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I followed him to the shower and did what he’d said. The day was going to be tough enough as it was, I didn’t need to start arguing with him early on.
When I was done, he led me to a Jeep that was parked in the large open area of the warehouse and indicated for me to get in the back. He joined me there while another man slid into the driver seat. We were then driven abo
ut an hour away to what I guessed was Joseph’s base camp for soldier training. William blindfolded me at the beginning of the journey so I had no sense of where they’d taken me. When the blindfold was removed, we were parked in the middle of the bush.
“Out,” William barked.
He then proceeded to put me through my paces. Their land was dense with trees, but they’d cleared a section that held the shit I knew was designed to break a man. Trenches of muddy water, pits of mud, steel cages over deep troughs of water that could drown a man, dangling wires designed to shock, and a bath of ice were some of William’s favourite things. He could spend hours doing this part of his training. Brutalisation was designed to start the process of ripping a man’s sense of self-worth from him. It was just one aspect of what William did. And he did it well.
I spent the next five hours following his orders. I ran his fucking obstacle course and didn’t back down from any of it, even though my body was in excruciating pain the whole time. Hell, it had already been in a world full of hurt before I started. William’s goal was clearly to kick that up a notch, and he succeeded.
At the end of the five hours, he came to me and grabbed me around the throat. “You think you can beat me, soldier?” I knew from the way he spat his words out that he was pissed at me.
I held his gaze triumphantly. What he didn’t realise was that the day was exactly what I’d needed. My conditioned response to him was still there, but my mind was in a whole new place. They didn’t understand that by hurting Tatum they’d splintered my mind and screwed with the wiring they’d put in place years ago. So while I still felt that stirring of fear when I looked at William, I was able to mentally withstand it. The five hours spent with him doing his training, and surviving those hours mentally strong as fuck at the end, only solidified my ability to ignore the fear he tried to draw out.
“I know I fucking can. I might have agreed to work with Joseph again, but it’ll be a cold fucking day in hell before I fall at your feet,” I gritted out. “Your power over me is dead.”
His lips curled up into a snarl. “We’ll see about that.”
He dragged me to the ice bath and forced me into it. I wanted to fight him off and force him into it, but I knew I had to be smart. If I had any chance at saving myself and my family, I needed to wait for the perfect moment to kill both him and Joseph together.
I immediately began hyperventilating, drawing in very fast and deep breaths as the cold water surrounded me. William watched with smug satisfaction as I fought for air. My body was going into shock. I knew the process because he’d subjected me to it many times. I just had to get through these first few minutes, get my breathing under control and then last until he pulled me out of the water.
Easier said than fucking done.
“You think this is going to be a walk in the fucking park, Rhys?”
My teeth chattered as I stared up at him, still struggling for breath. I couldn’t reply, but then, he wasn’t looking for a reply. He was simply trying to strike fear.
Crouching, he said, “It’s been a good nineteen years since I’ve had the pleasure of training you. My program has evolved and this is just the beginning, soldier.”
I sucked air in as deep as I could. And I went to battle with my mind. He would never break me again. Never. As my muscles grew weak the longer he left me in there, and the pain in my body increased, I attempted to focus on Tatum. I imagined her smile, her eyes, her laugh, her fight. God, how I loved her fight. I’d never met a woman with the spirit she had. My thoughts drifted to the future. I wanted one with her. I knew that. When I escaped this hell, I would make it happen. I’d give her everything she’d never had before. Starting off with space in my fucking wardrobe.
“Almost five minutes, Rhys. You ready to fall at my feet again?”
I blinked slowly as I processed his words. Five minutes was a long time to be in icy water. Almost too long. I knew that. Hypothermia could kill me if I didn’t get out soon. And yet I refused to give in to William.
I waited it out. And eventually he was the one to crack. But not before my muscles became so weak I couldn’t walk when he dragged me from the bath. My coordination took a hit, too. After he had pulled me out, he left me on the ground and organised for the Jeep to be brought over. He and the driver managed to get me into the back seat. William yanked my clothes off and wrapped me in a light blanket he had stashed in the back as the driver sped all the way back to the warehouse.
I drifted in and out of consciousness.
So cold.
So fucking cold.
42
Tatum
“XO” by Beyonce
I lay on my hospital bed, drugged up on heavy-duty painkillers the doctor had me taking for all the injuries Joseph had inflicted on me and watched as Monroe walked into the room.
Meeting my eyes with a small smile, she said, “She’s safe.”
I closed my eyes and exhaled, ignoring the pain in my face as I did that. Opening them again, I asked, “Dustin?”
She nodded. “He’s safe, too. And Renee assured me her mother is okay in the hospital. Renee has moved into Nitro’s house to be with Dustin until Nitro comes home.”
