Chapter 3

Chloe had her head tucked into her knees, but it shot up when she heard heavy footsteps from outside in the corridor. Then she heard voices, and she recognised one of them was Loki.

Feeling a rush of fear through her, she quickly darted for the walk-in wardrobe and shut it behind her. She then ducked in behind a row of dresses, hoping they would hide her.

She curled up and covered her mouth, to keep quiet. She heard the door of the bedroom opening and someone stepping inside, she was sure it was Loki. Her entire body was shaking like crazy while she listened to him slowly walking around the room. It then sounded like he’d gone back out again, giving her some false sense of security.

But just as she’d started to relax a tiny bit, the doors of the wardrobe flew open, making her tense up again and she bit her tongue to keep quiet.

She saw Loki’s legs walk into the wardrobe, through the dresses. Tears started rolling down her cheeks, so scared in-case she was going to be found. And she was right to be scared. Loki suddenly flung the clothes to one side on the rails, grinning down at her cowering in the corner.

‘If you wanted to play and hide and seek, you should’ve found a better hiding place.’ He chuckled and reached down to grab her.

Chloe screamed and tried kicking out at him, he easily grabbed her calf and hauled her out from hiding amongst the clothing.

‘Let me go!’ She snarled and flailed her hands at him, trying to hit his hands and arms.

Loki easily manhandled her and pinned her down on the floor, sitting on top of her. He grabbed her hands and restrained them behind her, holding them in one hand as he leaned down to whisper into her ear. ‘Oh come now, I found you so I surely deserve a prize, no?’ He teased.

Chloe kept squirming, but couldn’t get him off her. He was sitting across her lower back, the sheer size of him alone was enough to keep her down. He wasn’t even trying very hard. She tried to raise her head up, to look round, but he grabbed her by the back of the neck and pinned her down.

‘I know you’re scared, Chloe. I am rather honoured, actually. That my reputation precedes me. But I do wonder what, exactly, you’ve heard about me.’ He started stroking his thumb against the side of her neck, that she did her best to ignore.

‘You’re a monster.’ She snarled.

‘Ohh.’ He chuckled and squeezed her neck. ‘You have no idea.’

Loki suddenly got up, letting Chloe breathe properly and gasp down air. But she was too scared to move, in-case he did something else to her. So she stayed lying on the floor, on her stomach. She heard him step to her side, she closed her eyes and tried not to look at him.

‘Get up.’ He demanded.

When she didn’t move, his tone got deeper. ‘I won’t tell you again, girl. Get. Up.’

She didn’t like his tone, so scrambled up to her feet. Her legs felt like jelly she was so scared. But she wasn’t going to miss an opportunity. She bolted out of the wardrobe and made a beeline straight for the door. But when she got there, it was locked.

‘Shit.’ She hissed when she tried the handle.  

‘You must think me so naïve.’ Loki held a key up and twirled it around his finger. Chloe flinched, wanting to run over and try to get it from him, but she knew she would have absolutely no chance. So she didn’t move.

‘Wise choice. I can see you’re a fast learner.’ Loki grinned, showing off his pearly white teeth. Reminding her of a shark, magnificent but deadly.

‘Please. Just let me go home.’ She begged, running out of options but to beg for her life instead.

Loki chuckled and started taking slow, menacing steps towards her with his hands behind his back. He stopped a few feet from her, watching her intently. ‘If I do that, your father will have to pay me my money. Which we both know he can’t do. Which means, that I will have to kill him. I would then take all his assets, which would in turn make you and your mother homeless. Then I would probably just take you again, so we would be right back where we started. Only… your father would be dead and your mother all alone on the streets.’ He said bluntly.

Chloe’s eyes widened, she was backed right up against the door, trying to stay as far away from him as possible. She was fighting back tears, but it wasn’t easy. She knew that he wasn’t lying, that is what made him so scary.

‘Do you want that, Chloe?’ He took another step towards her, until she had to crane her neck to look up at him. ‘Do you want to run along home, putting your father to his death? Hmm?’

She turned her head to the side and closed her eyes, tears fell down her cheeks, which Loki wiped away with his thumbs that made her flinch. Part of her didn’t really care about her father, after doing this to her. But at the same time, she didn’t want him dead. And she certainly didn’t want her mother to be chucked out of her home, and all alone.

‘No…’ She squeaked.

‘So, are you going to start behaving and learning what kind of life you shall now lead with me? Or are you going to continue to try and escape, knowing that it’s futile?’

Chloe said nothing, but she nodded very slightly.

‘Use your words, Chloe. You nodding could mean yes to either of those options.’ Loki growled.

‘I… I’ll… behave.’ She whispered, lower lip trembling as she turned her head slightly to look at him.

‘Good choice. Now, I am going to let all your previous disobediences slip. Since this is your fathers’ fault after all. You, my poor girl, are the victim.’ He slid his fingers through her hair and then down her neck. He leaned in and she closed her eyes quickly, but she could feel his breath across her cheek. ‘But I will look after you now.’

Chloe wasn’t overly convinced, because those words sent chills through her entire body, instead of soothing her like she assumed he’d meant. And she didn’t dare put much thought into what he said about letting disobediences slip.

‘Now then.’ Loki stepped back, clasping his hands together with a delighted look on his face. ‘I see you’ve already found your wardrobe. Everything in there is yours. Well, everything in this room is yours.’ Loki said with his arms out, seemingly pleased with himself.

Chloe frowned. She thought the clothes had belonged to someone else. ‘Wh… what? The clothes are… for me?’

‘Yes. All brand new, all for you. What, you didn’t think I would not allow you to have any clothes, did you?’ Loki raised an eyebrow.

‘I… I didn’t… I thought they belonged to someone else.’ She said quietly.

Loki walked over to the wardrobe, he opened the doors again and motioned her to him with his finger. Not wanting to get into trouble, she slowly made her way over to him. He put his hand on her lower back and guided her in, then started sliding the dresses along the rail.

‘Plenty of dresses here for you. Tops and blouses over there.’ He pointed to them. ‘And a mix of shoes down there. Of course, trousers and skirts in that drawer at the end there.’

Chloe was genuinely surprised. She had failed to properly take in just how much clothing there was in the walk-in wardrobe earlier, and in her haste to hide she’d never noticed the tags were still on all the clothing. So he wasn’t lying when he said it was all brand new.

Loki watched as Chloe walked down the length of the row of clothes, running her hand over them all. Clearly, she was in awe. She turned around to look at Loki, realisation suddenly on her face.

‘How… how did you know my size and that I would be here? I thought it was so quick. Did you have this planned?’ She asked, it was evident in her voice that her anger was rising.

Loki just smirked wickedly. ‘It has been obvious this past week that your father wasn’t going to be able to pay me back today. His constant begging for an extension was evident to that. I do my research with everyone I do business with. Of course I knew all about you, Chloe. I had this all organised so you wouldn’t be walking around naked. As delightful and tempting as that would be.’

Chloe tried to ignore that comment. But the fact that he had planned this for days, made her feel even worse.

But oh, things could still get worse for her.

‘Do you know what the most exciting part is about having all these new clothes?’ Loki put his arm around her waist and squeezed hard when she tried to move away from him.

‘What?’ She asked, her voice small again.

Loki moved his face closer to hers, to whisper into her ear.

‘Is that you are going to put on a little show for me, to display all these fine new dresses of yours.’ He purred.