Captive Of Lies Book 2(Imprisoned in my Heart trilogy...Larry)

Chapter 17

“You won’t get a word out of me,” Louis promised. “Like I’d betray him. Like I’d ever betray him. Your lot, they’re loyal to you because they’re scared you’ll blow their brains out if they do something you don’t like – Harry and I are loyal to each other because we love each other, and we trust each other. Probably that’s a feeling you won’t be familiar with. The truth is, I don’t even care, because I will never let him down. Ever. And if you think I will…I think you need to re-evaluate the way you look at life, because really, you have no idea what the real meaning of loyalty is.”

It was the end of what had been a very long, dramatic and impressionable speech, but irritatingly, Derek didn’t seem at all interested. He looked up from his nails, which he had been examining, and raised a thick eyebrow.

“Are you quite finished?” he asked pointedly.

Breathing heavily after his impassioned rant, Louis asked “Would you let me continue even if I wasn’t?”

“No,” Derek admitted cheerfully, and then he lashed out once more. His large fist collided with Louis’ cheek, splodges of red and green were painted messily across Louis’ vision, and he sprawled back to the floor again with a low groan.

This half-conversation had been going on for some time, and Louis had long since stopped hoping that it would soon be over. Derek was good at hitting people. So far, it was too soon for bruises to be forming, and the earliest blows had been too soft to leave much of a mark, but Derek was beginning to get bored, and the more bored he got, the harder he punched. Still, that wasn’t going to affect Louis. He was determined to be strong. Harry would never have betrayed their secrets, and he didn’t intend to either. Perhaps it was worse because Derek didn’t want secrets that Louis could have given away more easily – or made up on the spot – like what Harry had been imprisoned for in the first place, or who he might have been able to rely on for help. No, Derek sought humiliation, and his questions were the most embarrassingly intimate ones that Louis had ever heard, questions like ‘when was the first time he told you he loved you?’ and ‘what attracts him the most when you’re together?’ Louis couldn’t imagine whyDerek would want to know these things, except to humiliate him. At first he had wondered whether Derek had some kind of twisted crush on Harry, but he had worked out pretty quickly that this wasn’t the case; the man was just sadistic and vicious, and knew that demanding these answers would hurt Louis – and, in turn, Harry – far more than queries that might actually have been of use.

Sitting up, Louis wiped his bloody lip with the back of his hand, swiping scarlet droplets away from his mouth with a grimace. His face was stiffening from the relentless punching; he knew it would be swollen by the next day. Surprisingly, apart from his eyes watering in pain, and the odd involuntary yelp, he’d said very little, and displayed such a disappointing reaction to the attacks that Derek was almost more infuriated by his lack of pleading than his silence. That was satisfaction in itself, to know that he was taunting the man by saying nothing, and Louis would have smiled if the movement hadn’t stretched his lip too much.

“I could make this so much easier for you, you know,” Derek offered, his voice a low, almost seductive murmur. Louis could practically feel the words crawling across his skin, and he shuddered a little. “Just answer my questions, and you can go back to your room and clean up. And I’ll get you another sandwich.”

Louis didn’t really like the room he’d been relocated to; it was smaller, stuffy, and had no window and no furniture, and definitely no en suite – but he felt that he knew where he stood now, and he would rather be trapped in a cramped, unfriendly room than left in a room that was full of surprises, where he never knew what to expect. He wouldn’t have wanted to go back to that room even if Derek had offered sincerely, without wanting anything in return. It was almost amusing to shake his head in refusal. Besides, the offer of food wasn’t tempting; the only thing swimming more than his head was his stomach, and he felt that if he even swallowed so much as a crumb, he’d bring the entire contents of his stomach back up onto the wooden floor at Derek’s feet. Dizzy, Louis met Derek’s cold stare head on, determined not to seem scared.