Countered: A Dark Suspenseful Gothic Romance (The Rule of Lawes Series Book 2)

  Countered

  The Rule of Lawes series.

  Book Two.

  By

  Felicity Brandon

  Copyright © 2020 by Felicity Brandon

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review. For more information, address: felicitybrandonauthor@gmail.com

  This book is entirely a work of fiction. The author does not condone, nor endorse any of the acts in this book.

  First edition February 2020

  Cover design by Jayelle Morgan

  Download your FREE Felicity book link.

  https://felicitybrandonwrites.com/

  One

  April

  Grasping the bars, her fingers gripped the metal in the darkness.

  Close—she had been so close to getting away and would have, had it not been for that damn Zander. April had been waiting for that one opportunity to slip away from him for weeks. She’d bided her time and watched every facet of the routine. She’d learned which lock connected to which chain and how long she could expect to wait there—she knew the rules only too well. April had known the moment Zander had made the error. She recognized the mistake and seized it.

  Waiting until his back was turned on the other side of the training yard, April had risen to her feet and run for it. She knew her way around the place by now, the labyrinth of dark corridors no longer inspiring terror. It wasn’t the dark she feared anymore or even the dentist, but the twisted minds of the men who ran the organization, and as her digits clutched the cool metal of the cage that contained her, that idea reverberated. April had tried and failed to escape, and the only reason she wasn’t being made to pay for her mistake at that very moment, was the fact the newest arrival had done the same thing. She shook her head in the gloom. Now, that was something April had never seen coming.

  The new girl had seemed so flighty and pathetic, April would never have believed she had the audacity to flee. By the accounts April had garnered from Matthew and Zander after she’d been recaptured, the other girl had almost made it, getting as far as the grounds outside. That was significantly further than April got, and for that, she had to give the woman credit. April, like the rest of those flung into the small metal containers, was well aware the newest arrival would be paying dearly for her error in some obscene and mortifying way. April knew all about the punishments Lawes and Fuller liked to deliver—better than anyone.

  “Can you believe she tried to get away?”

  The excited whisper came from Stacy in the next cage. After all this time, April could recognize the voices of the other captives, even in the perpetual darkness of the basement.

  “She did get away,” countered Audra from across the room. “I heard she almost made it to the gates. She almost made it out.”

  “Almost.”

  April hadn’t intended for her comment to be so cutting, but somehow, she’d been unable to resist. She still remembered the whiney little brunette who’d attracted Fuller’s attention the night before, and a part of her was struggling to believe that same woman had the tenacity to make it further than she had. She couldn’t give the notion credence.

  A snort from the gloom drew April’s attention.

  “She did better than you, April.” Lucy’s dulcet tone was even more scathing than April’s had been, but the worst of it was, Lucy’s words were true.

  “I know. And now, she’ll be fucking paying for it.”

  “You’ll pay for it, too,” Lucy reminded her in a tone that was virtually gleeful. “Your ass will be red raw tomorrow. You wait and see.”

  April closed her eyes at Lucy’s assessment. It was depressingly accurate. There was no doubt, she had one hell of a hiding coming for her attempted escape. The new girl’s bid had brought her a few hours’ reprieve, but she was under no illusions. That was all it had gifted her.

  “I’ll deal with it,” she muttered in response.

  And she would. April had been dealing with all the shit they could throw at her right from the start. Each time they enacted some terrible penance, it only achieved one goal—sharpening her resolve to get the hell out of there.

  “How many attempts is that now, April?” Lucy’s goading tone washed over her. “How many times have you nearly made it out?”

  “Fuck you,” April hissed. “More than you, Luce. How many times have you even tried?”

  She’d been there, in this hell hole with Lucy right from the beginning. Lucy had been the first unsuspecting patient, and April had arrived only a day later. April inhaled at the bright naivety of the woman she’d been when she’d strolled into the building that morning. April could barely relate to her at all now. Whatever optimism had filled her heart had been well and truly pulverized by the deeds of the deranged dentists.

  She was a different woman now—a harder woman.

  “You’re right.” The venom had slipped from Lucy’s voice, her tone resigned.

  Somehow, Lucy’s acquiescence did nothing to soothe her. There was no victory in the other woman’s misery. Every one of them was screwed while they remained there, and every few days, another one seemed to arrive, the cages filling with horrifying frequency.

  “Should we be talking like this?” Katie’s nervous voice floated from somewhere down the line. “Won’t they be angry?”

  “They’re busy with the new girl,” April retorted, picturing the scene in her mind. “I bet they have her in the throne room by now, in that fucking pillory. God help her once she’s in there.”

  “Oh, Christ,” Stacy’s voice broke. “I hope she’s okay.”

  April’s brow rose. In her abject disappointment, she hadn’t even considered whether the other woman was okay. She really had hardened since she’d arrived here.

  “She’ll be okay,” she assured Stacy and whoever else cared to listen. “She’s new. They like her. They’ll want to intimidate her into the idea of being good, but not crush her spirit completely.”

