by Violet Noir
19
Tessa
On one hand, I couldn’t imagine my life without him anymore, but on the other, I couldn’t imagine being tied to someone like him for life either.
“I need some time to think about it,” I said.
“What do you need time to think about, Tessa? Either we can have a life together or you can have a life always looking over your shoulder,” he said, and I realized that he hadn’t given me much of a choice.
It was nothing more than the illusion of choice. But if I was going to bow down and submit my life to him, I needed the illusion that I’d chosen it. For my own sanity, I wanted to at least be allowed the time to process what I’d learned.
“Please just give me some time,” I begged.
“You want time because you want to rationalize your decision. I don’t want it that way,” he said. “I want you to submit to me even if you are uncomfortable.”
“So we’re right back to that,” I said.
I ran from him. Will tried to grab my wrist but I managed to slip past him. He was right behind me, and I had no idea what he would do if he caught me. Perhaps he was like a predator and I’d activated his prey drive.
He chased me through the house, but I ran out the back door instead of the front. I turned as I passed the pool and ran toward the gardens. When he realized that I was only going outside and not running out the front door, he stopped following. I saw his eyes flick to the gate, but I walked in the opposite direction, and his posture relaxed a little.
“The gates are locked,” he called after me.
I didn’t care. I wasn’t trying to escape. I just wanted some fresh air. It had suddenly become stifling inside.
I’d never been past the pool, and I didn’t know that there were groves of trees in the back portion of the property. They were blooming, and the delicate scent of flowers flowed on the twilight breeze. In a million years, I never had a chance to live somewhere so magical.
It hadn’t been that long ago that I was getting turned down by landlords to rent shitty trailers. And there I was standing in the middle of an orange grove that Will had said could be mine. All I had to do was accept that I’d be in bed with a monster.
Tears began to run down my cheeks. I felt one of them drop onto my chest and before that, I hadn’t comprehended that I was crying.
I couldn’t live with a monster who enjoyed killing, but Will said that I quieted that part of him. The question was whether I believed him and whether or not I blamed him for what he was.
He’d told me the story of his childhood, and it was horrific. I could only imagine that what he’d told me merely scratched the surface. He’d endured that treatment for years. He was abandoned by his mother, and she was the one who was supposed to protect him.
That’s what he was asking me to do. He wanted me to love him unconditionally and protect him from the darkness and nightmares. What I had to do was believe that I was strong enough to keep that horror contained, and I did.
Fate put me where I was because I was the one who Will needed. If I looked back, I could see how its hand guided me to exactly where I was, and I wasn’t about to turn my back on whatever the universe had planned for me.
I was going to go back to the house and tell Will that I wanted to be with him. There had to be details that needed worked out, and I wanted to get things settled between us.
When I turned around, I ran into a strong, masculine body. For just a moment, I thought that Will had decided to come out and check on me, but before I even looked up into his face, I knew something was wrong.
I tried to scream, but Alex covered my mouth. Alex was the monster that I really needed to be afraid of and not Will, but it was too late. I’d screwed up again by not immediately accepting Will’s offer, and now it seemed as though I was going to pay for it.
He had a large knife in his hand, and Alex used it to cut the straps of my dress. It fell to the ground and pooled around my feet.
“All my beautiful handiwork is almost gone,” he said with a sneer. “No bother. I’ll love putting it back again.”
I tried to bite his hand, but he held the knife to my throat. His hand came down from my mouth and he yanked my panties so hard that they ripped off.
“Scream again and I’ll slit your throat so fast and so deep that you’ll be dead before Will gets here.”
He took my panties and shoved them into my mouth before grabbing my shoulder and turning me around. Alex shoved me and said, “walk”.
Alex was taking me deeper into the trees, and probably away from Will completely. The only reason he wouldn’t take me is if he planned to rape and kill me right there in the grove so that Will would find my body.
20
Will
I’d had enough of waiting for her, so I made my way past the pool and out to the trees. I could swear that I heard something strange going on, so I picked up the pace and called my security.
They were almost to the very back gate when I found them. Alex must have scaled the fence, and I could only imagine that he intended to break through the lock on the gate door.
Tessa was stripped naked and she had her panties shoved into her mouth. It was then that I realized he might not have intended on escaping with her. Perhaps they weren’t on their way to the gate. Maybe Alex was just trying to get as far away from me as he could so that he could defile her body and then kill her. If he couldn’t have her, then he’d make sure that I couldn’t either.
“Alex, stop,” I said and he whipped around, brandishing a huge knife.
“Awe, that’s too bad. Tessa and I were about to have some fun. Why’d you have to ruin it, Will?”
“You need to get out of here and forget about Tessa,” I said. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“Do you know who he really is?” Alex asked Tessa. “If you did, I doubt you’d rather be with him than me.”
“She’s knows who I am,” I said. “I told her the truth.”
“Did you tell her the part where you let me suck you off while your little toy died?” he growled. “I bet you left that part out. Did you tell her who you work for?”
