JUSTIN

As soon as I hear her say James, my head shot up. I cannot believe she is letting him go. He lives for shit like this. I see it in his eyes, he is as disappointed with her choice as I am. There is no way I am going to make it through this. At least now I know that I love a girl that does not and will not love me. It will always be James.

I watch as Rich cuts the wires around that are around the hands and feet of James and remove the gag. “As I promised, you are free to go. I’m quite shocked and disappointed though. I was sure she loved this boy over here more,” he points towards me. “I guess the girl is always full of surprises. I’ll just have to torture you later sometime.”

I see the hatred in James’s eyes. He is about to take it out on Rich but Arianna stops him. “Please, James, go. I freed you so go.” She won’t look up at. “I made my choice and I can’t and I won’t take it back.” She whispers loudly to him and almost growls at him.

She looks at me and apologizes, but I just look away. I do not want to look at her. I cannot take this. The wires around my wrists are tight and if I move at all, they dig in just a little more.

James leaves and Rich locks the door behind him. “Well, Doll, you surprised us all. You want to explain it to the poor boy over here that was sentenced to death by the very woman he loves, or can I?” He asks with an evil smile.

“Shut the fuck up, Rich. You would never understand.” She demands with a glare that could cause anyone to second their actions, anyone but Rich it seems.

Rich moves over behind me and leans down to my ear. I try to jerk away but the pain searing up my arms stops me. “You want to know why you got left behind? She chose James instead of you because she will always love James more. He’s her ‘Angel.’ He can take care of her like you can’t. He shares a life with her that you never will. He has had his way with her many, many times. Can you really believe you can every possibly compare to him?”

I close my eyes for he is confirming all of my fears and insecurities that I feel when it comes to Arianna and me. I was actually beginning to get over them before this whole incident. I look up at her hoping she would deny all of these accusations or at least explain a little but all she does is look away from me and stare at the wall behind me. I try to look into her eyes and I almost see them watering. What a bitch. How can she possibly feel upset? She’s the one that had a choice, and she’s the one that made the decision. Then it occurs to me, the bitch is upset because the truth is coming out and she can no longer expect me to stick around.

Rich stands up straight and moves over to right in front of Arianna. He grabs her face and makes her look at him. “Don’t be upset, Arianna. At lease you got to save one of them.”

At this moment, I see Arianna head-butt Rich right in the forehead. I almost jump up in a cheer, but once again the wires are cutting. Rich backs up a little and shakes it off. He stands back up and then grabs Arianna by her throat slams her against the wall behind her. I cannot believe he is able to do this. I’ve seen Arianna fight, and I know she is better and stronger than this.

“You’ll pay for that one, my sweet one.” He tells her. He continues to hold her there for several minutes. She tries not to give him the satisfaction that he is bothering her at all, but she moves a little every short while, trying to get a little air I’m sure.

Rich releases her throat a little, but he then switches it up by punching her and whatever else he can think of to cause pain. The only thing she seems to do in response is wince a little every few blows and look over at me. Rich delivers one more blow to her face which causes her to fall to her knees before he backs off a little.

“You are not making this fun for me. I have another idea.” He states as he moves back over to me. “What would you do if I were to start hitting him some more?” He asks her.

She lifts her head and I see the bloody nose and lips, the swollen eyes, and the bruises that are already forming. No woman should have to go through that, even if she thinks it is funny to lead me on.

Before I think of anything else, I feel Rich’s hand come across my face, right along the jaw. Pain shoots through my entire body. If he did not break my jaw, he came close to it for sure.

He moves my hands from behind me to being tied to each arm of the chair, The wire still tight enough so if I move they will cut through my wrist a little at a time.

“What about this?” Rich pulls out a blade and holds it to my hand. “One finger for every time you do not scream.”

“Leave him alone. This is about me.” She screams out as she struggles to stand back up.

“You are completely right, and I have learned the best way to torture you is to torture those who are close to you,” is his answer. “The best way to torture him is to take his figures. A pop star will have a hard time playing his piano or guitar with missing fingers.”

