Empowered: Power Series #2

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, businesses, and events in this novel are fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, actual places, or actual events are purely coincidental.

  No part of this novel may be reproduced in any form without written consent of the author.

  EMPOWERED

  First Edition. March 22, 2021.

  Copyright © 2021 by Victoria Woods

  ISBN: 978-1-7361258-3-0

  All Rights Reserved

  Table of Contents

  Chapter I

  Chapter II

  Chapter III

  Chapter IV

  Chapter V

  Chapter VI

  Chapter VII

  Chapter VIII

  Chapter IX

  Chapter X

  Chapter XI

  Chapter XII

  Chapter XIII

  Chapter XIV

  Chapter XV

  Chapter XVI

  Chapter XVII

  Chapter XVIII

  Chapter XIX

  Chapter XX

  Chapter XXI

  Chapter XXII

  Chapter XXIII

  Chapter XXIV

  Chapter XXV

  Chapter XXVI

  Chapter XXVII

  Chapter XXVIII

  Chapter XXIX

  Chapter XXX

  Chapter XXXI

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Playlist

  Power by Kanye West

  Again by Lennie Kravitz

  Gangsta by Kehlani

  Genius by LSD ft. Sia, Diplo and Labrinth

  Dhol, Dark & Handsome by DJ Rekha

  Toxic by Alex & Sierra

  Bed by J. Holiday

  Motivation by Kelly Rowland ft. Lil Wayne

  Beggin’ by Madcon

  Meri Jaan by Juggy D ft. Jay Sean

  Get Me by Justin Bieber ft. Kehlani

  Don’t Speak by No Doubt

  Yesterday by The Beatles

  Fly by Nicki Minaj & Rihanna

  Supermarket Flowers by Ed Sheeran

  Scan the code below to listen in the SEARCH bar of your Spotify account to listen along!

  TRIGGER WARNING

  Subject matters like rape and abuse that may be dark and disturbing to some readers is included in this book

  Chapter I

  Shyam

  Thick red hair flowed freely around my face as soft supple lips kneaded mine. They compelled me to match their pace—slow and steady—even though I wanted to consume them fully. The smooth tongue driving me wild teased my own into seeking another taste. I drew in the breaths that were fed to me, inhaling them deep down into my chest—absorbing them into my soul.

  The lips that I coveted pulled out of reach too soon, leaving me yearning for more. They moved to my jaw, skimming gently over my stubble. Soft kisses diffused across my chest as beautiful petals of hair trailed lower, tickling my face as they drifted further down my body.

  Smooth thighs hugged my pelvis taunting me as lush lower lips rubbed along my length. The bouquet of red hair on my chest parted, revealing the face of the angel smiling down at me.

  “Amelia,” I whispered, smoothing my thumb across her fair cheek. Her green eyes shone with the same adoration that had just rolled off my tongue in her whispered name.

  Her radiant body stayed upright, displaying her nymph-like features. The light streaming from the windows highlighted her round breasts sprinkled with delicate freckles. Pink nipples stood at their peaks, tempting me to taste them.

  Silky sheets caressed my skin as she lifted her hips up, taking me inside of her, squeezing me with her tightness. Moans escaped from my throat as she rocked on top of me with long and lazy strokes. I thickened inside of her, chasing my glorious release.

  Our hands found each other’s, our fingers intertwining as we fell over the cliff together. Her forehead pressed against mine as we took our last steadying breaths to settle the waves of emotion that we shared.

  My hands held her face closed to mine. “Amelia,” I whispered. She pulled away slowly, not saying anything in return. “Amelia,” I called out again, hoping she would come back to me. The warmth of her body left my frame, leaving me cold and hollow. “Amelia!” I cried out louder, commanding her to return to me. She ignored my demand, moving farther away from the bed. I tried to force my arms and legs to move to retrieve her. My limbs wouldn’t listen to the nerve impulses fired by my brain. Paralysis left me frozen to the mattress. I screamed for her to come back to me. “Amelia!”

