Chapter 22

His white blond hair could very well be all grey by now, it was impossible to tell. But Sia could read his eyes, and they were now grey with rage and lust. He was wearing a dark blue uniform that she’d seen on one of the cleaners, and it hung loose around his shoulders. He had lost weight (a lot of it) but he also seemed to have gained a few muscles. There were dark circles around his eyes, and his skin was so pale from the lack of exposure to sunlight.
Sia had now her back up against the wall with nowhere else to run. Her clothes and hair were covered in dust and straw. She had tried to escape twice. She slapped him once and tried throwing the heavy supply boxes at him, but it only added to the mess in the room which only blocked her exit and a purple bruise on her cheek. She had made the mistake of underestimating his strength just because he had shrunk in bulk.
“You were such a good girl before, Sia . . .” Arthur Stone clicked his tongue in disapproval. “Looks like I’ll have to punish you for your behavior.”
His sick smile made bile rise to her throat, but she held on to hope. She will keep fighting ‘till the very end. Gone was that sixteen-year-old naive girl who had thought obeying this man’s command for the rest of her life was the only way to survive. Gone was the girl who had hoped night after night that this man can change, be gentle, be someone she could grow to tolerate. But Sia was a woman now. He had killed that little naive girl in her a long time ago. She was now a mother who would do anything to protect her son, and a woman, although she had only began to learn what it felt like to be one.
Electrifying blue eyes came to her mind. Midnight hair as soft as silk under her fingers. Sinfully soft lips teasing her, tasting her.
Then Arthur ran his hands up her thighs.
“Noooo!”

* * *

Sia!
It was Sia! Julian could never mistake her voice. She was still here!
His legs moved faster than ever as he jumped up the stairs in the building. The sound came from above, the first floor. But where? The auditorium’s first floor had at least twenty rooms and he might be too late if he had to search all of them.
“Hold on, Sia!” he whispered fiercely to himself as he reached the first floor. “I’m here. I’m coming!”

* * *

Her beautiful dress was ripped in several places: the sleeves were torn apart and the skirt was rent into pieces, showing her skin underneath as she thrashed around, trying to hold on to anything. She wanted to fight back with everything in her but the chloroform hadn’t worn off completely. It made her movement slow and her being nauseous.
Arthur took full advantage of her condition, running his hands up and down her porcelain white skin. Just looking at her made him throb; he had waited far too long to come after her. Sia’s nails dug into his skin, drawing blood, but he only smiled as he held her down with a firm grip on her jaw. He knew Sia wouldn’t risk snapping her neck.
He brought his face closer to hers and smelled the sweetness of her. He’d missed her. God, he’d missed her. He missed her sweet smell, her supple breasts, and her warm womanhood whenever he slid in and out of her. She hadn’t truly been a woman when he’d first had her; he had licked the blood off her virgin core then. But he’d made her a woman. And she will die his woman. His tongue darted out and tasted the sweetness of her lips—his personal heaven.
“No! No!” Her cries became desperate as tears fell freely from her eyes. It only amused Arthur.
She couldn’t stop him. He was going to hurt her again, and there was nothing she could do to stop him. She had hoped—a part of her was still hoping—that Julian would find her. But that hope was running out slowly bit by bit. She tried to force Arthur off of her with all her strength, to remove his grip from her jaw, but he was too strong, too rough.
“Julian!” She yelled at the top of her lungs when she had been able to pry Arthur’s hand from her jaw for a second. But her head snapped to the side then and she saw stars as Arthur slapped her.
“Sia!”
Hearing his voice was like waking up from a nightmare. “Jul—” She tried again but Arthur covered her mouth with his large, rough hand and punched her in the stomach, knocking the air out of her. Darkness tried to take her under, but Sia held on, gritting her teeth. She whimpered and thrashed once she was able to breathe again, but to no avail. Her attacks on him only weakened her while Arthur remained unaffected.
Julian was so close. Yet so far.
Arthur punched her again, and this time she saw black spots dance in her eyes. Sia raised her hands upwards, toward what she didn’t know, but it felt like she was reaching towards heaven.
Then she heard the sound of a door breakingand Arthur being pulled up and away from her.
Julian saw red.
He didn’t know what he was going to do, but killing the man in front of him very, very slowly, was his main priority right now.
He punched Arthur so hard that he flew back into the wall of cardboard boxes. It wasn’t enough. He was far from being done with him.
Walking over, he picked him up and kept hitting him continuously, not caring that he still had to hand Arthur over to the police—alive. Arthur kept hitting back with just as much strength, but Julian hardly felt the blow.
He would have continued hitting but a whimper from somewhere in the room broke his concentration.
Arthur took advantage of the distraction and pushed him hard so that he lost his balance and gave the bastard enough time to run out like the gutter rat that he was.
“Nooooo!” Julian roared in fury, slamming his fists against the wall where Arthur stood not too long ago.
He wanted to follow him but knew he couldn’t, so he took out his gun and fired two shots at him. One missed and the other hit him in his ulna, just before he scurried out the door.
Trying hard to control his breathing, he took deep breaths to calm down as much as he could and then with great difficulty, pulled his phone out of his pants pocket.
“I heard gunshots. You okay?” was the first thing Abhay asked as soon as he picked up.
“Arthur just ran out. Send someone after him!” Julian couldn’t stop the harshness in his voice. His ragged breath made him sound worse. “And you take Leo and leave. Stay with him until we get back.”
“Julian wha—”
“Do . . . as . . . I . . . say,” Julian gritted out through clenched jaw he could feel his teeth grind together then he cut Abhay off.

* * *

Abhay knew better than to argue at this point, so he agreed quickly before the line went dead and went inside the van. Leo was fast asleep on a couch inside Sia’s makeup van.
Abhay told him to get up, shaking him awake, so they could head back to his home.
“Where are Mom and Julian?” Leo asked groggily.
“There’s been some emergency at the office so your mom had to leave directly. Don’t worry, Julian’s with her. He’ll keep her safe,” Abhay replied as convincingly as he could, trying not to let his worry for Julian seep into his voice.
Satisfied with his answer, Leo got up and collected his mother’s things from the van and headed out, Abhay following behind him.
They got into Abhay’s Toyota and then headed to Sia’s house. Abhay was hoping—praying—that his friend would not do something stupid that he would regret later.