Chapter 69: Chapter: 69

ANDREA

The first thing I felt when I finally came to was the pain and heaviness in my head. My eyelids feel too heavy as I try to open them. I moan when cool, soft hands touch my face. I was being jostled about; someone was speaking. It took a moment before I could hear what the voice was saying.

“Hey! Wake up. Are you alive? You need to wake up, now! Please don't be dead, please don't be dead.” I groaned. When a stray light struck my eyes, I sat up.

My eyes kept blinking to get used to the light before settling on my companion. I gasped my eyes wide with recognition.

“Meredith?” she frowned, her brows pulling together.

“Do you know me?” I gawked at her. When Lara said we look alike, I thought maybe they were all desperate and looking for someone to connect them with their missing sibling, but seeing her now, well, it's kinda.

Wow!

But we still can't be mistaken for each other.

“Well, I know of you, but I guess now I know you,” I touch my head where it still hurts, there's dried blood in my roots and hair. I recalled that bitch Jules hitting me and her smug smile, but nothing after that. I know I fainted.

“Here, for your head.”It was a wet rag. I took it with a muttered thanks as we stared at each other. This girl I have heard so much about.

Her eyes spoke of her suffering; they were hard, blank, and hopeless, but even with everything she had gone through. She was still kind to me. She looks too thin, pale, like someone who hasn't seen the sun in a long time.

Her dark hair was tangled. Meredith was no longer a teenage girl, but a young woman who had seen so much, suffered so much betrayal and brutality from people she had loved and cared for.

The room we were in was small, cold, and bare except for a saggy mattress on the floor, which I was sitting on, and sheets. I couldn't decide whether they were brown or just dirty. There was an adjoining door, which I suspect was the bathroom.

Where the hell am I? And where is that bitch? God, I hope Nicklaus finds me, but how? He doesn't know that I'm here or that Drew was screwing his wife, and working with Luke and Jake, which means he wouldn't know to stop Lara's wedding with Jake.

I shake my head no. If I know Nicklaus, then I know the man always has a plan, even if he didn't know he would find out. I just pray he finds out soon. I also have to do something. Maybe we could escape. Two women are better odds than one, right?

“Listen, Meredith, Nicklaus is going to come for us, but before that, we need to find a way out of this place.” She clutches my hand, her eyes light up with hope, her mouth trembling.

“You know Nicklaus?”

"Yes,Meredith. He never forgot about you; he's been searching for you. I also know he's looking for us right now, and he's not going to rest until he finds us. You're going to be free, Meredith.” I smiled to reassure her when her face fell.

I will never understand how hard it is to hope when you've been held captive for years.

After hoping and praying for a savior to come free you only to wake again and again for months, years in your captivity, that kind of thing will strip you of any hope you secretly held inside.

But I needed her to hope and believe so we can try and make it easy for Nicklaus to save us.

I squeeze her hands lightly in mine and smile at her again. She nods at me. We startled and quickly let go of each other's hands when the basement door slammed shut, as voices filtered through, heavy steps descended the stairs, and another voice began to whistle.

I quickly hugged Meredith to me as Luke and two other men finally made their entrance. He smiled at me, a smile that used to make my heart skip a beat and my face heat back when I didn't know he was an evil bastard. But now that smile made my skin crawl.

“Ah, Andrea, my love. I see you are awake. I've been looking forward to our reunion, baby, but first,” he said, then he nodded at the two men. Before I could do anything, they were up on us. Separating Meredith's from me. I fought them.

“What the fuck are you doing?! Leave her the fuck alone! Let her be you, bastards!” I was glad to see Meredith was also fighting them.

I took off one of my heels and hit one of the meatheads dragging Meredith's away. He turned his eyes murderously and backhanded me until I saw stars. I fell back on the mattress, my bottom lip split from his strike.

“Bitch! I'm going to enjoy teaching you the first lesson we taught all the rebellious bitches that were here before you.”

“No, you won't. Because this bitch is mine,” Luke said to the man staring him down.

“No, Meredith! God, no, no. What are you going to do to her? Where are you taking her?” I screamed as they took her away from the basement.

"Andrea, you shouldn't worry about her. Worry about what I'm going to do to you. You and I, we're going to have so much fun.” I crawl back to the corner, trembling as I hold onto the heel in my hand like a weapon as he approaches me, zipping down his pants.

“After everything you have done to me in college, why do you still hound me? What have I ever done to you, Luke? Why won't you leave me alone?”

He'd removed his jeans and was naked from the waist down. He looked at me with lust. Bile rose fast in my throat. I would rather be dead than let this disgusting excuse of a man rape me.

“Because we have business to settle, and when I saw you in Brooklyn, I knew fate had given me a second chance with you.” he came down on me the same moment I lifted my heel, but he already saw it coming; he twisted my hand painfully until I cried out and let it go.

But I didn't give up, I couldn't. I tried to kick him hard, aiming for his dick, but he deflected and punched me hard in the stomach, and my breath wheezed out of my mouth. Pain blinded me.

“Stay the fuck down because if you fight me, I will beat the shit out of you before I fuck you,” he snarled.

“Never! Asshole,” he slapped me and pushed me down his hips, forcing my legs open. Just then, footsteps descended down the basement.

“Go the fuck back and wait your turn!”

“No, can do fucker” a familiar voice said seconds before three shots were fired. Blood sprayed my face and dress, but I didn't care.

Alex kicked Luke's slumped, dead body off of me and helped me up. I panted, holding the side of my stomach where Luke had punched me. It still hurts.

“Alex, did you see her? Meredith was…”

“She's safe, Andrea. She's with Greg and Anthon. Come on, let's get you the hell out of this shitty place,” Alex said. please.

“Nicklaus?” I asked as we quickly walked up the basement stairs.

“He's here, confronting his wife and Drew. He told me to get you to safety.” What? No. I know Nicklaus is fully capable of taking care of himself, but my heart was scared for him. That bitch was unstable.

The instant we were out of the basement, a hand pulled me away from Alex, a slim arm wrapped around my neck, her gun pointed at Alex, and before I could blink, she fired. I scream, Alex grunts, his hand is on his arm where the gun had gone through.

“Stay still and keep your hands to yourself. Move, and I will kill you. You know, I never did like you.” Even before I heard her voice, I knew it was her. I recognize her perfume.

“Ditto bitch,” Alex drawls, glaring at Jules.

I heard movement in time to turn and see Nicklaus come into view, his beautiful face hard, his deep blue eyes had never been this cold. I shiver.

His eyes ran over my face, taking in every single detail, his jaw ticked. When we finally locked eyes, I could have sworn his eyes softened just a tiny bit.

I know what he saw without even looking at the mirror. With blood splatter on my body, my split lip, red, swollen cheek, and the cut on my head where Jules had hit me, I looked battered and not at all like me.

Logan stood at his side, his gun pointed at Drew's head. We were all standing in a large living room, and the basement entrance was hidden behind the staircase.

“Nicklaus, tell your guard dog to let Drew go, or I will blow this bitch brains ou t,” Jules sneered, digging the gun muzzle into my head. I swallowed hard, sweat trailing down my body.