Joseph Fallen (The Estate Series) (16 page)

Forcing Arianna to her knees, Joseph pushed her head forward
against the ground.
 
She could hear
Connor struggle again, only to be met with the sickening crunch of another fist
against his body.
 
When Joseph had
removed his pants, he rubbed the hard length of his cock along the folds of her
skin, forcing himself painfully inside her.
 
She screamed, the flesh ripping from the
intrusion, burning as he held her hips still with one hand and her face to the
ground with the other.
 
The white
noise of rushing blood pulsed through her head, her eyes locked to Connor’s as
Joseph pumped himself in and out forcefully.
 
The men quieted and Arianna shrank at
the sounds of Joseph pleasuring himself with her body, embarrassing her while
grunting above her.
 
She could see
the seething anger in Connor’s gaze; only one eye left open, and the other
swollen painfully shut.

Joseph roared out his release, his fingers digging into the
flesh of her hips and tearing hair away from her scalp.
 
Her mouth opened on a silent scream,
bits of dirt and grass caught on her lips from where her face had been shoved
to the ground.
 
When he finished,
Joseph kicked out with his foot, the sole making contact with her ass as she
was shoved to the ground once more.
 
She lay still, not wanting to move; too afraid to do anything that could
cause Joseph to lose control.

When the night had grown quiet except for Aaron’s wail,
Joseph moved in front of Connor.
 
One face to another, Joseph spit at Connor before bringing his fist to
Connor’s gut and his knee to Connor’s face.
 
The crack of bone echoed out across the
walls of the compound accompanied by the sickening chuckle of the men in
response.

“Take him back to the mansion.
 
I’ll deal with my wife.”

The men moved to comply with Joseph’s instruction and Joseph
turned to kneel down where Arianna still lay on the ground.

“And you…” He shook his head, tsking again in mockery of her
shame and pain.
 
“Apparently you
still haven’t learned what happens when you betray me.”
 
His hand reached down, his fingers
tangling painfully into her hair and her body moved across the ground, dragged
by a hand that threatened to tear the skin from her skull as he pulled her
along the grass behind him.

Arianna rested on the large king sized bed in her room.
 
Her body hurt from the bruises and cuts
along her arms, torso and legs.
 
Three days had passed since she’d been caught at the gates with Connor,
three days where Joseph had attacked her every day and every night, leaving her
broken and spent, but not so crushed that she couldn’t tend to Aaron.

Joseph was not a stupid man.
 
He understood the need of an infant to
have a mother close by, and Joseph did not trust Aaron in anyone’s hands
besides Arianna.
 
He knew that she’d
care for the child, that she loved him and would protect him even if her heart
was filled with hate for his father.

Chained to her bed, Arianna was only released on the
occasion where she needed to go to the bathroom or shower.
 
She was given enough length to easily
reach her son and food and water were brought to her three times daily.
 
What little freedom she had before her
attempted escape had been stripped from her, replaced with the reality that she
served one purpose alone – to care for the son of a monster.
 
Having lost Connor as a guard, Joseph
quickly replaced him with four other men, strict orders given to each that they
were not to approach or speak to Arianna unless another man was present.

Even though she fought to keep her mind from thoughts of
Connor’s fate, she couldn’t help but wonder what they’d done to him.
 
She knew Joseph was cruel, that he’d
probably ordered the death of the man she loved and she feared that the method
of death had been unforgiving and brutal.
 
Tears fell from her swollen eyes for the loss of the only man who’d
helped her in the nightmare in which she lived.

Having fallen asleep, she was awoken by the click of her
door as it opened, the scream of the hinges against the stillness of her
room.
 
Her eyes peeked open, and she
watched Joseph step inside.
 
He
crossed the room to look in on Aaron, a smile touching the sides of his lips to
see his child sleeping peacefully within the crib.
 
That smile faded, however, when he
turned and allowed his eyes to travel along the length of Arianna’s body.
 
She flinched when he approached and she
tried to scoot away from him on the mattress when he sat down.

“I have an event you must attend tonight.
 
I don’t like leaving Aaron in another
person’s care, but it can’t be avoided given the circumstances.
 
It should only take an hour or so, and
there’s no need for you to dress appropriately for what’s to come.”

Her heart pounded into her throat, her stomach threatening
to relieve itself of the dinner she’d eaten a few hours before.
 
