Pictured: Cole
Song: Mountains by Message To Bears
"Why are you in here?" I hear a voice ask, and my eyes open. I stare up into the soft brown eyes of who I assume must be Cole.
I rise, blinking away the sleep and look at him confused. "This is where I sleep."
He lets out a little laugh. "No, I was talking to Boss. It's my day, not his."
I gasp, turning over to shake Boss awake. "Hey, wake up, Lug Nut," I exclaim after shaking him for a good thirty seconds. He doesn't budge. The most I get out of him is a soft groan.
"He's always been a heavy sleeper. Why was he in here?" He asks me.
"We were just talking about some stuff and I guess we fell asleep," I reply, casually.
"Oh," he says. "OK, well get dressed and we can go."
I give him a confused look. "Go where?"
He shrugs. "We are in the mountains, and I'm the only one here who likes to hike. You're my hiking buddy for the day."
"Are you serious?" I ask. "You know that that is basically a perfect opportunity for me to run, right?"
He scoffs. "Not if I bring a gun," he says, tapping his pocket.
My eyes grow wide. "Noted."
Jesus Chris, I am going to die today.
"I'll be waiting in the hall. Go get dressed."
I take a quick shower, brush my teeth, throw my hair into a bun, slip a t-shirt and some knee-high yoga pants on along with a pair of sneakers, and then wrap my wrist which is hardly sore anymore, thankfully. As I open the bathroom door and begin to walk out, I am quickly shoved back in by someone. I gasp. The door closes and I am pinned against a wall. My heart is pounding, but as I glance up, I see that it is just Boss. "Oh, hi," I say.
"Hi," he quickly says before his lips crash down onto mine. I am surprised, but I don't hesitate to kiss him back. He kisses me frantically and I begin to lose my breath. I feel his hands against my ass and he lifts me up with ease, pressing himself into me as I wrap my legs around him.
As the kiss slows, I am able to speak a little. "Isn't this against the rules?" I ask.
As the words leave my mouth, I feel his hand wrap around my throat, completely pinning me to the wall. "Fuck the rules. You're mine," he whispers the words against my lips, and I feel my body go limp against his.
After several long minutes of being driven to the edge by just Boss's lips and his soft-core touches, he pulls away, and I take in a deep breath. "Wow," I exclaim after catching my breath. "Are you always like this in the morning?"
He laughs, still a little breathless, and places me back on my feet. "Only when I get to sleep by my baby girl the night before," he says right before giving me a little peck on the lips. When he pulls away, he stares down into my eyes. "Be good today."
I nod, playing along with his apparent BDSM obsession. "Yes sir."
He smiles down at me. "You're a natural at submission."
I shrug. "Guess I've just been secretly submissive and even I haven't noticed until now."
He continues to gaze into my eyes as his large hand brushes a few strands of hair from my delicate shoulder. I close my eyes and shiver at the slightest brush of his fingers. He lets out a shaky breath before speaking. "You are so perfect, Angel."
I keep my eyes closed, focused on feeling only him in this moment and a quiet breathy laugh escapes my throat. "You're crazy. I'm so damaged."
When my eyes open and I glance up at Boss, he stares down at me intently with a puzzled expression. "How are you damaged?" He finally asks.
I chew my lip for a moment before replying. I'm not a big fan of reliving my past. "I don't know. I guess because my mother didn't even want me from the start, and my father never loved me enough to put down the bottle. Plus, what little experience I do have with relationships is shit. I can't tell you how many guys have cheated on me. I've been tossed aside since I was born. I don't know what is wrong with me. I just know that there is. I'm almost 20 years old, and I haven't heard an I love you from anyone since my grandma died when I was 10."
I see Boss glance down for a moment. His jaw flexes, and he seems to be thinking of how to respond. When his eyes meet mine again, he speaks in a very serious tone. "I don't think I've ever really loved anyone before. I don't know why. I don't think I'm good at that kind of stuff." Boss brings his face down to mine, and I see the flecks of gold and green in his eyes. "I really want to try to be good at it for you, though."
