“I CAN’T BREATHE!” I SCREAM as I kick and flail, being hauled around with a hood over my head.
I’m suddenly dropped on the floor, hard.
Ouch!
I don’t know what happened. One minute I was walking down the street minding my own business, and the next I was being forced into the backseat of a car where I was tied up, gagged, and then shrouded in darkness. I’m now lying helplessly on my side with my hands bound behind my back and my heart on the verge of giving out. It’s been beating triple time since I was grabbed.
“Well, look who finally decided to come home,” a male voice says. The hood is removed, and I look up into a pair of dark chocolate-brown eyes. Michael’s eyes. I glance around erratically. I’m in a bedroom. A very fancy bedroom that has a beautiful view of the Pacific, white décor, and a polished wood floor. The smell of fresh flowers is as potent as air freshener.
“You look hot as hell like that, Ellie,” he says as I stare at him angry, confused, and unable to speak.
He props me up so I’m sitting on my butt and removes the gag. I work my jaw quickly, trying to get the feeling back.
“Is this some kind of joke?” I demand.
Michael laughs at me. “Have fun on your trip?” He lifts my chin and regards the large bite mark on my neck.
I refuse to answer.
“Looks to me like you did. You never let me give you hickeys.”
“You never tried.”
“I was holding back.”
“Why?”
“So I didn’t kill you,” he says matter-of-factly.
“What?”
“Ellie, Ellie, Ellie. Little gullible Ellie,” he recites.
I stare at him like he’s deranged. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Let me tell you a story.” Michael diverts, avoiding my question. “There was this boy who had a father whom he loved dearly. A man he looked up to and idolized. A man who wanted him to go to college and live a straight-laced life. But the boy wanted to be just like his father. Wanted money and power and women. So the father took the boy under his wing and groomed him. And when the boy was just old enough, and had proven himself just enough,” his voice elevates, “his father is killed in cold blood and his kingdom is destroyed. Do you know what that does to a child?”
I shake my head.
“It makes him want revenge.” His eyes widen rabidly.
“Revenge on who?”
“The man who killed my father. The man who is your Master.”
“I don’t have a Master,” I contest.
“Don’t lie to me, Ellie. I saw it with my own eyes. I was there that night. I watched as he toted you around like he owned you and the world. I fucked right in front of the two of you.”
My eyes widen as images of that night, the night of the party, flash in front of my eyes. Jett dressing me up. Kayne leading me around. The roped off section of the room where we watched one of his girls get taken on the same kind of table that was in my room. Taken by Michael?
“Why were you there?” I ask dubiously.
“It was a party. I was invited.” He shrugs.
“I don’t understand.” I shake my head.
Michael sighs and crouches down so we’re eye level.
“You know, I was actually jealous of him. You were so beautiful and raw and intoxicating. I wanted what he had. I wanted you.”
He leans forward and for a second I think he’s going to kiss me. I pull away.
“Skittish all of a sudden?” He unties my hands, and I rub my wrists once they’re free. “You always used to like it when I kissed you.”
“Tell me what the hell is going on.”
“I’m getting my revenge on the man who killed my father and the organization who destroyed my birthright.”
“Who is your father?” I erupt.
Michael grabs my hair and yanks my head back. My scalp stings. He looks down directly into my eyes, and any warmth or feeling is completely gone. Just void. It’s like I don’t even know this person in front of me.
“EL REY!” he screams, and I flinch, his grip still tight on my hair.
“I don’t know who that is!” I cry from the pain.
Michael looks at me like I’m insane. “I would honestly believe he has you brainwashed. You are an excellent actress.” I still don’t understand. “I saw him speak to you that night, Ellie. He yanked on your slave chain.”
Recognition suddenly sparks. The man with Javier. The one who wanted to buy me. I see the resemblance now, straight nose, prominent cheekbones, and dark-brown eyes. They look much more like his father’s at the moment. Cold and calculating, capable of anything.
“Kayne didn’t kill your father!” I blurt out.
“Of course, you would say that. You’re protecting him.” He painfully shakes my head around with his firm hold.
I wince helplessly. “I’m not lying, I was there.” I grab his hand like that’s somehow going to loosen his grip. “Javier killed him. He shot him in the head right in front of us!”
“Liar!” he snaps. “Javier was my father’s most loyal disciple. He would never turn on him.”
“He did,” I scream as Michael pulls harder. My scalp feels like it’s going to rip right off my skull. “I remember his words right before he shot him. He said,” I pant loudly, “‘hostile takeover.’”
Michael breathes raggedly as he searches my eyes. I almost think he believes me. I pray silently that he believes me.
“You would say anything to protect him.”
I have no response for that because it’s the truth.
“He didn’t kill him. I swear,” I whisper desperately.
“Even if he didn’t kill him, which he did, the organization he works for took everything from me. It’s reason enough to destroy them both.”
“Michael, no,” I beg.
I can’t believe this is the same person I’ve spent the last three months with. The man who would buy me shaved ice as we walked along the beach, who would listen to me ramble about nonsense and make me laugh with stupid jokes. A man who was so warm and sweet and caring.
“I don’t understand. You cozied up to me all that time for what?”
