Atlas, page 8
Continuing to struggle, trying to find just that little bit of give to the restraints holding me, I hoped with all my heart Giovanni was listening through the connection he had with my phone. They’d unleash hell once they figured out we needed help.
“You’re a fuckin’ dead man, Dutch.”
He grinned. “It’s not me who’s bound and on his knees, Atlas. You act so high and mighty. Like you’re king of all you survey.” He sneered at me. “Let me tell you what’s going to happen.” He circled the table where Rose lay. Rose’s gaze clung to mine. There was fear there, but also a steely determination. It was a good thing too, because she’d need every ounce she possessed to make it through this. “I’m gonna brand your woman. Like we would have done if you’d accepted my offer of being an officer in Soul Reapers. It will say ‘Property of Atlas’.” To prove to me this was going to happen, he took the branding iron from where one of his goons had set it up to heat when they’d first brought it to the room.
The brand Dutch picked up and showed me was exactly the way he’d described. The letters on the top formed the rocker, “Property of.” The bottom spelled out my name, the type set replaceable with the desired name.
“Once she’s branded, everyone who sees it will know the bitch belonged to you. When they see me fuckin’ her, they’ll know I was the son of a bitch with balls big enough to take her from you. Every brother who fucks her will see that brand and know I took her from the biggest badass of them all.” He got right up in my face then, baring his teeth with every word. “And they. Will. Fear. Me.” We stared at each other, each of us hating the other.
When Dutch stood, he handed the branding iron back for his man to put it back in the flame. Then he turned to Rose. “Well, bitch. This is your time. Feel free to scream all you want. I know Atlas forbids it, but you’re going to be mine soon, and I love the sound of women’s screams. Only I like them to scream in pain. Something you’re about to find out.”
Rose’s frightened, wide-eyed gaze clung to mine. I’d never felt more powerless in my life. Never been so powerless! Dutch moved out of her line of sight and she tried to follow him with her eyes. No doubt not wanting what was coming to sneak up on her. This was way more than she’d signed up for. And I’d failed her. I’d let her down. We’d walked straight into danger without even questioning it. Every single bit of this was on me.
“Rose! Eyes on me!” I snapped my command, expecting to get a beat down. Surprisingly, the men around me only chuckled, obviously not considering me a threat now that they had me on my knees on the floor. “You keep your focus on me. Do not look away.” She tried to nod but couldn’t move her head. So she blinked at me, the muscles in her jaw tightening as she gritted her teeth together.
The moment seemed to stretch on forever. Her frightened gaze focused securely on me. I saw one tear leak from the corner of her eye and trickle over the bridge of her nose. Then the fear changed to resignation, then hardened to fierce determination. I knew my woman had a spine of steel, but there was no way to fight this. The pain she was about to feel would break her.
Dutch chuckled as he picked up the iron once more. He waved it in the air over her back. To her credit, Rose didn’t flinch. She kept her eyes fixed firmly on me. Her hands were in fists, and she fought to twist them free to no avail.
“Oh, to mark this lovely skin…” Dutch looked and sounded like a crazy man. There was a maniacal gleam in his eyes, a combination of his personality and whatever drugs he’d taken. “You will be my greatest masterpiece, my lovely little bitch.” He leaned over her, kissing her cheek tenderly. “I look forward to seeing this brand on your skin. Even if it has that bastard’s name on it. I was the man to take you from him. Never forget that. You’ll be my whore. You’ll obey me as thoroughly as you obeyed him.”
Then he stepped back and, without further warning, pressed the iron to the skin of her shoulder blade. The sizzle and stench as her flesh burned made me want to puke. Not because I had a weak stomach, but because this was Rose! She was a woman who deserved gentle and tender. All I’d managed to bring her was pain.
