by Kitty Thomas
Everyone in this house knew Brian wasn't supposed to be left alone with Shannon, and one of these young stupid twits had just watched while Brian had carried her away.
“I will deal with you later,” he snarled. Then he spotted Mina. “Mina!” he shouted. “Come here!”
Mina was not accustomed to following anyone's orders but Brian's. But something in his tone made her rise from the table where she was having dinner and cross the room to him.
“What is it?” she asked, a tinge of fear in her voice underneath the harder exterior she'd developed since she'd returned from Japan years ago. She didn't offer him a title. He didn't care about that one way or the other.
He gripped her arm and dragged her out of the cafeteria, down the hallway and down the stairs. He heard Shannon's screams before they reached the bottom. Lindsay jerked Mina along down the hallway. It was so easy to forget how fragile she truly was... how breakable... how much physically weaker she was than him or Brian.
Being the pet of the house psycho and having so many weapons at her disposal had made her seem superhuman, but she was still so breakably ordinary. Lindsay pounded on the door to Cell A, the one Brian didn't let others use.
“Let her out this instant, or I will snap Mina's neck,” he shouted.
Lindsay could see through the bars of the window. Brian had already struck Shannon a couple of times with the bullwhip. A few thin trickles of blood trailed down her back, but he hadn't really gotten to work on her yet.
Brian didn't bother calling his bluff because he knew Lindsay wasn't bluffing. Brian just smiled that evil soulless black-pit smile.
“If you kill her, I will drag out Shannon's suffering so long she'll beg me to take her life. Is that what you want? You know I have the only key to this cell.”
Shannon sobbed quietly. She seemed unable to even form words at this point.
“Let her go. Your issue is with me, not her,” Lindsay said, his grip on Mina's arm so tight, she whimpered in his grasp. “Quiet,” he hissed at her. All he needed was for Brian to flip out because Mina was crying.
“Maybe you should have thought about that shit a long time ago before you came between me and Mina,” Brian said.
“Oh for fuck's sake. That was years ago. You can't still care about that! I never hurt her!”
“Do you think she would have ever ended up in Japan with that monster if it weren't for your interference? If it weren't for you slithering inside her head so she wanted away from me?”
“That was all you! It was your cruelty that made her want to get away from you, not anything I said or did. Do you think if you kill Shannon, Mina will ever want you to touch her again?”
Brian laughed. “Mina's like me now. She's shut it off. All those inconvenient emotions. It's just me and her in the world now. She doesn't care what the fuck I do.”
Lindsay turned to Mina, studying her face. It wasn't true. There was still something human in her. She hadn't shut it all off. She wavered even now.
“Convince him to stop,” Lindsay whispered to her.
She shook her head furiously. “I-I can't,” she whispered back. “I can't get between him and... what he does. T-there would be consequences. B-bad consequences.”
“You think he would hurt you?” Lindsay asked.
“I don't want to find out.”
“But Shannon could die. You insufferable coward.” He spat the words out, disgusted.
Mina was crying now. She turned to the door. “M-master, please let her go.”
His reply came a moment later when the bullwhip landed in a loud crack against Shannon's back, and she screamed again. Brian stalked over to the door. He glared first at Lindsay, then his gaze went to Mina.
“Do not get in the middle of this,” he said.
Mina flinched. Lindsay couldn't remember the last time she'd flinched from Brian. Brian shot Lindsay a killing glare as if it were Lindsay's fault Mina was starting to remember exactly what kind of monster she was with. Brian reached through the bars to stroke her cheek. Her tear-filled gaze rose to his.
When he spoke, it was in a low growl, almost more animal than human. “Mina, you know I would never hurt you, but you will not manage me. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes, Master,” she said leaning into his touch, her eyes drifting closed as he petted her hair.
He was so unbelievably gentle with her. Like an entirely different person.
“Lindsay is not going to hurt you,” Brian said, his glare shooting once again to Lindsay. A warning. A threat. “I'm in control here, and he knows it. Don't you, Doc?”
Lindsay didn't reply, he just gripped Mina's arm harder. “If you kill Shannon, what will stop me from killing Mina? You say you love her. But you risk her life by continuing this game. Let's just trade. I'll give you Mina. You give me Shannon.”
Brian spit through the bars at Lindsay. “Never. I will do whatever I damn well please, and if you hurt Mina, I will keep you alive for months down here before I end you.”
