Prisoned - Marni Mann Page 0,36

to you, Kyle.”

As I tucked the blanket under my chin, he found his way underneath it and ran his hands over my legs to try and warm them. He never stopped touching me, not even when my shaking calmed a little or when I described everything that had happened—at least the bits I could remember before Breath had stuck a needle in my arm.

“He didn’t rape you,” he said through gritted teeth. “Are you sure?”

I crossed my legs, squeezing my thighs together. Once again, I searched for that familiar soreness that came after sex. “Yes. I’m positive.”

The relief was in his face and in his touch. “They’re prepping you.”

“For what?”

“So, when they ask you, you’ll give them what they want. It’s a mind game. They’re trying to break you, weaken you through fear.” As he paused, it felt like he was looking through my eyes, straight into my soul. “They’re getting to you. I can feel it.”

Every tremor in my body told me Garin was right.

Breath knew I cared about Garin. I had to believe that was why he was in here with me. Now, those feelings were being used against me.

Garin’s whispers, “Kyle…Kyle…Kyle…” were all I could hear.

His bruises were all I could see.

Breath was torturing me. Again.

“Was it Beard who hurt you?” I asked.

He shook his head. “There were two guys. I didn’t recognize either of them.”

That meant there were at least four men holding us captive. The more men, the less chance we had of escaping this prison.

“Did they ask you anything?”

It took him a minute to answer. “No.”

I couldn’t tell if he was being honest or telling me what he thought I could handle. Garin was a protector, so it didn’t surprise me that I was getting very few details.

“Then, why did they hurt you? Just because?”

“They can beat me and torture me all they want. I can take it. They’re not going to break me, Kyle.”

I stared at his cuts, at the bruises, at the gash on his throat. He was trying to hide the pain he was in by acting unfazed by it all. Dealing drugs on the streets, running the casino in Vegas, working with the bosses—it had all prepared him for this…whatever this was.

I wasn’t used to this at all—not the torture or the threats. Not the uninvited touching.

Not someone coming on me.

My whole body shook as I thought about Breath’s cum.

“What is it that they want?” I had asked him that so many times before. I doubted this would be the last time either.

“I don’t know.”

I looked up at the window, wondering what I would see on the other side of it. Was there such a thing as normal beyond the bars of this cell? What was my brother doing right now? My employees?

“What’s the date?”

I was sure Beard or Breath or some other bastard had our cell phones and had texted a lie to our employees, so they wouldn’t be worried and call the police. They’d probably sent the same message to my mom and Anthony. My mom and I weren’t close at all. She lived on the other side of Tampa, and we barely saw each other. That was just the way things had worked out after she’d gone to rehab and moved to Florida. But Anthony called me every day. I really wondered how he was handling my absence and who he was trying to strangle to find where I was.

“The funeral was on the twelfth,” he said. “So, maybe it’s the fifteenth or sixteenth. I don’t know how long we’ve been in here.”

On the first, Anthony would be making his drive down to Florida. If I wasn’t home, if he didn’t talk to me before then, he’d start looking for me, if he hadn’t already. And he wouldn’t stop until he found me.

“We just have to hang on a little longer,” I said.

“You’ve got a plan?”

“They have until the first. Then, things will get interesting.”

Twelve

Garin

Twelve Years Ago

I waited for Kyle in the alley. She didn’t know I was here, but I knew she’d pass me because this was the route she took to get home from school. I used to walk it with her every day. But since Paulie’s death, she walked home without me. She’d run right out of that fucking schoolyard before I even got a chance to get to her locker.

But not today. Today, she was going to walk with me. I’d skipped my last few periods, so I’d be here when she strolled