Collectively, this group of families called themselves ‘The Clan’. To reduce the possibility of detection, they broke up into cells, each cell worked in concert with the others. The men’s families had formed a cell together. The clan had always been persecuted.
One enemy that turned out to be incredibly effective, was an overly zealous District Attorney, and his equally zealous wife. She was the governor of the state. With all of the power of the state and federal government at their disposal they launched an all out war on the clan. Little by little they destroyed the group. Riley’s father, Angus’ brother, Josh’s parents, Jimmy’s cousin, Scott’s two uncles, all ended-up in prison.
His wife already dead, Riley’s father had taken his own life. Mysterious ‘accidents’ killed off the other imprisoned clan members.
The men had decided to fight back. They attacked the district attorney, his wife and the family. But somehow Jessica had survived the attack. So the men brought home a prize and a new plan. It was simple, make the child of their enemy suffer, break her spirit, make her yield to their every command, and through her humiliation have her repay the debt that her parents owed. They had expected to eventually kill her, let her parents spin around in their graves. But taking Jessica home had its consequences.
Other family groupings within the clan had taken issue with the fact that the men had taken a prisoner. They demanded that she be released, or killed, immediately. They argued that she was a liability. Neither option was acceptable to the men. So, they distanced themselves from the clan. They made it very clear that the members of the clan, were no longer welcome at their home, neither personally or professionally. All business was to be conducted at a neutral site.
So, not only did they lose their family, but even their remaining friends. Just remembering what her parents had done to the clan made his blood boil.
“And do you know what Jessica … when you atone for their sins, I get my rocks off!”
She bit down hard on his hand.
“Damn it!” Angus mumbled. He pushed himself up onto his knees, straddling her. “A fucking year later and you still haven’t learned a thing!” He muttered.
She tried to roll over and curl into a ball. The handcuff chafed her left wrist. She shivered.
“Don’t think so,” he said as he grabbed her arm and tried to turn her onto her back. She fought as much as she could, but he soon pinned her right arm above her head, forced himself between her legs and rammed his way into her as forcefully as he could.
The physical assault over, Angus slid off of her. She rolled onto her side again, drew her legs to her chest and waited for the verbal assault that always followed. She closed her eyes and waited to hear all of the cruel things he’d say about her family, about her, but it never came.
Something soft dropped onto her and she flinched before she realized that it was a blanket. She welcomed the warmth, but she couldn’t accept it. If she accepted this … they would win. He would win. Out of the five of them, she hated Angus the most. The feeling seemed to be mutual, and as she kicked the blanket off, she prepared herself for his wrath.
Why couldn’t she just be weak like the rest of them? Angus wondered. His mother had folded with far less than this. A mere threat to go to jail had made it alright for her to sell her friends and family down the river. And Beth.
He didn’t know who was worse, his chicken shit mother or his two timing whore of an ex-girlfriend. Angus flinched as a memory he thought he’d pushed from his mind for good, came back in vivid detail. Beth, with her ultimate betrayal … a betrayal that made cheating on him pale in comparison by so much that it was practically meaningless.
He now knew the answer. Between Beth and his mom, Beth was by far the worse.
He pushed it from memory. He would not think of it again! He felt like vomiting. He was just relieved that only a few people knew the details of what Beth had done. He wouldn’t have been able to handle the humiliation of others knowing.
But he could make himself feel better. He could drive the humiliation away by taking all his anger out on Jessica.
“Suit yourself,” he said. The contempt in his voice made every hair on her body stand on end. “But I think you know what you’ll have to do to get it back …” He ran his hand along the back of her leg.
She moved her leg. He grabbed her ankle, she jerked it away. As he flipped Jessica onto her back and dragged her toward him by her ankles, Lisa knew by the look on Angus’ face that resistance was futile. But she didn’t care. She had to find a way, but how? He held her legs firmly in his hands, her hands were bound by handcuffs. Her father’s words to her, the words that had sustained her through this all, came back to her. ‘Remember Tiger, in everything, there is an opportunity, it’s up to you to find it.’.
She brought her head back and saw blood flowing from his nose. He looked surprised for only a moment. She barely noticed the throbbing in her forehead … she’d used it often enough now to defend herself, but she still hadn’t gotten used to the stars and pain that accompanied the punches Angus landed on her face. She lay dazed and barely felt Angus’ thrusts into her. She felt proud of herself. She had made him bleed, and the more she could hurt him and the others, the more she lived up to the vow she had made to her family when she’d first come to this God forsaken place.