“She knows what I do for a living, and Tessa knows that I get off on hurting people. Well, at least I did until I met her.”
“Aw, that’s sweet. Saved by the magic pussy,” he said and laughed.
“But I bet she doesn’t know that you didn’t just kill people,” he said and turned to Tessa. “It’s not like he put a bullet in their brain and let them go in peace. Will here is who the family calls when they need someone to die slowly and painfully. He’s tortured men to death for money.”
“Shut up.”
Alex took a step toward me and swiped at me with his knife. “I doubt the world would miss you very much,” he said. “At least if you are dead, I can stop worrying that you’ll come for me one day.”
21
Tessa
Will lunged for Alex and hit him so hard that Alex dropped the knife. I couldn’t watch anymore. All I could think about was survival, and I didn’t know if I could find it with Will. Everything about life with him was on the razor’s edge.
I couldn’t just stand there and wait for Alex, a man he’d called a friend, to kill me, so I ran deeper into the woods. I wasn’t even sure who I was hiding from anymore. I knew that I needed to get away from Alex, but I was afraid of Will too.
It was easy for me to dismiss the things I knew made him a monster when I was turned on and my body was begging for his dark pleasure, but in the stark reality of danger, it became clear that I had fallen into a very precarious relationship.
Why hadn’t I fought my stepfather when he dragged me to the auction? How could I have not known that he couldn’t force me to sell myself? It wasn’t as if I’d been totally cut off from the world. I went to school. I knew at least a few people who had semi-normal lives.
I should have seen how stupid and spineless I was being. My stepfather needed me. It wasn’t the other wa
y around, but I had convinced myself that it was.
The same thing with Will. He needed me to keep the demons at bay, and yet I was ready to kneel before him and lick his boots just for a hint of the pleasure I knew he could bestow.
Who did I need to be afraid of? The answer was me. It dawned on me that I wasn’t upset because of the things Will had done, but I felt guilty for not feeling bad enough. I knew that Will was keeping dirty secrets from me, but he wasn’t dangerous and cruel the same way as Alex.
Maybe at one time he’d been that bad, but I was stronger than his sordid past. I wanted to go back and tell him that I was sorry I’d ever doubted him. I needed to throw myself into his arms, but I knew it wasn’t safe. He could handle Alex, I just had to stay out of the way.
I hid behind a tree for what seemed like an eternity. When I finally heard footsteps in the grass coming toward me, my heart jumped into my throat. I had no way of knowing if it was Will or Alex.
Strong hands found my shoulders and lifted me up to my feet. It was Will, and I was so ecstatic to see him that I almost didn’t notice the blood blooming across his shirt.
“Will,” I said and caught him when he staggered a bit.
“He got me,” he said with a strained smile. “I deserve it. I’m so sorry, Tessa. I should have lived a better life so that I could be a better man for you. I’m not worthy of you, and I can see that now. I was trapped in a gilded prison my whole life, but that was no excuse for me to make you my slave.”
“It’s okay,” I said and held my hand over the wound. “I want you. I don’t care about any of it. All I want is you no matter how much darkness you carry.”
“Do you mean that?”
“I do,” I said. “But where is Alex? We’ve got to get out of here.”
“He’s waiting in the basement. What happens to him next is up to me,” he said and then took a gasping breath.
“I need to get you to a hospital,” I said.
“The doc can patch me up,” Will said.
“What if you need surgery, Will? What if he got one of your organs? You could bleed to death without emergency surgery.”
“The doc can handle it. I’ve seen him deal with worse. You’ve just got to get me inside. I’ll deal with Alex while we wait for the doctor. You’re going to be safe, Tessa. Whether you stay with me or not, you’ll never have to look over your shoulder again.”
“I’ll be with you,” I said and tried to help him walk. “I’ll be with you always.”
“You look like you could use some help.” A booming voice startled me, and I tried to help Will up while hiding my nakedness behind him at the same time.
A tall, good-looking man with dark hair and deep brown eyes took a step toward us. At first, I thought he had a weapon, but then I realized he was trying to hand me a coat. The man held Will up, and I quickly slipped into the coat.
“How did you know?” Will asked as they started to walk toward the house.
“Your security knew to call me for this. I figured you could use back-up.”
22
Will
I’d neve been so thankful to see Viktor in my life. He’d taken his trench coat off and handed it to Tessa. I was thankful for the gesture because I didn’t want any man under any circumstances looking at her naked body.
He helped me into the house and Tessa followed quietly behind. Viktor tried to set me down on the nearest chair, but I protested.
“We’re going down to the basement. I don’t know what kind of shape I’ll be in after the doc gets through with me, so I have business to attend to first.”
“Will, please don’t. You need to sit down,” Tessa pleaded.
“Watch yourself, sweet Tessa. I may be injured, but that doesn’t make you my master,” I said and tried to smile. “Why don’t you go up to the bedroom and wait?”
