Page 59 of Stolen

“Weak little bitch!” the guard growled and began striking her wherever he could reach, leaving behind ugly red marks in his wake. Cara didn’t even react.

“Wait, stop!” I shouted as I continued to hold half her body up.

“Stop! She’s hurt! Stop it!” yelled all the other girls in protest.

“Please, this isn’t helping!” I pleaded as the guard smacked his baton against her legs.

Rage clenched my heart knowing how easy it would be for me to disarm the bastard and beat the shit out of him with his own baton, but I’d gotten myself and the rest of the girls in enough trouble as it was. But with each brutal strike of his baton and the lack of reaction coming from the girl in my arms, it became clear if I didn’t act, he could beat her to death.

“Jaden! Do something!” Kayla shouted over the chaos, her eyes pleading with me to end the needless brutality.

“Shut it!” roared the other guard, silencing them. “Or you’ll join her!”

Screaming internally, I knew if I didn’t do something now, the body in my arms would turn into a corpse.

Better me than them.

“God-fucking-dammit,” I growled under my breath.

Cursing them all, I finally pulled Cara away from the guard’s strikes and shielded her with my back, taking the full force of his baton.

“You want some too, you little bitch! Fine!” the guard roared and struck my back and sides over and over until I could no longer hold myself and Cara up. Dropping to my knees, I crouched over her body to continue shielding her and slapped lightly at her face, hoping to wake her up.

“Come on, come on, wake up, look at me, please, wake up,” I pleaded with her while blow after blow rained down on my back. He wasn’t hitting me as hard as the owner did, but if he continued, there could be some serious damage.

“Fucking bitches! Get up!”

“Rick! What are you doing!?” another angry voice yelled from near the door.

Suddenly, a huge scuffle occurred over top of me as the strikes finally ceased. My arms were shaking from trying to continue holding myself up as I battled the pain now radiating in my back. Turning my head to see what had happened, I saw two other guards had pulled the psycho guard off me and was now holding him back as he struggled against them.

“Let me go! That bitch needs to be taught a lesson!” he yelled at them.

“You’ve done enough! The boss is going to be pissed if you’ve compromised two assets! Now get out of here, you dumb fuck!” another guard shouted. “Sean, get those girls back in their cages. Show’s over.”

The guard standing next to the girls, evidently named Sean, rolled his eyes and herded the girls out the door. Kayla struggled to maintain eye contact with me before she was no longer in sight.

“Fucking raging coke-head,” the new guard muttered to his companion as they both watched Rick begrudgingly storm out the door. Turning to me, one of them looked me over before shaking his head. “Can you stand?”

I nodded. “I’ll be fine. But she needs immediate medical attention. She slipped and smacked her head on the tile. She has an open wound here, and she’s not responding to anything I do,” I pointed.

“Fine. Now move so I can lift her,” he ordered.

I found moving my own body to be much more difficult than I was willing to reveal, but hiding the grimace as I stood just wasn’t happening. Putting on a new clean dress wasn’t any easier either. Kneeling, the guard lifted Cara into his arms and started heading for the door.

“Follow me,” he said. “The doctor should look you over as well.”

Fuck, no, no, no, I did not want to leave this floor.

“I’m fine, really. I wouldn’t want to waste his time.”

“It wasn’t a request,” the other guard said as he waited for me to follow.

Head down, I shut my mouth and followed the one carrying Cara while the other trailed my six. The muscles in my back ached with each step I took, but severe bruising wasn’t the worst injury I had received here. It could have been much, much worse. At least my skin hadn’t broken this time.

Following the guards into the elevator, I turned my attention to Cara, whose head was still bleeding onto the guard’s arm.

“Will she be okay?” I asked.