Dangerous Beauty: Part Three: This is War Page 9

Carter nodded in reply, and smiled when she finally found the key. She was ready to get out, too. They needed to get to Rashid, so that he could help them get anywhere other than here.

  When Carter opened the door, she was met with darkness.

  “Be careful on these stairs, Carter. There are a ton of them. Slowly feel for each one. I remember that they are easy to fall down, and it’s a long drop,” Gabe whispered. “The south basement is a narrow tunnel. There are cells holding some of Silas’s prisoners down here, not slaves. This is where he keeps members of his family when he punishes them.”

  “Punishes them?”

  “Yes. He does this to make them fear him. How do you think he stays in power?”

  Snorting in disgust, Carter felt for the first step. “This Silas guy has a weird way of thinking. It’s like he doesn’t function in reality.”

  “He doesn’t, but he lives in luxury and he offers it to all that follow him. The Steeles are like some kind of twisted cult. I didn’t fit in at all. Sometimes Silas looked at me like I was such a horrible disappointment, like it hurt him to look at me. It didn’t make me feel too good about myself.”

  Carter frowned. “Yeah, I know the feeling.”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore, though. I’m out of this bitch and I’m not coming back. There are a few things I want to do when I get out of here, too. Like eat McDonalds, buy a cell phone, meet people to call on the cell phone …”

  Carter laughed.

  “And I can’t forget sex. It’s been so damn long since I’ve had sex … with anybody other than myself that is.”

  “Ewww! TMI,” Carter laughed. “And here I was thinking you were a virgin.”

  “I haven’t been a virgin since I was fourteen, Carter.”

  Carter continued to move slowly down the stairs into the dark basement. “But you were so young,” she said.

  “Young and incredibly horny. I’m still young and horny. I haven’t had sex in three years.”

  Frowning, Carter stopped walking. “But you’d been down there for eight,” she said, turning to face him.

  He chuckled. “Silas sent servants down to clean three times a week. He’d lock them down there with me for about four hours. For a while there was one, his name was Johan. He was taken from London, which is where I used to live as a young boy. I moved here with Silas when I was nine and he was ready to teach me how to run this … bullshit. Anyway, Johan and I became friends, and it just sort of … became something more.”

  Carter nodded and began walking down the stairs again. “What happened to him?”

  “I have no idea. After our amazing six month love affair he just kind of disappeared. A new servant took his place, a woman. She and I hit it off quick and became lovers a few days after she started.”

  “Damn,” Carter chuckled. “Casanova.”

  Gabriel shrugged. “What can I say, I’ve never had any issues getting ass.”

  Carter laughed at the nonchalant way he spoke. “You’re funny. Why the hell are you so funny?”

  “So far in my life, you’re the only person that has ever said I was funny.”

  “So you want more of what you had with Fanso when you get out of here?” Carter asked. “Or just affairs?”

  “If you are asking me if I want to find love, I’ll have to be honest and say that I don’t know. Love has never been easy for me. I’m not afraid of it, I’m just skeptical. Falling in love confuses me, makes me uneasy. When I loved Fanso, I would have done anything for him and I hated that.”

  “But that’s love. It’s the same as insanity in my opinion.”

  Gabe chuckled. “Well, insanity runs in our bloodline. I suppose I’m not looking for love, but if love finds me, I’ll embrace it.”

  “Wise man,” Carter whispered.

  “Other than that, I just need to get laid.”

  Carter chuckled. “You and me both, dear brother of mine. It’s been weeks since my husband and I have had some … quality time.”

  Gabe laughed softly. “Is that what it’s called now? Quality time?”

  “That’s what I’m calling it.”

  “Well, according to a movie I saw a good marriage needs a healthy sex life. Judging from your … condition, I reckon you have a healthy sex life, right?”

