Page 20 of Midnight Danger

I grabbed onto a doorway to try and stop him. Pain radiated through my face as my head whipped back. My hands left the doorframe in shock as I jolted back. His right hand grabbed my throat, the pressure making my eyes bulge.

“I told you that I wouldn’t tolerate your attitude. Take that as a warning. Next time I will punish you severely.”

My lungs burned from lack of oxygen and my fingers stretched out in a futile attempt to try and free myself. “Please,” I managed to grate out.

“Yes, you will beg me, Cassandra. You will learn to kneel at my feet and beg for my affection.”

That would never happen.

He was delusional.

My hand finally found his fingers on my neck. His other hand wrapped around my wrist to jerk my arm back. My mouth opened in a terrified scream. Agony ripped up into my shoulder and a sickening pop sounded.

“Never touch me without my permission,” he hissed in my face.

He released my wrist and my arm hung useless at my side, pain throbbing in sickening waves. His grip lessened on my throat and I slumped onto my knees. Tears sprung to my eyes. All those years I dreamed about coming home and it’d turned into a nightmare. The devil lived here now instead of the angels I imagined, his face dark and sinister lurking over me. All he was missing were horns and a tail.

“Where are the keys and the documents, Cassandra?” He crouched in front of me, his finger caressing the side of my cheek. “Tell me and it won’t hurt as much.”

The image of my dead sister flashed through my head, followed by the fresh mounds of earth on their graves after I left the hospital. Summoning what little strength and courage I had left, I took a deep breath and head-butted him in the face.

A huge growl emerged as I scrambled to my feet, using the memories from my past to propel me forward. I knew these rooms because I’d played in them so long ago.

“You fucking bitch!” he snarled, his feet pounding behind me. “You’ll pay for that.”

The kitchen doors were locked, so I used the staircase at the back of the house. I’d almost reached the top when his hand grabbed my leg and hauled me off my feet. A screech emerged as I landed on my dislocated arm.

“For that little display, your ass will hurt for a month in more ways than one.” His words were clear, he’d punish and violate me there. What was men’s obsession with anal sex? He practically dragged me onto the rear landing of the first floor that I used to watch the pond from. One of my children’s books still sat on the window seat.

His hand wrapped around my hair as he dragged me toward the bedrooms. There wasn’t a part of me that wasn’t sore. I’ll fallen on my knees, I couldn’t move my arm, my throat already felt swollen, and breathing was difficult.

My socks slid on the polished wooden floor, all the air forced from my lungs as I fell onto my face. The man stood over me, rage emanating from him in waves. His foot connected with my abdomen and pain radiated deep into my chest.

I tried to curl myself into a ball, but he was a feral animal, grabbing me by the front of my jumper and hauling me to my feet. There was no fight left in me. I stared into his brown eyes and saw cruelty. My defeat excited him. His nose trailed along the side of my face.

“You have no idea how much I’m going to enjoy this,” he whispered in a tone that made my heart sink.

He practically carried me the remainder of the way. The first bedroom was one of the guest rooms and it was the only thing I was grateful for. That he hadn’t taken me to any of the rooms that the family had used at the front of the house.

I wanted to scream, to beg, to demand that he release me. All my words dried up until my soul fractured. He tugged at my yoga pants I’d worn for comfort when I had gone out for that walk earlier. The psychopath bent me over the end of the bed, my ass in the air.

The jingle of his belt tormented me before he leaned over me, his breath nauseating as it blew over my face. “Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life, Cassandra.”

I squeezed my eyes closed, trying to distance myself from the room I currently resided in. I tried to pretend I was in The Midnight Rooms with a faceless man. His flesh pressed against mine and I whimpered.

His body was dragged away, and cold air touched me instead.

“Xavier, what are you doing here?” I jolted when I heard the man say the name I’d been clinging to.

I used my undamaged arm to try and pull my yoga pants up. The man lay on the ground with Xavier looming over him. My heart hammered in my chest and my legs gave way as I slid down the end of the bed to the floor.

“Malcom, I’d like to say it’s a pleasure to see you, but you were about to rape my fiancée.” Xavier’s tone was hard, his face tight. He never even looked at me.

“Your what?” The man stared up at Xavier as if he was mad.

“That woman is my future wife and mother of my children. I don’t think anyone would object to what’s about to happen to you.”

He held his hands up. “Xavier, be reasonable. This is Council business, we’ll take it to them to decide…”

---