  “Yeah, that comes later,” Lucy agreed in a dry tone. “She’ll be all right.”

  “What was her name, anyway?” April’s brow knitted at her own question. “Did anybody catch it?” A wave of guilt washed over her—she didn’t even know the new girl’s identity.

  “Fuller called her Hannah.” Audra’s voice again, and the answer resonated.

  Hannah.

  April recalled the name now that Audra mentioned it.

  “Yes, Hannah.” April’s hand fell from the bars into her lap. “Well, Hannah certainly had more balls than I gave her credit for.”

  “That’s good,” Lucy spoke up from beside her. “She’ll need them in this place. She’ll need them to survive.”

  April stretched her head back, leaning against the bars behind her. Lucy’s words were pinpoint accurate. Hannah would need every ounce of her fortitude if she was going to get out of this—they all would—but few knew it better than April.

  Once upon a time, she had counted the days of her captivity. She and Lucy had devised a way right from the beginning by scratching lines onto one of the so-called jumps in the training yard, and each day, one of them was responsible for engraving the wood. On the one hand, the sight of each new marking was an unequivocal
reminder of how desolate their position was—a visible, physical prompt—a reinforcement of their plight. But on the other hand, it was impetus, a reason to get through another night in the dark. For some reason, counting the days seemed to help. It was easy to get lost in a torrid place like this, each mortifying monotonous task bleeding into the next until neither of them knew what day it was anymore or how long they’d been stuck in captivity. The scratchings had given them hope. The act gave them meaning. It was one small symbol of resistance in a neverending haze of rules and capitulation. It had been something to count on each day—two fingers to the morons who kept them chained and gagged—a way to get through until they got out.

  Until Lawes had discovered the vandalism and taken them both to task.

  April recalled the way he’d splintered her ass with an assortment of implements as so-called punishment for her crime. She remembered the humiliation of being forced into the damn pillory and the agony of each strike. Hell, April had barely been able to even sit down for days after. She recalled the tears she’d cried, each one burned into her skin like a brand. That was the day that nearly broke April. The day she resolved, things had to change. If this was to be her fate, she wasn’t going to give the fuckers another ounce of satisfaction. There would be no more tears—no shows of vulnerability.

  They would never have another piece of the woman she was—April wouldn’t allow it.

  Lucy had changed that day as well, though April hadn’t appreciated the shift until she looked back and appraised the woman. Before Lawes had discovered their defiance, she had been bright and, dare April say it, bubbly. A few years older, Lucy had given April courage. She was down but not out, and her uncompromising optimism held April together in the very darkest moments of those early days. Once the scratchings had been discovered, Lucy was different, as though a little piece of her had been lost when that wooden post had been taken away. The day they found themselves face to face with its flawless replacement, Lucy’s temperament morphed into something darker—more cynical, more scathing.

  More like you, April, the tiny voice in her head reminded her. Lucy had become more like her—an older, more mocking, and sardonic version of herself.

  “We should try to rest.” Lucy’s voice was softer with the edict. “Whatever the hell they’re doing up there, they’ll be done soon, then they’ll be desperate to take their bad day out on one of us.”

  April’s belly clenched at Lucy’s words. She was right, of course, and worse, April knew precisely which one of them would face the wrath of Lawes next.

  “They’ll come for me.” Her voice was distant. “The rest of you will be okay.”

  An oppressive silence fell over the dank room. Apparently, none of the other girls knew how to respond.

  “Probably.” In the end, it was Lucy who broke the impasse. It was always going to be Lucy. “All the more reason to rest, April. You’re going to need it, girl.”

  April’s lips curled at the way Lucy made that sound. She hadn’t referred to April as girl for a long time, not since those early days when they’d been the only two forced into the dark cages, the only two compelled into this hell.

  “I’ll be all right,” she told the others. “I’ll get through it.”

  It wasn’t just her ego talking. Yes, April was more stoic than some. She’d found mettle in the gloom of this place that she hadn’t even known existed until she was forced to claw for it, but it was more than just that.

  She would be okay and would get through whatever they could throw at her. At the end of the day, there was no choice—she had to be. Her family was out there, somewhere on the other side of the city, worrying about her, unsure if she was alive or dead. April had to survive, and she had to get through this. There were bigger things at stake here than just whatever remained of her pride and her ass.

  Far bigger things.

  “Of course, you will.” April heard the smile in Lucy’s voice. “You’re the very best of us, April, and until this Hannah arrived, you were the only one with the spirit to try to run. You’ll be fine, girl. Those bastards won’t break you.”

  April slid down the bars onto the hard, plastic floor, allowing the sentiment to envelop her. Whatever happened, Lucy had to be right—she just had to be.

  April wouldn’t let the bastards grind her down.

  Two

  Hannah

  Hannah’s mind was numb, anesthetized to the pain Lawes had enacted on her exposed backside and thighs, virtually sedated to the ignominy which now rained down on her.

