wait,” I cry out to him. “Untie him. You can’t leave him tied up.”

“I promise I’ll untie him as soon as you’ve finished talking to him. I’ll see you back at the house.”

I stand in front of Kayden and lightly run my fingers down his bare chest. His skin feels cold. He slowly opens his eyes. He grimaces as he tries to take a breath. “I’m…sorry…you had to…see that,” he says, gritting his teeth.

I want to hug him, to tell him everything will be okay but I can’t hug him without hurting him and it isn’t going to be okay. Standing on tiptoe I kiss his lips. “Darling, I love you. I’ll always love you.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “This is goodbye. I can’t be with you. We can’t be friends because we’ll always want more. It’s best that we don’t talk to each other again.” I’m trying hard to hold back my tears. I must be strong for both of us.