  “I got pregnant while on birth control. So you tell me …”

  Gabe chuckled. “You’re funny, too, Carter. Maybe it’s a twin thing. Maybe we can do a comedy act or something…”

  “You watched movies down there?” Carter asked, changing the subject from the comedy act. For some reason she had pictured in her mind that Gabe had been deprived of things like movies and technology.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Aziz was the only person from Silas’s staff that I ever saw. He kept my basement packed with all of the latest in video games and Xboxes and shit. Anytime something new was made, I had it. Silas lost interest in me years ago. It was like he just forgot I was down there. Aziz had a rec room built for me and delivered video recorded school lessons so that I could get an education.”

  Carter frowned. “Why would he do that?”

  “Silas’s way of apologizing for beating me until I was nearly dead. He’s an idiot. Aziz is like his brain. He tries to get logic through Silas’s thick skull. Sometimes he succeeds, and sometimes he fails. For instance, Cole and Lucretzia. Those two are his two oldest, the only children of Silas’s that Aziz convinced him to keep, for the purpose of having heirs. Every child after that was sold … well, except me and you.”

  “No, I was given away like a puppy,” Carter said bitterly. “I wouldn’t be surprised if I found out he put a freakin’ bow around my neck.”

  Gabriel chuckled.

  “He’s in love with our mother,” Carter explained. “That’s why we weren’t sold.”

  “What?” he asked in a disgusted tone. “What the hell made her screw him in the first place?”

  Carter shrugged. She did not know the story of Silas and Anastacia. She didn’t really think she wanted to know it. “Are we really allowed to question that? I mean, had she not have had the lapse in judgment back then, we wouldn’t be here.”

  “True.”

  When they reached the last step Carter was the first to step down on the hard concrete floor. The place smelled like dirt, a scent that did nothing good to Carter’s stomach. Nausea hit her instantly, and she made a soft sound of disgust.

  “What?” Gabe asked.

  “That smell,” Carter moaned, holding her stomach. God, it was horrible.

  “I don’t smell anything, Carter,” Gabe said, then he snapped his fingers. “This must be that whole pregnancy super smell thing, right?”

  Carter had no idea what it was, but she wished it would stop. She did not want to waste time throwing up in this dark ass basement.

  “Come on,” she said. “You said the door to the garage is where?”

  “Just keep straight. We have to search through all of the keys again to get into the garage, but the door is all the way at the end of this tunnel,” Gabe explained as he began to lead her down the tunnel.

  Carter felt to each side of her. On one side she felt a curved wall of dirt, but on the other she felt bars, like that of a prison. It was the weirdest thing. It was like a never ending prison cell. Carter couldn’t sense anyone in the cell. Usually she’d be able to feel the presence of another person in the room if there was. Right now her senses were saying that she and Gabe were the only ones—

  The grip was sudden, and the hard jerk of her body into the bar was painful to her side. The person holding her was big and dangerously strong. Carter felt her gun fall from her side pocket, and she released a loud, screeching scream as a huge muscled arm wrapped around her body and held her tightly against the cell bars.

  “Carter!” She heard Gabe scream her name as he quickly came to her rescue, but he was stopped when another arm shot through the bars and knocked him to the ground.

  “Now why would Silas send a woman down here?” a deep,
heavily-accented voice asked, speaking into Carter’s ear. The large man pressed his dry lips against her cheek. “And you feel pretty, too …” His foul hot breath brought the nausea back with a force. “Did Silas send you down here for us to play with?” His deep, sinister laugh made Carter want to rip him apart.

  “Let me go!” she screamed. “Get your hands off of me, you filthy, fucking pig!”

  The other man reached out quickly and delivered a hard squeeze to Carter ass. “You speak so foul, woman. I like that.”

  “Gabriel, get a gun out of my bag!” Carter screamed, trying her hardest to fight against the men that were now roughly touching her body.

  “I’m trying, Carter, I can’t find it … I can’t—” Gabe stopped talking for only a second before he screamed, “I found it!”

  “Shoot it!”

  “I ca–can’t, Carter, I can’t see! I d–don’t want to hurt you.”

  Her body was lifted higher and slammed into the bars again. This time it was even more painful. “Gabe!” Carter screamed.

  What happened next was like magic.

