Scartissue by T.L Hodel

CHAPTER 32

Shelby

The whistling rang through the air, reminding me I was still in hell. I don’t know how long I’d been here.

Hours? Days? Maybe years?

It felt like I’d been locked in this cabin, cold and afraid, for an eternity. My body ached. It wanted to give up, but my mind wouldn’t let it. It held on to the image of a charming smile and twinkling green eyes. The same color as the devil. They weren’t the devil’s eyes though. They were someone else’s, someone who’d made me a promise.

“I’ll find you. I swear to fucking god I’ll find you.”

Logan.

I shot up and cried out as pain seared up my spine.

“Ah good, you’re awake.” Ryker swung the door to the cage shut, locking Finn and Junior inside. “I feared I lost you in that last round.”

I could still hear the whip slicing through the air and cracking down on my flesh. Logan may have come from this man, but he was nothing like him. The devil wasn’t capable of love or kindness. He was the warden of agony. The keeper of misery and suffering.

There was no light in his dark soul. Nothing hidden inside to save, only survive. And I would survive. If not for Logan, then for the boys.

Bile rose in my throat as I watched his fingers zip up his jeans and buckle his belt. The boys had it worse than I did. The things he made me watch him do made me physically sick. I’d throw up again, if there was anything left in my stomach.

“Don’t worry, Angel,” Ryker smirked and shot me a wink, “Our time is coming.”

“Sorry,” I growled, looking past him to the boys.

Finn stopped crying a long time ago. Now he just lay in the corner of the cage, staring vacantly into space, while Junior sat in front of him like a tiny little watchdog.

“I don’t think I’m your type.”

“Careful, Angel, you remember what happened last time you pissed me off. I don’t think poor Finn can take much more. Junior though,” he glanced over his shoulder and chuckled at Junior’s scowl. “That boy’s a trooper. Someone trained him well.”

That was as sad as it was true. Finn was broken, I was beaten, but Junior… Junior was unphased. So much so that anytime Ryker came for Finn or I, Junior would do something to anger him and take the punishment for us.

That eleven-year-old boy was more brave than anyone I knew, and I didn’t know how much more his little body could take.

“Congratulations prick, you can overpower a kid.” Junior rolled his dark eyes up to Ryker and slowly clapped his hands. “You must be so proud.”

I think it pissed Ryker off that he hadn’t broken Junior yet. I know it pissed him off that he hadn’t broken me.

“You seem rather protective of our sweet little Shelby. Perhaps I’ll play with her?”

“You’d have to be able to get hard for someone over the age of puberty in order to do that.”

“I had a wife, boy,” Ryker’s nostrils flared. “You think I didn’t fuck her?”

Junior cocked a brow.

“I think you thought about your son when you did it.”

“I’m not a pedophile!” Ryker roared.

“Exactly what every pedophile says, and trust me, I’ve met a lot.” Junior’s lip curled as his dark gaze slowly took in Ryker’s form. “You’re not even the worst.”

I could see the rage bubbling up inside him. The devil was getting ready to blow. I couldn’t watch him hurt those boys again.

“Show him,” I called out, leaning back against the headboard of the bed my foot was chained to. “Show him he’s wrong.”

Ryker’s brows furrowed as he tipped his head and studied me.

“What’s your game?”

“No game.”

I fisted the blanket, pushing down my nausea, and slowly parted my thighs, inviting him in. I still had panties on, and the tattered remnants of my shirt. The rest had torn during my whipping, but I’d never felt more naked than I did in that moment.

I tried not to think about it when Ryker slowly stalked towards me, shedding his clothes as he went. Tried not to focus on what was going to happen, and instead stared at the table in the far corner, and the cellphone resting on top.

My stomach rolled as Ryker crawled over me, finger tracing the edge of my panties.

“I like these.”

The lacy pink panties with little bows on the butt that, I wore for Logan. Maybe instead of turning him on, they’d help me get back to him. I forced myself to look him in the eye and flattened my palm on his chest. Couldn’t bring myself to touch him more than that.

“Why don’t you take them off?’

He let out a longing sigh and grazed his hand over my flat stomach.

“You really are a beautiful girl.”

He was hard and ready to go. I didn’t have to look to know that. I could feel it, pressing against my thigh like some nauseating leech. My skin crawled and everything in me begged to squirm away, but I stayed put.

“Is it my boy’s face you’re picturing right now? Do you think he’s going to come charging through that door and save you?” He cocked his head and stared down at a bite mark on my shoulder. “Save the day, like a knight in shining armor?”

“Are we going to do this or what?”

I knew he wanted to. I’d seen the same lust shining in his eyes in another set. But he didn’t move. Didn’t pull down my panties, or remove the rest of my clothes. He just stayed there. Hovering over me with his hand on my stomach while staring at the mark on my shoulder.

“You can’t, can you?”

His green eyes snapped to mine.

“I assure you child, I’m quite ready to do this.”

That wasn’t the problem.

“It’s because I’m his.” A slow smirk spread across my face. “You can’t touch me because I belong to him.”

In some sick way, this man actually loved his son.

His gaze narrowed in on me.

“Oh, I can touch you.”

“Do it then,” I lifted my head enough for him to see the challenge in my glare. “Taint the one thing he has in this world.”

I snickered when his nostrils flared.

“What pisses you off more? That he hates you, or that he loves me?”

“The boy is mine,” Ryker snarled. “He’s my flesh and blood. My son! And he always will be.”

I let out a little chuckle.

“He’s not yours. He never was. He’s mine. He’d take a bullet for me. What would he do for you?” The amusement fell off my face as I stared him right in the eye and said, “Nothing.”

I watched his throat bob with a heavy swallow and smiled.

Gotcha, asshole.

I lifted my lips to his ear and whispered, “Who’s the scared little boy now?”

All the crap he did to Logan. The scars, torture and torment. It was all for one thing. To tie his son to him. To ingrain himself so deeply in his child that he’d never be forgotten. All because the boogeyman didn’t want to be alone.

“You want to see a scared little boy!” Ryker roared and jumped off me to march over to the table and grab the phone. “Let’s see how strong your precious Logan is when I gut his mother,” he snarled while throwing his clothes back on and stormed out the door.