What is he insinuating? That he loves me? Or that he at least wants to try?
Before I can really piece a response together, his lips press to mine, and he gives me the most tender and passionate kiss that I have ever experienced. After minutes of drinking each other in and closing out the rest of the world, our lips part and I can't help but smile up at him. "It doesn't feel like your bad at this at all."
"You make it easy."
He grins down at me and a knock sounds from the other side of the door. "Are you guys showering together or something? Boss, this is so against the rules. We gotta get going."
"Go away, Cole!" He shouts.
Cole opens the door. He grins at Boss. "Actually, I should be telling you to go away." He pauses. "But I'm not. I'm just here to take this lovely lady from you."
I see Boss's face begin to redden, but he doesn't respond to him. Instead, he looks over at me. "Tomorrow is my day again. I'll be in here at midnight."
I nod, and then follow Cole out the door. "You ready for some mountain trails?" He asks, grabbing a couple of paper sacks from the table.
I nod. "Yea, are those sacks what you keep all your ammo for the gun in?" I ask, jokingly.
He snorts. "Yea, I've got plenty of bullets to keep you from getting away, so watch it."
"So, you're not just taking me out in to the woods to put me down like Old Yeller, right?"
"Damn, you've discovered my master plan. How do you do it, Anette?"
I glance over at him, realizing that he actually called me by my last name. "What is your last name?" I ask, curiously.
"Montague," he replies.
"Oh, Romeo," I say, wiggling my eyebrows.
He glances over me, confused. "Huh?"
I laugh, staring at him is disbelief. "How have you grown up with the last name Montague and you don't that know it's Romeo's last name from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?"
He scoffs. "Because I'm obviously not as much of a nerd as you."
I roll my eyes and fight back a smile. Cole is cool. I was terrified that he would be another Damian, but so far, he's nice.
"So, do you take all of the girls hiking?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "Nope. You're the first."
We walk slowly, entering the woods deeper and deeper. A warm breeze rustles the leaves in the tree tops, and I take a deep breath, breathing in the fresh air. "It feels amazing to be outside. Why am I the first?"
I glance over and Cole seems to be a bit more tense than previously. "Because of Sage."
I stare at him, confused. "Sage? Like, the herb?"
He laughs, shaking his head. "No, not like the herb. Like the last girl that we kidnapped for ransom."
"Why do I get to come outside because of Sage the girl, not the herb, then?" I ask, messing with him.
He clears his throat. "I promised her that if we ever did what we did to her to another girl that I would take her to do something fun every week that I had her."
I slow to a stop. Cole doesn't notice at first, but when he does, he stops and turns to me. "Something wrong?" He asks.
I study him for a moment. "Was she special to you, Cole?"
The smile falls from his face, and I see his shoulders slump slightly. "Sage was-" He trails off for a moment. "Sage was the smartest and most courageous woman I have ever met. She was the highlight of every day to me. I would always sneak around to try and see her, even when it wasn't my day. That's why I really didn't care that Boss took up some of my time with you today. He didn't really care to know Sage, and he let me have his days. He's been like that with pretty much every girl except for you."
My heart skips a beat at his words. Am I really the only girl that Boss has even had an interest in? I shake the thought from my head. "Wait, this is about Sage. What happened to her?"
He shifts his weight from one foot to the other and shoves his hands into his pockets. "You remind me a lot of her. Not just your personality, but she had a piece of shit father, too. No one would pay her ransom, and no matter how much I loved her, she could never return the feeling and be happy just being with me."
I nod. "OK, so why isn't she here anymore?" I ask.
Cole lets out a deep, heavy sigh. "It was the first time I had ever been intimate with her- or anybody for that matter. Closer to the end, I told her that I loved her for the first time. I just knew she was going to say it back, but instead, she looked up at me, and she told me that if I loved her, I'd let her go. After we finished, I helped her pack, we said goodbye, and the guys damn near murdered me the next morning. It's funny how that old saying goes. If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it's yours forever. It's been a month and she hasn't tried to contact me, yet. I'm starting to think that she never will."
