Detached

CHAPTER 80

*MEERA'S POINT OF VIEW*

I had no idea how long I had been slumped on the floor – it felt like days, but it was probably only a few hours. I sat there motionless as Jayesh came back, carrying a pre-packed sandwich and bottle of water, putting them next to the unopened one he’d brought me in earlier.

He looked at me apologetically. “I’m sorry, Meera, I am, but I had to. I don’t have a choice,” he explained, frowning. I nodded and turned away from him. I couldn’t look at him because I knew I would cry again, and I needed to be strong now.

“I need the bathroom,” I muttered, defeated.

“Okay, come on then.” He took my arm, holding me tightly as he pulled me to my feet.

As soon as we stepped foot outside of the room I was being held captive in, I elbowed him in the face and ran as fast as I could. I had no idea where I was going as I stumbled along, opening doors at random, hoping to find fire escape or maybe a weapon I could use or something. As I rounded a corner, I ran smack into a beefy guy who wrapped his arms around me. I looked up into Manoj’s sneering face. My heart sped up as my mouth popped open in shock. Manoj featured in my nightmares a lot of the time. He was James’s right-hand man and second in charge. He was probably the one that had been running the organisation while James was locked up.

I struggled and thrashed, but he was holding my arms too tightly for me to get away. A muscle in his jaw twitched as he looked down at me distastefully. One of his hands wrapped around my arm with bruising force as he whipped back his other hand and slapped me hard across the face. His grip on my arm was the only thing from keeping me from flying to the ground. My whole face exploded in pain and little lights danced in front of my eyes, making me feel dizzy and disorientated.

“Stop struggling or I’ll have to tie you up, and that would be uncomfortable. James said we needed to keep you comfortable,” he spat, sneering at me angrily. He’d never understood James’s fascination with me; he’d always looked at me like I was a piece of trash – but only when James wasn’t there, he wouldn’t dare do it in front of him.

A tear escaped, and I fought to keep them away as I stopped my useless efforts to escape. The best I could hope for now was death, but I knew that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. Maybe if I could piss Carter off enough, he’d kill me. Maybe he’d even kill me by accident, beating me for letting Ashton kiss and touch me. Mark led me to the bathroom and stood there watching while I went, which was humiliating to say the least. When I was done, he pushed me roughly towards Jimmy, so I tripped and fell into his arms. Jimmy looked annoyed as he put me back in the room and was wiping at his split lip with the sleeve of his shirt.

“Please let me go,” I begged, falling to my knees in front of him, gripping his jeans. “I’ll do anything you want.” I hated myself for it, but I would do anything not to have to go through what I went through last time.

“Just a couple more hours and then he’ll be here,” he replied emotionless, pulling his leg out of my grasp and turning for the door. He slammed it shut behind him, making it rattle on its hinges from the force of it. Clearly, with that one little attempt to escape, I’d just lost all hope of Jayesh being nice to me and trying to help me like he used to. I slumped down to the floor and rolled to my side, curling into a ball, waiting for my nightmare to begin all over again.