"Did you miss me?"

Terror ignited rapidly through every segment of my veins, coursing through my body and sending my heart into a dangerous overdrive. Suddenly, my lips were dry and my mouth was parched of any saliva; the fear stealing every bit of it away as I attempted to speak.

My thoughts were jumbled as I tried to form some recognition of sensible words. My attention was ripped right down the middle between the man that held my body stiff against his own and the man I loved, bleeding and unconscious up on the stage.

"What are you... how-"

"How did I get out?" Zach's vile voice cut me off.

"A buddy of mine bailed me out today after some convincing. The police tried to call you but lucky for me, I knew you were in this shit show play of yours and you wouldn't be able to get to your phone. Good thing too because,"

My attention zeroed in on my ear as Zach's lips appeared right next to it, his once soothing lips grazing softly across my ear lobe as he spoke. "I really wanted to surprise you, Lee."

"My buddy wasn't hard to convince either," he continued. "I told him it was all a misunderstanding. Told him that you were drunk that night and didn't know what you were talking about. Told him you were in danger and another man was out to get you," he whispered in a sickly seductive tone, sending armies of goose bumps invading across my skin.

"Lucky for you, that danger's already been taken care of." Zach's voice oozed with pride as he spoke of Kaleb. My heart ached and cried out to him to wake up.

"How about we get him up, yeah? Three's a real party anyways."

With that, Zach wrapped his hand around my upper arm and yanked me forcefully as he walked down the theater isle, tugging me along as I tried to keep up my footing with his fast pace and long strides.

As we closed in towards the stage, my eyes lingered and took in with great difficulty Kaleb's battered body. His head was drooped low and cocked to the side, letting me easily see the trail of blood that continued to drip from the wound on his head where his thick hair was matted and coated with his own blood. His arms were strapped behind him in what looked like a painful manner; his entire, massive body was completely and utterly limp.

Lifeless.

Tears burned through my stare that was trained so fixedly on Kaleb. My chest constricted and my heart wept painfully, the image of what Zach had done to Kaleb because of me was beyond overwhelming.

"Stay," Zach ordered, pushing me back towards Dave's director table that sat just feet back from the stage.

I watched helplessly as Zach walked up on stage and towards Kaleb, fishing a water bottle out of his back pocket.

My eyes were wide and pinned on Kaleb as Zach unscrewed his bottle of water and dumped all of its contents onto Kaleb's unsuspecting head.

Kaleb woke with a sudden and violent jerk.

The tears in my eyes pooled over the second Kaleb came to life, his disorientated eyes flickering around the room rapidly, trying to come back into focus.

Then his stare found mine.

A thousand various emotions pummeled through Kaleb's gaze as we found each other. Drops of water began to drip and speckle across Kaleb's handsome face as he slowly shook his head, disbelief and rage welling behind his bright gaze.

"No...no," Kaleb whispered out, trying to convince himself of another reality other than our own.

"Welcome back! Hope you had a nice snooze," Zach bellowed out, alerting Kaleb to his already assumed presence.

Kaleb's head snapped towards Zach, his usually beautiful stare morphing into one of pure loathing as he curled his lips back menacingly.

"Motherfucker!" Kaleb spat at Zach.

Without hesitation, Zach reared his fist back.

"No!" I screamed out, but it was too late.

A sickening snap echoed through the room and I watched in horror as Kaleb's head flew to the side and a strangled exhale ripped from his lips.

Zach stretched his fingers on the hand he had just used to send a mighty punch into Kaleb's face, cracking his knuckles causally as he lowered his face down to Kaleb's.

"Speak out again. I dare you," Zach spoke slowly, a challenging gleam shining in his eyes.

"Zach, stop!" I pleaded and took a few steps towards the stage. Zach's attention snapped from Kaleb directly to me, his eyes locking onto mine with a superior curiosity sitting in his stare.

"Was I speaking to you?" he asked, demeaning me with his words and cocked eyebrow. "No, I don't think I was. You're going to have to remember exactly how and when to speak me to when you come back home, Lee."

Confusion and dread soared through my body and stole the very breath from my lungs.