Cole stands there, staring off into the forest. Another gust of wind blows through, tasseling his golden brown hair, but he doesn't budge. I close the distance between us, suddenly, wrapping my arms around him. "Don't give up on her," I say, resting my head on his shoulder.
He lets out a shaky laugh. and squeezes me before quickly pulling away. "You ready to get moving again, Anette?" He asks.
I smile at him. "Let's go, Romeo."
We come to the base of an enormous mountain. "We are gonna climb that?" I ask, instantly intimidated.
He grins at me with bright eyes. "Oh yea. Let's go."
"I thought that I would die today from you turning out to be a psychopath and shooting me. I was wrong. I'm going to die falling off this mountain."
We begin climbing, and just half of the way up, my body is already growing tired. "I thought you said you told Sage that we would do something fun," I say panting.
I hear him laugh from above me. "Shut up, brat. You're outside. Enjoy it."
Once we reach the top, I collapse into the grass. "I beat you!" I yell to the mountain. "I freaking win!"
Cole stands at the edge of the mountain top and throws his fists in the air. "Whoo!" He yells. His voice bounces back to us as an echo. He turns to me and his eyes light up. "Alright, lets eat."
"Now you're speaking my language," I reply, shoving myself up off of the ground.
He slides his backpack off and sits on the ground. He pulls a blue blanket out after unzipping it, and he spreads the blanket over the flattest area that he can find. I help him straighten it out, and then he tosses me my bag of food. "Thanks," I say.
"No problem. Hope you like turkey."
"That's my favorite," I say, pulling my food and a bottle of water out of the bag.
He smiles. "Mine, too. So, is there something going on between you and Boss?"
I shrug. "It seems like it, but I still feel very conflicted. I care about him, but at the same time, I want my freedom."
He nods. "You're so much like Sage. It kills me. When I first met you earlier, I knew already that it was going to be kind of weird to be around you. I just didn't realize that it was going to feel like this. I mean, don't start thinking I'm going to be all over you or anything. I just wish she could be with us right now. You guys would get along great."
I smile. "I'm sure we would. It's nice being around you, too though. I feel so confused with Boss. Noah makes me feel horrible, because he is so nice, but I'm just not into him, and Damian just seems like a dick."
He scoffs. "Damian is a dick. I tried kicking his ass once when he tried to rape Sage."
My mouth falls open. "And?"
Cole gives me a sheepish grin. "He kicked my ass, but afterwards Sage patched me up. That was the night of our first kiss."
I laugh. "I don't see how she couldn't come back to you. You sound like you were great together."
He shrugs, finishing the last little bit of his sandwich. "I'm happy knowing that she is out there, enjoying her life."
I glance around after finishing my food. "So uhhh, how exactly are we going to get down?"
He points to an area behind me. "There's a little trail over there that takes you down the mountain."
My jaw drops. "You mean to tell me that there was a trail leading up the mountain, and you made me climb up the side?" I yell.
Cole falls out cackling. "Yep, that's what I'm saying."
"I'm gonna kill you!" I shout, tackling him to the ground. He holds me back with ease and asks, "And who is the one with the gun, again?"
I desperately try to strangle him, but he is too strong, and after a minute, he flips me over onto my back. I lay under him, pinned to the ground and panting. The wrestling stops abruptly, and he stares down at me. After a few seconds pass, he speaks. "Iris?"
"Yes?" I reply, wondering what he could want.
"Thank you for being so cool today. I'm really glad we got to do this."
I smile up at him. "Me too."
After I speak, I freeze as his face nears mine. Instead of kissing me though, he rests his head against my shoulder. "This may be weird," he mumbles. "But I miss the feeling of having someone to just be with me. I'm not trying to hit on you or anything. I think that we all just need someone there from time to time."