  I jolted awake from my dream. My nightmare.

  My senses returned and I was aware of the hell that I had returned to. The room was dark even though it was probably after noon. Time was irrelevant in perdition. Torment had no limit here.

  Empty scotch glasses lined my bedside table. The sheets were damp from the cold sweat that had overtaken my body, but I didn’t get up to change them. Nothing mattered anymore. I was numb inside, all motivation gone.

  The days had blurred into each other after I received Amelia’s necklace from my enemy. I called off the search for her because the evidence of her death had shone back at me in my own hands.

  I lay buck naked in bed, the precum from my wet-dream-turned-nightmare drying into a sticky mess on my dick. I was exhausted from the hurricane of emotions that churned inside of me and I didn’t want to feel anymore. I just wanted to sleep it all away. However, my brief reprieve was always ruined by the same nightmare. The very one I had just had. And when I couldn’t sleep, I just lay in my bed, replaying memories of her.

  Tarun didn’t kill her. I did. And I deserved the guilt that consumed my soul.

  A knock sounded at my bedroom door. I didn’t bother answering it. It could only be one of two people, my maid, or my brother. If I ignored them long enough, they would hopefully go away.

  “Hey.” I could see Jai leaning against the doorframe from my periphery, but I didn’t acknowledge him. “I know it’s late, but I brought you breakfast. Or, rather, that shit you normally call breakfast. Salmon with some sort of tasteless weeds grown by Icelandic orphans in an organic meadow, or something or other.”

  I didn’t respond.

  He continued, “Yeah, that doesn’t sound tempting to me either. Let’s hit up the bar for some scotch and cigars? My treat.”

  He sighed, exasperated from effort he was putting in. “Look, I’ve been trying to be supportive and sensitive, but this kid-glove, gentle bullshit isn’t my thing.”

  This time, I answered. “Go fuck yourself,” I muttered. I didn’t want his pity. I just wanted him to leave me the hell alone.

  His image grew larger as he got closer to the bed. He yanked the pillow out from under my head, causing my head to drop directly onto the mattress. He slammed it onto my head, behaving just like the annoying little brother he was. I pushed the pillow to the side to uncover my face.

  “Get the fuck up. This isn’t like you, man. I get that you’re heartbroken. I’m torn up about Amelia, too. But her body is still out there. You owe it to her to give her the proper burial she deserves and kill that motherfucker for what he took from you.”

  Reluctantly, I sat up against the headboard, using the last bit of energy I had stored away. My head swam from getting up too fast. I hadn’t been upright in so long that my balance was off. “You don’t think I know that? You don’t think that I curse myself every minute for getting her involved? You don’t think that I want Tarun six feet
underground for fucking with me?”

  “Then what the fuck is stopping you? Man up. Get up out of this pigsty,” he said kicking a pile of clothes on the floor. “Salena is still alive. We can at least save one life. Do it for Mom. Do it for Amelia. If you really loved her, then get your ass up.”

  I had never discussed my true feelings for Amelia with anyone, but hearing Jai talk about them stung deep inside of my chest—so bad that my breath stopped for a moment. Tears blurred my vision, threatening to fall.

  My brother realized he had achieved what he needed to—shaking me out of my half-dead state to get a reaction. Satisfied, he softened his approach and took a seat at the edge of the bed. His voice was gentle and full of sympathy as he witnessed my torture. “Shyam, you have to do this. We need to finish this.”

  “I know,” I said solemnly, diverting my eyes from his. He was right. Staying in bed and mourning was just giving Tarun license to take more of what was mine.

  “You won’t be alone. You’ll have me by your side.” He put his hand on my shoulder. I knew he’d always have my back. But he also needed me to have his, too. This was our business and although he never said it, he depended on me just as much as I did on him. I couldn’t let him down. He was the only family I had.

