Tortured - Jaele

C H A P T E R | S E V E N

• J A C E •

Every week that passed Rosa would come to clean, cook, and sort the apartment out while I was gone. I gave her strict instructions to ignore Riele, told her that she was a new project of mine and paid her well to keep her silence. Rosa couldn't resist the money. Not with her family trapped in Mexico. She'd do anything for a few extra bucks. I was sure she recognize Riele's face from all the missing posters I'd ripped up and thrown into the garbage.

The stupid little girl hadn't tried to escape again from what I reviewed on the security surveillance footage from my office. She usually lounged around doing nothing I'd worry about, watching horribly frantic soap operas on the tv in the living area, staring out the window of the bedroom, going through my drawers to find nothing but socks and underwear. Not eating when she could avoid it, which was every afternoon I wasn't audibly forcing her to.

"If you're trying to die because you're not eating, I'll kill you first."

I said to her as she played with the food on her plate in the living area. She glanced over at me.

"Threats always give me an appetite."

She said. Within a moment, I was on my knees in front of her, holding my spoon up to her lips.

"Open."

Her mouth inched open and slipped the food inside. I watched her carefully as she chewed it and waited for another bite.

"Good girl."

She rolled her eyes, I wiped the edge of her chin with my thumb and stayed in front of her the entire night until we were both finished. With her belly full she leaned back against the sofa and promptly fell asleep. I resolved to carry her to the bedroom and let her sleep in an actual pair of pajamas that night.

I noticed she enjoyed taking long hot showers and bubble baths, experimenting with the candles I kept in the bathroom and the bath soaps stocked on the shelves in their respective cabinets. When she was asleep I'd go and rearrange them back in the order they were in before she used them.

Watching her undress as she quietly hummed in the bathroom was indeed, a guilty pleasure of mine while at work. I got incredibly stiff, I'd have to ask Denise, my real assistant for an ice pack every now and then. She'd ask me what I needed it for and I'd tell I had a splitting headache.

Which, I didn't think was too hard to believe given the gruel hours I forced myself to push through. The way Riele took a bath was like a sacred ritual now. She had settled into an adjusted routine. The water had to be hot enough to steam up the glass of the mirror, she used my loofah sponge, 2-3 pumps of body wash and then guided the foam all over her body until she was perfectly covered in bubbles.

I had decided that my favorite part of her body was her back. It was slim and delicate, arched, without any flaw. Smooth brown and taut with muscles. I sat at my desk one evening watching her move through the apartment curiously, I turned to the window, imagining everything I'd like to do to her in perfect synchronization.

It made things worse for me and I'd have to drag my attention away from Riele just to focus on the task at hand. I didn't know how long I could make myself hold out before I attacked her like a starved predator. It's been weeks since my release in the bed next to her. I didn't want to spoil myself. She had changed considerably from a whiney and depressed captive to an accepting guest. Not such a grand level up, but it was better than having to choke any more sense into her.

Later into the afternoon of the next day Nicky, had left me a message. She was Isabela's loud mouthed, older sister with an embarrassing drug addiction and more baby father's than I could count. While we were currently going through a brutal divorce, and she's trying desperately to help Isabela squeeze every last penny she can out of me. She was just like her gold digging sister, only much louder and and wider. She was also the reason I hadn't seen my daughter in 3 long and miserable weeks.