A pang of guilt nearly brought her to tears. In her mind’s eye, she could see Jeffrey’s face again as he was yelling “Shoot … Lisa, shoot!” Thirteen out of the twenty-one years of her life at that point had been spent on the firing range, she knew guns like she knew her own hands, but when it had been most important, she had failed.
In the next instant, her brother was dead. They were all dead. Everyone but her, and she had let it happen.
When her family’s killers had brought her back here, she had vowed to get even. Not only to relieve her guilt, but she had known about these kinds of people for her whole life. Her parents had told her and her brothers over and over again that the people who would use terror to hold a nation captive, needed to be dealt with swiftly and forcefully. Her parents had made it their life work to do just that, and died because of it. The least she could do was to see their crusade completed. Guilt was quickly replaced with frustration. She had failed in her goal. She had been in this awful place, with these awful men, for the past year. And she had never escaped further then their front door, never harmed them more than some superficial wounds. As Angus rolled off of her and shoved her to the side, she turned on her side and pulled her knees to her chest again. She closed her eyes and cringed. Something had to change. She had to try something new, but she couldn’t think what that would be.
“I bet they’re rolling over in their graves right now,” Angus said from beside her and laughed. “I thought that killing your asshole parents would be the best feeling ever …” he continued, “but you … “ he said rolling her onto her back and taking her breast in his hand, “you’re a gift that keeps on giving.”
She hated him. If she had a gun right then, she would not hesitate to blow his head off. For the moment she had to settle for something much more benign. She summoned up as much phlegm as she could and took aim. She was pleased to see it hit him square in the face.
“You little ….!” he yelled as it splattered over his face. He clenched his fist around her breast and was rewarded with her scream. “This is going to be a long night Princess … hope you’ve caught up on your zzzs …”.
Jimmy choked as coffee came out his nose. Angus had dragged, what looked like a car crash survivor, into the living room on the harness and leash. She sank to the floor cautiously, as if every bit of her hurt. If the rest of her body looked like her face … which he was sure it did … she must have spent the night as Angus’ punching bag, again.
Despite the fact that she went out of her way to egg Angus on, he hadn’t beaten her this badly in a while. When he saw Angus’ face, he knew why. His nose was swollen and a large gash swallowed its bridge. Jimmy felt his heart sink. There had been a week or two of relative calm … blissful calm. He no longer had the stomach for the constant fighting, crying. He saw the same stunned looks on Scott and Josh’s faces. They sat around the table with him.
“Rough night?” Riley asked Angus as he closed the basement door behind him and stood looking at Jessica.
“Yeah, I didn’t get much sleep. I think I wore her down a little for you though … I doubt she’ll be spitting on you much tonight. Hey Jessica … will you?” he sneered at Jessica and tugged on her leash. She flinched, but Riley wasn’t sure if it was from the pain or her continued defiance over the name they’d given her. She knew now that it was in her best interest to respond to the name Jessica, but she certainly didn’t like it.
“Spat at you … “ Riley said more to himself than Angus. He stared at her bowed head. Well, the girl had gumption. She had yet to win the war, but she had won a few battles. Her victories had always been short lived … revenge was the name of their game, and it was revenge they always got … but he had to give her credit for never caving under it. Well, maybe this time she would.
“Riley … “ Jim interrupted. He had been watching Jessica and saw in her expression something he knew all too well. It made his blood run cold. For the first time ever, she looked dejected. He had become an expert at reading that look, telling when people had reached the end of their rope . He’d missed it with his sister … recognizing it for what it was only after she’d killed herself, but he learned quickly to see it in the enemies that he and the men broke. It signaled the time that they would have their final victory … the enemy left in a room with a handgun and a single bullet … that wasn’t something he wanted Jessica to do. He liked her. And although the others didn’t admit it, even to themselves, they liked her to. They’d kidnapped many enemies over the years, and none of them had stayed with them for more than a few days. None of them had so much as sneezed in Angus’ direction without getting a bullet to the head. Even before he began having sex with Jessica, Angus had not killed Jessica … to Jim that spoke volumes.
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