  Virtually… but not completely.

  Nothing could knock out the taunting tone of the man who wielded the implement. No amount of pain was enough to freeze him out of her head.

  “How about now?” Lawes’ voice penetrated her psyche. “Does she seem sorry now, gentlemen?”

  Sorry? Hannah lifted her neck an inch, but her lids closed as soon as she caught sight of the others. They were in the same position they’d been in, right from the start—Fuller sitting directly in front of her misery with Zander and Matthew on either side of the older man, their faces eager to take in her demise. There was little point in denying what was so patently true—Hannah was being annihilated by Lawes’ paddle. Aside from the cropping he’d delivered in this very spot earlier in the day, she had never so much as taken a spanking before. Now, she was subject to round after round of excruciating strikes, but even after the onslaught, Hannah wasn’t sorry.

  She wasn’t even vaguely sorry.

  “There’s definitely more in the way of contrition.”

  Hannah exhaled at Fuller’s verdict and wondered how he’d reached this unilateral verdict.

  “Enough?” Lawes had wandered to the side of the pillory, his voice garnering her attention. Wearily, Hannah’s eyes fluttered open.

  Fuller leaned forward, his gaze scrutinizing her. “I’m not sure the objective you seek can be achieved in one sitting, my friend.”

  From her peripheral vision, Hannah caught sight of Lawes spinning the handle of the paddle in his hands.

  “Meaning what?”

  Fuller’s blue eyes flitted to Hannah’s face. “Meaning, she’s exhausted, and while I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing her rear end, I’m guessing she’s pretty thoroughly punished for the time being.” His focus shifted back to his partner in crime. “I say we let her rest for now and have her back tomorrow to look for signs of real contrition.”

  “Hmmm, perhaps you are right, Mark.” Lawes sighed as he sauntered past Hannah’s head. “But somehow, it pains me to leave a patient any less than whimpering after such a reckless show of disrespect.”

  Fuller rose from his seat, and for a moment, they stared down at Hannah. She lowered her gaze, unable to tolerate the pressure on her neck or the withering glances of the men, but to her horror, Fuller lowered to his haunches, his right hand capturing the side of her face.

  “What do you think, Hannah?” His voice was softer as though he wanted to lull her. “Have you had enough for one night?”

  “Why are you asking her?” snorted Lawes, smacking the paddle against his open palm. “Of course, she’s going to say she has.”

  Fuller glanced up to meet Lawes’ irritation. “Because she’s ours,” he reminded Lawes. “Yes, that means ours to punish. I understand why you’re so pissed off, but that doesn’t mean we do anything stupid. Fortunately, Hannah, like the others, will still be here to mold, guide, and reprimand tomorrow. I suggest we use the time to reassess our security since there was not one but two attempted escapes today.”

  Fuller’s gaze shifted between his partner and Zander, and Hannah took the chance to sneak a glance at all four of them. She took in the enraptured expressions on Matthew and Zander’s faces, noting how the latter’s diminished at the mention of his earlier error, before she absorbed the interesting dynamic between Fuller and Lawes. It had been Lawes’ mistake which had allowed Hannah to go free earlier, a fact both were no doubt aware of. Her eyes flickered closed briefly
as that thought echoed around her head.

  She had gone free.

  She’d been out of the dentist’s chair, out of their clutches, and out of the damn house, and she would have been out of the grounds, too, had Fuller not literally obstructed her flight path. Christ, Hannah had been so close, and the reality of that tore at her insides. Not only had she let that chance slip away, but now, she would have to deal with the consequences and based on Lawes’ responses so far, that would mean endless rounds of torment at his hands. No doubt, he was infuriated by the way he’d facilitated her escape. After all, if Lawes had secured her properly in the first place, Hannah would never have been able to flee. She sensed that was what was driving his anger, and worse, she had the feeling she would still have to pay for that perceived breach of trust.

  As if this wasn’t payment enough.

  “Okay.”

  The paddle fell from Lawes’ hand, crashing to the wooden floor. Hannah’s feet jerked at the noise, her heart racing faster at the deed, but she noticed Fuller didn’t even flinch.

  “Okay, you’re right,” Lawes ceded. “We do need to talk. I’ll take Hannah back to her cage.”

  “I’ll take her.” Fuller turned back to Hannah, their gazes locking before her neck muscles insisted she give up and let her head sink south again. “You three convene in my office.”

  Hannah’s brow rose at Fuller’s words. They had sounded like an order, and the atmosphere in the room seemed to confirm her suspicions. Something had shifted. It was almost imperceptible, but trapped in the bloody pillory, it was obvious. The dynamic between the men was different, and Fuller was exerting his will over the others, including Lawes.

  “All right.” There was an edge to Lawes’ reply, an unspoken quality Hannah couldn’t put her finger on. “Fine. You take her. Matthew, Zander, you come with me.”

  Hannah watched Lawes’ polished shoes stalk away from her, followed by the two younger men until there was only her and Fuller left in the gigantic room.