Chained (Caged Book 2) (14 page)

“Miss Grant?” A female voice cut through the loud silence in my head and broke the suffocating dread drowning me.

Confusion set in at the unfamiliar voice and I frowned, moving my head around to try and determine where she was.

“My name’s Caroline.” A small hand covered mine. “And I’m helping to take care of you.”

I shuffled back at her touch, my body recoiling at the contact. Quickly, she removed her hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I, uhh, I can’t see you.”

She paused, but lowered her voice as if it would bolster my confidence. “Ahh. That’s okay. Then I can be your eyes until you can use your own.”

Once again she rested her hand on mine. It scalded me, my skin screaming at her contact. My breathing stuttered and I choked on a cry.

“It’s okay,” Caroline urged hurriedly. “You’ve been through a lot. We have to get to know each other, but please, I am not going to hurt you. I’m here to help you, Miss Grant.”

“Kloe,” I choked out, forcing myself to concentrate on her words instead of the excruciating fear overwhelming me. My heart was beating so fast that I felt light-headed, and my skin felt clammy and too tight around my bones.

“I’m just going to do some checks, Kloe,” Caroline informed me as she moved around the room, my head following the sound of her trousers sweeping against her thighs. “I’ll try not to touch you as much as possible, but if I have to then I’ll tell you. Is that okay?”

I nodded, gulping. I couldn’t focus on anything but Caroline. Nausea lay heavy in my stomach and I dug my nails into my palms to stop myself from lashing out at the dark nothing in front of me.

Sounds I couldn’t register taunted my judgement, playing with each of my senses until I couldn’t distinguish between real and what my mind was making up, and I started to tremble.

“I’m by the window, Kloe,” Caroline said quietly. “And now I’m moving to the dresser to retrieve some things.”

“What things?” I snapped. Panic was threatening to overwhelm me and I was wrestling with the need to sink further into the headboard.

“I need to take your temperature. You were running a fever and I’d like to check that the medication did its job.”

I scrambled back when her voice became closer.

“Is that okay?” she asked softly, but I still jumped at the sound of her so close.

My lungs were becoming too stimulated as they tried to cope with the deep pull of oxygen. I sucked at air like it was a liquid substance, drawing breath before I had chance to release the last influx of air.

“Kloe,” Caroline urged gently. “You need to calm down. I’m not going to touch you, I promise. We can do this later.” Her voice moved away but I still couldn’t find a grip on anything tangible.

I reached out with my hands, trying to find something solid to outweigh the feeling of illusion, my mind overcompensating for what it couldn’t figure out.

Nothing broke contact. Nothing invaded my space. Yet I still couldn’t calm the anxiety engulfing me.

Reality blurred and dizziness began to take my consciousness. I gulped at nothing, fighting with the thickness in the air to fill my lungs with substance.

And then his hand rested on my cheek. His breath swept over my sticky forehead. His presence lulled the terror claiming me and instantly my body turned into him. Air charged into my lungs and I gasped at the sudden rush to my head. “Calm down, Kloe,” Anderson urged. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

I snatched at him, greedy for the feeling of safety his presence brought. “Anderson.” I buried my face in his chest, inhaling his scent and revelling in the feel of him.

He held me tight as I wept, his arms holding me so securely that my already damaged body screamed in agony. But I needed that pain. It grounded me. It gave my mind something other than the nothing to concentrate on.

“Caroline, please leave us,” Anderson ordered.

Caroline didn’t answer but I heard the door close. Anderson shifted on the bed, laying us both down, and his hand cupped the back of my head, drawing me in to him.

“You need to trust that I won’t let anyone in this house that would hurt you, Kloe. You’re safe here.”

My sobs died but I didn’t answer him. I couldn’t tell him I didn’t believe him. He had hurt me so many times that I still couldn’t trust what he told me. So many lies had built so many walls of doubt inside me and it would take more than a few small words to knock them down.

Yet there was a part of me that trusted only him. He was the only person that was capable of soothing the terror inside me, of quietening the raging noise in my head. He was the only one who could take my hand and lead me blindly to where he wanted me to go. And I would go. No matter how much it scared me. Because he carried my soul with him. He always had. Fate had brought us together, and fate would take us through to the end, whatever it had in store for us.

I
T HAD BEEN SEVERAL DAYS
since Kloe had woken, scared and broken. Although her wounds were starting to heal, the scars on the inside were festering and decaying, the vile things Terry had done to her corroding her soul and eating her from the inside out. She wouldn’t speak of them, wouldn’t open up to me and tell me what he had done or said. She had hidden them in the depths of her, the untouchable part of her I was unable to reach no matter how much I tried.

Her sight was still hindered, not even vague outlines appearing to give us any hope. Mike hadn’t given me much of anything to go on, and although he had checked her eyes as much as Kloe would let him, and he hadn’t found any physical damage, he had mentioned bringing in an ophthalmologist.

Kloe blamed everything on her lack of sight but I could see that was just a portion of what was troubling her. She became bitter, her mood swinging one way and another. She spat hatred and bullied Caroline, forcing her away with words and physical abuse.

Her frustration was becoming intolerable, and I quickly found that although I wanted to ease her pain, take all the rotten things tormenting her and obliterate them, my patience was wearing thin.

I struggled with right and wrong, the fine line between discipline and compassion. I wanted to shake her, hurt her for trying so hard to hurt everyone that was trying to help her. Even Robbie hadn’t been able to get through to her.

