Broken Toys | Chapter Ten
Author's Note:
Was going to hold off on posting for a few days, but it's Christmas and this is a wee giftie for readers :) I hope this next year is a blessed one, full of joy for ya'll.
-MRS
Nyssa
Each minute of that hour seemed a week long, surely due to the unnatural posture I had to maintain. My back cramped and throbbed in a way that seemed mocked by the aches emanating from my feet.
The fucking bastard, how dare he? How dare he take orders from that abusive bitch and how dare she tell me to accept it? If Theo thought leaving me tied up for an hour to meekly accept his dominance over me and my decisions, he's sorely mistaken. All it did was chuck a figurative barrel of kerosene onto an already smoldering fire.
Fucker done gone and pissed me off beyond any point of amicable break up. I won't go after alimony or whatever. I'll take my freedom and be damned glad to have it.
However, I was also curious about the salon proposal mentioned to Theo. I didn't want him to sign off on it, didn't want it to get off the ground. In that moment, I became determined to undermine Margot the Kunty McSkankerson in any way possible. I'd first escape Theo, find a safe haven, then do what I could to throw a wrench in the works for them both. They both deserved to crash and burn, full body road-rash.
My wrists sweated beneath the leather straps, and I just got more pissed off at Theo. Oh, if he wants submissive, I'll give him submissive. Maybe a little strychnine, too, while I'm at it. With time to kill, I worked on the frame of my escape plan. No telling what my husband has planned- and if I know him, I know that this was but a little taste of my punishment to come. There'd be a grudgefuck, no doubt. His dick always gets hard the moment I do something to anger him, which really isn't that difficult to do.
I need my secret cell phone. Get Hans to contact my uncle Henry, get him to pop in for a surprise visit. Theo can't nay-say my uncle, the man who raised me, and if he did, Hans would make sure the police got called. A potential restraining order.
Publicity Theo would do almost anything to avoid. Scandal that would make the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and all the gossip rags when the details emerge of the abuse Mr. McRichypants unleashed. Won't go the blackmail route; gotta take the high road and show my soon-to-be-ex the magic of dignity and integrity. And if shit gets leaked to TMZ, so be it. Perhaps if he didn't want it to make front pages, he shouldn't have done it. Wealth has a tendency to buy complacency from those who have not. A sense of entitlement none dare try to impede.
Asshole is due for a reality check, even if it’s not issued by a media outlet.
Needed to get in front of a mirror, see the damage done to my face. If it's too horribly bruised, then I'd have to put off interviews with my potential security detail. Assuming I get out of this fucking room. Alive.
Sigh.
I'll do what I have to in order to gain some measure of freedom. And if all else fails, I suppose death is a freedom of sorts. But that's a very-worst-case scenario. He said he'd be back to talk. About what? My new-found repentance for wanting independence? I'd do as Kahan suggested in the car, and wear a mask. I can do this. I can free myself of him. I can give him enough rope to hang himself.
Since no clock displayed itself within the confines of the Chamber, I don't know how much time passed, if it was indeed an hour when I heard footsteps echo in my ears. The door eased open and Theo stood on the threshold. His body filled the aperture and I struggled to appear meek.
"Nyssa, do you have anything to say?"
"Yes." This is my Oscar nomination. "I'm sorry, Theo. I just don't know how to cope with you and Margot and feeling so alone." It was truth wrapped in the lie of my tone. I didn't feel anywhere near as sorry as I pretended to be. It seemed to work, though. His shoulders relaxed and he took three steps toward me.
"You are forgiven. Please don't ever make me do that to you again. You understand why I used the gag?" Hands on hips, he made no movement to untie me.
"Yes. So Margot didn't hear me cry and demand a longer beating."
He shook his head in the negative. "It was a correction."
"You're right, my soul was purified by the pain." Oh, and fuck you, too, hubby of mine.
A smile broke out on his face, pleased with my complacency. "Correct."
"Please untie me?"
He shook his head again and my heart fell. "Not yet."
"How long has it been?"
He checked his watch. "Almost two and a half hours."
I saw movement behind him but kept my eyes on his face. "You promised you'd let me go after an hour. Please, Theo. I'll be good, I promise."
"No, Nyssa. You've got a streak of stubbornness that is detrimental to our marriage."
With that sentence out of his mouth, he started convulsing before falling to the floor in a heap, twitching like a direct current meat puppet. Kahan stood behind him, deployed taser in one hand, a tiny eyedropper in the other. With Theo passed out on the floor and a wet spot staining his chinos, Kahan dropped to one knee and expressed the clear contents of the eyedropper into Theo's open mouth. "It won't kill him, just keep him sedated for a day or two while I get you to a safe house."
Tears flooded my eyes, but not from pain. This time, happiness and hope shone in my soul, the likes I never felt before. "Where to?"
"I've got a friend in California. He's not someone your husband would ever think to look for, could even know existed. The man's a ghost and he owes me a favor."
"What if security audio recorded this conversation? He'll find out." Last thing I ever wanted is him to find me after leaving him. Only ugliness could come of it.
