Chapter Forty Four

Harley’s Point of View:

After a few more blows to my face, The man got up and walked away. I was in so much pain, I couldn’t even open my left eye and my whole face was numb. I suppose I should be glad that they stuck to beatings and nothing worse.

I could taste the blood in my mouth and spat it out on the floor. I was still tied to my chair, but during the latest attack, I had been knocked over and was just left lying on the floor. My whole body weight on my arm, crushing it, but I couldn’t move.

I could hear talking in the other room and listened as best as I could.

‘Give her an hour and carry on. We don’t want to beat her to death, but make sure she looks rough for when they see her’. I wanted to cry, but it was like I had no more tears to give. The first 24 hours had pretty much dried them up.

I cried I begged, I promised not to do or say anything but nothing worked. After the phone call with Ron, Things really got worse, but like he just said, this was all to hurt Ron and the others. To show them how much pain they can cause me without causing any lasting damage.

Physical damage anyway...

... I was already so mentally damaged I wasn’t even sure there was anything left inside me for them to break.

I hadn’t been able to sleep either. I was so tired, but I guess that was another one of their ‘mind games’. Sleep deprivation.

They fed me, bread, and only let me drink water. At this point, I wasn’t sure my stomach could handle much more than that anyway. I don’t even want to say what the bathroom situation was.

Part of me wanted to give up, but then the other part of me wouldn’t let me.

I have survived worse than this. I WILL survive this... and I will see Alexander and Ron again.

Soon.

*****

Someone entered the room from behind me and pulled on my chair, lifting me off the floor and taking the weight off my arm. If I got out of this alive, I’d definitely have to go to the hospital. Stepping around and in front of me, I saw it was Hector... or at least that's what they called him. I think he was the one that was in charge of whatever the fuck this was.

He had only arrived yesterday and made a point of telling me he wasn’t going to hurt me... which was true, he hasn’t. Not directly, He just got the others to do his dirty work.

‘How are you feeling today?’ I wanted to scream at him, but that would be a stupid idea, I knew that.

‘Sore’. He hmmm’ed and walked over to the side where they kept a jug of water. He poured a cup and brought it over to me.

‘Thirsty?’ I nodded and he placed the rim of the cup to my lips and let me drink. When he took it away again, I thanked him. Like it was a massive act of kindness... again, being polite to the man in charge was just an obvious survival tactic.

He went and put the cup back down and turned to face me.

‘You’re father will be here soon. As long as he has what we want, you can go home.’ I stayed silent. ‘I have to admit though, I’m surprised you can so easily overlook the things they do.’

‘As opposed to what? What do you do? Kidnap and beat innocent women who aren’t involved in this ’beef’ between you two?’ He crossed his arms, amused.

‘I’ve apologized for this, but I’ve told you, we need to teach them a lesson. You are just the unfortunate way of doing that. Wrong place, wrong time’.

‘If it wasn’t me, who would it have been?’

‘The whore-wife.' Did he mean Sarah?... That made sense since that other guy was at her work when I went to see her. Maybe they were following her first and switched their attention to me when they realized who I was...

.... Great...

‘Do you know the kinds of things they do?’ I didn’t care but shook my head anyway. ‘Bad things, but your lover, Alexander, he’s the worst.’

‘He’s never hurt me’.

‘That might be so, but he’s hurt many before. Did you know he has killed children?’ That didn’t sound like the Alexander I knew. ‘A member of my crew, he ran him off the road while the young children were in the car, straight over a bridge. Killed them’.

‘I’m sure it wasn’t intentional’. He grinned.

‘He’s done worse to women, worse than what we’ve done to you. Did you know that?’

‘Like what?’ He pushed himself away from the table and walked over to me.

‘Beaten... raped... murdered’. That really didn’t sound like MY Alexander at all. ‘You don’t believe me?’ I shook my head. ‘Hmm, love makes you blind to the monster he is, clearly.’

‘He wouldn’t do that’.

‘See... that's where you’re wrong... He is the devil in human form. Whatever twisted love you think he has for you, believe me, he will show his true colors sooner or later.’ I just kept my gaze on the floor while Hector let out a loud laugh. ‘Those men ruin everything they touch—and that WILL include you,’ and with nothing more to say, he walked out of the room again.

Had Alexander really done those things? More than enough people have told me he has done some pretty fucked up things, but... beaten women? Raped women? murdered them?

Was he really capable of such things?

**The Next Day**

I managed to get a few hours of sleep last night, but it was broken sleep. The cold had gotten to me and made it impossible to sleep for very long.

When I opened my eyes again, The room was full of people, most of them I had never seen before. Some were huddled around a table, talking, others were inspecting their guns... this is what Ron and Alex and the rest of the guys were walking into?

Those men had no intention of letting any of them walk out of this alive... did they?

It didn’t matter if they had everything they had asked for... they are still going to kill them. It would be a bloodbath!

The realization of what was going to happen started to sink in and I went into a meltdown panic. I started hyperventilating. I couldn’t breathe.

They were all going to die and there was nothing I could do to warn them, help them... or stop this!