"What...? I'm not-"

"Yes, you are." Zach's tone was final as his eyes drilled into mine with every next word from his mouth.

"You're coming with me. You'll tell the police to drop the charges and then you'll come back to the apartment with me... where you belong."

"No..." I said, shaking my head in disbelief and anger began to well inside of me. "I'm not going anywhere with you. It's over, Zach."

Zach's brows raised on his forehead, his eyes showing with mock surprise. "Oh really?"

Zach's hand dipped into his jacket pocket and pulled something out.

My hands flew over my mouth as a petrified gasp sliced through my lungs. My breathing had sky rocketed and was now coming out in loud, short pants that were fueled by the overpowering sense of helplessness writhing through my mind as my trembling vision took in the object held securely in Zach's hand.

"You wanna rethink that answer, Lee?" Zach inquired as he pressed the head of the gun deeper into Kaleb's temple.

"Oh, god..." I mumbled through my hands as pitiful tears dripped over and laced through my fingers, slipping and tickling down my quivering hands.

He had me.

He had Kaleb.

He had us.

There was no out. No other options. Zach held Kaleb's life in his hands. Zach had the possibility to take away the life of the one I loved more than anything, the one who had pushed and pried his way past my walls and managed to give me my own life back.

As I fixed my watery stare on Kaleb's, I swore I could almost feel his enduring love reach out and touch me with its potency, caressing its way into my heart and stroking my mind, trying to calm and sooth it.

This beautiful man had done everything, risked everything to give me my life back.

And I'd be damned if I was the reason he lost his.

I tore my gaze away from Kaleb's, knowing I could never bear to witness the look in his vulnerable eyes as I spoke my next words.

"I'll come with you."

"No!"

I crumbled into myself as Kaleb cried out, knowing that he was feeling the exact same miserable pain and anguish seize his heart as was mine in that very moment.

"What was that? I couldn't quite hear you over this shithead," Zach taunted, knowing he was slowly but surely bringing me back under his controlling, imprisoning spell.

"I said, I'll come with you."

Cocking his head to the side, there was a familiar, cruel look shining through Zach's sapphire eyes that were locked in such a predatory manner onto mine.

"I want you to beg for it."

More tears pooled into my hazy vision as his words hit my ears.

"What?"

"I said fucking beg for it! I want you to beg to come home with me, Lee. Like a dog... beg for me." As Zach's wild eyes burned into mine, waiting for my compliance, I knew exactly what he was doing. He was torturing me, embarrassing me in front of Kaleb and punishing me for all I had put him through.

He was putting me back in my place.

In that moment, I was powerless, weak... paralyzed.

I had stepped back into the worn out, beaten down pair of shoes I had been living in for the last two years.

Rolling my lips in between my teeth and dropping my head, I swallowed down every ounce of pride I had gained back in being with Kaleb. Slowly, knowing I would be able to feel every chip and break inside of my mind as I gave in, I raised my head up and parted my trembling lips.

"Please... please let me come with you." I choked back a soft sob that broke through my tense throat, sucking back a dread filled breath of air.

"I want to come home with you," I whispered out into the dead air.

"Leah, no!"

"Glad to see there's still some sense left in you. I was beginning to think he fucked it all out of you while I was gone," Zach mocked as he leapt down off of the stage and onto the floor, making his way towards me.

"No need to worry about that," Zach said as he stalked up to me, bringing his tall frame looming over mine dauntingly as his lips quirked up into a foul smirk.

"I'll just fuck the rest of the sense back into you tonight."

Panic gripped at the seams of my mind as my stomach twisted painfully in severe repulsion.

"Don't fucking touch her! I will kill you! I swear to God I'll rip your fucking heart out if you lay one finger on her," I heard Kaleb growl out as he thrashed about in his chair, cursing at his confines and pulling at them with every ounce of strength left inside of him.

"Oh, don't worry lover boy," Zach said with slim dripping from his words as he narrowed his eyes at Kaleb. "I'll let you watch every second of it."

God, no...

"No... no! Zach, please!" I cried out, desperation wavering in my voice as my fingers grasped at Zach's jacket and tried to find his eyes with mine.

