**WARNING**
This first half of Chapter 24 has an R rating for an important reason. Out of everything I’ve written for Stolen Hearts and Love You Forever, this is the worst part of the entire story. This is where I reveal what happened to Robert and Georgie before they were released by the bastard. I think there have been enough clues by now that you know it was bad, and it is. What I’ve written is graphic and it will be difficult to read.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO READ IT. If you carry on with Part II in the PG 13 version of Love You Forever, you will learn everything you need to know about what happened.
PLEASE don’t read it if you are under the age of 18 or if you think it will be too disturbing or offensive.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
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Georgie’s muffled screams of agony and grief coming from behind the door of the flat were fading as she began to lose her voice. While everyone continued to stand around the hallway, Robert kept his eyes on the bastard, watching him carefully.
It slowly dawned on him what the bastard might be doing. Now that Georgie thought she’d lost Robert, the bastard was cruel enough to want to prolong her suffering by waiting to take her out of the flat. It was just as cruel as letting Robert believe he wasn’t going to honor the agreement and forcing him out of the flat without her. He felt a tiny spark of hope in his chest – the bastard might actually intend to follow through with the bargain.
After a hesitation, Robert asked, “How much longer?”
The bastard looked at him coldly, saying, “Put on your shoes and socks, Robert.” He did as he was told.
When it was completely silent in the flat, the bastard moved toward the door. As he passed Robert, he looked at him, his steely deep set eyes hard and cruel.
“You don’t move and you don’t make a sound. If she knows you’re here, you leave without her,” he said quietly, his voice malevolent.
Two guards pushed Robert further down the hallway and shoved him against a wall. They positioned themselves on either side of the hallway, one of them blocking Robert’s view of the door to the flat. He heard the locks being unlatched and the door opened.
The guard who’d gone in came out holding Georgie around her waist from behind, pinning her arms to her side. When she came into Robert’s view, she looked dreadful. Her hair was half pulled out of her braid, her shirt torn and hanging open. Her face was red and tearstained, her eyes wide with fear as they looked around wildly.
“What did she do?” the bastard asked.
“She tried to smash windows with the fireplace poker,” the guard said in heavily accented English and one of the other men whistled. Robert was grateful she’d been stopped. She could’ve been hurt by all that flying glass.
The man let go of Georgie and she staggered a little until she saw the bastard in front of her and then became very still. She cowered in front of him with her head hanging, her body hunched over, trembling with fear. The bastard snapped his fingers at her as if she were a dog he was giving a command to and Georgie automatically stepped forward. She sank to her knees in front of him and began undoing the buckle on his belt with shaking hands.
It suddenly felt like all the oxygen in the hallway had been sucked out and the atmosphere became charged. Robert knew he wasn’t the only one who’d momentarily stopped breathing. It was clear the guards weren’t expecting to see what was about to happen. Most of them were able to hide their shock, but not all of them.
Robert felt equal measures of intense rage and horror watching Georgie unfasten his trousers, hardly believing what the bastard was going to make her do, how he was going to degrade her in front of all of them. It made him sick to his stomach knowing this was how she’d been treated behind closed doors, that this was one of the things he’d forced her to do. Then he noticed the bastard was looking right at him, his smug smile firmly in place, enjoying the look on Robert’s face.
The bastard broke eye contact with Robert and looked down at Georgie. She’d opened his trousers and slipped her fingers over the waistband of his boxers to pull them down when he stopped her. He pulled her chin up and spoke to her softly in French, almost lovingly, making Robert feel even more sick to his stomach.
Georgie looked at him with confusion and fear, then quickly fastened his trousers and belt, her hands fumbling because they were shaking so much. He pulled on her hand, making her stand up and had her go back to the center of the hallway where she stood, stooped and trembling before him.
He barked something at her in a commanding voice and she looked up at him. Then her face crumpled as she slowly looked at the men all around her, not seeing Robert. She began sobbing and started pulling at her torn shirt, fumbling to undo the remaining buttons with shaking fingers.
As Robert watched her slowly pull off her shirt, he felt his entire body seize up and he could no longer breathe, finally understanding what was about to happen. Georgie was going to be raped – repeatedly – by the men – and he was going to be forced to watch.
He couldn’t stand back and let that happen to her, he thought frantically. He couldn’t let them hurt her like that. He had to stop this. He stepped away from the wall to start to go to her, but the two guards standing on opposite sides of the hallway with him moved at the same time. Robert froze, focusing on the guard directly in front of him. The man looked at him with hard eyes, tensed and eager to take him on.
Robert quickly looked at the other guard to size him up, but he wasn’t looking at Robert, he was looking at the first guard. When he noticed Robert looking at him, he met his eyes but it wasn’t with a hard gaze, he looked alarmed. He shook his head at Robert, but it was so slight Robert got the impression he didn’t want anyone else to notice. Robert understood the warning. If he tried to stop this he’d be held by the guards while it happened anyway, then be forced to leave without her.