"I disabled the audio and cameras. Hold on." Kahan left the room, only to return shortly with an armful of clothes. He bent down and unfastened my ankles from the cuffs before moving the heavy ottoman away. My arms were next. Placing the clothing on my lap, he strode to Theo and proceeded to pick him up. "Going to tuck him in bed. He's going to have a nasty headache when the Veronol wears off."
Freed and with blood flowing back into my limbs, I began to dress. After I put my sneakers on, I made my way to the spare room that had my book safe. Once I had it in hand, I'd be ready to bounce out of this house, this marriage and this life.
Freedom was in the air, and it smelled like the urine from an incapacitated asshole billionaire.
And in that moment I felt incredibly alive and eager to meet the man who owed Kahan such a favor.
By the magic only Kahan seemed to have, we found ourselves at the airport, with my purse. I chucked everything but my driver's license. I needed that to board the plane. He purchased tickets to Sacramento and then fished out a flip phone I never seen him use before from his pocket. He noted my quirked brows and said, "It's nice to have a phone the boss can't track."
I smiled. Why, yes it is.
Kahan punched in a number and waited. Didn't take long for the other end to pick up. With a smile on his face, Kahan said, "Hail, mighty Viking!" and I could hear deep laughter bubbling out of the phone. "Remember the favor you said you'd honor no matter how batshit crazy it is...? Yeah? Good. Because I'm calling on it right now... Yeah. I'm at the airport in Seattle, going to board in an hour. Flight is almost two hours long, then it's another two hours to your place, assuming your longship is still parked in the same place since the last time I visited... It is? Good... Haha, you want to know the actual favor? Fair enough. Your sense of chivalry will love this mission. I am not traveling alone. In my company is a woman who needs to hide from her husband who just happens to be my boss... NO! It's not like that, she and I are NOT an item... I don't mean to sound offended, but she's been through a lot of shit, so just be nice. You can do nice. Yeah? You know what, I'm almost certain she'd be open to that. So it's a deal? Yeah, I can bring you beer fit for a Virishman." And with that, Kahan hung up.
"Virishman?"
With a nod of his head, Kahan confirmed I heard correctly. "He's an Irish Viking. His truck is his longship. He lives in the woods, hunts boars with spears. Loves his guns."
"So what is it you said that I'd be open to?" I so hoped it wasn't a booty call.
"Teaching you self defense. He's a fifth degree black belt in Jujitsu, certified to teach. The man also loves his swords. And axes. Anything with an edge, really. He did his dissertation on how to fuck someone up with a door knob thirty different ways. Have known him since we were both in diapers. Fergus McAesir will teach you to literally kick ass. And how to hide a body, if you so choose. And cure sausage. The man loves sausage."
I half-way chuckled. The thought of Theo disappearing ala his yacht and taking Margot down with him brought a smile to my face. Don't want to hide his body, just don't want him near me. "How will you explain this to Theo? He's going to flip once he wakes up."
"Easy. Fergus is going to kick the shit out of me, make it look like I got jumped. You were kidnapped, by who? Don't know, the security cameras got knocked out. I'll be back at the house before he regains consciousness. He won't want to involve the authorities. He'll probably hire a private eye, but won't make your disappearance common knowledge. The thought that his personal tragedy could lower his stocks... well, he won't risk it."
"I've got nothing, not even clothes."
"Easy-peasy. Maisie gave me money out of petty cash. Tasing your husband was her idea. Drugging him with his own secret stash of narcotics was mine. The boss won't miss the money. When we arrive in Sacramento, we can hit a mall or something. Or I can, and you can stay off security camera. Either way, we can get you hooked up with gear while I figure out the next move to make. Did you ever get a hold of Xerxes for an agent?"
"Yeah, they were going to send dossiers over for people I may wish to interview. Guess that's going to be backburnered now."
"Not necessarily. I can intercept the dossiers, send them to Fergie. You can handle your operations from there."
"But how will I pay for them? Theo won't, not when he'll be told I was kidnapped."
"I'll handle it. The bonus of working for the boss is how much he'll pay someone to ignore shit they shouldn't. Seems only right that his bribe pay for his wife's security from him."
I reached out and put a hand on Kahan's arm. "Thank you. On so many levels, thank you for everything."
"My dad slapped my mom around a lot. Frankly, I couldn't handle being triggered like that. When I saw you tied up, bruised... I wanted to kill him with my bare hands. But he's not worth the jail time. I can't give a man like that my loyalty. He's done nothing to earn it, and paying me to be quiet isn't the same as loyalty. So, I guess I'm a double agent. Can't protect a man who ignores common sense. I'm not being paid to be his babysitter. If I do one good thing in this world, let it be that I stopped an asshole from being a shit to his wife."
"Again, I thank you."
"Fergie is the kind of guy who'll sit in bars, looking for a drunk guy picking on a girl. He's slammed so many drunk assholes’ faces into the bar for being a prick to ladies, gets his jollies on policing dickheads. That's why you're safe with him."
We made our way to the gate where we'd board the Alaskan Airlines flight to Sacramento. I wanted to go to California, but I didn't think it'd be like this, a flight to save me from the mad man I married. It felt surreal, as if it wasn't me co-piloting my body. And then I realized the more I asserted myself, the more free I became. And it felt just as wonderful as leaving my husband behind, clad in urine-stained clothing.