Finally, Zach turned his head back to me, his dominating stare fastening to mine in a challenging connection. I tried my very best to seek out any sliver of compassion I once had for the man standing in front of me as I softened my voice and attempted to pry out any scrap of humanity still left dwelling in Zach's heart.

"Zach, please... I'll do anything you want me to; let you do anything you want to me. Just please, please not like this... not here."

Zach's chest moved beneath my hands as he let out a short, breathy laugh, his lips pulling up at the side into a smirk as he slowly shook his head at me.

"I don't know if you're really sweet for wanting to keep him from watching or if you're just really fucking dumb for thinking I would actually give a shit."

I knew Zach could see the crushing horror swimming through my stare as his words hit my ears and his verdict became known.

Zach was going to have sex with me in front of Kaleb...

And there was nothing I could do about it.

"I think you both need a concrete reminder of just who exactly you belong to," Zach spat out at me. My breath hitched in my throat as fingers gripped tightly onto my chin, keeping my head straight and my eyes level on his as he spoke, disciplining his words into my mind forever more.

"I own you, Leah. Always have. Always will. So, I hope you enjoyed your little fuck session while I was in jail because it's the last shred of freedom you'll ever have again. You. Are. Mine," Zach growled out, hammering his ownership into my brain. Then, he turned his attention to Kaleb on stage.

"And you're going to watch as I fuck her brains out so you'll always know whose property she is."

"She's not someones property! God, you are so fucked in the head!" Kaleb's voice boomed across the theater.

Still keeping one hand firmly gripped onto my chin, Zach raised his other arm and leveled the gun up towards Kaleb.

"One more outburst and I won't hesitate to put a bullet in your brain," Zach threatened, his voice low and deadly.

"No!" Without thinking, I reached out and went for the gun with both hands.

Unfortunately, Zach was a hair quicker.

Within seconds, Zach had encircled his arm around my entire body and clasped my arms in his strong hold. With the other hand, I felt cold metal press against the underneath of my chin as Zach tilted my head backwards using the gun.

I didn't dare swallow or breathe too deeply. Every muscle in my body was tensed almost painfully so, the sweat building and sliding down the side of my forehead being the only movement taking place.

"You done?" Zach's breath fanned across my neck as he spoke.

Ever so slightly, I nodded.

"Good. Now get up on the table."

An uncontrollable wave of abhorrence seized my mind as my I willed my body to abide by Zach's every command, no matter how severely it would torture me to do so.

"Now!"

I flinched as Zach's impatient voice sounded around me and filled my body to its brim with overwhelming trepidation. Within seconds, I had propped myself up so that I was sitting on top of Dave's director table with Zach standing inches away... waiting to make his move.

"Lay down."

Biting down on my lip to keep in the whimper of protest that threatened to break through my lips, I slowly lowered myself down onto the table until my back was flush with the frigid, wooden table top.

My entire body was now laid out and still... waiting for Zach to invade it, touch it, molest it how he pleased. Knowing I shouldn't but couldn't resist, I let my head lull to the side and allowed my greedy vision to lock into those river blue eyes that held me captive with their beauty and endless love floating underneath their depths.

More tears pricked the insides of my eyes as my stare lingered on Kaleb's just as Zach's fingers began to probe up my legs. The amount of evident sorrow and anguish living behind his stare cut me to my core and ripped my resolve to unrecognizable shreds as a tormented sob broke past my lips.

"I'm sorry..." I whispered out, my voice weak and guilt ridden as my tears slipped down the side of my face.

"No..." Kaleb's voice caressed the space around me, soothing me as much as it possibly could until I heard the familiar, heart-wrenching sound of a mangled cry falling from Kaleb's lips.

"Peaches..."

Hearing his nickname for me sliced through my heart with a jagged, unforgiving knife, sending a pain like never before soaring through my aching chest as sob after grieving sob slipped through my lips.

"I'm so sorry..." I wept in a weak, crippled voice. Tears clouded my vision as the sorrow kept rolling off of my tongue.

"I'm so sorry... please don't watch, just close your eyes. Just close them and- Agh!"