  Suddenly, both men were forcefully jerked back from the cell bars and Carter was released. She fell to the floor and scrambled all of the way back until she was against the dirt wall. She screamed for her brother and he quickly found her, pulling her from the ground and running for the door at the end of the tunnel.

  Tortured and agonized screams of brutal deaths filled the area, putting both Carter and Gabe on high alert. They needed to get the fuck out of here. There was a monster in that cage and it was ripping those men apart. Bones were breaking, flesh was ripping, and blood was filling their throats as they screamed for mercy but were given none. The sounds seemed to go on forever before they abruptly stopped.

  Carter and Gabe finally hit the door and frantically began to search for the key to open it.

  “Hurry, Carter!” Gabe yelled.

  “I’m trying! I’m—”

  “Carterina!” The shouting male voice stilled Carter’s entire body. “Carterina. Baby girl!”

  His voice was frantic, urgent, desperate … but familiar. Too familiar. And impossible … Panic set in immediately as Carter’s frantic search for the key began again.

  “Carter. Baby girl, it’s me!”

  Carter’s heart was beating through her chest as she gripped the handle and fought to open the door. “Open!” She released a tortured scream as hot tears sprang to her eyes.

  “Carter. Baby, please. It’s Daddy. Listen to my voice, baby girl. It is Daddy!”

  “No, no, no, no, no …” Carter cried the word over and over again as her whole body began to shake.

  “Carterina, I promise, it is Daddy!”

  “Nooo!” she screamed.

  The keys fell out of her hands and landed on the floor. Carter had dropped to the floor, frantically searching for them, when she felt Gabe’s big hand on her back.

  “Carter, who is that?” he asked desperately. “He knows your name!”

  “Gabriel, please,” she begged. “Please get me out of here.”

  Gabe hurried to help his sister. He found the keys in record time, quickly going to work on opening the door. It took him about another fifteen seconds until he found the correct key and the door burst open. Light filled the tunnel, but Carter couldn’t look back. Gabe lifted her up from the floor and ran out, the door slamming it behind them.

  “Carter!” the prisoner screamed. “Carterina!”

  The prisoner’s screams for Carter could be heard clearly in the outside garage. Carter buried her face in Gabe’s chest as he carried her to the nearest Jeep.

  “Carter,” he said. “Carter, calm down. You’re having a panic attack.”

  And damn was she having a panic attack. Carter’s breathing was labored and loud. Her body was shaking violently and the entire world was spinning like a bottle top right before her eyes. Her loud, heavy breaths echoed throughout the garage as Gabe tried his hardest to get through to her, but Carter could barely hear his voice.

  “Carter! Carter, please calm down, you’re scaring me.” He wrapped his arms around her protectively, and rocked her like a baby. “Shh … You have to calm down, Carter. You must think of the baby,” he cooed into her hair. “Think of the baby, Carter. The baby needs you calm. We have to get out of here, okay? Silas will be back with a whole army soon. We have to go.”

  The talk of her unborn child got through to her clearly. Carter fought to calm her nerves. She took deep breaths and tried to calm her panic, all while trying to figure out who the hell was in that cell and had triggered her panic attack. She couldn’t figure out who it could have possibly been. It couldn’t have been her father, he was dead. She saw it happen with her own eyes. Whoever that was in there, he knew her name, his voice was familiar, but he had a light accent. It was a weird accent, one she really couldn’t quite tell the origin of, but it was coupled with an American accent. It was kind of like the one Silas had, except Silas’s was thicker …

  “Carter?”

  She looked up at her worried brother. “Did you hear that?” she whispered. “You heard him, too, right? I wasn’t dreaming?” Because Carter had had many dreams like this before in the past. She would fall asleep, hear her father calling her, wake up, and find no one there. Dreaming about her father was not a rare occurrence for her, even when she was awake.

  Gabe nodded his head slowly. “Carter, who was that? He knew your name.”

  “I don’t know.”

  Frowning, Gabe nodded. “Carter, who is your father? What is his name?”

