by Mae Doyle
“Someone took Isabella. She’s out in the woods somewhere, I’m going to look for her, and I need you to find out who the fuck would do this.”
Freddy was silent for a moment and I thought that I’d lost him, but then he answered me. “Fuck. I’m on it. You okay?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that. Was I okay? Not really. I was fucking pissed off at Isabella for knocking me over the head and making a run for it, but more than that, I was scared that something bad was going to happen to her. I didn’t want to think about her getting hurt or killed, but that was exactly what was going to happen if I didn’t find her.
“I will be. Get out some feelers. Find out if it’s the same fucking family trying to hurt her. As soon as we have her, I’m burning them to the ground. It wasn’t enough to punish them for kidnapping her. I’m going to kill every last one of those motherfuckers, do you understand?”
“I do.” Freddy paused and then kept talking. “You just let me know what you need. I’ll be digging up more info and I’ll have your list ready for when you get her back.”
“Ammo. I need more ammo.”
“You got it.”
We were both silent for a moment and then I punched the button to hang up the phone. Gravel spun under my tires as I left the cabin behind me and tore down the road. It was dangerous to go too fast in the dark, especially when the rain that we’d been having cutting through the road and loosening up some of the gravel, but I wasn’t in the mood to go slow.
I had to get to Isabella.
“Where the fuck are you, darling?” I muttered to myself, my eyes scanning the edges of the woods as I drove. If she was on the road then there was a good chance that she would jump off into the woods when she heard me so that I didn’t see her.
I drove for a few minutes and then slammed on the brakes. It had gotten dark as fuck outside, but my bright lights illuminated something in front of me on the road. Leaving the truck running, I hopped out and ran over to the gravel, kneeling next to it to get a better look.
Blood. Fresh, too, from the look of it. A backpack that she’d stolen from the cabin was twenty feet away by the edge of the road, but I didn’t bother with going to pick it up. It didn’t matter what was in it. All that mattered was that this showed me that some shit had gone down and my Isabella had gotten caught in the middle of it. Standing up, I glanced around, but I couldn’t see anything move. Nothing in the woods was watching me, but that didn’t stop me from yelling for her. “Isabella! Where the fuck are you?”
Nothing answered. Even the birds had finally settled down for the night and the tree frogs were too damn scared to respond to my yelling. Groaning, I ran back to the truck and called Freddy again.
He picked up on the first ring.
“I need the Marino boss’ address. Now.”
◆◆◆
Waiting had never been one of my strong suits. Even as a child my mom used to get onto me about slowing down, asking for help, and waiting until I knew for sure that I was ready to do something.
I ignored her, of course, which was how I’d broken both arms before I was seven and shattered five bones in my right hand by the time I turned ten. Long story short: I wasn’t good at waiting, and it had only gotten worse.
I knew that Isabella was somewhere in the mansion in front of me, and knowing that she needed my help was more tempting than trying to fly from the barn roof. I knew that I should wait for backup, but I also knew, from experience, that I wasn’t going to.
Before getting out of the truck I shot a quick text off to Freddy. I’m going in.
He responded immediately, like I had a feeling that he would. Ammo??
Yeah, the ammo. I was running a little low, but part of the reason I’d told Freddy to pick it up first and then meet me at the location was so that I could go in alone. It was shitty, and I knew it, but I didn’t care. I needed to be the one to make sure that Isabella was okay.
She was mine, and I wasn’t going to let anyone else touch her. Taste her. Take her.
The thought pissed me off and I pulled my pistol from my pants before ducking my head and jogging past the security cameras and up to the house.
One whole wing of the house was lit up, and I figured that that was where they had Isabella. The boss would be checking her out, getting to know her, probably making sure that she couldn’t escape. My blood pressure went up at the thought of anyone putting a hand on her.
Channel the energy.
Taking a deep breath, I smashed the back window in a dark wing. Glass tinkled out of the frame and then landed silently on the carpeted floor below. It wasn’t until a full minute later when nobody came that I realized I was still holding my breath and I exhaled, pulling myself easily up on the windowsill and climbing through.
No lights and sirens went off, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t an alarm on the window. I knew better than to hang around after breaking and entering, and I darted through the room to the cracked door, glanced into the hallway to make sure that it was clear, and then ran across it to another room.
Once inside, I shut the door most of the way and took a deep breath. I had to make it all the way across the mansion without getting caught, find the right place where they were holding Isabella, and kill any assholes who tried to stand in my way.
Easier said than done, but since I had a tase of my sweet hellcat, there wasn’t anything that I wouldn’t do for her.
Nobody came running down the hall to check the broken window, nobody came flying into the room, guns blazing, so I pushed the door open again and jogged down the hall. Chances were good that I would run into someone on my way, but I was ready.
I didn’t care how many people I had to kill to get Isabella back. I’d burn down the whole fucking world if that was what it took. She was mine and anyone who tried to take her from me had to suffer. They all had to die for what they had done.
As far as I could see, there wasn’t anyone innocent in the house. I was coming for them all.