"Ah... home sweet home," Zach moaned out as he moved his finger that he had just roughly thrust inside of me around, forcing my pained center to accept his intrusion without consent.

"No! Fuck, no! Stop! God, please stop!" Kaleb begged and cried out, his tone beyond wild and surging with pure desperation.

It was already more than my shattered heart could take and the worst hadn't even begun.

I had to do something.

I had to. I couldn't do this. I couldn't let Zach put Kaleb through this. Zach had screwed me over in more ways than I would ever be able to comprehend and I was so sick and tired of him always getting his way and never being shown the dirty side of life. The side that didn't always win. The side that couldn't boast about their perfect life because they didn't have one and maybe didn't even deserve one.

Zach didn't deserve a perfect life.

Zach didn't deserve to win.

Zach deserved to fall. He deserved to fall hard.

And I was going to be the one to push him.

"Zach... oh, god," I moaned out, praying that it sounded anything like the real thing. Just something that was convincing enough to catch him off guard.

"Yeah, you like that? I always knew you wanted it, you whore," Zach groaned.

And then he did exactly what I was hoping he would do.

With his other hand that wasn't occupied inside of me, he drew it up and grabbed onto one of my breasts; placing his gun down on the table in the process.

Not letting a moment of opportunity pass, I conjured up every ounce of adrenaline pumping rapidly through my veins and focused it directly into my fist as I reared it back as far as I could and sent it flying.

"Shit!"

Pain exploded through every bone in my hand as my fist connected powerfully into Zach's cheek.

"Fuck, yes! Yes, Peaches, yes!" Kaleb's cheers from the background propelled me to follow through with my sudden, impromptu plan.

Using every fiber of strength I could muster up, I pulled my legs up into my chest and with as much force as I could, shot both of my legs out until my feet connected with Zach's chest, sending him crashing back into a cluster of theater chairs.

I wasted no time with Zach now off of me.

I rolled myself off of the table, landing somewhat painfully on both knees and hands as I made impact with the floor. My frantic eyes locked onto Kaleb's hopeful ones as I stood up. Not daring to spare a moment, I spun on my heel and went to dive for the gun.

I didn't even have time to scream before Zach's fist collided with my stomach.

A strangled gasp of air cut through my throat as I crumbled into myself, dropping to my already scraped knees as an excruciating pain swirled through and claimed victory over my throbbing abdomen.

"Fucking bitch!"

"Ugh," I whimpered out as Zach sent yet another powerful kick into my back this time, his shoe digging into my fragile back with degrading force that drove a thousand spikes of pain searing all throughout my body.

"Stop it! Fuck!"

"Your boyfriend doesn't seem too happy up there," Zach spoke from above me, his voice muffled as my ears tried to focus on anything other than the intense ringing slicing through my pounding head. I was rolling on the floor, my fingers gripping into my hair as a manic frenzy threatened to take over my mind. I couldn't focus on anything. The pain was too severe coursing through my body and my fragile mind simply couldn't take any of this any longer.

"Maybe he's bored and finally wants to see that show I promised him."

The faint sound of a belt buckle being undone floated through the room, followed by some incoherent shouting but I couldn't make any of it out. Everything was too much in that moment. Every sound, every thought, every intensified emotion was driving me absolutely mad and my mind was swirling and thrashing about completely untamed inside my head.

That was, until I felt course hands place themselves on my thighs.

Suddenly, it all stopped. The maddening flailing about of my mind, the ringing... it all stopped. All I knew in that moment was the touch of a man's hands on my thighs as they prepared to open my legs to them and use me; use my body for their own pleasure and give two shits less as to how it affected me.

I had already been through that once and I swore in that very moment on my mother's grave that I would never be forced to endure such a thing again.

Especially at the hands of the same man twice.

"No!" I began to writhe and struggle underneath an unsuspecting Zach, my limbs flailing out in every which direction as I fought and screamed my heart out.

I would scream and fight until my lungs gave out and my body lost all ability of movement.

I would not be a victim tonight.

"Stop... fucking squirming!" Zach tried his very best to control my body, attempting to catch one arm and secure it, only to have my leg kick out beneath him.