His Nasty Virgin

Vomit rose in my throat. If my father got his hands on Darren, Darren wouldn’t be alive long.

I rushed from the bed and dashed into the bathroom, dropping to my knees in front of the toilet. I threw up, clutching the toilet bowl. Emmaline tried to rub my back, but I smacked her hands away, freaking out.

I didn’t want her to touch me.

A flashback swirled in my mind, dragging me out of the present. The last thing I heard was Emmaline’s panicked voice yelling my name.

I fought hard as Dad put that chain around my neck, and I wasn’t making it easy for him.

I wasn’t going down without a fight.

Mom had died three days ago, and on the day of her funeral, he had shown up, dragging me with him. I kicked and screamed, shouting at him to let me go. I was supposed to go home with my aunt and uncle.

No one stopped him. Everyone had instead looked on in fear. No one made a single move to help me.

Two of his men had thrown me into the backseat of Dad’s SUV, getting in on either side of me afterward. Dad drove out to his house in the country somewhere in Texas. I yelled the entire time, but no one ever said a word.

And now, I was here.

“Shut up!” he finally yelled at me. “Your mother kept you protected long enough, but you belong to me now, Juliana,” he snarled into my face.

Hot tears rushed down my cheeks. “Your time has come, sweetheart.”

“No,” I sobbed. I knew what happened in this room. When Dad couldn’t get anyone to watch me, he dragged me down here with him while he raped some random woman he had chained up. “Dad, no,” I cried.

“Women are good for nothing else,” he sneered. “Maybe if you’d been born a boy, shit would be different. But you belong with this family, and you will do your part.”

He latched the chain around my neck and then bound my wrists and ankles. I kept fighting, though I knew the attempt to get free was futile.

I was now a captive a prisoner.

I was now stuck in this dark, cruel world that my mother had done her damnest to protect me from until the cancer took her last breath.

~*~*~

When I came to, I was on a white hospital bed. The room was done in dark, rich colors, though it smelled sterile. Emmaline was sitting beside my bed, her eyes on her phone. An older, white-haired man was taking a look at my vitals.

He smiled at me when he noticed my eyes were open. Fear clouded my thoughts. Where in the hell was I? “Good to see you awake, Miss Garcia.

How are you feeling?”

“She’s mute,” Emmaline spoke from beside me.

I looked over at her. She gave me a small smile. “You feel okay?” she asked me.

I touched my head, hoping she would understand that I was trying to convey I had a headache. She frowned. “Your head hurts?” I nodded. She looked at the doctor. “Can you get her some pain medication to help with the headache?” she asked him.

He nodded. “Of course; I’ll be right back.”

He left the room shortly after. Emmaline gave me a small smile. “James and a few of his men left a few hours ago to go get Darren. They found him, hun.” Hot tears of relief slid down my cheeks. They found him. “James will come get you as soon as he can,” she promised me.

The doctor came back into the room a few minutes later holding a bottle of water and a small cup of medicine. Emmaline quickly stood and took both items from him, handing them to me herself. “She doesn’t like to be unexpectedly touched, “Emmaline explained to the doctor when he looked at her in confusion.

I sat up and took the pills, swallowing them down. I finished the bottle of water as well, a lot thirstier than I thought I had been. Once I was finished, Emmaline threw the bottle away for me.

“It looks like you passed out from an anxiety attack,” the doctor told me. I didn’t bother correcting him. I knew what I had passed out from.

Flashbacks tended to fuck me up.

“I can try you on an anxiety medication-” I quickly shook my head. I didn’t want anxiety pills. My father used to use them to knock me out all the time when I was uncooperative. Just the thought of them made my skin crawl.

“Okay,” he said, not pushing the subject. I relaxed a tiny bit. “I’m going to go ahead and let you go back to your room. You should be okay. Just try to do what you can to keep your anxiety levels down, okay?”

I nodded. He smiled at me and left the room. Emmaline handed me a set of clothes. “I’ll step out so you can get dressed,” she quietly told me. “James will be here in a few minutes to pick you up. He just texted me. They’ve got Darren. He’s alive.”

My body sagged with relief, more tears sliding down my already raw cheeks.

He was alive.

~*~*~

James knocked lightly on the open door to my room before stepping in. I’d left it open so I could see him when he appeared. I was in no state to be surprised anymore today. “You ready?” he asked me.

I nodded and slid off the bed, my shoes already on my feet. He pressed a kiss to the top of Emmaline’s head when she walked to him. “Go get some rest, little one,” he quietly told her. “You’ve had a hell of a day.”

She leaned up and pressed her lips to his before slipping by us and heading up the stairs. James silently led me down the stairs and out to the garage. He held my door open for me as I slid into the passenger seat of his SUV, giving him as wide of a berth as I could. He waited until I was seated and buckled before he closed my door and strode around to the driver’s side.

“I want to warn you of what you’ll see when we get to the hospital,” James told me as he sped off down the road. “Darren is in bad shape. At the moment, he’s being sedated to help with his pain. I don’t know how the fuck my brother survived, but he did.” James glanced over at my pale face. Nausea was swirling in my gut. What had happened to him? “I have a feeling that all has to do with you, though. My brother’s a fighter when it comes to people he cares about.”

I wanted to ask so many questions, but when I opened my mouth, nothing would come out almost like there was a block. It was my mind’s natural defense mechanism around people and places I was unfamiliar with.

And though I’d been around James a few times now, and I knew he was supposed to be safe for me to be around, I couldn’t speak to him yet.

“He’s going to be okay,” James told me, somehow understanding what I wanted to ask. “No broken bones. Quite a bit of blood loss, but he’s going to make a full recovery.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, though my gut twisted at the mention of blood loss.

My father had tainted Darren, too.

When we got to the hospital, James led me over to an elevator. He stood on the opposite side of the small, confined space to give me room, which I was thankful for.

We came to a private floor, and James flashed his ID at the guard standing there before we were allowed back. James led me to the second door on the right, and he walked in ahead of me before holding the door open.

Tears sprang to my eyes as they landed on Darren.

His body was abnormally pale. Bruises littered his exposed skin, and deep lacerations were cut into his exposed arms, he even had a cut on his neck that was stitched closed.

“Darren,” I cried, rushing forward. I grabbed his hand in mine as I sank to my knees beside his bed, sobs wracking my chest. “Not you,” I sobbed.

I never wanted this to happen to him, and suddenly, I hated myself for ever escaping, forever dragging Darren into this mess.

Because the pain of seeing such a strong man confined to this hospital bed fucking hurt me more than being raped and beaten day in and day out.

I wanted nothing more than to take Darren’s place so he could be alive and well once again. My world wasn’t supposed to darken his like this. “I’m so sorry,” I cried. “I’m so, so fucking sorry.”