The Deception series boxset: FaCade, Cadence, Beneath Innocence (12 page)

My eyes pinched closed. I didn’t want to feel anyone over me ever again. I would not admit the longing in my chest, though, for him to hold me while I cried a stream of broken tears into him.

I dug my nail into the flesh at the top of my thigh. The sharp sting wasn’t as startling anymore. This was the fourteenth indent on my thigh - to count the times the sun had risen while I had been in that room. The outside world was blocked by heavy wooden shutters on the window but the light bled through the cracks just enough to tell me it was day.

My limbs were sore, a weird contradiction to the fact I hadn’t used the muscles in them for two weeks. I was on bed rest, a tube inserted to feed me for the first week because my mouth couldn’t open; medicine in a drip to make me drowsy and sleep nearly the entire time.

Dante, Mr. Troy, would visit me in my sleepy state, staring at me, clenching his fists. It should have scared me but it didn’t, it helped take away the nightmares of that wretched little man touching me. Malik hadn’t been permitted to enter the room. I had seen no one and now the walls were closing in on me, cabin fever playing with my mind, my eyesight. I yearned to see and feel the sun. I wanted to feel the warmth cradle me in its embrace.

I turned to the door when I heard footsteps approach. The handle gave way to Dante pushing through the door. He stopped his approach when he saw I was out of bed. He stood there staring at me, making me fidget. I looked down at the gown I was wearing to make sure I wasn’t showing any skin to warrant his eyes on me.

“Hey,” I awkwardly said, raising a hand before quickly lowering it.

“Do you know who I am?” What kind of question was that? Shit, was this a test, did he know I knew his first name now?

“Mr. Troy,” I answered meekly. His eyes flashed with something I couldn’t decipher. My stomach began its usual nervous flutter. “Dante,” I whispered.

He exhaled and rushed towards me, bundling me up in a bear hug. The restraint from his tight grip made breathing impossible. “You remember. Oh baby, you remember.”

Dreaming, I had to be dreaming. Damn these vivid dreams.

His grasp loosened, moving from my back to clasp my face. His lips kissed mine. “You remember.” It wasn’t a question and the hope in his voice left me completely confused.

My stone posture must have given away the fact I was lost. He stopped his gentle kisses to search my eyes. The door opened again. A female entered. I was hallucinating or dreaming; there wasn’t another explanation.

“She still doesn’t remember.” His words were choked.

“Give her a few more days, Dante.”

His posture emanated fury as he turned to her, his body rigid and almost vibrating. “It’s been two fucking weeks, Delia!”

What was happening?

“Hello, Star. Can you tell me if you recognize me?”

I looked over the woman. She was attractive, in her thirties if I’d had to guess. She was shorter than me by a couple of inches but her high stilettos gave her extra height. Brown hair was pulled neatly back and placed in low bun. She wore a pencil skirt, and a white doctor’s coat open to reveal a satin blouse. She was completely foreign to me with no feeling of familiarity. “No,” I uttered.

Her head dropped to a folder in her hands that I hadn’t noticed she was holding. “Okay, well my name is Delia; we are actually friends, Star.” She smiled like that was all it would take for me to be fine with her statement. “I’m going to have Malik bring you some clothes to pop on and then me and Dante will be back to talk to you.”

What the hell?

Moments later I was left on my own again to wonder if that all really took place. Malik entered with a knock to alert me to his presence. Why was everyone acting all civilized all of a sudden? He smiled over at me, placing some jeans and a tee on the bed without a word and then leaving again.

I immediately went to the clothes and ran to the bathroom to put them on. It was such a small thing we all take for granted but to be in normal clothes made me feel human again. The fit was perfect although the items weren’t new. It was as if they were bought specifically for my dimensions.

I was wary of the whole change in everything. This beautiful room such a contrast to the cell I’d lived in before the assault. Was it all to lead me into a false sense of security? Before I could let my mind drive me anymore crazy I heard people re-enter the bedroom.

Cautiously I slipped out of the bathroom. The hairs on the back of my neck rose like a wild cat’s in the outback, preparing itself, when Dante stood stock still, penetrating me with his eyes, flanked by Delia.

“Star, would you mind coming with us please?” the woman asked.

I flicked my gaze between the two. “Where?” My nerves were going to kill me. I could feel my heart’s slow thud echo through my body as if I was hollow, taunting me to the emptiness inside me.

“Just to another room where we can all sit.”

Okay, that didn’t sound too horrifying unless it was a ruse. Dante turned and exited the room first. Delia gestured for me to following behind him.