“I’m not leaving your side,” Tessa said in a tone that would have gotten her a spanking in any other situation.
“Fine, but you know that eventually, I’m going to feel better. I’m going to pink up those buttocks of yours.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
With that, we all went downstairs. Letting Tessa into the room where I planned to execute Alex was too big of a risk, so I made her wait in the hallway with one of my guards.
I walked into the room where Alex knelt on the concrete floor with his hands bound behind his back. Tessa’s presence in my life had begun to shine a light into the darkness in me, but there was something that could bring the inky blackness rushing back to the surface.
The man before me had hurt my… For a moment I thought of her as my toy, but it was more than that. Tessa had earned a place in my life far above that of a toy. Alex had hurt my woman. He’d had his filthy cock inside of her, and the only thing that would rectify that wrong was his blood spilled by my hand.
“We’ve been friends for a long time,” Alex said quietly.
“I don’t think we were ever friends. Maybe at one time there was a chance, but the Earth will be a better place without you.”
He looked as though he was going to respond, but I was done. Before he could speak again, I raised my gun and put a bullet in his brain. Alex fell to the floor, and Viktor helped me put him in the incinerator.
The adrenaline rush began to wear off, and the pain from the stab wound became overwhelming. I broke out in a cold sweat, and I could feel shock setting in as my heartrate slowed.
My head became fuzzy, and blackness crept into the side of my vision. I stumbled to the side, but Viktor caught me and helped me out of the room.
He practically carried me upstairs to the dining room and helped me onto the table as the doctor arrived. Tessa came into the room and held my hand for a while, but the doctor eventually shuffled her out of the room so that he could do his work.
I felt a needle go into my arm, and the pain melted away. But so did my consciousness. When I woke up, I was in my bed. Tessa sat in a chair she’d pulled over next to me.
“Why aren’t you in bed?” I asked groggily.
“The doctor said I needed to stay out of the bed to prevent infection and not jostle your wound too much. I don’t want to lose you, so I’m following his orders,” she said and took my hand.
“I don’t know if I like that,” I said. “I think I’d rather have you up here with me.”
“As soon as the doctor says it’s okay, I will be,” she said with a smile. “I don’t care if you spank me until I’m black and blue, Will, I’m not going to do anything to put you in danger.”
“That’s more than I’ve done for you.” I suddenly realized how much I didn’t deserve her.
“Viktor’s been here,” she said, changing the subject. “He and I have had a few conversations.”
“Wait, how long have I been out?”
“You’ve been in and out for about a week, Will. The doctor has you on IV fluids and nutrition. He’s been coming here to check on you a couple of times per day. There’s a nurse too. She’ll be back in a while to check on you.”
“A week?”
“Yeah. You had some internal damage. The doctor did surgery on you right on the dining room table. I don’t know if your head housekeeper is ever going to recover from that mess.”
“Oh, trust me. She’s seen worse,” I said and laughed for a moment, but it made me feel like my side was split open.
“Easy there, tiger,” Tessa said and put a hand to my forehead. “Do I even want to know the stories that go along with your surgical dining room table?”
“No, probably not,” I said. “But, that does remind me, as the lady of the house, it’s your job to pick out a new table. No more surgery in the dining room. I want out.”
“You want out?”
“Of the family business. I’m going to buy my way into retirement.”
“And I’m the lady of the house?”
“Well, aren’t you?” I asked.
“That’s a pretty big promotion,” she said and bit her
bottom lip.
“You won’t even have to buy your way out.” Viktor’s voice filled the room when he walked in. “I’m going to call in my favor.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “Your favor?”
“I am lonely. I want a girl like this who will take care of me when I am sick… or stabbed. You said you would help me find a woman. You find me a woman as good as this one, and I will clear your name with the family.”
“I can do that. As long as the lady of the house doesn’t mind me attending another auction.”
“Just don’t bring any strays home,” Tessa said.
“Well, I brought you home, and that’s turned out well.”
“Will,” she warned. “I can handle a lot of things, but I won’t share.”
“Good,” I said and suppressed a laugh.
“I don’t mind as long as it’s for Viktor and it’s the last auction you ever attend.”
“Look at you,” I said. “You are quite adorable when you’re being bossy.”
“I want one like this,” Viktor said. “I want a sassy one too.”
“Maybe we should take the queen here with us,” I suggested. “I bet Tessa would be even better at choosing than I would be.”
“Is that even allowed?” Tessa asked.
“Tessa, my darling, you’ll find that most anything I want is allowed,” I said. “People find it hard to tell me no.”
23
Tessa
Within a few weeks, Will was back on his feet. He healed so fast that even the doctor was shocked. I could only guess that he held command over everything he considered his domain. That included his body.
It was fascinating to watch. When I was no longer a cowering toy, I had a much clearer view of Will’s life. He was like a conductor steering his symphony. Everyone around him knew what he wanted, and they effortlessly met his expectations.
