“You willing to try and undress her?” Scott asked not interested in going into battle with her himself at the moment.
“Sounds like a challenge,” Angus said stepping toward Jessica.
“The corner will do, “Riley interrupted.
“Come on Princess,” Angus said tugging on her leash. Jessica leaned back against the harness and dug in her heels.
“I’ll do it,” Jim said to Angus while holding his hand out for the leash, “have some breakfast.”
Angus hesitated not sure that he wanted to pass on the opportunity to show Jessica who was boss. But hell, he’d done nothing but that the night before.
“Knock yourself out Jimbo,“ Angus said handing the leash to Jim, “watch your nose though, she’s fast with her head.”
Jim took the leash.
“Have fun, hanging around,” Angus said to Jessica as he passed her on his way to the kitchen.
Scott and Josh put their dishes on the counter and headed out the front door to begin feeding the horses. Neither one of them could look at Jessica. Jessica had spat at them plenty of times and she’d never ended up looking like that. Angus was a hard man, that was not news to them, but ever since Jessica had come into their lives they had seen first hand just how brutal he could actually be. At a not so deep level, Angus scared the crap out of them. They couldn’t believe that Jessica persistently challenged him like she did. In her attempts to escape, Jessica was as equally brutal as Angus. And though they’d never admit it, they were afraid of her too.
“You gonna watch over her?” Riley asked Jim.
“Yup.” Jim replied.
“Alright, I’ve got business in town. When you’re done hanging her up, can you check out my rifle? Something seems off. ” Riley asked.
“Sure,” Jim said. “Delivering those pups?” he asked.
Riley nodded. “I won’t be long.”
The men all had specific responsibilities within the group, some of which involved contact with outsiders. They used assumed names and the contact was little more than pick-ups and drop-offs, but it was something that helped ease the isolation. Jim and Josh help Scott break-in and breed horses, using their horse trailer to haul prize studs to clients’ ranches. Jim was in charge of keeping their weapons cleaned and serviced.
Riley trains dogs for the clan, and anyone else that needed guard, attack, or fighting dogs. He had twenty kennels, five of which were filled with their own dogs, ten of which Riley usually filled with the dogs he was training, and five he kept as spares. They had a bitch at the moment, who had just had four to five pups. He was going to drop them off at the buyers’ homes. They certainly couldn’t come and pick them up.
Angus, was the group’s mechanic and handyman. He kept their cars running, overhauled old cars to replenish their needs, or those of the clan. Often if one of the other cells had a car problem, Angus would pick up the vehicle and bring it back to their house for maintenance. He refitted one of the five barns they had into a garage. And if anything ever broke, Angus was the one to fix it. Since the time that the men had attacked Jessica’s family and chosen to keep Jessica, they lived together, alone, with her. Their contact with the outside world was limited to them going out into it. No one from the outside was ever permitted to come to them. Not even others in the clan. To ensure this, they chose to live in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town was one hundred miles away.
Jim began to roll the leash over his hand, moving closer to Jessica as he did.
Jessica twisted her body, fruitlessly trying to twist her way out of the harness that tied her to the leash.
“You hate this thing, don’t you?” Jim asked letting the leash sag between them. “If you don’t want me to drag you by it, you’re going to have to walk over to the corner.”
Jim took a step past her in the direction of the corner with the hook in the ceiling. She didn’t move.
“One way or another, you’re going to hang from that hook Jessica,” Jim said, she cringed at the name he’d used. “You can avoid the humiliation of me dragging you by the leash. I’m counting to three … one, two … “
Jessica began to move toward the corner. Once there Jimmy pulled a set of handcuffs from his pocket. “Put your hands out,” Jim said. Jessica didn’t move. Well, he supposed that was too much to ask for.
“Need some help there Jimboy?” Angus demanded from the dining room table.
Jessica tensed, and stuck her hands out before her.
“Didn’t think so,” Angus added as Jim cuffed her wrists. Raising her hands above her head, he lifted her up and hooked the cuffs to the hook. Jim stepped back, and Jessica dangled from the hook. She grunted, but stubbornly refused to cry out. Looking over his shoulder, Jim saw that Angus had turned his attention from them, to his food. Jim leaned closer to Jessica and whispered,
“If you hate the leash and harness so much, why don’t you do something to get out of them?” Jessica looked startled. “If you stop making us use them to drag you from place to place … stay where we put you, I think I can convince the others to remove them. But it’s up to you. Think about it.” And Jim walked away. He dropped onto the sofa, picked up the book he’d been reading earlier, and began to read.
Jessica felt a searing, burning pain shooting through her arms, her back. As was her usual tactic, she searched for something to think about that would distract her from the pain. Jim’s suggestion about the leash and harness was just the thing to do it.
She never knew quite how to take him. He’d never touched her sexually, but then, neither had Riley. But there was something else. He was always whispering to her, suggesting ways that she could possibly be happier … or depending on how you looked at it, ways that she could submit to them. She did hate that damn harness and leash though. Long before the sexual abuse, this had been her first devastating humiliation. It was true that by going where these men directed her was a form of obedience … but if it got them to remove the harness and leash, it was also a step closer to escape.
She decided then, that she would do it. Images of the bodies of her parents and brothers returned. ‘I’m sorry,’ she mentally said to the crumpled bodies. Jessica stifled a sob. She wanted nothing more than to feel her mother’s arms around her again … to bury her face into her father’s chest.
Would they forgive her for the concessions she was about to make?
Twelve hours later, an eternity to Jessica, Jessica couldn’t feel her arms any more. Riley was leading her to his room. As they walked Jessica hoped to feel the tingling sensation that accompanied the return of the blood to her arms, but it wasn’t coming.
She stifled a groan when Riley led her to the corner in his room. She looked at the hook with a feeling of dread but she steeled herself against it. Under no circumstances was she going to let Riley know how she felt.
“Maybe spending the night in the corner will make you think twice about spitting at us,” Riley said after hoisting her onto the hook. He stepped back and dropped onto his bed. He stole a look at Jessica hoping for some indication that she was getting the message, for some indication that she was at least a little bit sorry for her actions.