He is right. That is a tortuous thought. I have worked so hard for my career and my music and here he is threatening to end any future career or music. I should have never taken this stupid hiatus to get away. Why did I need to get away from my life so bad? I am selfish and this is what I get for that.

“Please leave him alone. I will make this all worth your while if you just leave him alone.” She tries to bargain with him.

I almost think it works when I feel the blade leave my hand, but then I feel an extreme pain shoot all the way up my arm and I scream out as loud as my gag will allow me to. I close my eyes and try to not black out from the pain. I feel tears rolling down my face. I finally open my eyes and look down at my hand. He did not completely cut off my finger but I am pretty sure I see the bone. Blood is rushing out and I feel myself getting a little woozy. I hear Arianna scream out, but she does not move.

ARIANNA

I am scared that if I move to help Justin, it will only make it worse for him. I will never forgive myself for this. I should have chosen for him to go. I did not think Rich would actually go through with all of this with Justin. I was wrong. His want and need to hurt me and kill me is greater than I thought, well maybe not but I underestimated his methods.

I see his finger and Rich almost cut it off. He stopped at the bone. “Leave him alone. This is between you and me.” I tell him again.

“This is too much fun though,” he tells me as he moves his blade to the next finger. “What till happen if I take out more than one finger?” He asks as he slices through the second finger.

Justin lets out a muffled scream. I cannot take this any longer. I move to my left and spot my guns. I just need to get to them and take out Rich. I move a little more and Rich stands up.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I do not answer. Instead, I dive for my guns, and hope I get there before he does any more to Justin. I grab them off the floor and sit back up with them pointed towards Justin, where Rich no longer is.

“Where is he, Justin?” I ask him.

He closes his eyes tight and groans out in great pain before finally looking at me then over to my right where I had come from. Rich is standing there with a gun of his own. Before I am able to move my guns, his gun hits the side of my head and knocks me down hard.

I black out a little for a second, but I will myself to stay conscious and focused. If I blackout completely, there is no telling what he will do to Justin. I shake off the black fuzzy spots I am seeing and try to stand up.

It takes me a few attempts, but I make it up with a little help from Rich. He grabs me and slams me against the wall again. He knocks my guns out of my hand and holds his to where the tip of the barrel is pressing up against my chin. This pushes my head up a little and I am looking into Rich’s face.

I try to look around, but it is almost impossible. I give up and look at Rich, “you really going to shoot me now. I don’t think you have the balls to do so.” I tell him a little strained because of the gun being pushed up.

“I’m not going to shoot you just yet. I think I may just finish my torture on your little boyfriend here.” he tells me.

I look at him confused because he knows I will not let him do anything else. I look over at Justin and he is obviously fighting himself to stay conscious himself. “I’d like to know how you plan on doing that since I don’t see you being able to do so without me killing you.” I try to push him into keeping his focus off Justin and on me.

“I thought about shooting him in the knee, ending his dancing career too,’ he answers but then his smile because a little more smug. “But I changed my mind. I figured it’d be nice of me to make him watch me take you right here in front of him.” He tells me as I feel his hands groping me.

I almost start to feel the vile rising in my stomach up my throat. I get a flashback to the alleyway and close my eyes tight for a second before I open them back up determined to not let him have the satisfaction of seeing me bothered by that. I try to lift my knee up to hit him between the legs but he catches it and stops it from happening.

“Now, now it’s either this or I cut his whole hand off and shoot him in the knee and if he survives, I start to defile his pretty face.” He laughs.

I stop struggling as he continues to grope me. I start to look around the room the best I can. As Rich starts to push his hands into my pants, I am able to make eye contact with Justin. I see him bouncing around in his chair, trying to get up and trying to scream out even though his gag will not allow him to do so. I can see the wire cutting its way into his wrists.

I try to look at him and let him know that I will be okay and that he needs to stop struggling and fighting. This is the reaction that Rich is wanting.

I try to keep my eyes on Justin, but Rich moves my face back to him. “How does that feel?” He smirks.