Not moving an inch, she opened her
mouth, attempting to speak clearly between lips that were busted and raw from
where Joseph had struck her across the face.
 
Her throat burned and her tongue felt
swollen when she asked, “Where are you taking me?”

She wasn’t sure she wanted an answer to her question,
couldn’t fathom what Joseph had staged for her to see.

Joseph smiled sweetly, bits of the man he’d been years ago
peeking out from behind the cold, dead stare of his eyes.
 
His hand reached out to brush her hair
from her face and she instinctively recoiled from his touch.

“Now, Arianna, there’s no need to fear me.
 
I’ve done nothing wrong.
 
You’ve asked for everything that’s
happened to you.
 
I’ve been nothing
but a good husband; keeping a roof over your head, food in your stomach and
clothes on your back.
 
I even gave
you a guard to protect you, and what do you do?
 
Try and sneak off with him – to
take my son from me?”
 
His words
were dreadfully calm, almost happy and satisfied in their tone.
 
“But after tonight, I won’t have to
worry about that anymore.
 
You’ll
love me again, without the confusion of another man’s interest.”

Her heart felt like it would explode, and she became sick
when realization dawned as to what he was telling her.
 
Finding the strength to speak again, she
pushed herself up from the bed, crawling closer to her husband, begging,
“Please, Joseph, whatever you have planned, I don’t want to be a part of
it.
 
Please.
 
I’ll do anything, just don’t…”

He shushed her, the comforting sound perverted by the ill
intent of the man who made it.
 
“Anything?”
 
He brought his
finger to his lip, tapping it while pretending to be deep in thought.
 
Standing up, he reached down with his
hand, “Come with me, I have an idea.”

There was no trust in her for the man that stood before her,
but without a choice, she stood as instructed, taking his hand when he
attempted to assist her.
 
Letting
her go only briefly, he bent over to remove the shackle from her ankle, a hiss
escaping her lips when the cool air met with the skin that had been opened by
the rough circle of metal.

Taking her hand again, he led her into the bathroom, closing
the door behind them with a soft click as she entered the low lighting of the
room.
 
She turned to him, not sure
what he would ask of her, and praying if she pleased him, he wouldn’t force her
to participate in whatever it was he’d earlier planned.

“Tell me you love me, Arianna.
 
Tell me how you belong to me alone, how
even if you’d escaped, you would never let another man’s hands touch you.”

She said what he wanted to her say, fell to her knees
begging forgiveness in utter desperation to avoid whatever event he’d wanted
her to attend.
 

Pulling a chair from near the wall, he sat it down in front
of the vanity, so that the back of his head was clearly visible in front of the
mirror.
 
Taking a seat, he looked
over at her.
 
She crawled to him,
ready to do whatever vile thing was necessary to change his mind.
 
Placing one finger beneath her chin, he
lifted her tear-streaked face so she looked directly into his eyes.
 
“Dance for me, beautiful, show me the
way your body moves just because you’re near me.”
 
He released her and sat back awaiting
his show.

Her body and heart grew numb, but she pushed herself up on
her feet, slowly removing her clothes before swaying her hips to music
unheard.
 
Her eyes couldn’t help but
look upon her image in the mirror and she winced to see the marks along her
skin, the scars from years of beatings, her ribs that were exposed from lack of
nutrition over the past couple of days.

The image sickened her, but she steeled her spine and danced
for Joseph, attempting to goad him into satisfaction.
 
He watched her from beneath the heavy
lids of his eyes, his tongue flicking out to rub along his bottom lip. “That’s
right baby, remind me why I fell in love with you in the first place.”

She kept dancing, fighting back tears of shame and regret
while moving in front of him.
 
When
he stood suddenly, she couldn’t help but flinch, fear racing along her spine at
what he would do to her next.
 
Casually he pushed the chair aside and crooked his finger for her to
approach him.

When she was near enough for him to grab her, he pulled her
against his chest.
 
The smell of his
cologne mixed with the ever-present smell of alcohol burned at her
nostrils.
 
His mouth to her ear, he asked,
“Do you love me?”

“Yes, Joseph, more than anything,” she lied.

His chest vibrated with a deep chuckle. “And do you want to
do anything to please me?”

“Yes.”

He leaned down, his mouth finding hers as his tongue slid
along her lips seeking entrance.
 
She wanted to vomit, wanted to fight against the intimacy of his kiss,
but instead opened her mouth, allowing him inside, acting as if she couldn’t
get enough of him.

