Prisoned - Marni Mann Page 0,34

mouth.”

I just wanted to rub my face. I just wanted to soothe the ache. All of me was hurting, and I needed relief. Just the tiniest bit of tenderness before he hit me again.

A grunt filled the silence, pulling me from my self-pity. It was much louder than my scream had been. It didn’t sound like it came from a place of sadness or anger. It was far beyond pain or hurt.

This was the sound of someone being tortured.

And the sound had come from Garin.

“What are you doing to him?” I yelled. “Don’t hurt him. Please don’t hurt him.”

“QUIET!”

“Wh-what do you want from m-me?”

He reached inside my mouth and clamped my tongue between his fingers, pulling it so hard that I gagged again. “I told you to be quiet. One more sound, and I’ll rip this fucking tongue out.”

Tears were falling even faster. I didn’t know what was causing me to cry harder—the torture Garin was going through or the fear of what this guy was going to do to me. But I wasn’t stupid enough to make a sound. I cried silently, holding it all in, the sobs causing tremors in my stomach and chest.

I was so tempted to bite down on his fingers. Resting under my teeth like they were, I’d be able to gnaw right into the muscle and tear off a piece of his flesh. But I worried about what would happen to me if I did that and what would happen to Garin. There could be someone else in this room with us or someone waiting outside the door. I was sure this guy carried a gun like Beard.

I was defenseless in this prison.

“Do you hear that?” He knelt at my side, his fingers still in my mouth. His lips were uncomfortably close to my cheek.

The muscles in the back of my throat tightened as I prepared to grunt my answer, but I stopped myself. What if this was a test? What if he was goading me into disobeying him?

I shook my head.

“Listen, puta…”

I squinted my eyelids together and tried to calm the pounding in my body, so I could really focus. The sound was quiet, just barely above a whisper.

“Kyle…Kyle…Kyle…” Garin said my name over and over. It was like someone was standing on his throat, and he was exhaling his final breath.

His last words.

No, I wanted to scream.

They needed to stop hurting Garin, to leave him alone, to release him from this hell we were both in. It wasn’t Garin who they wanted. He had done nothing wrong.

It was me.

I was the guilty one.

But, like a coward, I kept my mouth shut and said nothing. Instead, I let the anger simmer inside me, slammed my back into the chair, and thrust my hips forward to try to loosen the bolts that held it in place.

Breath, who was still at my side, laughed at me. It was the most evil sound I’d ever heard. It made my skin prickle like swarms of ants were crawling all over me.

Tears dripped down my aching swollen cheeks. Spit foamed around my lips as he held my tongue between his foul fingers.

I only stopped rocking when he yelled, “Enough!”

I froze, and he rubbed his nose along the bottom of my jaw.

Breath was breathing me in. “Next time I come for you, I want you to ask the right question.”

I nodded, the movement causing his fingers to tighten around my tongue until I gagged again.

“Next time, I might not come only on your cunt.” He moved in front of me and licked across my bottom lip. “A big load right on your mouth will look so fucking sexy.”

I held in my sobs, but they racked my whole body.

“Good night, Kyle.”

Good night, Kyle.

There was a prick on the side of my arm, and then I felt the liquid drain into my muscle. A warmth immediately spread through me. It was a kind of heat I’d never felt before.

My fear was gone. The pain had dissolved. There was happiness even though it wasn’t caused by Garin. Happiness and contentment and coddling. The shackles felt soft. His fingers felt tender, and his breath smelled like pineapple.

And then everything went black.

Eleven

Kyle

Cold—that was the first sensation I felt. Stiff was the second. Not just in my legs and arms, but in my jaw. It was like I had been chewing gum for weeks straight. Even my tongue hurt and the roof of my mouth. I didn’t know where all this aching had come from.