Lonely Castle

4 years & some change ago

Trigger Warning

This chapter contains scenes that some readers may find deeply distressing.

Content includes: physical assault, domestic abuse, coercive control, emotional and psychological abuse, k********g, drug use, graphic violence, s****l assault, r**e, victim restraint, threats with a weapon, and trauma.

Reader discretion is strongly advised. Please prioritise your wellbeing and skip this chapter if any of these topics may be triggering for you.

****

"Are you coming over tonight?" Dec asked as he dropped into the chair opposite Melly's desk.

Without looking up for more than a second, she closed her laptop, offering him a polite smile. "Can't. I've got a meeting with some potential clients."

"But you can see me tomorrow night before me and the boys head out?"

She nodded. "Yeah, tomorrow works."

She hoped that would be enough to send him on his way. It never was.

Lately she'd begun seeing Declan for exactly what he was, an entitled man-child who'd never had to earn a thing in his life.

Daddy and his brothers paid his way, cleaned up his messes, and somewhere along the line he'd mistaken dependence for importance.

Then there were his friends. The same men who just happened to have connections to a small but profitable people trafficking ring. She just so happened to be investigating.

"Look, Dec, I've got a lot to get through. Bran will kill me if I drop the ball on this one." She sighed, already reaching for her laptop again.

"Fine… fine. I get it." His expression darkened. "My brother's needs are more important to my own girlfriend than mine."

'Oh, for f**k's sake… here we go again.'

Straightening in her chair, Melly rolled her neck before squaring her shoulders.

"Come on, Dec. You know it's not like that. We're friends… and I kind of owe him this favour."

Already exhausted by the conversation. She glanced towards the office door, silently begging for an interruption.

As if answering her prayer, her phone rang.

"Oh, sorry, Declan. I have to take this… in private." She was already standing.

"See you tomorrow night."

*

Later that evening. After following her from the hotel and watching another man lay his hands on what he believed belonged to him, Declan tailed Melodie all the way to her meeting with Bran.

Seething, he watched from across the road as Mel sat inside the bar and grill with his brother and two men he'd never seen before.

A married couple sat opposite them, flanked by their own security detail.

Strange. Melodie, Bran and the others supposedly owned a security company themselves.

At least, that's what she'd always told him. Truthfully, she'd never explained what they actually did.

Only that their work took them all over the world.

*

"Thank you, Miss Tsong, for agreeing to investigate our daughter's case. Everyone else thinks she's just being a difficult teenager… but I... we know her. She would never leave for this long without contacting us."

Melly looked up from the intelligence file on her laptop.

From everything she'd already reviewed, the outlook was grim.

The girl was most likely already dead. Or worse, broken. Sold. And passed from one monster to another while awaiting organ harvesting.

"No," Mel replied gently. "Thank you for trusting us with this." She offered the grieving couple a sympathetic smile.

"I know it isn't easy, especially when law enforcement believes she ran away. We'll dig deeper than anyone else has." She paused.

"But I won't make promises I can't keep… and I can't guarantee that what we'll find will be easy to hear." Closing the laptop, she stood.

"Our office will be in contact tomorrow regarding fees and next steps."

*

Lifting her beer to her lips, Melly sighed.

"Ok, out with it," Bran said.

"We have clearance." She leaned back in the wicker chair, stretching the tension from her spine.

"Isn't that a good thing?" He frowned.

Shaking her head, she freed her thick curls from their tie, letting them tumble over her shoulders. "They approved it way too quickly."

Bran frowned. "Meaning?"

"They're going to use us as cover while they run a counter-operation."

"Which means more money for us," Bran interrupted with a grin.

Mel simply pursed her lips. "More risk."

Checking her watch, she let out a breath. "I've got to head back and check out of the fake Airbnb."

She leaned over, kissed his cheek, and grabbed her laptop bag and jacket. "See you back at the house."

Without waiting for a reply, she disappeared into the night.

*

As Melodie approached the front door of the cover house, she caught the faint sound of footsteps behind her.

Her pulse slowed instead of quickening.

Calm and measured. She drifted toward the glass door, using the reflection to see a figure dressed entirely in black.

The instant her fingers touched the handle, pain exploded through her body. A taser. Her muscles locked. And the world lurched sideways.

Dragging her barely conscious body through the doorway, Declan hurled her into the wall.

The impact drove the air from her lungs. Instinctively she folded, gasping for air that wouldn't come.

The front door clicked shut behind them. Confused and struggling to focus, Melodie stared up at him.

"What the hell—?"

"How could you let him touch you?" he roared.

His face twisted in rage. "How could you let another man touch what's mine!" He spat.

Before she could even answer, he was on her. Pupils blown wide. His breathing was ragged.

Every inch of him radiated pure fury. "You're mine, Mel."

He shoved her harder against the wall. "No one else's."

Another shove. "Not his." Another. "Not Bran's."

His forearm pressed against her throat. "Do you hear me?"

She clawed uselessly at his arm.

"Your body belongs to me."

Melly blinked. Then, despite the crushing pressure stealing her breath… she laughed.

A short, breathless sound. 'f*****g child.'

His face contorted. "What's so f*****g funny?"

He ripped his arm away. "Speak!"

When she stayed silent, he grabbed her by the hair and slammed the back of her head into the wall.

Once, twice, and again. Darkness swallowed everything.

Carrying her limp body into the bedroom they'd shared only nights before, Declan laid her across the bed.

He worked methodically. Placing zip ties around each wrist and each ankle, before securing them tightly to the bed's metal frame.

Only once she'd been completely immobilised did he leave the room.

In the kitchen he pulled a bottle of vodka from the freezer and drank deeply. Again, and again.

Emptying a bag of cocaine onto the counter, he cut four neat lines across the surface.

*

"I always knew you were a w***e," Declan hissed.

His grip dug painfully into Melly's bruised jaw as he forced her face towards his.

When she turned away, his teeth tore into her lip. She cried out; tears blurred her vision.

Her wrists burned against the restraints as she struggled.

"Please, Dec…" Her voice broke. "Please… you're hurting me."

His expression didn't soften. If anything, it brightened.

A sharp blow crashed into her ribs, pulling another cry from her lips.

"Stay still," he snarled. "Or I'll get the knife."

Every instinct screamed at her to fight. Every movement caused her more pain.

Her swollen eyes fixed on the ceiling, tears spilling silently into her hair.

"There," Declan murmured with sick satisfaction. "That's better."

He paused only long enough to snort another line before violently thrusting into her, repeatedly, utterly oblivious to the broken woman beneath him.

"Please…" she whispered again, her voice barely audible through the sobs that shook her chest. "Dec… please stop."

He only smiled. "Why would I?" His voice was low, almost affectionate.

"I'm just taking what's mine." By the time the words left his mouth, something inside Melodie had begun to die.

Not her body. Her trust, her sense of safety.

The part of her that had once believed she could still recognise monsters before they sank their teeth into her.