A Hostage to Delusion by M J Marlow (the reading list book txt) 📖

she dragged me into your room kicking and screaming.” She could see he wasn’t listening to her. “You remember that?”
“You were so frightened, honey,” Adam told her. He held her to his side so she couldn’t move. “You were given to me and I could not stop myself from taking you.” He wrapped one of her dark curls around her finger and was silent for a moment. He pulled her on top of him. “Make love to me, honey, the way it should have been if you had been willing.”
Cassie knew she was lost as far as her body went. He had only to touch her now and she wanTed to give him what he was asking her for. Despite the beginnings of their relationship, she knew she had lost. She was falling in love with the man who she had been forced to make her husband.

Eric pulled over at a rest stop and made a phone call to Cassie’s brother in Centerville. Once he would have felt like a traitor calling the man. But Cassie needed her family. It was time his father and brother were stopped from ruining her life. He got himself a snack and some water and headed for his car. The detective he was about to call next was leaning on it waiting for him.
“They’re in Toledo,” he told Henry bluntly. “My brother may have forced her to marry him, but I am not going to rest until she is free of him.”
“And you’re jut going to charge in there like the cavalry,” Henry smiled at the young man, “and rescue her?”
“It’s my fault she’s in this fix,” Eric said. “I knew how to reach her family and I just sat back and let my father and brother turn her into a slave.” He saw Henry’s face. “What else would you call it? She was lied to and told her baby had died. She was turned over to a family that discouraged her from contacting her family. My brother forced her every chance he got. She was not allowed to refuse.”
“You actually care about her, don’t you, boy?” Henry asked in amazement.
“I love her, Detective Evans,” Eric correcTed him. “If she can ever forgive me for lying to her and standing by while she was abused by my family, then I am going to marry her!”
“Then let’s go get her, boy,” Henry nodded. He nodded to a man waiting down the block. “David will drive your car. Mine is faster.”

Cassie wondered how he could keep going. They made love lingeringly before dinnertime came and he was energized and demanded more while she felt like a limp dishrag. Cassie was growing more and more confused. This was the man who had raped her when she was fifteen, and now she was his wife a year later.
“You look puzzled, honey,” Adam smiled as he reached over to stroke her cheek. She tried to pull away from him and he yanked her back. “It’s only natural that I’d want you. You and I are married now.” He got up and went to sit in a large chair by the phone and patTed his lap. “Come sit in my lap, honey. I want to pet you.”
“No,” Cassie shook her head and backed away from him. “Adam, you can’t do this…”
He yanked her off the bed and forced her into his lap. He kissed her on the cheek and made a phone call to a Judge that his father knew in town. He was really going through this nonsense, Cassie realized. She was going to spend the rest of her life in Adam’s cage.
“Judge Daniels, please.” He nibbled at her neck as he waiTed. “Judge Daniels, this is Theodore Garrison. My father asked me to call?” He listened to what the man had to say. “We’ll be waiting for you. We’re in the Bridal Suite.” He hung up and hugged Cassie. “He has the agreement for you to sign.”
“I don’t want to,” Cassie reminded him. “You know that!” She blushed as he looked at her with his intentions clear in his eyes. “You don’t care what I want, though, do you?”
“Of course I do!” Adam frowned and looked at her in anguish. “But we’re trapped here, Cassie. My father’s men are just outside and his Judge is going to be coming to make you sign that agreement.” He held her tight. “I would never hold you to it.” He opened the nightstand and showed her the condoms. “I am not going to give him grandchildren to destroy the way he’s tried to destroy Eric and I.”
“You’re taking a big risk confiding in me,” Cassie said to him. “How do you know I won’t break and tell him what you’re up to?”
“Because you are my fierce and loving wife,” Adam said to her. “You give me strength and remind me that some things are worth fighting for.” He kissed her fiercely. “I love you, Cassie.”
Cassie couldn’t stop herself from responding to his touch. She was losing all control where this man was concerned and her confusion was helping him win out over her reserve and her fear. What his hands were doing to her made her feel things she did not want to feel for this bastard. She sighed and she moaned and he kissed her until her head was spinning.
“A dress is hanging in the closet, honey,” Adam laughed when he drove her over the edge and she was limp. “The Judge should be here soon.” He picked up a water glass and put a pill into it. “I am going to sedate myself. Eric should be here soon to get you away from here.”
“But you can’t stay behind,” Cassie protesTed, even as he drank the drugged water. “Your father will kill you!”
“Remember, my little love,” Adam said as he hugged her close, “some things are worth fighting for.” He stroked her cheek. “Get dressed and be ready to go with Eric.”
He smiled as she did as he told her but then he passed out from the sedative he’d slipped into the water. There was a knock on the door and it was not Judge Daniels standing there.
“Hello Cass,” he smiled at her as she rushed into his open arms. “Adam asked me to help.”
She changed and left the dress lying across the bed with the rings on top of it and a slip of paper that said ‘I don’t want you’ on it. When the Judge arrived, Adam was out cold.