  “Robert,” Carter whispered. “Robert Steele … Silas’s—”

  “Brother!” Gabriel exclaimed. “You’re the daughter that Silas gave to his brother?”

  Carter opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. He knew that Silas had given a child to his brother?

  “Carter, we need to go back in there now!” Gabe grabbed her hand and tried to pull her from the truck, but Carter jerked back.

  “No!” she yelled. “Are you crazy? Get in the car. We’re getting the hell out of here.”

  Gabe shook his head vehemently. “Carter, we can’t do that!”

  “Why not?” she asked, anxious to leave and scared to return to the cell and face what was in there.

  Reaching forward, he took her hand again. “Because this is something that Silas would do! Remember I told you he likes to play games?”

  Carter nodded.

  “Well, I remember when I was a child and Silas used to visit me. He’d come over and tell me about the times that he would spend with his brother’s daughter. Sometimes he would be happy, and sometimes he would be upset. When I was fifteen, Silas came home from a trip and he had half of his face covered. I didn’t know what happened, but I figured it out when I overheard some of the Steeles talking about how ‘Silas shouldn’t be going to see Rob’s kid anyway.’ That’s when I figured out that Robert was his twin brother, and Silas was using the resemblance to see the kid.”

  “He was pretending to be my dad?”

  Gabe nodded. “Yes, Carter. I told you he was a lunatic. You saw Silas, are they identical?”

  Carter nodded. They were completely identical, absolutely no difference in their features, or in their body type.

  “See? If Silas is crazy enough to impersonate his brother, don’t you think he’d be crazy enough to fake his death?”

  Shaking her head in denial, Carter frowned. “But why would he do that? How?”

  Gabe gave her a look of shock. “How does he do any of the shit he does, Carter? Nobody knows.” He pulled her from the car again, and this time she let him. “We can’t leave, Carter. Not yet. You deserve to know if that man in there is your father or not. If we leave without at least checking, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

  Carter knew he was right, but she was terrified. She still couldn’t imagine that the death she had witnessed could have possibly been a show put on to fool her. She had gone back in the
house and everything. She’d dragged bodies into the living room and laid them next to her father. Not only that, but she had even made her little statement in the master bedroom upstairs. During that entire time, her father had not moved a muscle, and she was pretty sure he wasn’t breathing. She didn’t know anymore. In order for Silas to fake such a death, he would’ve needed those hit men on his side. He most likely had to intercept the hit-job that was confirmed to have come from Mitchell. Somehow he’d gotten them on his side that night, and somehow he’d gotten them to keep their mouths shut … But if Silas had recruited them to do his dirty work that night, then why did Kent and Patrick help Mitchell try—

  The answer came to Carter before she even finished the question in her mind. Kent and Patrick must have heard what happened to their friends. They were just as afraid of Carter as they were of Silas. They found the opportunity to get rid of the source of their fear. They tried … and gotten their asses killed. It was unexpected, but a desperate risk they were willing to take.

  Shit, Carter thought. There was a possibility that her father was in there. A slim possibility, but a possibility nonetheless.

  Taking a deep breath, Carter rolled her shoulders back to release some of the tension. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go back.”

  Carter walked forward, but Gabriel pulled her back. “We don’t have to go in.” He walked over to the wall next to the door, which had a large red button on it, and about ten light switches next to it. “Carter, get one of your guns,” he said. “I’m going to open the gate in there. If anyone other than your father comes out, I think you should … shoot them.”

  Carter knew that it was hard for him to tell her to kill, but she appreciated him for being smart. Carter prepared herself, ready to kill the person that had called out her name in that tunnel.

  “Okay,” Gabe muttered. “Here it goes …”

  As soon as he pressed the button, the sound of the large gate opening vibrated through the open garage. Carter swallowed as she waited and waited for someone to come through the door. Calming her breathing, she vowed not to cry when she saw that it wasn’t her father. After another moment of waiting, the slow creak of the door to the tunnel opening made them jump. She got her trigger finger ready, prepared to shoot the prisoner in the face. As soon as the door opened and the prisoner looked to the opposite side of where she was, Carter’s heart stopped.