Breaking apart from her he moved quickly away and
instructed, “Move to the vanity.
 
Place your hands on the counter, your ass held high for me.”

She watched him in the mirror as she approached the
counter.
 
Placing her hands down she
assumed the position he’d requested, her arms locked tight against whatever
pain he could inflict against her.
 
She continued watching as he approached and unbuckled his pants, letting
them fall to his ankles while positioning himself behind her.
 
One hand reached up to grab her hair, to
hold her in place with her eyes locked to the mirror.
 
He smiled again.
 
“Don’t close your eyes, beautiful, I
want you to watch while I take you.”

With one powerful thrust he forced himself inside her before
he let go of her hair to wrap his fingers painfully around her hips.
 
In a slow rhythm, he pounded within her,
his head falling back as he groaned out his pleasure.
 
After a few minutes, he pulled out.
 
Locking his eyes with hers in the
mirror, a grimace darkened his expression before he pushed into the tight
opening of her ass.
 
She cried out
in pain, but did not remove her eyes from the image portrayed in the mirror.

“Tell me how much you like it.
 
Tell me you want it harder.”

Tears finally escaping her eyes, she said, “I love it,
Joseph, I want it harder.”
 
Her
voice cracked on those words but they seemed to satisfy him while he finished
within her, finding his release while she watched.
 
He pulled out, slapping her against the
skin of her ass hard enough that it caused her entire body to shake from its
force.

Another smile fell over his face as he moved to the shower
to clean himself.
 
When he’d finished
and returned to stand behind her, he reached around and removed her hands from
the counter.
 
Bringing one hand up
to his lips, he held her back against his chest and his other hand found her
breast.
 
Placing one soft kiss on
her palm, he said, “Be ready in twenty minutes.”

Her knees buckled and he laughed when he dropped her to the
floor.
 
Exiting the room, he turned
back to her, a blank expression on his face when he said, “Emory will be here
to retrieve you shortly.
 
I’d get
dressed if you want to save what little dignity you have left.”

Her feet hit painfully against the stone tile of the hallway
as Emory led her through the corridor leading to the ballroom.
 
When they approached the large double
doors, Arianna expected the guards to open them for her to enter, but instead,
they stood still, barely looking at her as she approached.
 
She stopped in front of the doors, only
looking back at Emory when his hand grabbed her neck to turn her towards the
mansion’s foyer.
 
Confusion filled
her mind, but she dutifully stepped forward, not daring to upset the man behind
her.

“We won’t be meeting in the ballroom tonight,
sweetheart.
 
Your husband has gone
out of his way to plan an event that will be more special than any that you
have attended before.”
 
He laughed
while walking her towards the large front doors, brushing against her when he
reached around to pull the metal handle and lead them outside.

When he’d arrived to her room, it was the first time she’d
seen him since that night at the gate.
 
Her eyes immediately sought out the cut across his cheek, a sick
satisfaction that it appeared several hundred stitches were needed to close up
the gaping wound Connor had left on his face.

Underneath the new moon that hung sorrowfully in the sky, she
walked ahead of Emory, in route towards a field that she knew existed on the
opposite side of the building.
 
As
they approached the area, her eyes found a circle of torches, fire rushing
angrily towards the sky where they’d been placed. Light and shadow danced along
the bodies of the few men who stood on the outside of a circle set in the
middle.
 
Her brow furrowed when she
saw four cars, positioned so that their rear ends were tucked within the
circle.

Heads turned in her direction as she approached, and when
the small group of men parted, Joseph stepped out from the center, walking
towards her as she neared.

Taking her hand, he smiled at her, his eyes quickly flicking
to Emory before falling back to her face.
 
“Now that we have our honored guest in attendance, we can begin.”

Her eyes shot up to his before moving to peer over his
shoulder.
 
She couldn’t understand
what was going on, why Joseph had staged the event outside, instead of in the
ballroom.
 
She suspected it had to
do with the cars, but she couldn’t imagine why they were needed or what he
planned to do with them.

Joseph led her to the fire-ensconced circle, covering her
eyes with his hand and laughing when she flinched at the contact.
 
Walking her to a position where he was
satisfied, he removed his hand, slowly revealing the scene that was laid out
before her.

She fell back instantly, her head shaking in denial of what
she saw.
 
Her husband was insane,
she knew that, but she’d never dreamed how evil he’d become.
 
