Week 365 – Tony knew he needed to up his search and start following Brandon around

Each day that passed Natasha felt like she lost another piece of herself.

Her body was littered with bruises and blisters, she was starving, and she ached from sleeping on the hard floor of the dog crate. Muscles were stiff from being crammed in the too small space, yet as much as she hated it in there she hated being outside of it more.

Because at least once she was in there she was left alone.

Starved, deprived often of water and sleep, but at least no one touched her.

Salvation seemed … to have drifted out of reach.

If Tony was going to find her then he would have by now.

In her darkest moments Natasha wondered if he was even looking for her. Maybe he’d gotten the in with her brother that he wanted and he no longer cared about what happened to her, she was just collateral damage. Or maybe he wasn’t even a cop, maybe he was just another person who worked in the same circles as Brandon and just wanted to make a business connection to him.

What did she really know about Tony anyway?

Only what he’d told her.

No.

He hadn’t been lying.

He was a cop and he was looking for her, Natasha just hoped Tony knew he needed to up his search and start following Brandon around.

“Morning, sister,” Brandon sang as he strolled down the basement stairs. In his hands were a collar and leash, and she gulped, not needing an imagination to know what he had planned for her.

When he stopped outside her cage she was overcome with the urge to squeeze her eyes shut like she used to to when she was a little girl and make everything else just disappear. Only this situation wasn’t going to go away just because she wanted it to.

“Come along, sister, I have another lesson for you. You’re doing much better than I thought you would, hardly put up a fight at all.”

Because she believed Tony was coming for her and she’d quickly learned that fighting only earned her more punishments.

“I have a buyer all lined up for you, I think you know him, his name is Tony and he works for you,” Brandon told her with a wicked grin like he hadn’t just knocked the bottom out of her world.

If Tony wanted to buy her from Brandon then she’d put her faith in the wrong person and the salvations he’d been holding out for was never going to come.