“You’re doing nothing for me. I’m pretty sure I’m like a desert.” I try to piss him off so he’ll just stop and shoot me or something.

“Aw but you aren’t, so I’m sure you’re enjoying this.” He laughs as he turns to Justin and sees him trying to fight his way free. “Your girl is loving this. So tell me, does she like it on top or on bottom? Does she like to be in control? Is she a freak?” He keeps asking, and with each question, Justin fights more and more.

Rich rips my shirt off and starts to grope me more. “Does she like it rough or soft and gentle?” He asks another question.

At this moment, Rich’s guard is down because he continues to watch Justin’s reaction. I throw my knee up an hit him in the thigh, giving him a painful Charlie horse. He loses his balance for a second, but that second is long enough for me to throw a right hook into his jaw and cause him to lose his balance. I reach down and grab my guns and smirk at him now.

“Now I suggest you back the fuck off of Justin. I warned you several times and now you’ll see what happens when you piss me off.” I tell him.

I shoot both my guns and I hear him fire his at the same time. I hit him in the head and chest, right wear I was aiming. He flies back and falls onto the ground. I wait a second and walk over. He is surrounded by a pool of his own blood. Thankfully, he had a bad shot.

I straighten my pants and just try to adjust my bra to wear everything is covered. I walk over to Justin. “I’m so sorry, Justin. This never should have happened to you.” I tell him as tears poor out of my eyes.

 I pull out one of my blades that I had forgotten I had earlier. I cut the wires that are cutting into his wrists, then the ones around his ankles, and finally I remove his gag.

I stand up and move over to the wall where my shirt was lying on the floor. I rip it up a little and tie the strips around his hand. “We need to get you to the hospital. Let’s go.” I tell him.

Just as we move towards the door, Charles busts through, knocking down the door. “Oh my, are you alright?” He asks seeing me pretty beat up and shirtless.

“I’m fine. We need to get him to the hospital.” I state and turn to where Rich is lying on the ground. “He’s dead, finally.” I tell him, more for myself than him.

We get to the door, and we are greeted by James. He barely has a scratch on him besides the swollen black eyes and cut lip from earlier. This makes me feel much worse about what happened to Justin. “Are you okay?” He looks back and forth between Justin and me.

“I’m fine! I need to get him to the hospital. He has lost a lot of blood and we need to make sure there is no permanent damage.” I demand.

Justin shrugs me off of him. “Don’t touch me. I can get there on my own. I don’t need you.” He tells me through gritted teeth.

I’m speechless for a second. I tell him he needs help. He has no car and he is in no shape to drive. Plus, the media will slaughter him. I inform him we have our own doctor who is at the mansion waiting for us. “He can fix you as good as new and without the media.”

“I don’t care about the fucking media. You do. You don’t care about anything but what happens to you and your fucking precious business. I don’t want anymore of your fucking help. You’ve done enough as it is.”

Once again I am speechless. I feel myself about to breakdown but this is no time to do that. I finally convince him to let me at least get Chase or Tabbetha out here to get him so he doesn’t have to walk or call a cab. It is not long before I see Chase speed into lot in front of me. He gets out and helps Justin into the car.

“What the fuck happened?!” He yells at me.

“It was Rich. It’s my fault. Please, just get him to the doctor and get him taken care of. Avoid the media if you can.” I tell him.

He can see the resignation in my voice and see that I feel horribly guilty about all of this so he does not push it for now. He gets back in his car and speeds off to get Justin to the hospital.

I am left behind to make sure that the situation has been secured by my men and that there are no more threats. James assures me that everything has been taken care of, and I just need to get to the mansion and get taken care of myself. James removes his shirt and gives it to me to put on. I do so as I climb into the back of my black escalade followed by James and let Charles drive us back.

I try not to think about the mess that I am going to have to clean up and what I am going to say to Justin to fix this situation. I do not blame him for not wanting to be around me. It is my fault this all happened to him. I allowed myself to let my guard down and in result caused great pain to those I care about. I wish Rich had just shot me when he had a chance is my last thought before I finally black out.