Her heart pounded so violently, she
feared it would break through her sternum, her chest heaving with erratic
breath, fast and shallow, in no way delivering the amount of oxygen she needed
to adequately process what was going on.
 
Her eyes immediately moved to Joseph, terror wracking her nerves until
every muscle quivered under its hold.

“You c…can’t do this, Joseph.
 
P…please – please just let him
go.”

Joseph stood perfectly still.
 
With his hands folded behind his back,
he looked at her through wide eyes, delight dancing across the molten grey at
the
event
he’d planned for her.
 
“Oh, sweet, Arianna.
 
You see, my darling, I can’t let him
go.
 
He intended to take two things
from me, both of which I held dearly to my heart.”
 
Pulling his hands out from behind his
back, he lifted them as if in surrender, and shrugged his shoulders when he
said, “I’m sorry, beautiful, but he’s been sentenced to death.”

He stalked towards her, every muscle in his body visible
under the material of his crisp white shirt.
 
Shadows and light from the fire danced
across his face, casting a menacing light to an expression that already spoke
of intense hatred and maniacal thoughts.
 
When he was so close, she could smell the sweetness of the alcohol on
his breath and could feel the heat that rolled off his large body, he asked,
“Are you ready to find out why you’re here?”

Her entire body shook, fear producing sweat that rolled off
her skin, her stomach twisted into a knot at how much worse the situation would
become.
 

Joseph reached up and snapped his fingers, and out of her
periphery vision she could see Emory moving towards them, his large body
somehow slithered in the manner in which he moved.
 
When he was almost to them, Joseph
grabbed Arianna’s chin, lifting her face to him when his mouth covered hers,
his tongue sliding across her teeth, her tongue, invading her to the point
where she could barely breath.

He pulled back, his hand moving to wipe the moisture from
around his lips.
 
“My beautiful
girl, you’re here because you get to choose how he dies.”

When Joseph backed away, Connor once again came into
view.
 
He sat on his knees in the
middle of the cars, his broad chest was bare, only a pair of stained and torn
sweatpants on his body to cover him.
 
His head was bent forward, the pure black of his hair shining brightly
underneath the light of the flames.
 
Her eyes traveled over his skin, her body wracking with sobs to see the
wide gashes where he’d been cut, or the bruises and deformed bones that
protruded from beneath.
 
His
once-beautiful body was disfigured from the days of abuse he’d obviously
endured.
 

“Connor, why don’t you look up so you can see Arianna for
the last time.
 
She’s looking
absolutely lovely tonight.”

Arianna’s breath caught in her chest when Connor’s arms
shook against the chains shackled to his wrists.
 
The muscles flexed, their lines defined
by the shadows of the flames.
 
Sweat
soaked his skin and caused him to glow under the light.
 
Slowly, he lifted his head, his swollen
lids fluttering open, his emerald eyes finally peeking out at her from beneath
the fan of black lashes that lined them.

Sobs broke free, her body violently shaking from their
force.
 
She wanted to drop to her
knees, wanted to crawl to the man that she loved and break him free of the
chains that bound him where he knelt.

Joseph moved to her side, put his arm around her waist as if
he wished to steady her and prevent her from falling to the ground. “As I’m
sure you figured out Arianna, Connor is about to die a somewhat quick, but very
painful death.”

Her eyes left Connor to travel the length of the chains that
were attached to his arms and attached to the rear bumpers of the cars.
 
She noticed two other chains that she
knew had to be attached to Connor’s ankles, the opposite ends also attached to
the cars.
 
“Joseph, no.
 
This is too far, this…it’ll tear him
apart.”

“Precisely, my beautiful wife.
 
And I imagine a death such as that must
sting a little.”
 
He mocked her with
his words, acted nonchalant, as if they were talking about nothing more than
the weather.
 
“There is a way you
can help him, however.”

Joseph put his hand to his side, palm up so that his fingers
could wrap around the handle of the blade that Emory gave him.
 
Arianna looked down at the knife, the
blade polished to a point where it flickered from the firelight above.

When her eyes finally rose up to look at Joseph, he
grinned.
 
“You can make this easy
for him.
 
All you have to do is cut
his throat, or stab him in the heart.
 
End his life for him quickly, or subject him to being ripped into four
pieces.

“No, Joseph – no I can’t do this.”
 
Her knees threatened to give out again,
and her head hurt from the pressure of the blood rushing through her
veins.
 