I roared, doing my best to break the hold these men had on me. Whatever they had used to secure me to the floor snapped, and I struggled to my feet. I lashed out with everything in me, doing my best to fight them off long enough to get leverage to break the zip tie still around my wrists. I’m not sure how I managed it, but one second my hands were bound behind me, the next I’d broken them free. Then I unleashed carnage.
* * *
Bellarose
The pain was indescribable. Never had something hurt so fucking bad. But I kept my jaw clenched. Instead of keeping my gaze on Atlas, though, I shut my eyes tightly against the pain. Somehow, shutting out the sights around me helped me keep in any sound that wanted to break free. My jaw hurt, and my teeth felt like they were going to splinter with the pressure. The fiery brand on my shoulder faded quickly as the nerves deadened where it seared my skin.
I was aware of a struggle going on around me but couldn’t open my eyes to see in case it ripped off the Band-Aid I had holding my control together. Atlas said I wasn’t to make a sound, and I wouldn’t. Not a cry. Not a whimper. I would be silent because it was what he told me to do.
Time meant nothing as I breathed through the pain and shock of what was happening. I fully expected Dutch would rape me in front of Atlas to torture him. I’d seen it before. One Alpha who’d bested another and wanted to flaunt the victory. With Atlas refusing to discuss sharing me with Dutch -- or any other member of this club -- Dutch would want to prove to Atlas he could and would take what he wanted.
So when a blanket fell over my body instead of Dutch’s vile hands, I flinched, pulling against my bonds. But I didn’t cry out. I kept my mouth shut and my fear firmly under control.
“I’ve got you, baby girl.” Was that… was that my father?
“Daddy?”
“Yeah, baby. I’m getting you out of here.”
“Atlas --”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of him.” It didn’t sound like Dad was particularly concerned about Atlas. In fact, he sounded like “taking care of him” meant he was going to hurt Atlas.
“Atlas!” I screamed for him. I needed to know where he was. If he was OK. “They had him tied up! Where is he?”
“Sting!” Dad looked over his shoulder, never slowing as he struggled to get the straps holding me to the stupid table loosened. “Get your man under control!”
“Atlas!” I sobbed out his name, my resolve finally slipping, knowing help had come.
An enraged roar answered my plea.
“Motherfuckin’ leather straps,” Dad muttered.
Finally, he got one of my arms free. Someone freed my head, and I raised up as far as I could. “Atlas!”
“You stay away from her, motherfucker!”
“Atlas, stop!”
“Get off me!”
I had no idea who surrounded me other than Alexi and Atlas, though I was pretty sure the one calling Atlas off was his president, Sting.
“Get him out of here before I fuckin’ kill him, Sting. Now!” My dad snapped the order like he expected to be obeyed.
“Alexi, now’s not the time.”
“The hell it isn’t! He kidnapped my daughter and took advantage of the situation he put her in!”
“Rose!”
There were sounds of a struggle, and I was pretty sure everyone had forgotten about me. My hands were free, but my shoulders and ankles were still lashed down. I was helpless, and it was somehow worse than when I’d realized Dutch was going to brand me, because I couldn’t see Atlas.
There was a fight. I heard grunts and angry yells combined with the sounds of flesh hitting flesh. The sounds weren’t new, but they’d died down before. Now, it sounded like a whole new fight. Given everyone seemed to have forgotten about me, I figured it was Dad’s Shadow Demons fighting the Iron Tzars.
I took a deep, calming breath, trying to get myself back under control. No one was going to release me until they were good and ready. Seemed like they were too busy fighting each other to worry about me.
Men.
Fuckers.
Somehow, I managed to wiggle under the strap holding down my upper back. The sweat coating my body eased the way slightly, but the fresh burn on my shoulder protested, the injured skin around the dead nerves nearly making me scream in pain. I held it in, just like I had earlier. Right now, the most important thing was getting to Atlas.
Once I’d wiggled under the strap, I was left with my ankles still lashed to the sides of the table. It took some doing, but I managed to push myself off the table to my feet, then sit down. I was naked as the day I was born in a room full of men. As I looked around, I saw several men lying on the floor, either dead or dying. All of them were Dutch’s men. Dutch himself was slumped against the wall, where Atlas pounded the living fuck out of him.
