Page 136 of Corrupt Game
“No, you really don’t. Sure, livin’ in several homes and havin’ sexual abuse isn’t fun. I get that, but that was my daily life and my father let it happen to us. He didn’t care if his top men took their fill of us girls. After all, that’s what we were born for, anyway. Why not make sure that we knew our place?” Her body shook with anger and memories. “My son would have become just like them. This way he has a home with parents that will love him. It’s the best we could do. It was the best I could do.”
I wasn’t used to having to apologize or express empathy for others. “I’m sorry I upset you.”
“Not your problem. I can help you with the one you have, though.” Heather leaned forward. “Here are the codes, best times, and where Collette is being held. You need to try to get to her in the next two days. I can’t guarantee that the codes won’t change after that.”
“What about you? That was the other problem we wanted to help with.”
She got up. “There is nothin’ you can do about it. I’m supposed to marry someone in the next few weeks and if I disappear now, they’ll scorch the earth lookin’ for me. I’m a lost cause.” She looked me straight in the eye. “Ian, save Collette and don’t look back.”
I watched her walk out of the cafe. Then I grabbed the folded papers she left behind, which would be just what we were looking for to get Collette out.
Rossi would be pissed that I was gone, but I’d come back with a plan of action. He’d get over it.
It was time to bring my woman home.
Chapter 49 Colette
Loud sirens began to wail in the darkness and the lights started to flash brightly on and off.
Even in my battered state, I wasn’t going to be able to sleep with all the noise. My body desperately wanted it, needed it, but I’d only get it if I was rescued, escaped, or dead. I preferred the first two options.
Since sleep deprivation was the most classic form of torture, he was going to use it to his advantage.
Sergi knew what he was doing. He had let me eat and sleep just enough that I wouldn’t collapse on him. It was more fun to play with someone when they were awake to scream. The new stuff would keep me from sleeping and getting real rest, but my body would start to heal either way. It would happen at a different rate.
“Have they done this before?” I yelled at Erin.
She nodded, yelling back. “Only twice. It went on for days. I didn’t have all the injuries that you have in only twenty-four hours, though. They want you to collapse and give up whatever it is that Sergi wants from you. He’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish his goals.”
“His only goal for me is revenge. He doesn’t want anything else.” I looked around in the half light of the flashes.
“Is there any way to escape?”
Erin looked at me as if I’d grown a third head.
“You don’t want to know what they do if you escape and are caught.” She shuddered. “It’s not pretty.”
I couldn’t accept that. It would be better off trying, possible freedom, tortured, then killed. Than not trying, no freedom, for sure tortured, then killed.
“Still, we can’t wait for a rescue. We need to have a plan of our own. I think you’re in better shape than me. If he gets me out of here again, I’m not going to be able to walk on my own when he’s finished with me. I’d need someone to help carry me out.”
The light cast weird shadows on her face. I couldn’t read what she was thinking.
I wasn’t sure that the story she’d told me was the truth. Edmond wasn’t above putting a plant in a cage to make it seem like I was escaping, only to punish me for it later.
Psychological torture wasn’t new to me. I’d grown up with it. Sergi was going down the playlist of how to break someone. I could handle it. I had to because if I didn’t, then any future with Ian would vanish, and that I couldn’t accept. Wouldn’t accept. I wasn’t going to desert him without doing everything in my power to get back to him.
~~~
Every moment that the lights flashed and the loud sirens rang made me want to come up with an escape plan even more. They made my head split further and the ringing stayed long after the sirens were shut off.
The body guards only came in twice a shift. They just glanced through the room to make sure that we were still alive and then walked back out.
Food had only been delivered once, so it was important to make sure that the escape happened within a couple of hours of the food arriving. I would need the energy from it to get out if I could.
That idea had several flaws because they would be chasing me from the get go and I wouldn’t have any time to get away. I needed that extra edge when they weren’t looking for me.
Just after they brought food was the best time. We knew we had over three hours before they’d be back. That would allow me to walk slowly and make sure that there wasn’t anyone following us.