Chapter 17
Isabella
Okay.
There were definitely a few things in my life that I was really good at. Like all-afternoon movie marathons while eating my weight in popcorn.
And knowing exactly what to tell a friend when they were sad to make them feel better.
Oh, and how about being able to guess how many jelly beans are in a jar? I’d always been good at that.
But getting kidnapped was not one thing that I thought I’d ever be skilled at. I didn’t think that most people would ever experience being kidnapped once in their life, let alone twice, but I was really killing it on that front.
I was the queen of kidnapping, if you will.
It wasn’t something that I was particularly proud of. Especially not after the asshole driver told me that he didn’t think I was going to die. I was going to be used as a pet. That was, somehow, even more fucked up than simply getting shot in the head.
I’d never been one to ask for death, but it seemed like a much better fucking choice right then.
“Isabella. You have been quite the thorn in my side. You know, after you and your little fuck buddy killed all of my men, twice, I wasn’t sure that I was going to even let you live. I had it in my mind that as soon as you got here I would slowly strip your skin from your body. Pull out your nails. Burn your hair down to your head. Then, when you were absolutely beyond spent and didn’t think that you could pull one more ragged breath into your fucking lungs, I was going to kill you.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. I mean, I’d been thinking about dying and how it seemed preferable, but I’d been thinking about a bullet to the brain, not that. What he was talking about sounded a hell of a lot like torture, and I wasn’t keen on it.
“And now?” It may not have been the right thing to ask, but I couldn’t help myself. I needed to know what this asshole was going to do to me.
“Now?” He laughed, giving me a moment to really look at him. If Nicolo was twenty yea
rs older than me, then this guy had to be at least forty years older. He had a huge scar that ran down the side of his face, and he must have been hurt in the eye, because his right eye was completely white.
I knew that I shouldn’t compare him to Nicolo, but I couldn’t help it. Where Nicolo was all trim and muscle, this asshole had a gut that hung over his pants. His hair was thinning and his one good eye looked so evil that it honestly gave me chills to make eye contact with him.
“Now, Isabella? Now you’re going to be my pet. I had no idea that you would look so…delicious.” He paused to take in my body and I sneered at him. There wasn’t any way that I could cover up more, but I could make it clear to him that I hated him for how he was looking at me.
He laughed.
Asshole.
“You ever had a dog, Isabella?”
As much as I didn’t want to respond to him, I nodded. Yeah, I’d had a dog. What kind of kid doesn’t get a dog? Someone whose parents don’t love them, I guess.
“I never had one as a kid,” he said, in response to my nod. “Never did. Always wanted one, so that was the first thing I got myself as a gift when I made it to the top. After I killed my parents, of course. But now I don’t have a dog because it died. And then you fall into my lap.”
He snapped his fingers and the driver who took me from Nicolo’s property immediately came up behind me and pushed me forward. I tripped and tried to catch myself, but landed on the asshole’s lap. He immediately reached around my waist, pulling me back into him.
I struggled, trying to get away from him, but his arms were like a vice, and he just tightened them around me before sliding one hand up my chest and lightly squeezing my tit through my shirt.
“Delicious. So much better than a dog, but still a bitch, or so I’ve heard.” His breath was hot on my cheek and I wanted to squirm away from him, but I didn’t want to give him that satisfaction. He liked me sitting on his lap. I could tell.
Fuck me. His cock was hard and pressing into my leg. I stopped moving immediately but breathed heavily, trying to figure out a way out of my situation.
Any normal time and I’d be on my feet, doing everything possible to take them down. But my shoulder screamed with pain, my head was still fuzzy, and my vision was a little blurred. I probably had a concussion, and I highly doubted that any of the assholes around me would give a shit if I told them that.
That wasn’t even counting the three guys across the room who had their guns trained on me. No, if I was going to get out of this situation, I was going to need some help.
Was Nicolo going to be able to find me? Would he even bother coming? I felt a pang of guilt over how I’d treated him and the fact that I’d tried to bash his brains in and then left him on the floor of his own cabin.
Maybe I was a bitch.
“So you’re mine now, Isabella. I even have something for you.” The boss’ voice pulled me out of my thoughts and he gestured to a man standing at the edge of the room. On command, the man walked forward, carrying a necklace in his hand.
Nope. Not a necklace. A collar.
It was black and studded with a loop for a leash and buckles on the ends, and I jerked back when he walked up to me.
“Not a fucking chance, asshole,” I growled, reaching up to cover my neck.
The boss laughed. “Put on the collar, my little bitch. Or I’m going to fuck you right here in front of everyone.”
My blood chilled. He wasn’t serious, right? There wasn’t any way that he was really going to do that, right?
I looked around the room and saw the lewd grins on everyone’s faces and it hit me like a fucking freight train.
I could pretend to be in control all I wanted, but I wasn’t. if this guy wanted to bend me over and fuck me right in the middle of the room, nobody was going to stop him. They were all terrified of him and willing to let him do whatever the fuck he wanted.