There were four men -- one of them my dad -- trying to pull him off Dutch. Atlas just continued to pound the bastard. Blood was everywhere.
“Atlas! Help me! Please!” I sobbed out my plea, hoping to get him to look at me. To see my distress and come to me. When he didn’t seem to hear me, I yelled louder. “Atlas! I need you! Now! Please! Please!”
This time, he turned his head to me, seeing me struggling to free my feet. Naked. On the floor.
Without a word, he shoved the men off him and stalked toward me. I was still fumbling with the strap on one leg when he freed the other and started on the one I was struggling with. The second it was off, I threw myself into his arms and burst into tears.
Atlas sat with me on the floor, one arm securely around me before he snagged the blanket that my father had draped over me and pulled it around me. “I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you. Need to get you to a doctor.”
“I’ve got one on standby.” That was Azriel, my father’s right hand and co-owner and co-founder of Argent Tech as well as the Shadow Demons. “We need to get her seen as quickly as possible so that burn doesn’t get infected.”
With those words, someone ripped me from Atlas’s arms. I whimpered, reaching for him, but as Atlas stood, another man rested a hand on his shoulder and spoke quietly to him. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but Atlas didn’t follow. His gaze didn’t leave mine, but he wasn’t coming after me.
“Atlas?”
“I got you through this. Now, let your family take care of you. I’ll be in touch.”
“Like hell,” my dad growled.
“Don’t leave me, Atlas!” I was going to fall apart. I’d been with him for such a short time, but something inside me had bonded with him. I thought he’d felt the same way. Was I wrong? Hadn’t he said he’d take care of me and any child I might be carrying? Had he changed his mind? That thought alone had me biting my lip to keep from continuing to beg him for his comfort.
“It’ll all be fine, Rose. Everything will be fine.” Atlas nodded at me, never taking his focus from mine.
As my father carried me out of the clubhouse and Atlas didn’t follow, a sob of despair left me as everything I’d been through in the last few days finally hit home. I also realized that Atlas was wrong. Everything wouldn’t be fine. Not even close.
Chapter Six
Bellarose
It had been two months since I’d last seen Atlas in that stupid compound. I’d kept to myself, mostly, only welcoming anyone in my suite of rooms for the therapy sessions Alexi and my mom insisted on. I’d also had a visit from a medical doctor who’d wanted to examine me the same day they brought me home. I’d refused to let him touch me other than to see to the brand burn. He’d given me a morning-after pill but, though I’d taken it from him, I’d flushed it after he left.
I had no right to hold on to Atlas like I was. He’d taken me in and protected me out of necessity. I’d explained to Dad how I’d come to be there, and he got it, but still couldn’t see past what he saw as Atlas taking advantage of me. And yeah. He’d known we had sex. It was why he had me seeing the shrink. The same woman I was now sitting with, not saying a word.
The silence in the room was broken only by the ticking of a small clock over the fireplace mantel. I didn’t feel like talking to the woman.
Finally, she spoke. “You don’t seem to be making much progress past this,” she said. Her name was Dr. Elizabeth Bailey. She looked to be in her mid-sixties and was very gentle in our sessions. I didn’t want to like her, but I couldn’t help myself. She’d been kind and caring, gently steering me in the direction she’d wanted me to go these last weeks. In all that time, she’d never mentioned my progress -- or lack thereof -- to me directly. She assured me she didn’t tell my mother or father anything, though I had my doubts.
“What would constitute progress?” My question was quiet, and I didn’t look at her -- rather I stared out the window at the world beyond the Shadow Demons’ mansion.
“I don’t know. It’s relative, I guess. Have you left this house since being taken prisoner?”
