The Billionaire’s Hidden Heiress

Trigger warning: This episode does contain some mention of s****l assault and may be triggering to some. Dawn POV

Pain. My body throbbed with it. The man who was hitting me wasn't holding himself back and Karen wasn't even looking towards us as he bent over me. I had heard what she had given him permission to do and as his hands began to wander over my body, I clenched my jaw. I would be damned if I let that happen to me. I would rather die than submit to such humiliation and degradation in front of lan. I was sickened that Karen would even contemplate letting a man do that to a woman, let alone agree to do it, and as he knelt over me, I could smell his sour breath, and his body odor, my eyes raising slowly as I saw the malicious grin on his face. He was enjoying himself, relishing in the terror I was experiencing and the helplessness as I lay there, vulnerable, hurt from the injuries and pain he had inflicted on me. My body throbbed all over, and it was all I could do to hold onto consciousness when part of me wanted to surrender to the darkness. I couldn't afford to do that, not right now.

"You smell so pretty" he groaned as I whimpered, unable to prevent the small cries coming from my lips as he began to wrestle with the waistband of my pants.

I could hear lan's low growl come from in front of us and I avoided looking at him. All my concentration was taken up by this man who was beginning to yank roughly on my pants trying to pull them down. I flailed, kicking and striking out. "Get away from her you bastard" lan snarled and I heard the sound of Karen's laughter in the background.

"Not so cocky now are you lan?" she taunted as I pushed with all my strength, my eyes focussed on the gun that was jutting out slightly from beneath his shirt "Wait till she starts screaming" she added with glee in her voice. "You b***h" lan roared, beginning to lose his composure.

I suddenly changed tactics. I pretended to go limp. The man chuckled, certain that he finally had me. I pretended to be weakened by the struggle, giving a small cry as he began to yank up my shirt and tear it off me. Clad in my bra he gave a low growl and then began to tug at my waistband again. I waited. I needed to time this perfectly. All it would take is one hard strike from him and I would be knocked unconscious. Karen had the upper hand. Even if I managed, successfully to wrestle the gun away from this man and get away, there was still Karen and the other one to contend with. But it would at least give Knox and lan a chance to go on the offensive or distract Karen enough to get the gun perhaps away from her. I wasn't sure. There was every chance I could die from this, but I was willing to die than to be raped.

His hand undid the button on my pants, before sliding the zipper down. I let out a convincing sob as his hand slid inside and cupped my mound, a sadistic grin on his face. Ian was shouting but I couldn't concentrate on what, as the man began to kneel over me. His fingers were thick and coarse, rough, his hand impatiently sliding beneath my panties as he began to tug down my pants. His eyes narrowed. He was biting his lip now, a look of fierceness coming over his face. He looked triumphant. He thought he had me beaten and broken. He thought I had stopped offering resistance because I had no spirit left in me. Karen had her back turned along with the other man. I could feel my body trembling all over, something else to convince this man of my fear. "Dawn" lan roared.

I turned my face away, pretending to be ashamed, my shoulders moving up and down. The man paused to stroke my cheek.

"Don't worry, I'll make it good" he promised as my stomach churned.

He turned back, beginning to try and turn me over onto my stomach. It was now or never. I surged upwards, surprising him. I hit him in the nose with my forehead, causing him to howl as he clutched at it, blood spurting out from his nostrils as my hand grabbed his gun and c****d the safety off. His eyes widened as he realized what had happened but it was too late. I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger, getting him right in the stomach, causing him to make a strangled gurgling sound as I wriggled out from under him, refusing to let go of the gun, while he clutched at himself and fell over to the side. It was enough to distract the other two, who turned in alarm. My gun shot again, just missing the other man, while Karen suddenly took off running, heading behind a crypt, while Knox suddenly lunged, wrestling with the man still alive while I awkwardly climbed to my feet.

My fingers fumbled to do up the buttons of my pants and I looked at the torn shirt on the ground in dismay. The man I had shot was lying on the ground, unable to move, slowly bleeding to death. I shot him a disgusted look and began to limp toward lan, keeping an eye out for Karen who was still hiding. A shot rang out and I flinched, automatically ducking behind a gravestone, somebody's body lunging at me, pressing me to the ground. I blinked. Knox had knocked the other man unconscious with his fists and was now seeking his own shelter, which meant that the body pressing me to the ground had to be none other than...lan's? Was I dreaming or was this real? Had he moved his body on his own?