Slowly, I dropped my hands. The collar felt itchy and uncomfortable as it was snapped around my neck and I resisted the urge to reach up and try to pull it off. I was quickly beginning to see that if I wanted to survive here, I had to play their game, at least for a while.
At least until I learned how the fuck I could get out of it. Or until Nicolo came to save me. If he came to save me.
Terror streaked through me and I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. The overwhelming scent of dog made me gasp and I turned around to look at the boss.
He chuckled. “I didn’t have time to go get you a new collar, pet. But I will tomorrow if you don’t like the way it smells. Martha wore it for thirteen years and she was a good and loyal dog, so I’m hoping that it will have a good impact on you. Consider it a good luck collar.”
“I’m wearing your dead dog’s collar?” Anger poured through me, setting all of my nerves on fire, and I could barely believe what I was saying. “You put your dead dog’s collar on me?”
I didn’t think that I’d ever been that angry. The only feeling that had ever come close to matching or surpassing the amount of anger coursing through my body was when my mom died. That wasn’t just anger. It was helplessness, confusion, a whole cocktail of emotions that I’d done my damndest to keep bottled up so that nobody would know just how badly I hurt.
This humiliation and anger didn’t touch those swirling emotions, but it came really fucking close.
The boss smiled, but there wasn’t anything happy or light behind his eyes. He was evil, through and through, and I could see it in the way he looked at me.
“You’re going to wear that collar, Isabella, and you’re going to like it. You learn how to be a good little bitch and do what I tell you to do and you’ll survive here. But I like obedience. I like bitches who know their place and will do everything I ask without question. You don’t do what I tell you to do and I will kill you. Slowly. It would be a shame, but I’d do it.”
He reached out and slowly stroked his hand down my cheek, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at him before letting me go. “You do as I say, Isabella, and you’ll last here. But no matter how delicious you look, I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in your brain if you piss me off, do you understand?”
At first, I couldn’t move. I knew that I needed to nod and show him that I was listening to him, but it was really hard when all I wanted to do was scream and bat his hand away from my face. Taking a deep breath, I shuddered, and then finally I nodded.
“Tell me that you understand.”
I swallowed hard, knowing full well that I was about to hate myself for what I was going to do, but that I also didn’t have any choice. I wanted to walk out of here in one piece, and the only way that I could make sure that I was going to do that was to play his stupid little game.
“I understand.” The words felt like sand in my mouth, dry and dirty, but he didn’t seem to mind that I was almost physically ill when responding to him. It didn’t seem to bother him one bit that I’d rather choke on my own tongue than have to talk to him.
“What a good little bitch you are. I think that you’re going to fit in quite well, Isabella. Now sit at my feet like a good bitch.”
What. The. Fuck.
For a moment, I didn’t move.
The worst part of all of this humiliation was that I had brought it on myself. If I had just stayed with Nicolo then I wouldn’t be here with a collar around my neck. Sure, we didn’t always get along, but he didn’t treat me like shit.
He didn’t make me want to suck start the gun that I knew this asshole was packing somewhere on his ample frame. It was the only thing of this asshole that I was going to be sucking, that was for sure.
The room was so quiet that I could practically hear my heart pounding in my chest, but I finally acquiesced to what he wanted me to do and knelt in front of him, pulling my throbbing arm to my chest before turning and sitting down.
My face burned, and I jerked away from his touch when he reached out and patted me on the head.
“Now, now, Isabella. Don’t be na
ughty. You’re probably tired and hungry, and as soon as your bed is set up then you can go rest.”
At least he didn’t want me in his bed. That was the only silver lining that I was able to find. Everything else was terrible. I stared at the door across the room from me, praying that Nicolo would suddenly come bursting through but knowing full well that the chance of that was slim.
Really fucking slim.
Chapter 18
Nicolo
It took me longer than I would have thought to wind my way through the mansion. I stopped at every corner, listened hard, and kept my gun at the ready.
I was willing to kill for Isabella, but that didn’t mean that I wanted to just start spraying and praying. As soon as I fired a single shot I knew that the assholes who took her would be on me in an instant. No reason to make that happen any sooner than it had to.
Finally, I reached a door that had light showing through the crack around it. I leaned closer to the door, my pistol at my side, to listen. Someone was moving around inside the room, but I couldn’t tell if there was just one person or more.
Taking a deep breath, I grabbed the handle and pushed my way into the room, throwing the door open suddenly so that I could step into the room and surprise whoever was there.
It was a cook, and I scared her so badly that she dropped the spatula she was holding. It clattered to the ground, but she didn’t move.
“Where is she?” I growled, circling around the island where she was working and pressing my gun up against her temple.
This close to her, I could smelt the fear radiating off of her. She didn’t know what to do, and opened and closed her mouth a few times before finally managing to speak.
“Who?” Her eyes were wide and locked on me. Little beads of sweat broke out on her forehead and I could tell that she was doing her best to keep from falling over in a dead faint. Her skin was pale and she looked ill.
“Isabella. They kidnapped her. Brought her here. Where is she?”