“To get to Kayne, of course. I figured find you, find him. But it didn’t exactly work that way.” He lets go of my hair and climbs on top of me, forcing me back onto my elbows. “He was nowhere to be found. Not even a whisper in your life. I began to think that maybe you weren’t as important to him as I originally thought.” He’s directly on top of me now. “It was your pussy that kept me coming back. You gave it up so easily. You really are a whore.”
Tears well in my eyes. “I thought you were nice.”
“I think you were just looking for someone to buy time with until your Master came for you.” He presses his body flush against mine. An erection growing in his pants. My stomach turns. I try to wriggle away, but he wraps his hand around my throat and squeezes tightly. “I knew the minute I pulled up to your house that day it was him you were going to see. The minute I saw the car and the driver.” He unbuttons his jeans and slides down his fly as I frantically squirm beneath him, clawing at his forearm.
“I love it when you fight, Ellie. This might be the most exciting sex we’ve ever had.”
“Michael, no!” I strain, as he crushes my windpipe with one hand and rips my panties off with the other.
“Michael!” Tears flow like a river down my cheeks as I try to fight him.
“Did you miss saying my name?” He thrusts into me, and it feels like someone just sliced me open with a serrated knife.
“Stop!” My voice is barely audible as he chokes me, while at the same time violating me over and over again.
I cry harder with every passing second he wrecks me, the pain becoming unbearable, my legs spasming, my fingernails wet with blood from stabbing them into his skin.
“Michael!” I whimper one last time before my vision fades and my spirit breaks.
“Your pussy saves you every time.”
It’s the last thing I hear before I pass out.
I SWEAR I WAS DEAD.
I come around to Michael zipping his pants while I lay ruined on the floor. Every inch of my body is throbbing.
“I missed you, Ellie. Never thought I’d say that.”
I glare at him. “You’re a monster. Just like your father.”
Michael’s eyes flash as he crouches down and clutches my face painfully. “Don’t speak unkindly of the dead. Now go clean yourself up.” He says it like he loathes me. “We have a plane to catch.”
“We?”
“Yes, Ellie. You’re mine now.”
I look at him dismayed. “What else could you possibly want from me?”
“My cock in your mouth next time.” He lifts me off the floor. “Once a whore always a whore.”
Tears threaten once more. I can’t live as someone’s slave again. Especially Michael’s. I’d rather kill myself.
“What about Kayne? You going to kill him?”
“Yes, eventually. A very long time from now. My father taught me if you really want to destroy a man, destroy what’s most important to him. First, I’m going to destroy his organization, then I’m going to destroy you. And when I’m finished, I’ll return you to your owner a shell of a human being.”
I nearly throw up from his words. I now explicitly understand. I understand why Kayne did what he did—why he went to such extreme measures to protect me. To save from heinous creatures like this.
“You really are a monster.” I seethe.
Michael’s lips curl cruelly. “We’re all monsters in our own way. You have ten minutes.” He turns and then stops.
“One more thing,” he snaps, spinning to face me again. “You won’t need this anymore.” He lifts my hand and pulls off my engagement ring, tossing it over his head. I gasp as I hear it ding on the wooden floor, and then watch as it rolls and bounces into a corner. “While you two were off picking out china patterns, I was assembling my army and appointing new captains. My father ruled a kingdom, I’m going to rule an empire.” He glances at the ring. “Pick it up and I’ll cut off your hand. Understand?”
I look at him with tear-soaked eyes. I despise this man.
“Ellie?” he grabs my chin.
I nod.
“If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at Kayne.”
With that, he leaves, and all I can think about is how wrong he is. The person I should be mad at is myself.
My concentration is hazy as I clean the blood from between my legs. It literally feels like I have been hacked wide open with a meat cleaver. I cry silently, not wanting anyone to hear. What are the odds a person is kidnapped twice in their lifetime to be used as a sex slave? I must be one fucking lucky woman, I think bitterly as I throw away the white towel stained with red.
I have ten minutes to figure a way out of this. I pace the bedroom. I have a feeling this is going to be the last bit of luxury I see if Michael forces me to leave with him.
I hurry and pull on the French doors that lead to the lani. Locked. Shit. I try some windows, but they’re built right into the wall, like an all-natural picture frame. I search them all, hoping beyond hope that just one has a latch. The last ones I try are at the back of the room on either side of the bed. It opens! I look down to see a slanted roof below me and a trellis just adjacent to it. There’s nothing but green land all around the house, and the ocean and mountains in the distance. I remember telling Kayne that I’d rather be lost in the wilderness than be his slave. Those words were never truer. Just as I’m about to push open the window, I hear the door unlock and see Michael walk in.
“Let’s go.” He orders.
I just stand there.
“Didn’t hear me the first time? It’s time to go,” he says annoyed.
I say something quietly in response.
“What?”
I say it again, no louder.
“What are you saying?” He stomps over to me enraged and grabs my arm.
“I said,” I look him dead in the eye, “I’d rather die than live as someone’s slave again.” With that, I swiftly knee him in the balls as hard as I can. As he falls to the floor, I escape out the window with my heart battering the inside of my chest.
“Bitch!” I hear him yell as I shuffle sideways across the slanted roof until I reach the trellis and swing down. Then I run like hell, past the pool and soft lit gazebo, toward the setting sun and lush green mountains.