Page 32 of Roped

On Reverie’s insistence, we each grab a wooden slat as our weapon before I bust the door open. I rush to the man and try to somehow ascertain if he’s alive. Reverie is busy untying his arms behind his back. A few seconds later he grunts, and I ask, “Oh my God. Are you okay?”

He groans and Reverie comes around to stand in front of him. “Can you hear us?”

Even though the light streaming through the dirt-caked window is dim, I can see he’s in a bad shape. His face is covered in bruises and cuts, and he can barely keep one of his eyes open. Still, he tries as he takes us both in, slowly, one by one. My heart is racing in my chest, and I really don’t know if this was a good idea or not. Is he a friend or a foe? But no matter what, the right thing to do is to help him. So I’m going to try, and then I’m going to find out who did this to him.

“You’re fine, all right?” I tell him. “You’re gonna be okay. We’re going to help you.”

“Yeah, it’s going to be okay,” Reverie adds. “Do you… do you know where you are?”

“Yeah, do you know what happened?”

Was it the man with green eyes and the scar? And if so, what did you do?

I’m completely focused on the man, and yet, I don’t see it coming. I don’t see him, now freed and more aware of his surroundings, breaking into action and lunging at me. I scream as he grabs me by the arm and pulls me toward him. I go crashing into his hard and bloody body and start struggling. I twist my arm in his grip while trying to kick him at the same time. But even injured, he’s stronger than me. His grip is brutal, and there’s violence in his eyes. Violence and lust. The kind that makes my belly churn and bile rise up in my throat.

Just then Reverie hits him in the head with the wooden slat. He instantly lets me go and grunts in pain. But my relief is only momentary because in a flash, he’s upon Reverie. He pounces on her and takes her down. He pins her to the floor with his disgusting body and the rage that rises up in me at that, the terror for my best friend, makes everything blurry. I get ahold of the wooden slat and swing it at him. Once, twice, three times, maybe. When that doesn’t slow him down, I jump on his back and try to get him off my friend. Somehow he manages to throw me off and I hit the floor hard. I blink up at the ceiling, trying to get my bearings back, my breath, as Reverie screams from the other side of the room. I tell myself to get up, to go to Reverie, save her, but I can’t make myself move.

And then, somehow, I see the last thing I was expecting to see: Arsen. He is here.

He’s pulling the man away from Reverie and beating the shit out of him. I don’t know if it’s real or I’m dreaming. But soon, from out of nowhere, a pair of hands appear to help me as well. They grab me under the arms and pull me up. They’re super gentle about it, too, handling me with care, careful to support my throbbing back, my buckling knees. Even so, for a dizzy second, I’m worried I won’t be able to stand on my own, but I shouldn’t have. Because those arms then go ahead and wrap themselves around me, one across my chest and the other securing my belly and pinning me to something.

A body. My back to a chest.

Large and hard. So warm that I breathe in my first full breath and the scent of leather and spices explodes around me. My lips pull up in a small smile and my eyes flutter closed. It’s him. It’s my Phantom. Somehow, he’s here, too, and I know I’m safe. I settle my pounding head in the crook of his shoulder and my throbbing back against his hips. Then I wrap my own arms around his and to my surprise and delight, he squeezes me to himself, giving me a reverse hug.

“Phantom,” I sigh.

I feel him stiffen behind me, his arms tightening and becoming bands. And I stiffen, too, as my relief evaporates. Reality crashes over me and I finally realize what’s happening here: We’ve been caught. Somehow, someway, they knew where to find us and they have. Never mind the fact that they also saved us in the nick of time. Whoever this man is, that Arsen is still beating up in a corner, attacked both Reverie and me. And if they hadn’t come when they did, I don’t even want to think about what could’ve happened.

“Arsen, stop,” Radisson growls from behind me.

And I try to break out of his hold, but all he does is tighten it even more and keeps me plastered to him. Arsen doesn’t listen to his friend’s command; he’s in a trance, in a world of his own. I’ve never seen anyone so focused on destroying something. So driven, so furious, and I don’t blame him for that. In fact, I’m happy. I want this strange man, whoever he is, to get what he deserves for attacking Reverie. And something tells me Arsen feels the same, only a lot more intensely. Maybe that’s why she’s the only one who’s able to stop him. Despite Radisson calling out for Arsen to stop several times, it’s Reverie’s voice that at last reaches him.

In the sudden silence, Radisson snaps from behind me, “What the fuck happened?”

I flinch and once again try to get out of his hold but to no avail. The harder I struggle, the stronger his hold becomes. I still keep trying, scared, my heart almost pounding out of my chest. But it only makes him angrier. I know that because he growls, his chest vibrating at my back, and I immediately stop.

I clench my eyes shut for a second before trying to answer him. “I… We…”

“You tryna run? That’s what this was?”

“No!” I practically scream as if to reassure him that I wouldn’t run, which is so fucked up that I don’t want to think about it. “No, absolutely not. It’s… We w-weren’t running. We…”

“Then what the fuck were you doin’?” Radisson booms.

I flinch again, realizing this is the first time he’s done that. He’s kidnapped me, tied me up. He’s threatened me, scared me, but he’s never, not once, raised his voice at me, and I didn’t know how safe that would make me feel. Until he let his anger, his impatience, bleed into something he takes such great care with. His voice, his words. It scares me more than that strange man ever could, and my words die on my tongue.

“Listen to me, yeah?” Radisson growls, his massive chest pushing into my spine. “We just saved your fool asses. So you tell us what you were doin’ here, or I’m really gonna fuckin’ hog-tie you and leave you in my room.”

“Fine, okay,” I say, my voice brittle and trembling. “First, it’s not Reverie’s fault. She didn’t want to do this. She didn’t want to come here. I dragged her. It was me.”

“Why?”

Damn it.

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe we got caught red-handed. I have no choice but to spill the beans. With utmost reluctance, I tell Radisson and Arsen why we came here. I tell them about the rumors I’d heard growing up. About the prison inmates vanishing and how Rawhide was rumored to be connected to it all. And how when we stumbled upon some maps in their office and found strange structures all around their ranch, we decided to check one of them out to see if we could find the truth. So we could have some leverage against them if they went back on their word and didn’t let us go.