  Chapter II

  Amelia

  I wished sleep would come easily in my cell, but it never did. The mattress on the floor was hard and uncomfortable. The cement floor beneath it was even worse. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture— just a bench bolted to the wall. There were no windows either, so I could only tell the time of day by the presence of sunlight through the skylight above the hallway in front of my cell. At night, the skylight was dark, triggering the lights in the hallway to turn on.

  I didn’t even have a toilet, just a hole in the ground where I had to squat to pee. I tried hard to hold it if I could, until my bladder was painfully full.

  I heard keys jangling, which meant a guard was approaching. They usually stopped by twice a day with a bowl full of unidentifiable mush they called a “meal.” I had held out for the first few offerings, skeptical of what the slop was laced with. However, my stomach had eventually gotten the best of me. It was even more putrid than it looked, but my belly had begged for something to fill it, so I managed to swallow it down. That first time, I’d had to squeeze my nostrils shut with my fingers to swallow whole without chewing to avoid tasting it. I needed every bit of strength I could get if I were ever going to break out of here.

  This time, the guard didn’t come to my cell. Instead, he dragged a tall woman with long brown hair behind him. She didn’t resist his handling and followed behind him without making a sound, like she was used to this. He opened the gate to the cell directly across from mine and despite his prisoner’s cooperation, he shoved her inside like she was trash before locking the gate and walking away.

  I studied the woman who lay glued to the cement floor. I noticed she didn’t wear cuffs around her wrists like I did, probably because they knew she would never try to fight back. She wore traditional Indian wear made of cotton—loose pants with a dress-like tunic that fell to knee-length. The colors were vibrant and very unfitting of a woman who was supposed to be a captive. But then again, what did I know about the formalities of being a captive? Hell, I was dressed in a skimpy red evening gown, or whatever remained of it after all the rips.

  Her curtain of shiny hair blocked her face so I couldn’t make out her features. She was too thin, like she needed a good meal, and her skin was marred with dark bruises. They were a stark contrast to the beautiful henna that was sprawled over her hands and forearms. These men must really be monsters if they would hurt a person who seemed as compliant as her.

  I rose from my mattress and walked closer to the bars on my cell. “Hey, are you okay?” I asked.

  The woman looked up at me, her eyes wide from fear.

  I tried to calm her down. “It’s okay. I just wanted to see if they hurt you.”

  She backed away to the far wall of her cell. More of her hair shifted out of her face and I got a better view of her familiar features.

  “Salena,” I gasped. I was sure it was her. She looked just like her photo, beautiful yet robbed of the life in her eyes. Except now, those eyes were filled with terror.

  “Salena!” I called out louder. She huddled against the wall like a cornered animal, turning her face away to avoid me.

  “I’m Amelia. I’m a friend of Shyam’s.” I hadn’t uttered his name aloud in so long that it felt like a prayer on my lips when I said it. Salena seemed to have the same reaction at hearing her ex-fiancé’s name, staring off in a daze.

  “Shyam?” she repeated back in disbelief.

  Another nearby guard must have overheard us because he stalked over to my cell with a murderous expression and opened the gate with a murderous expression. “You want to talk, bitch? I’ll teach you to talk,” he spat as he neared me.

  “I’m sorry.” I threw my hands up in surrender. “Please don’t hurt me.”

  I tried to retreat deeper into my cell, but he grabbed me by the throat and threw me to the ground. My head slammed against the concrete. His foot smashed into my stomach, forcing the wind out of me. Black dots freckled my vision.

  My hands instinctively moved to my stomach to protect myself from another blow. I didn’t anticipate the fat fingers that grabbed me by my hair. He pushed his face up close to mine as I gasped for breath. He was missing teeth and tattoos covered his face. “Keep your mouth shut, you cunt.” He threw me back down onto the ground, causing my face to hit the cement with blinding force. The metallic tang of blood coated my mouth. I stayed frozen, face down, until I heard his footsteps fade.

