The risks had always been clear in Ana’s mind. Not just in taking the phone, but in using it. Not just in using it, but in using it to call the police in order to try and help them ensnare Victor.
She’d known the risks, yet she’d done it all anyway.
What did that say about her? About how desperate she was?
Yet there was no doubt that she’d still been in absolute, almost paralysed shock back in the warehouse when she realised Victor had rumbled her secret. Had been so scared, so numb, that she hadn’t attempted to escape, to fight either physically or verbally. She’d simply acquiesced, and walked fatefully out of there with Alex and Victor, both of them keeping close watch as if even they were surprised by her lack of overt reaction.
Had there been any other choice?
At the time she’d thought not. Now? In this place? She wished she’d fought back with every ounce of strength and resolve. She should have done whatever it took, because she surely wouldn’t get another chance now.
‘Do you know Alex tried to talk me out of it,’ Victor said as he paced up and down in front of Ana. Alex was resting on the workbench behind. Ana was in the middle of the grotty and damp room. Rope tied her hands behind her, and to the bolted-down chair she was sitting on. ‘Perhaps it was a little unnecessary. Setting up the camera. Waiting for you to reach for that fucking thing. But I wanted to see. I wanted to see your deceit for myself.’
Without even thinking, Ana was pleading and begging. She’d wanted to stay strong, to show no weakness, but how could she do that now?
‘Shut up,’ Alex said. Not loud, but stern enough to cause Ana’s pleadings to die down to a feeble whimper.
‘I just want you to tell me why,’ Victor said.
He stopped pacing and looked down to Ana. She tried to avoid his eye but after a few seconds of awful silence she found her gaze slowly lifting until it met his. He wasn’t angry. Not now. That was the strangest thing to Ana. Victor wasn’t angry at all. He looked hurt. Almost defeated. Like her treachery had really broken him. Despite everything, she even felt bad because of that.
‘Why, Ana?’ he said. ‘After everything I did for you.’
She wanted to retort to that, but thought better of it. Everything he’d done? Kidnap, rape, abuse. What had he done that was actually good? Did he really not see it?
‘Tell me why!’ he boomed. His sudden outburst was enough to cause Ana’s whole body to flinch and then tense. She held her breath.
Then spoke.
‘Because I hate you,’ she said, barely louder than a whisper. ‘You disgust me.’
Now he wasn’t broken. Now he wasn’t defeated. He was absolutely livid. Even as he remained rooted to the spot, Ana could tell that anger seeped through every pore.
‘Victor, it’s time for you to go,’ Alex said, straightening up from his perch, and glaring down to Ana like she was nothing but a piece of dog muck stuck to the bottom of his most expensive shoes.
‘Goodbye, Ana,’ Victor said through clenched teeth.
Then he turned and stomped past her. She craned her neck as far as she could. Saw him opening the thick metal door in the corner of the room. A moment later it clattered shut behind him. The force made the whole room vibrate, the sensation reached ominously up through Ana’s bones.
Silence followed. Ana soon found herself staring to Alex who glared back at her with sinister relish. But he said nothing. Barely even moved.
‘Now it’s just you and me,’ Alex said eventually, as a horrible grin spread across his face.
He took a step towards Ana. Once again she held her breath. She was frozen. Too scared to even breathe. As his face was caught under the orange light hanging above them, there was a devilish twinkle in his eye.
‘He really loves you,’ Alex said. ‘I’ve never seen a man so weak because of a woman.’
‘He loves me? Then why am I here!’
Her sudden defiance only added to Alex’s menace and amusement.
‘You think Victor is strong. But he loves you so much he couldn’t go through with this himself. He couldn’t even bear to watch. But I can do it. I’ll do it gladly.’
‘Please,’ Ana said, but her voice was now weak and pathetic.
‘It could have been so different for us. I would have treated you like a queen. You would never have wanted anything more.’
She screwed up her face at the thought. Alex revolted her. Even more so than Victor did. Yet she’d always known that Alex had liked her. How could she not have noticed the way he looked at her. The way he forever eyed her up and down, tongue practically dragging on the floor at times.
She’d even teased him over it in the past.
Why had she done that?
He laughed. ‘I know what you’re thinking now. If only. If only you’d been nicer to me. If only you hadn’t been such a bitch. Maybe you wouldn’t be here. Maybe I wouldn’t make you suffer the way I’m going to.’
He turned to the table behind him and unrolled a utility belt. The metal tools inside clinked and clanked as he did so. The sound alone made Ana’s insides curdle.
He turned back to face her. A gleaming metal object now in his hand. What was that? Pliers? Cutters?
Ana swallowed down bile as grim thoughts swirled.
‘And believe me, my dear Ana, I will make you suffer.’
She could do nothing but cower down and cry out desperately as he came towards her.