After a moment of deep thought, I wrap my arms around him. It's not like he is trying to force me into anything. It's like I'm comforting a friend. "I know I can't replace Sage," I say. "But I'm here for you, and I'm sorry that things ended so badly with the girl that you love."
I glance down and he smiles up at me. "Thanks, Anette."
I smile back. "No problem, Romeo."
He chuckles and then pushes himself up, grabbing my hand to pull me up with him. We pack up our things and head back to the house since the sun is beginning to set. This time, we take the trail and it's a bit slower, but much, much easier.
I can see the cabin just past the tree line. It's dusk, and the wind is a bit chillier, now. "It's getting a little cold," I comment, rubbing my arms vigorously.
"It'll be warmer inside. We are almost there."
We rush to the house, swing the door open and then quickly close it behind us.
"Today was really great," Cole says as he kicks his shoes off. "Did you have fun?"
I begin to reply, but my words get caught in my throat. Right past Cole in the middle of the living room, there is a girl tied up in a chair, exactly the way that I had been tied up, except she has a ball-gag. Damian is standing behind her, smiling directly at Cole. Cole looks up at me, confused and then follows my gaze. When he sees her, he freezes, and his reaction confirms my suspicion. The girl in the chair is Sage.
"Look who showed up, Buddy," Damian says, grinning. "Our favorite girl."
"What the hell?" Coal screams, rage lighting up his whole body. "Why did you have to tie her up, you piece of shit?"
"Well, she slapped me when I tried to kiss her, so I thought that it was only necessary."
"I'm gonna kill you," Cole says in a chillingly calm tone. He walks slowly across the room. Damian watches him amused. As soon as Cole swings his fist, Damian grabs it mid-swing, and twists his arm. Everything else is a blur as I rush to untie Sage before she is knocked over. The first thing I do is take the ball-gag out of her mouth and chuck it straight at Damian's head.
She watches as I do this, and the moment it smacks him in the face, she laughs. "Thanks, now hurry and untie these ropes. I can't get hit." The next thing she says comes out as a desperate whisper. "I'm pregnant."
The seriousness of the situation hits me and I begin frantically pulling at the ropes. Once she is free, I grab her hand and we run up the stairs. "Boss," I shout. "Boss. where are you?"
I see his bedroom door open and he steps out. "Sage?" He exclaims. "Why the hell did you come back?"
"I needed to see Cole in person," she says. "His and Damian are downstairs fighting, though!"
"Get Noah," he orders and then runs off down stairs.
"Listen," I tell her. "Go to the room they keep the girls in and I'll come up and tell you when things have calmed down. Hurry. You can't get hit in the stomach!"
She nods and runs to my room. I quickly rush to Noah's door and bang on it. "Noah? Open up," I say.
When his door opens and he sees me, his face lights up.
"Hey, Iris."
That guilty feeling begins to swell inside of me, but I shove it down. "Sage came back, and now Damian is beating the shit out of Cole downstairs."
Noah's whole demeanor changes. "Not again," he growls, shoving past me. I follow him, not wanting to see what is going down in the living room. Cole said that the last time they fought, Damian beat the hell out of him.
Noah and I both stop at the entrance, staring at Boss and Damian. Boss has Damian pinned against the wall by his neck. "You didn't need to tie her up," he shouts, his voice ripping from his chest and coming out as a very intimidating growl. "She came back willingly. She's one of us, now."
Damian speaks, but his voice comes out as a strangled jumble. "Shes still just a bitch," he chokes.
Boss brings his fist back and then smashes it into Damian's face, letting him drop to the ground with a loud thud. "She's not who we are holding for ransom anymore," he shouts. "You had no reason to hurt her and try to sexually assault her!"
Cole steps over Damian, beside Boss, and stares down at Damian. "Why do you think that you have to be such an asshole to women?"
Damian begins to try and shove himself up off the ground, but Cole kicks him in the ribs and he lets out a yelp and falls back down. "Guys," I say, stepping forward without thinking. "I know he's a huge jackass, but maybe you should back off of him now. He's pretty beat up. It's like kicking a dead dog."