“No. And I might have not been able to leave that place, but Atlas didn’t take me as a prisoner. He took me to protect me. If he hadn’t, I don’t think the outcome would have been this good.”
“So you don’t blame Atlas?”
My gaze snapped to hers. “No. Not at all. He did everything he could to protect me.”
“And the… intimacy?”
I sighed. “It was complicated. But not one-sided.” I lowered my gaze before looking out the window again.
“I see. Have you spoken to him?”
I snorted. “You know I haven’t. My dad won’t hear of it, and I have no way of contacting him on my own. I didn’t exactly get a phone number.”
“All right. Tell me something, Bella. If you’d met Atlas under different circumstances, would you have looked twice at him?”
That surprised me enough to bring my full attention back to the doctor. “You mean, like if I’d met him at the school or in some other normal way?”
“Yes.”
“I absolutely would have. When I first met him, he stopped to help me change a tire.” I smiled at the memory. “He was charming and funny, once I got past the gruff exterior. Yeah. I’d have been open to getting to know him better.”
“He’s quite a bit older than you. You have to be able to see why your father has… reservations.”
I snorted. “Yeah. Reservations. There’s a word.” I sighed bitterly. “Look. No offense, Dr. Bailey, but I don’t want to move past Atlas. I don’t want to forget him. He gave me some of the most wonderful moments of my life. Sure, there were bad things that happened. I’ve got the brand on me to prove it. But none of those were his fault. He kept me safe and called in help the second he could. If there was a delay, it was my fault. I wanted him to complete the work he was doing. I insisted. I still don’t know if they caught the Swede. Or what eventually happened to Dutch.”
Dr. Bailey smiled at me. “I’ll tell your father you’d like to know. I’m also going to recommend he let the two of you meet. Whether or not he likes it, I believe it will go a long way toward you seeing reality for what it truly is. Might be good for your father too.” Her smile was warm, but, I thought, calculating. Like she thought neither me nor my father would get what we thought out of that meeting.
After Dr. Bailey left, I went back to my window seat. It faced East. The direction I knew the Iron Tzars compound was. I had another reason for wanting to see Atlas. One I hadn’t told anyone. A reason that morning-after pill was meant to take care of. I’d secretly hoped he’d been right and I’d conceived his child but hadn’t really thought it was possible. Then the test I’d secretly ordered had presented me with two little pink lines.
I absently rubbed my lower belly and smiled to myself. Even if Mom and Dad didn’t want me to see him, soon they wouldn’t have much choice.
There was a knock at my door.
“Come in,” I called softly.
“Bella?” My mother entered, immediately followed by Smokey the Second and Snowball the Third. The cats, who always seemed to know what I needed -- like their predecessors had when they’d first claimed me when I was six -- had found their way out of my room and to my mother.
“Hi, Mom.”
“The cats pestered me until I came.” She gave me a tentative smile. “I know you wanted to be alone, but I can’t stand to see you hurting like this, sweetheart.” She sat across from me on the window seat. “It breaks my heart.”
It took everything inside me to not break down and cry. It was going to happen, but I was going to fight it as long as possible. Besides, my tears belonged to Atlas and no one else. Just like the rest of me.
“I can’t feel anything other than what I do, Mom. I need to talk to Atlas.”
“You only latched on to him because he was your lifeline, baby.” She reached out and brushed a lock of hair off my cheek and tucked it behind my ear. “If you get out and do normal things, go back to the school to your job if you want, you’ll be able to focus on something else. Then you’ll see it was the forced proximity that made you feel the way you do. The school has been asking about you. They’re anxious to get you back.”
I turned back to look out the window again wistfully. “They just want to know if they need to replace me for the whole semester.”
“Your father misses talking to you at breakfast and supper.”
“I miss him, too.”
“Come down and eat with us tonight. Ruth’s having the kitchen make your favorite.”
I smiled. Ruth had been having them make all my favorite meals and desserts since I came home, trying to get me to eat more. Trying to bring me as much comfort as she could.