She felt like her heart
would stop, that she’d drop to the ground unable to move or scream, if she
couldn’t wake up from an event that was so horrible it couldn’t be real.

“No?
 
That’s
fine.
 
We’ll do it my way,
then.”
 
Lifting his hand again, he
snapped his fingers and the engines to the cars started in unison.
 
She couldn’t move, her jaw hanging
uselessly as she stood in shock.

The cars seemed to jump when they moved forward.
 
Slowly the slack in the chains decreased
while Connor fought to keep his head up so that he could look at Arianna.
 
Her hand went to her mouth, covering an
expression of absolute horror.
 
When
the chains lifted, Connor’s legs were forced out from beneath him, his body
elevated off the ground from the movement of the cars.
 
His face twisted, his jaw locked with
clenched teeth, and a scream tore from his throat when his appendages were
stretched taut and pulled out painfully from his body.

“STOP!!”
 
Her
throat was raw when she screamed, her eyes unable to focus from the burning
pain of her tears.
 
“Stop!
 
Joseph, you have to stop!”

Joseph snapped again and Emory yelled out a command in
response.
 
The cars stopped, the
white of their rear lights shining as they backed up and lowered Connor’s body
to the ground.
 
When he was down, he
writhed over the grass, extreme pain apparent by the way his muscles twitched
over his bones.

Finally, not having the strength to hold herself up any
longer, Arianna fell to the ground, her body folding over itself as she
fell.
 
Joseph knelt down beside her,
offering the knife to her, a man in supplication.
 
She eyed the knife warily, her eyes
sliding across the sharpened blade, her hands digging into the earth beneath
her.

“This is your choice, Arianna, but I’ll only allow you to
make it once.
 
I’ve stopped the
cars, I’ve done what you asked, but you must follow through with your part of
the bargain.
 
If you can’t do it
this time, I won’t stop the cars again.”

She reached out to take the knife from his hand.
 
She imagined slicing it across his
throat, or turning so quickly that the blade sank deeply into his heart,
slicing open the cold and bitter thing that beat in his chest.
 
But she couldn’t.
 
If she attacked him, he’d kill her and
her son would be left alone, raised by monsters, made into a monster himself.

As soon as her fingers had wrapped tightly around the
handle, Joseph grabbed her by her hair, forcing her ear to his mouth.
 
“Kill him for me, my love.
 
Prove to me that you prefer me to that
man.
 
I want to believe you didn’t
want to leave with him, I want to believe he’d forced you to leave.”

His insanity was proven beyond doubt.
 
Arianna knew from his words that he’d come
up with excuses, lies to protect his precious ego from her betrayal.
 
She’d known all along, but she didn’t
realize, could never have imagined, how depraved he’d become.

Pushing herself up from the ground, she walked slowly
towards Connor.
 
Her legs felt heavy
when she walked, her torso wanting to give out, allowing her to fold back over
to the ground, to ball up in protection from a waking nightmare.
 
When she approached Connor, his eyes
were clenched in pain, his face a stark white skin stretched taut over the
disfigured features of his face.
 
Dropping to her knees beside him, she fought against reaching out to
touch him, to provide him even a small amount of comfort in what she was about
to do.

Speaking low so that only he could hear her, she said, “I
love you, Connor.
 
I don’t want to
do this, but I can’t let you die the other way.” Her throat could barely move
and her words were broken by the quake of her body.
 

His eyes opened and his head turned so that he could look at
her.
 
Even though his jaw looked
like it was broken, he opened his mouth to talk, a single tear escaping his
eyes as he looked her over once more.
 
“You don’t have to do this.”
 
His words were spoken so quietly, so slowly, that she could barely hear
him.
 
“Lo…love you. Don’t let him…”
 
The blood coughed from his lungs caused
him to pause before he finished, “Don’t let him do this to you. I’m…I’m
sorry…for failing.”

Her chest felt like it ripped open from pain.
 
She could have plunged the knife in her
own body and would have hurt less than the emotions his words made her
feel.
 
Speaking through her tears,
she said, “You didn’t fail.
 
I know
you did everything you could.
 
I’m
not letting him do anything, Connor, I’m doing this because I love you and
because I can’t let him torture you any more.”

“Get on with it, Arianna!
 
We don’t have all night!”
 
A deep baritone, the accent of a rich
and powerful man, Joseph’s voice echoed across the field, louder than the engines
of the cars, or the murmured noises made by the other men.