  Before he left the hallway, I heard him threaten Salena. “You’re lucky you’re marrying the boss; else you’d get the same.” He banged on the gates of her cell to reinforce his point. She let out a yelp that sounded more like the squeak of a mouse.

  She had clearly been the victim of abuse, but maybe it wasn’t all from the guards. I was betting her future husband was a participant.

  I listened for the guard’s steps to disappear before rolling over onto my back, then I let the tears that I had been holding in release. I prayed for the strength to recover from the blows I had been dealt. I prayed that one day I would see Shyam’s face again. And finally, I prayed that I would survive another night in this hell.

  Chapter III

  Shyam

  It was torturous to get out of bed and dress myself this morning. My body was still hard with muscle but the days of drinking scotch and lying sedentary had caused me to lose some mass, making my suit fit looser. Dark circles encased my eyes, and my skin lacked its usual tan color since I was so dehydrated from all the liquor consumption. I didn’t even bother grooming the stubble that had taken over my jaw.

  Luckily, Sethi Tech had remained intact during my absence. We had competent employees who could carry on regardless of management presence, but it was rare that I was ever out of the office for days on end. At least I could count on Jai to be there. He had stepped up and taken over the reins while I had been licking my wounds at home like an injured dog. Despite his reckless tendencies, I knew I could depend on him.

  I stepped out of the elevator and onto my floor. The building was quieter than usual since most people were away on holiday vacation. A couple of lingering board members who were there tying up loose-ends stopped me to bid pleasantries. I wasn’t in the mood to make small talk, so I cut the conversations short and headed to my office. Though, I had the nagging urge to make a pitstop first. I wandered past the fountain and maze of glass sculptures that we had paid an arm for.

  I reached the closed door of my destination. I knew I shouldn’t look, but it was like a car crash that I couldn’t ignore. Turning the door handle, I moved inside and flicked the light switch on.

  Amelia’s office. Eve
rything looked as it had before she was taken, except she wasn’t there. The office still smelled fresh, like she had just been sitting behind her desk, nose buried behind her monitor, typing furiously. The ache in my chest, which was always with me like an old friend, now turned into a piercing pain. I closed my eyes and rested my head against the doorway, needing deep breaths to steady myself. When would this guilt ever go away?

  Shutting the door, I locked the ghosts of the past inside. My focus now was to get her body back here to give her the proper burial she deserved. Funeral rites were important in my culture because we believed they were needed for a person’s soul to be at peace and to move on to the next life. Amelia and I hadn’t ever discussed religion or her beliefs about the afterworld. However, Amelia’s mother deserved to bury her child and mourn her loss. I had decided on waiting to break the news to her mother until we found her body. It would be easier on her that way, rather than causing her more heartbreak over her daughter’s missing body.

  The office wasn’t the place to have a breakdown, so I kept walking and shut my grief into a tightly closed compartment.

  Jai was already waiting inside of my office. “Hey,” he said patiently seated across from my desk.

  “Hey,” I said, unbuttoning my jacket before sitting down. “You’re here early.” I cocked an eyebrow unable to hide my surprise.

  He smirked. “Oh, you know. I’ve gotta keep these developers in line.”

  Ignoring his attempt to lighten my mood, I placed my hands on my desk, ready to get to work. “What did I miss?”

  We spent the whole morning discussing how Tarun’s network of distributors had grown even more. More of our shipments had been destroyed during transit. Many of the distributors that remained with us were furious. Jai tried to appease them, but since we couldn’t deliver our product successfully, they eventually defected to Tarun’s side. We were losing millions of dollars at an astounding rate.

  Nearly one hundred of our men had been moved undercover to Jaipur to search for Tarun. They had been questioning people to find out if they had seen someone who looked like him or Amelia. She would have easily stood out with her red hair, European features, and American accent. The men were careful so as not to raise suspicion, but the trail was cold.