It was his worst nightmare come true. He’d suspected the bastard might do this before he was released and now it was actually happening. He frantically tried to think of what he should do. He couldn’t stand by while she was being hurt, but he couldn’t leave her behind. What would the bastard do to her while he desperately tried to find her? Would he be able to find her? He realized he had no choice.
He stepped back and leaned against the wall, covering his mouth with both hands, trying not to make any noise as he started crying, watching Georgie sob as she slowly pushed down her skirt with trembling hands. When she was finished taking off her clothes, she stood stooped and sobbing, her entire body shaking. Some of the guards leered at her, but some wouldn’t look, including the guard opposite Robert. It was terrible to see her standing there naked and completely vulnerable, trembling with fear, unable to do anything to help her as she faced this nightmare alone.
The bastard threw a bundle of grey clothing at her that fell to the floor before she could catch it. He barked another command at her and she bent over to pick it up, but she was trembling so badly she lost her balance and fell. She sat on the floor sobbing as she picked up something from the bundle with shaking hands.
As she smoothed it out, Robert could see it was a plain grey hooded sweatshirt. She turned the sweatshirt round and round as she sobbed and he realized she was trying to figure out which way it went to put on. His legs nearly gave out as a wave of tremendous relief suddenly washed through him. She wasn’t going to be raped. She was getting dressed in different clothes before she left with him.
After a minute, Georgie still couldn’t figure out which way the sweatshirt went and the bastard lost his patience. He walked up to her, swearing at her in French while she looked up at him, her eyes wide with fear. Then before Robert realized what was happening, the bastard hit her hard on the side of her head, knocking her to the floor as she cried out in pain. It took every bit of strength Robert had to stay against the wall and not rush to her to try and protect her.
Georgie immediately sat up and picked up the sweatshirt with shaking hands, desperate to put it on but the bastard grabbed her by the hair and wrenched her head back. He shouted at her as he held his fist in front of her face and shook her by her hair. She cried and begged him in French with her eyes squeezed shut while he continued to shout at her. He let go of her with a push and she cowered on the floor, crying loudly as he walked away. Even though Robert tried not to, he was crying louder than he should but Georgie’s loud cries were drowning his out.
The bastard said something to the men, and one of the guards, a big beefy man with close shaved hair, stepped out of a group and started walking towards her, with his back to Robert. When Georgie saw him, she suddenly stopped crying and her eyes went wide with terror. He knelt down in front of her and she shrank from him. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to him sharply, then took the sweatshirt from her. He pushed it hard over her head and pulled her arms through the sleeves roughly, not caring if he hurt her.
Then he shoved her backwards so hard, Robert heard her head hit the floor. He grabbed her legs behind the knees and pulled them apart as he dragged her towards him so that he was kneeling between them, making the sweatshirt ride up to just under her breasts. He leaned over Georgie and she suddenly became very still, so still that Robert wasn’t sure she was breathing anymore. He pushed up the sweatshirt, exposing her breasts.
Oh God, oh, God, oh, God! Robert pressed his hands tighter over his mouth, trying not to cry out as he realized it was going to happen. It was going to happen – and he was going to be forced to watch.
Some of the guards suddenly whooped with excitement but the bastard shouted them down and it became completely silent in the hallway. The man practically fell on Georgie when he laid on her and Robert heard her wheeze as the air was forced out of her lungs. He was so big and heavy, and she looked so small and vulnerable lying underneath him, Robert feared her bones were going to be crushed. He roughly kissed her and squeezed her breasts with his hands, grinding himself between her legs.
It was too horrific. Robert couldn’t bear to watch her being hurt like that. When he looked away, his eyes landed on the bastard. He was looking right at Robert and the look on his face let Robert know – he’d done it this way on purpose, drawing it out to torture him more. This was payback for what he’d been cheated out of in that room.
An intense murderous rage burned through Robert as he glared at him and a smug smile slowly spread across the bastard’s face, clearly enjoying Robert’s reaction. When he saw how much satisfaction the bastard was getting, Robert was filled with a firm determination – he wouldn’t be the sick bastard’s victim, and he wouldn’t leave Georgie all alone while she was being raped.
When he looked back at Georgie, the guard was kneeling between her legs again. He opened his trousers and pulled them down, exposing himself. He laid on her and pushed into her with a loud grunt. Then the only sound in the hallway was his grunting and heavy breathing. Many of the guards looked on with excited leers, enjoying what was happening.
He was thrusting hard while Georgie laid completely limp underneath him, her body jerking on the floor. As she was moving, her head slowly turned towards Robert, the look on her face horrifying him, the image searing itself in his mind. Her vivid blue eyes were wide, staring blankly ahead at nothing, her pale face was completely free of expression. She looked like she was dead.