The bedroom became her tomb, accommodating all the dead parts of her. Red and I were the only ones she allowed near her. But I was finding it harder and harder to control my own rage with her. I told myself that she was hurting, that Terry had in fact buried himself into her mind like she had refused to believe.

I willed myself to remain calm but I’d never been the most controlled man.

The following Sunday, Kloe’s disturbed mind lashed out at Red. My own pent up infuriation snapped, and everything changed.

It had been a quiet morning. I’d spent a few minutes watching Terry hang from the chains in the basement. As usual he had just smirked at me, yet I wasn’t much up for talking anyway.

Autumn had set in and the leaves were starting to drop. It was Red’s favourite time of year, and mine. She loved to pounce into each high dune of dead leaves in the far corners of the park, her tail whipping from left to right as she tried to bury all of her body beneath each colourful mound. Each squirrel she chased up the high trunks of each tree tormented her from their safe heights, until she discovered their stash of dropped acorns.

I winced, chastising her when her teeth crunched on the cast iron buds. “I aint taking you to the vets when you break your teeth, girl.”

Her eyes smiled at me, and in true Red fashion, she turned and headed full pelt into the lake. The water leapt out as she leapt in. My laughter filled the quiet park and I shook my head at her when her head surfaced the top of the water.

It was these days that replenished my lost soul. Being outside, in the middle of such beauty, filled me with a sense of not just existing, but living. So many years all I’d had were walls and stale air. And as if still catching up, I drew a lungful of the fresh air inside me and sighed with pleasure.

The very things that most people took for granted were what allowed me to smile. The simplicity, and sometimes extravagance, of nature was overlooked by many. But not me.

The harsh slap of reality served me a stab to the gut when the fight date shot a bullet through my happiness. There were just over two weeks left. Kloe was far from ready to cope on her own, and apprehension hounded me. Her rehabilitation was going a lot slower than I had anticipated and I needed her to step out of the darkness she cowered inside.

Red nudged my hand, sensing my worry. Her cold wet fur snapped me out of my sour mood and I grumbled at her light-heartedly.

Her tail didn’t stop wagging all the way home; she’d enjoyed her hour of freedom. My heart hurt when I realised, no matter how hard I tried, that I couldn’t give Kloe that freedom from her own mind that she craved.

As soon as I stepped foot inside the house, the loud feral scream and smash from upstairs made my shoulders sag with weariness.

Robbie, who sat at the island in the kitchen, swung his eyes my way and blew out a frustrated breath. He didn’t say anything but he didn’t have to. Everyone was walking on eggshells, tired of the fractured atmosphere that was coating us all in Kloe’s depression.

Red ran off into the house as I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and leaned against the counter to drink it. I needed those few moments to get my head together, to place myself in the zone where I could deal with the woman so full of hate and rage.

“You should know,” Robbie said. He was gazing through the window, pointedly not looking at me. “That she will be ten times worse than this when you’ve gone. You expect me to care for her, to help her through your loss. But I’m not sure I’ll be able to. She won’t listen to anyone but you. So how the fuck am I supposed to carry her when she won’t let me?”

“You’ll find a way.” And he would. I had no worries that Robbie wouldn’t look out for Kloe, even if he didn’t feel the same.

“Her mind is already tortured, Anderson. This will break her.”

Leaving his concern unanswered, I said, “You will make sure she sees to Terry?”

Gritting his teeth at my brush off, he huffed but nodded. “You know I will. Doesn’t mean I agree with it, though.”

“Well there’s not much we can do about that is there!” I snapped.

“You know what?” Rob lifted his hands in surrender and cautiously slid off the stool, his own wounds still aggravating him. “I’m outta here. I can’t do this. I’ll be back when you’re dead!”

His harsh words should have hurt but they just made me angrier. I wasn’t sure what he had expected me to do. Terry hadn’t been stupid enough to leave the farmhouse unattended. He had muscle. And I had needed my own to get to Kloe. Ivan was as tough and as hard as they came. He had been the obvious choice, the only choice, to get Kloe to safety. So long as she came out of there alive, it didn’t matter that I didn’t. Ivan knew the stakes, and his payment had reflected those risks.

It was done. It was over.

Yelling floated down the stairs, and huffing, I threw the empty bottle into the bin and made my way up the stairs.

“You stupid bitch!”

Kloe was pressed against the back wall, her face pale and full of spite as she spewed hatred to Caroline. Caroline, used to Kloe’s mood by now, just raised her eyebrows at me when I entered the bedroom.

“Kloe!”

Her face shot my way, her unseeing eyes seeking me out in the blackness of her mind. “Where’ve you been?” Her tone was sharp and I pursed my lips to retain each word of rage fighting to be free.

“Out with Red.”

Her eyes narrowed, an involuntary act that neither hindered or helped her vision. “Don’t lie to me, Anderson. Have you seen Sarah? Is that where you’ve been? With
her
?”

What the fuck?

“What the fuck are you on?” I snapped, my control swiftly slipping away.

“Well, I’m useless now, aren’t I? Your need for me is over, and who wants a blind, pathetic woman in their bed? Is that why you haven’t come near me? Am I not enough now?”

Caroline, sensing my fury finally coming to the surface, gave me a sympathetic smile and quickly dismissed herself.