Love Bites

Chapter 28: Trapped

Beth came back half an hour later, just as the girls were finishing up. She glances around the living area to inspect their work, ensuring it is up to standards. She gives the girls a warm smile and nods, "Good work. Now let's clean the kitchen, then the bathrooms, and then go upstairs."

The girls nod in response and begin to leave the room as Zoey speaks up, "Isn't it a bit cruel to make you guys clean with such harsh chemicals when you're pregnant? How far along are you?"

Beth flinches at the sound of Zoey's voice. She hadn't been expecting the girl to speak to her. It caught her off guard. She wasn't allowed to talk to her, so she stayed quiet and tried not to even look at her.

Zoey noticed how uncomfortable she felt, so she tried to ease the tension, saying, "I'm almost three months. I'm ashamed to say that it's barely starting to hit me now. It took me a while to accept it." She looks at Beth quickly before she looks down at the floorboards.

Everything was hundred percent true. Zoey had been so focused on her grief of losing Cole that she hadn't been very focused on the future, and her pregnancy was one of the things she had been putting off, but she was beginning to face it now. She had to try and look at the future, if not for her, then for the baby and Damon. He'd done so much for her; now it was her turn to give something back, even if it was something small.

Zoey's face scrunches up as a wave of nausea hits her from the chemicals in the room. Ever since she got pregnant, she could smell everything about a hundred times more, and the chemicals in the room weren't helping. She lifted her to keep from vomiting. She couldn't afford to vomit right now.

"Crackers." Zoey moves her head in the direction of the small voice that hits her ears. She had finally spoken to her. "Salty crackers help with nausea. I'll bring you some later."

Zoey was about to say more when Gordon came into view, "What are you doing?"

Beth quickly gives him all of her attention, ignoring Zoey again, "N-nothing. I w-was just-"

"Just what?! Aren't you supposed to be cleaning? Get to it." He shoves her off to the side. Beth glances at Zoey before she hurries off to her duties. Gordon walks into the living room and crouches down in front of Zoey again, "Now... what will I do with you? Breed you or use you as leverage against your father..."

She could see the tables turning in his head as he sized her up. He reaches out to touch her collarbone, moving his hand slowly down when she raises herself slightly from her sitting position on the floor and kicks him square on the nose. There was no way she was going to let this pervert touch her. His touch on her skin felt disgusting, and he smelled like old dirty water left in a stuffy room.

He falls back off his heels and holds his now aching nose from her attack. He grits his teeth, his face bunching up in anger as he gets to his feet and retaliates by kicking her back, aiming for her stomach. Zoey twists to the side, attempting to protect the baby with the bit of movement she can do. His assault lands on her rib cage—a seething pain emanates from the spot as she grunts in pain.

Gordon bends down and roughly grabs her face in his hand, "Let's see how resilient you are when you haven't eaten in a week, and if I'm lucky, that thing inside of you will die too. I think your little act of defiance made up my mind. I'm going to do both. First, I'll kill that offspring you are carrying and break your defiant attitude. Then I'll fuck and fill you up until I run you into the ground, getting you pregnant with my kid, and only then will I send the broken shell of a girl to your father. I wonder what he'll do to a daughter who is pregnant by a werewolf. I don't trust him, so sending him a little care package would be fitting. I'll send you to him after our deal is over. Get comfortable, Ms. Cross. You'll be here for a while. Damon won't save you this time."

Her eyes raise slightly. Deal? What deal? Was Gordon working with her father? She does her best to glare at him while he still holds her scrunched-up face, "I don't need his saving for the likes of you. I can take care of you blind and with my limbs cut off. Men like you aren't anything special. You're just compensating for your small dick."

Gordon smiles, squeezing her jaw in his hand. She winces from the pain but refuses to give him the satisfaction of seeing her pain, so she clenches her jaw to fight the pain away until he roughly lets her go, "I'm going to have fun breaking you." He shouts for the whole house to hear, "No one feeds her or talks to her! Whoever does is getting a beating!" He storms out of the room, the heavy sound of each step of his boots gets further and further away.

When Zoey was entirely sure he was gone, she finally let the discomfort from the pain out. Gordon didn't hold back his abuse. He was the top dog here, and he didn't miss a step at reminding everyone. She slowly arranges her sitting position, trying to ease the pain coming from her ribs. If every conversation with him ended in more bruises and pain, it wouldn't be long before she lost the baby and her body gave out. She needed to get out of here, and she had to do it quickly. The longer she stayed here, the more likely she was not to have the strength to leave.

She began working her way on the tape bindings behind her again. She had to keep a level head so she could get out.

**************

Gordon had finally left. It was difficult not to hear the man scream throughout the house every time he spoke. It was annoying. Earlier that day, she could hear him shout that he was leaving to do something, which meant that she had a bit of momentary peace like the rest of the house. She wasn't much closer to undoing her binding, but she was getting there. Zoey stops when she hears small footsteps make their way toward her. There were too many people in this house for her liking, it was difficult not to get caught, and she was starving. This baby couldn't have picked a better time to increase her appetite.

Beth emerges from the doorway with something in her hands. When she kneeled in front of Zoey, she could tell exactly what it was. It was crackers. She brought her some crackers, "I-It's not much, but..."

Zoey gives her a soft smile, "It's perfect. Thank you." She looks at the few crackers in her hands and laughs a bit, "Um... can you feed them to me?" She couldn't precisely feed herself with her hands bound behind her back.

Beth seemed a bit taken aback by the question, but then realization clouded her face as she looked at Zoey's compromised position, "Oh... right." She holds out one of the crackers in front of Zoey's lips which she graciously takes.

This was Zoey's chance to get close to her. Considering she was feeding her when she wasn't supposed to already told her that she wasn't heartless like Gordon. She could sway her, "This isn't your first. Is it?" She was referring to the baby. She seemed like she knew what she was doing, unlike Zoey.

Beth hesitated to answer. She wasn't supposed to be talking to her. Then again, she wasn't supposed to be feeding her either, but she was with a child. She couldn't ignore her, "Um... no."

Her replies were short, and Zoey knew it would be hard to get much out of her. She was scared and didn't want to get hurt. Zoey had to gain her trust little by little. She hoped that wouldn't take longer than it took to get her hands free, "I bet you're a good mother." Beth hands her another cracker before she looks down at the ground with a guilty expression. Zoey had hit a hard spot with her, so she added, "I'm sure you try to be. I know it's not your fault. It's his." Zoey knew Beth would know who she was talking about.

Beth hands her the last of the crackers before she dusts the crumbs off her hands and gets to her feet, "I-I have to go..." she hurriedly leaves the room like she had just committed the worst of crimes.

Zoey sighs as she sees her rush out of the room. This was going to be more complicated than she thought.