We were in a house, the dark wooden theme from the bedroom continuing throughout the entire mass structure. How was it possible that this and my previous prison was the same place? Sensing my thoughts Dante’s baritone voice punctured the air. “You were moved when you fell unconscious. This is our house.”

Ours? Did he mean his and Delia’s? Was he married? Oh God, I felt sicker than ever before.

The hall we were currently passing through opened up into a beautiful living space, a mass of seating choice with a beautiful wooden desk and bookshelves adorning the entire back wall. The neutral colors gave the place an airy feel and for the first time since waking in that cell with no memory, I was looking at a window with rays from the sun dancing through the open blinds. It was like a child first seeing the ocean.

My steps carried me in its direction, summoning me to embrace its touch. It travelled over my feet then up my legs, waist and chest before heating my face. Closing my eyes, I felt the tears prick my lashes. All I was capable of in that moment was inhaling and exhaling, breathing as my body rejoiced in something so simple.

“Star, come and sit, we have a lot to discuss.” I swallowed down the sorrow, mourning the light as the shadows dispersed its glow when I moved into the room to sit at a table with them both. “As I mentioned before my name is Delia, and I consider myself a friend of yours.” I didn’t speak, just stared straight at her waiting for what more she would tell me. However I wasn’t prepared for her next confession. “I work for your fiancé.”

Cue the stampede of horses trampling all over my insides. The room dropped out of focus but flooded back in when Dante’s hand reached across the table to grasp mine. In slow motion my head turned to him. He was… smiling at me.

“Dante and you asked me to assist you both in a project.”

“Fantasy,” Dante cut in.

She grinned at him before continuing. “A fantasy, you had, Star.”

The buzzing in my ears grew with intensity. She wasn’t making sense. Nothing made sense.

“Baby.” Flinching from his endearment, I snatched my hand away to cradle it to my chest. My eyes frantically searched them both, begging for them to stop talking in riddles. “The drugs that keep your memory were supposed to wear off but for some reason we’re not quite sure of yet, yours hasn’t.” They drugged me to steal my memories? Was that possible? “My company made a drug to suppress memories. It’s used for victims of violent crimes. To help them heal, come to terms slowly with what happened to them. The drug wears off, feeding your memory back little by little.”

I couldn’t comprehend what I was hearing. They used a drug meant for helping victims of violent crimes, to commit a violent crime. I must have voiced my thoughts because Delia answered me

“Dante is your fiancé, Star. He loves you immensely and finally gave into
your
desires to play out this fantasy.”

No, no, no Dante and me? No. No! “You’re lying! Who would ever want that? I was kidnapped, humiliated, hit, starved of basic human affection until I craved it. I was RAPED!” The scream tore at the tendons in my throat.

Fury rolled from Dante, physically altering the air around us. “That was never supposed to happen. He was your choice, you trusted him, Star! I knew his woman was interested in me but you trusted that man with everything. I will never forgive myself for such a dramatic lapse in judgment and he paid for it. No one touches what belongs to me and I know you can’t remember this right now but you do belong to me, Star. I need you back. So look real deep inside that heart of yours and you’ll feel me there. Your body already accepts this otherwise you would have never given yourself to me.”

This was all too surreal. I couldn’t stand them looking at me like they were waiting for me to click my fingers and suddenly believe what they were telling me.

My eyes scanned the room, anything to not look at him waiting with need for me to tell him … what? I stood with haste, almost knocking my chair over when my eyes came to rest on a huge picture I hadn’t noticed when I first entered the room, too enthralled with the sun. It was me laying on a beach with…Dante. The smile on my face was natural. I looked happy, in love.

My legs backed up. It wasn’t until a wall met my back and I slowly slid down until my knees rose to my chest, my arms wrapping around them, that my mind caught up with my shock. This wasn’t true, this wasn’t me. This wasn’t real.

A THOUSAND ICE PELLETS HIT me, robbing me of breath and making my skin shrivel in agony. My clothes were instantly drenched and stuck to me like a second skin. My startled scream echoed around the shower cubicle I stood in. The ice pellets turned to warm rain, tapping over my skin. It was then I realized I was actually being held. Strong, arms encompassed my waist and chest, the heat from his body pushed against my back, soothing me.

Breathing in my ear brought me down from the shock I was in. “I’m sorry but you went catatonic, you weren’t responding.” His arms loosened so I could turn to face him. His expression was full of both pain and anger, his need for me to understand almost suffocating me. “I’m so sorry, baby. I never wanted to go through with this. It was too extreme but it was a fantasy you had and I promised to make every fantasy come true leading up to the biggest one of all. Our wedding.”