Then Robert heard a small voice in his head say, “She’s not suffering anymore, she’s in a safe place. You don’t have to watch.”
After a hesitation, he turned around, feeling strangely comforted. He leaned against the wall with his eyes closed, telling himself, ‘She’s not suffering,’ over and over and it helped make the horrible image go away while he waited for it to end.
After a while, he sensed the energy in the hallway had changed and he knew it was over. He turned back and saw the man kneeling between Georgie’s legs with his trousers fastened. He was pushing the sweatpants up each of her limp legs while she laid completely still, her eyes wide and staring unseeing at the ceiling. He lifted her off the floor by her waist and roughly pushed the sweatpants up too far, as if he was hoping to cause her more pain by violating her further.
Then he stood up, hugging her to his chest so she came up with him and set her down on her feet. He let go of her and walked away, grinning at the other guards like he’d just won some kind of fucking game. Georgie swayed slightly but managed to remain standing, staring blankly ahead. The bastard walked up to her and shoved a pale blue rucksack at her. She hugged it to her chest blindly.
“You can have her now, if you still want her,” he said coldly, not bothering to look at Robert when he said it.
Robert didn’t hesitate to shove past the guards and go to her. The bastard walked away from her as Robert approached, and as soon as he was close enough he lunged forward, the rage exploding out of him. He grabbed onto the front of the bastard’s jacket and pulled back his arm to punch him. The bastard grabbed onto the neck of Robert’s t-shirt in a desperate attempt to push him away, but was only able to keep him at arms length.
As Robert thrust his arm forward, his fist was aimed directly at the bastard’s nose, and he knew he was going to break it. And he would’ve – except that hands grabbed onto him almost immediately. They couldn’t stop his momentum but they moved his arm enough that his knuckles only grazed the bastard’s cheek.
Both his arms were being held by then and he couldn’t attempt another punch, but his legs were free and he kicked out as hard as he could. But by then, more guards had reached them and both he and the bastard were being pulled away from each other at the same time, making his feet miss the bastard by mere inches.
“Let me go, you fucking wankers! Let me go!” Robert screamed as he thrashed his body and kicked out violently in a desperate attempt to free himself. “I’m going to fucking kill you, you sick bastard! I’m going to fucking kill you for what you’ve done to her!”
The bastard struggled, shrugging off the guards who were holding him. Once free, he stood with his hair falling in his face and his clothes disheveled, breathing heavily and glaring at Robert like he wanted to kill him too. After a minute, he slowly straightened his spine, seeming to calm himself as he ran his hands through his hair to smooth it back in place. His face was almost free of expression while he fixed his clothing, but his steely deep set eyes blazed as he looked at Robert.
“Why, Robert. I had no idea you had such passion in you,” he said smoothly in a cold voice. “I must say, you’ve been a bit of a disappointment. Quite the boring guest. But I suggest you calm down unless you want to leave here without her.”
Robert forced himself to be still in the guards’ hands as he glared at the bastard, but he was still going to fucking kill him if given half a chance.
“I want you to listen, and listen carefully,” the bastard continued coldly. “I’m honoring my part of our little agreement, but I want to remind you that you still have your part to honor.” Then he came closer to Robert but stayed out of kicking range, his steely deep set eyes boring into him.
“I’m warning you, if you tell anyone what’s happened, I will know long before the authorities reach me. And then – you will lose her,” he said, his voice suddenly low and menacing.
“Oh, no. I won’t kill her,” he said as if he was answering a question. “It will be far worse for her than that. And I promise – you will never see her again,” he finished quietly as Robert continued to glare at him.
“I know what you’re thinking – you’ll keep her safe, get police protection for her, or try to hide her from me. But if I can’t get to her – you will lose someone else. Maybe I’ll take your mother – or your father.” Robert was suddenly finding it difficult to breathe as the rage drained away and terror began to take over.
“Or perhaps not – perhaps one of your sisters. The younger one – Elizabeth, isn’t it? She’s quite lovely. I could have a lot of fun with her,” he said lightly, making Robert’s blood run cold.
“But maybe not her, maybe one of your friends. That one who works building houses perhaps. A big handsome young man like him is worth a lot in some circles.” Robert fought to breathe as he continued to stare at him with horror.
“But I promise you, you will lose someone. Someone you care about, someone you will never see again, someone who will wish they were dead. So I recommend you keep that in mind when you get home.”
Then he suddenly turned his back to Robert and barked out a command in French. He began walking down the hallway surrounded by some of the guards leaving Robert and Georgie behind with the rest.
Georgie was still staring blankly ahead as she stood in the middle of the hallway, swaying slightly and hugging her rucksack. Robert began struggling, trying to break free from the firm hold the guards had on him, desperate to go to her.