"Stay down" lan hissed, holding me tightly "unless you want to take a bullet to the head. My god, are you okay" he whispered, his hands shaking slightly as he held me.

I sobbed. I didn't even question how he had managed to find the strength to suddenly get out of his chair. He'd been practicing in small spurts but the adrenaline must have allowed him to shoot forward in an effort to protect the both of us. His body pressed hard against me, warm, a comfort even as the sounds of bullets spattering nearby caused my heart to pound wildly in my chest, several just missing us. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry sweetheart" lan was remorseful, his voice thick with emotion.

Did he think I blamed him for this? That I was upset with him? Right now all I could think about was how close to death I had come and how we needed to get out of here. I couldn't afford to break down right now. I couldn't afford to lose focus. Later it would hit me hard, what I had gone through, but right now all I could think about was surviving.

"lan, what the f**k man," Knox said, eyes wide as he stayed ducked behind a headstone, glancing over at us in alarm, his mouth parted open "Where's your chair?"

lan rolled over and managed to sit up, shocking us all. He looked a little bewildered. "I can feel my legs," he said "and I can move them. Maybe it's the shock, I don't know but I'm not about to question it. I want to get her out safely," he told Knox, nodding towards me as I lay there on the ground, too frightened to move.

"I'm not leaving you," I told him quietly "Not now. She'll kill you."

"That's a price I'm willing to take. You were almost just raped in front of me just now"lan snarled "I want you out of the line of fire."

I shook my head stubbornly refusing to meet his eyes. "We do this together," I said as he exhaled loudly.

Another shot. I flinched. Ian scowled. "So much for wanting to end it, if she gets out of here, we'll be looking over our shoulders again" he yelled to Knox "Where are our men?"

Knox glanced down at his watch "Communication won't be restored for another three minutes" he yelled back, his hair missing up in the wind "The EMP machine will automatically shut down and the signal will be reborn. She's slowly backing up, if we want to do this, we do it now. Our men might be able to get ahold of her, but she's too wily and they risk shooting each other in friendly fire if she gets too close to too many of them."

I still had the gun. I was still holding it as though my life depended on it, which in hindsight it had. Ian motioned for me to give it to him. I hesitated and then slowly handed it over, lan taking a careful hold of it, checking the chamber for bullets, and then clicking the safety back off. "Can you even move?" I asked him bluntly.

He shifted one foot and then the other. "So far yes. When the adrenaline runs out, I might collapse on the ground, so I'm taking as much advantage as possible" he said, looking in Karen's direction and shooting several rounds in quick succession that had Karen ducking down in haste "Before that happens" he concluded.

Knox was slowly moving forward, using the headstones for safety. He kept himself low, moving in a diagonal direction. He swerved, ducking down just as Karen raised herself up to return fire. She narrowly missed Knox's head. I winced. Ian began to get on his stomach and wriggle slowly forward, keeping out of sight of Karen.

"Stay back" he ordered as I stayed there, feeling helpless "I don't want you to get shot."

"I can help," I said, feeling stupid and useless.

"Stay there, she'll think I'm with you, that's enough help" he repeated, before wriggling forward again.

It looked as though he was still mainly using his upper body strength as he crawled forward. Karen stopped to replenish her weapon and Knox began to duck and weave between the headstones as she backed away, being just as cautious. It had turned into a big gunfight and I looked towards the gate, sensing that Karen was either going in that direction or the opposite, which would lead through the forests and towards a lonely back trail that led a mile up the road and onto deserted property. I suspected she would do the latter.

As Knox began to duck again I shot forward, heading sideways and into the depths of the trees. Maybe, if I stayed out of sight, Karen would forget about me and I could use that to my advantage.

I couldn't let Knox and lan be the only ones to risk their lives and if they had brought men, well where were they? I began to slowly sidle from tree to tree, my eyes focussed on the woman who was beginning to run. It looked as though Karen had changed her mind about dying tonight after all, or maybe that was because she hadn't quite gotten the result she had been going for tonight.