Boss lets out a long sigh as Damian shoots me a startled glance. "She's right," Coal says. "I'm going to go talk to Sage." Just before leaving, he turns back to Damian and glares down at him with a burning hatred in his eyes. "Remember how you feel in this moment the next time you wanna try to hurt Sage or Iris."
I'm surprised that he says my name. He rushes past us and up the stairs. "She's in my room," I call back to him.
Boss looks over to Noah. "We need to talk in private," he says.
Noah nods. "Lead the way, Boss."
They walk out the front door and I am left alone with Damian. Our eyes meet, and for a moment, we just look at each other. I break the silence. "Come on," I say to him, helping him up.
"Where are we going?" He asks, wrapping an arm around my shoulder to lean against me.
"Kitchen. Need to stop the bleeding from that gash on your eyebrow."
He is wordless as I help him limp to the kitchen. When I sit him down and then go to grab the first aid kit, he speaks. "Why aren't you running right now? I'm not going to be able to catch you like this and everyone else is busy."
I shrug. "You're bleeding really bad. I need to stop it."
I sit the first aid kit down onto the table and begin pulling a few things out. I soak a pad in some peroxide and then begin to wipe away the blood from his face. This is the closest I've ever been to him without wanting to break his neck.
Damian's voice sounds different when he speaks. It comes out soft and low instead of him usual booming, aggressive tone. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
I stop for a moment, glancing into his green eyes. They seem sad. "I don't know, honestly. I should want to beat the crap out of you."
He scoffs, glancing down. His eyes find my wrapped wrist and he suddenly reaches out for it. He holds it in his hands, studying it as I wipe his face off. "This may sting a little," I mumble, pressing the pad to the gash.
He winches a little, but continues to stare down at my wrapped hand. "I'm sorry about your wrist," he murmurs. "I should have let you wrap it."
I give him a small smile. "It's alright. It's behind us." I place gauze over the spot and then tape it down. "Leave that on for an hour, at least. You can put a band-aid over it later. I need to wrap your ankle now. Prop it on this chair for me."
He does as I say, still studying me. I begin to wrap the ace bandage around the ankle. "I know I'm an asshole," he says.
I glance up at him. "Why do you act like that?"
He frowns. "I don't know. It's just how I was raised. I'm just use to it."
I stand. "OK, you're all fixed," I say, smiling.
He scoffs. "Thanks Nurse. Now can you fix my attitude?"
I roll my eyes. "Don't think I can help you there, Man. Come on. I'll help you to your room and we can prop your ankle up."
I pull him from the chair and he rests on my shoulders again. Once I finally get him up the stairs and into his room, he lays down and I grab a pillow. I raise his leg and place it under his ankle. "I'm sorry."
I glance up at him. "You already said that," I comment.
He nods. "Yes, I know, but this time, I'm apologizing for being an ass to you. I should have gotten to know you."
I smile up at him, sarcastically. "Shoulda', coulda', woulda'."
He smiles. "Monday will be a better day."
I laugh, bitterly. "Damn, I hope so."
I leave the room and head back down stairs. When I enter the living room, Boss and Noah are on the couch, talking. "Where's Damian?" Noah asks.
"I cleaned him up, wrapped his ankle, and got him to his bed," I reply.
Boss glances over to Noah. "This needs to stop," he says.
"I know. We can't keep doing it anymore. A couple of years ago, I didn't realize what it would turn into. I don't want this anymore, and I'm sure Cole feels the same way."
"What are you guys talking about?" I ask.
Boss looks over to me. "Kidnapping for ransom. The whole deal. It needs to stop."
My heart begins to pound. Is this for real? "I may be a little bias, but I really think you guys should stop. You're going to get caught eventually."
Noah glances over to Boss. "She's right. We need to pull out before it's too late."
Boss speaks. "Then it's settled. We need to bring this thing to an end." Him and Noah both look to me. "The question now is if Iris wants to leave or not."