Adam woke up and found his father seaTed beside the bed, scowling. He had talked to the Judge and heard his side of things. Adam told him that he had fallen asleep and Cassie had run. He begged his father to leave her alone. He wanTed Cassie to have time to think about things and realize that she belonged with him. Jonathan was just as insistent that she would be brought back immediately. They argued for several minutes and then Jonathan finally snapped.
“You will do as you’re told, Adam,” Jonathan frowned. He was angry. “We should have the documents Justine had prepared declaring the girl mentally incompetent in a few hours. She can not file for divorce then.”
“She is my wife, Dad!” Adam snarled, his fists clenched in anger. “I won’t let you do that to her.”
“Of course you will,” Jonathan smiled cruelly, “or I will drive the pretty thing into an insane asylum.” He saw Adam flinch. “You don’t want her to spend the rest of her life in a straightjacket, do you boy?”
“Of course not,” Adam replied. “Isn’t it enough that she’ll be declared incompetent? As her husband, I will be her legal guardian and we will have access to her inheritance.”
“You’re starting to care for the girl!” Jonathan was surprised. He saw Adam’s slow nod. “Very well, son. We’ll hold off on committing her for now. I’ll have a nurse hired for her to help you keep her under control.” He looked at Adam sternly then. “From now on you will do as you are told if you want to keep her with you. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Father,” Adam lied. He went to pour himself a drink and his expression was harsh. His knuckles were white as he gripped the glass. “I’ll do as you ask.”
“I never doubTed it, son,” Jonathan nodded.

“What do you mean he’s vanished?” Henry snapped into his phone as he took a call from the people who were tracking down Adam Garrison. “He has to have left a trail somewhere.”
“Sorry, Chief,” his brother replied. “Adam closed out all of his accounts and took the cash with him. The person trailing him lost him at a bus station. He could be anywhere from Florida to Iowa by now.”
“Damn!” Henry cursed. “He’s probably tracking Eric and Cassie. “Did you find his car yet?”
“It was parked near a beauty parlor about a block east of the bus station where we lost him,” David told his brother. Henry heard a slapping sound. “We didn’t even think of asking about Cassie. I feel like a green kid, Henry. Let me check it out.”
Henry ended the call and shook his head. Rookie mistakes from seasoned detectives were not going to find Adam Garrison. By now the monster probably had the child believing she was falling in love with him. If they didn’t find them fast, Cassie was not going to want to leave Adam or press charges against him for what he had done to her. He saw Dekker coming into the office as his phone rang.
“Evans,” he said as he waved Dekker in. “David,” he nodded and put the call on speaker. “What did you find out?”
“Our sister was a step ahead of me as usual,” David said ruefully. “She showed Garrison’s picture to the hair stylists around the airport and one of them remembers him.” He paused. “We have him leaving on a Delta flight to Indianapolis.”
“Tell your twin she gets a bonus for pulling your ass out of the fire, brother,” Henry smiled and looked at Dekker. “Call us when you get anything.” He hung up and nodded to Dekker. “Taking some time off?”
“I came bearing gifts,” Dekker replied. He went to the door and waved to someone. A moment later, Agent Julie Benson walked in with Eric Garrison and Cassie. “Young Mr. Garrison wants to help us track down his older sibling. He feels he owes it to Cassie.”
“I should have seen this coming,” Eric nodded. “Our father is obsessed with keeping her under his control.” He clung to Cassie’s hand. “Adam and I won’t have that delusional bastard hurting Cassie!”
“Are you willing to press charges against Jonathan Garrison now, Cassie?” Julie asked the girl. Cassie looked uncertain. “What he did to you and his son is only becomes a crime if you say it isn’t what you wanTed.” Her phone rang and she answered. “What? Is this right?” Julie hung up and looked at Henry. “Justine Dekker was just found dead of an overdose at the sanitarium.”
“Wonderful! No personal testimony backing up the earlier rape.” Henry slammed his fist down on the intercom. “Molly, call David and Delia. Tell them to meet us at this address.” He read it off for the woman in the outer office. “Tell them to hurry.”
“Cassie, you come with me,” Dekker replied. “I’ll concentrate on Justine. Her records will have to be confiscaTed before her murderer destroys them.”
“I’d like to talk to Cassie for a minute,” Eric asked as Dekker turned to go. Dekker nodded and Eric took Cassie into an empty office. Eric closed the door and locked it. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her.
“I thought I was