Tag: mystery

Everything hurt.

Including her heart.

But that was a different kind of pain that came from her brother’s horrific betrayal.

Question was, had Tony also betrayed her?

He was still talking, his lips moving in earnest, but was she even listening?

It was hard to hear anything through the thrumming of her pulse.

But she had to focus.

Had to figure out if she could trust the man on his knees before her.

“Please, Natasha, whatever you need me to do to prove to you that I never betrayed you, I’ll do.”

Tony sounded sincere, and his dark eyes pleaded with her to believe him, and crazy as it was … Natasha thought she did.

Her head jerked in a tiny nod, and the next thing she knew she was in his arms, being held gently and fiercely all at the same time.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to find you,” Tony whispered, his lips held against the top of her head.

“Tony.”

They both turned at the voice of a newcomer. She saw Garret standing there, there was empathy in his eyes as he looked down at her. Fear too.

“What is it?” Tony asked his partner.

“There weren’t the right number of bodies in the building,” Garret told them.

Tony’s hold on her tightened. “What do you mean?”

“Brandon wasn’t in the house when it exploded. He’s still out there somewhere.”

She wasn’t going to let him explain.

Tony didn’t know how to get through to Natasha. She was too far gone. He could see it in the wild look in her eyes. Natasha had been through too much in such a short space of time, and it all rested on his shoulders. Plus he had no idea of the things her brother had been saying to her while he was holding her captive.

Still he had to try.

The thought of this brave, innocent woman believing he was the kind of man who bought another human being was too much. Added to the guilt he was already carrying and it would smother him alive.

“My sister was one of Brandon’s victims,” he admitted, sitting beside her on the grass and crossing his knees, tucking his hands in his lap like he’d done in elementary school. The last thing he wanted to do right now was startle or scare her in any way.

Talking about his sister was hard but Natasha needed to hear the whole truth if he was going to convince her not to hate him.

“She was only thirteen, going through that whole independent phase. She and a couple of her friends came up with a lie one night, all pretending to be sleeping over at one another’s houses. No one knew the truth until it was too late.”

His baby sister had been a change of life baby and he and his two brothers were already in their early twenties when she came along. She’d been spoiled but a good kid, and he would always regret not paying more attention to what was going on in her life.

“They were lured in by your brother and made to work for him. One died there, my sister and her other friend were able to escape. We got her back but she wasn’t the same and she wound up taking her own life. Thats why I was so determined to get your brother. But, Natasha.” Shifting so he was on his knees before her he met her gaze and held it. “I was never a threat to you. Ive been looking for you since you were taken. The only way to get a lead on you was to pretend to be interested in buying you. I am not going to hurt you. You do not belong to me. You are safe now.”

Tony had told her the truth now he just had to see if she could believe it.

Someone was moving her but all she wanted was to remain still. To curl up in a little ball and just …

Cease to exist.

This wasn’t any kind of life. Belonging to another person, one who wanted only to hurt and use her, no autonomy, no rights, no … anything.

All she wanted was to give into the pain throbbing through her body and disappear.

But that didn’t happen.

She was lifted, at least she thought she was if the weightless feeling was anything to go by. And someone was talking. Whispering words that she couldn’t understand in a soft, warm, soothing voice.

The voice was nice.

Kind of like a big, cosy hug.

It would be so nice to curl into it.

But she’d already learned that there was nothing soft, or warm, or cosy about her life.

The opposite in fact. She’d been trained to act like a human pet because presumably thats what Tony liked.

Tony.

His face flashed before her closed lids. She felt so stupid for trusting him. Because now he owned her.

“Natasha, wake up. Now.”

The quiet command in the voice called to the part of her that had learned to submit, and against her will her Natasha woke to noise and mayhem.

She was sitting on the ground, beside a mangled SUV. In front of her was Tony, blood on his face, a fierce anger in his gaze that made her whimper and shrink away from his huge, intimidating form.

It was obvious the car had been wrecked. Why couldn’t she have been killed?

Tony’s hands clasped her shoulders, stopping her retreat. “Please,” he begged. “It’s not what you think. Let me explain.”

“She knows how to heel,” Brandon said as he passed her lead over to Tony.

If there was one thing that Natasha had learned since her brother took her prisoner it was that fighting was pointless.

All it got you was more pain.

It was easier to just do as you were told and retreat further away inside your mind where the horrible things you endured couldn’t touch you as deeply.

“Thanks for the new pet, I’ll be in contact if I require other, exotic pets,” Tony said with a smirk, then both men laughed.

“Anytime. Whatever you’re after I can find a way to get it for you. I have a whole lot of contacts and literally nothing is off the table,” Brandon bragged, and it made Natasha sick to know she was related to such a horrible human being.

“For now I’m just eager to get this one home,” Tony said, tugging on her leash as he started to head towards the doorway he’d entered.

Taking the stairs on her hands and knees, especially since there were still several tender spots with healing bruises from before she’d learned well enough to stop fighting against the inevitable, wasn’t easy, but there was no way she was chancing standing. Or asking if she could walk normally.

Tony wasn’t to be trusted.

He was the enemy.

He was just like her brother.

Evil.

Thankfully Tony didn’t walk too fast as they headed through halls and then outside. He didn’t indicate that she could stand so she took the gravel on her hands and knees, trying her best to hide her winces as the small pebbles dug into her skin.

At his car she wasn’t shown into the passenger seat, or even into the backseat. Instead Tony opened the back of the SUV where there was a dog crate, then wordlessly picked her up and shoved her into it.

Tears were trailing down her cheeks as he drove away. How had this become her life? Just weeks ago she was a regular young woman, working at her grandfather’s company, trying to find who was embezzling money, and now she was someone’s pet.

Right as they turned out of the driveway and onto the street just then all hell broke loose.

Emptiness.

That’s all he saw when he looked into Natasha’s eyes.

As badly as he longed to drag her into his arms, hold her, soothe her, promise her nobody would ever hurt her again, he couldn’t do that. Not yet anyway. Tony knew he had to play his role even though it killed him to see Natasha lose all hope and his betrayal of her trust.

A team was only a mile away, waiting for him to give the signal that they could swoop on the place, finally take Brandon into custody. First he had to get Natasha out of the line of fire. He might have been dreaming about taking down Brandon for months now, but here, in the moment, he found all he cared about was Natasha.

Unable to fight the urge to curl his fingers into fists, it didn’t go unnoticed by Brandon. “Eager to get that lead in your hands, huh?” he asked with a chuckle.

Moving to Natasha’s cage, when he unlocked it, he took a step back and looked down at his little sister with contempt. “Come,” he ordered, like Natasha really was nothing but a pet.

With defeat emanating off her she crawled out of the cage and knelt before him.

“Present,” Brandon ordered.

Without argument she turned, lowering her head so her forehead rested on the ground, between her forearms, with her backside up in the air.

“Stay,” Brandon told her. And she waited where she was while her brother crossed the room and retrieved a lead which he snapped onto the collar she was wearing.

When the handle of the lead was held out to him, Tony reached for it with shaky hands. Brandon smirked like it was adrenalin and excitement, but it wasn’t.

It was fury.

Burning, red hot, rage.

If it was the last thing he ever did Tony would make sure Brandon never spent another day as a free man.