Brian stalked back over to Shannon.
“I'm taking Mina with me,” Lindsay said. “And you're not going to know what I'm doing with her. You won't know if she's hurt or dead or alive. If you truly love her you won't take that risk.”
Before Brian could reply, Lindsay had dragged Mina down the hallway to her and Brian's room. He shoved her into the bedroom and pointed to the door at the other end.
“Unlock the door to the gun closet, Mina,” he said. His voice had gone so dark and cold it was clear she wasn't sure which of the two men down here was more dangerous right now.
“I-I can't let you kill him. I know he's a monster, but I love him. He saved me. Not just in Japan. I can't live without him. Please.”
“If you let me in that closet, I promise I won't kill him, but if you don't, Shannon is going to die. She's your friend. Do you want your friend to die?”
Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she shook her head. She took a key from her pocket and with trembling hands unlocked the gun closet.
Lindsay pushed her aside, grabbed a handgun off the closest shelf, slammed in a magazine, and racked the slide.
“Please don't kill him,” she begged again, clearly unsure if she'd just signed Brian's death warrant. Her face was pale. It had been a very long time since Lindsay had seen her this afraid of anything.
He should kill Brian, but Mina was yet another person Lindsay had ruined from his shitty choices. If he took Brian from her, it would destroy her. Shannon's screams pulled him out of the conflict and he raced back to the cell. He fired the gun at the lock twice and kicked the door open against the wall.
Lindsay moved so fast, Brian didn't have time to react. He raised the gun and slammed it hard on the side of Brian's face, and the man went down, unconscious. Blood trailed from the side of his face as Lindsay dragged him to the neighboring cell. He checked all his pockets and took the cell keys. He handcuffed him to a pole at one end of the cell for good measure. Then he slammed the door, locking Brian in.
Mina stood out of his way as he returned to the first cell and started to untie Shannon. When she was free, she crumpled to the ground, the adrenaline no doubt turning her legs to jelly.
“I know you have another key to that other cell, Mina,” Lindsay said quietly. Cell A was the only one with a single key, which Brian jealously guarded. “He'll probably be unconscious for a while, but if you want Shannon to live through the night, you will not let him out until she's far from this house.”
“I-I won't,” she said.
Damian was right. Lindsay should have given Shannon to him. He was her age. He could protect her. And most importantly she'd be far from Brian and this house that had taken everything from her. How could he have ever thought it was appropriate to keep her here with him?
Lindsay picked Shannon up off the ground and held her close in his arms. Her head went to his shoulder as she wrapped her arms around his neck, still crying.
***
Shannon lay on her s
tomach in Lindsay's plant room as he whispered soothing nonsense in her ear. She couldn't process half of it, only that his tone was so caring that she actually felt safe for a brief moment, even after what had just happened downstairs with Brian.
“This might sting a little,” Lindsay said.
She flinched at the burn as he ran a cool wet cloth over the new marks Brian had left on her. These weren't deep. They weren't bad like before. They wouldn't scar. And they didn't need stitches. But it could have been so much worse. If Lindsay hadn't gotten down there when he did... if Brian had finished, there would have been nothing left to bandage.
She continued to cry as he rubbed a soothing ointment into her back, then he laid a breathable gauze over the whip lashes and taped it down with medical tape against the untouched parts of her skin.
There hadn't been untouched skin the first time. He'd had to wrap her up like a mummy. There had been nowhere safe to put tape the first time.
Ralph flew from his perch and landed next to her, nuzzling his head against her face. “Yes Sir, fuck me harder,” the bird squawked. Shannon couldn't even find it in her to laugh at his antics.
“Not now, Ralph,” Lindsay said, sounding tired.
The bird looked up at him and said, “Excellent references.” Then he flew back into the foliage.
Lindsay rested a hand on Shannon's lower back, the only place without any bandages or tape and sighed. “I'll be right back. Will you be okay?”
She gripped his wrist. “No! Don't leave me.”
“I'm just going to make a call. I'm not leaving our suite and the door is dead-bolted. You're safe now.”
She would never be safe. They both knew it. She would never be safe and she would never be free. She felt his weight lift off the bed as he went into the bathroom and shut the door. She heard his voice from the other side, but couldn't make out anything he said. She was in too much pain to get up and go listen by the door.
The call lasted for a long time. Finally Lindsay came out looking exhausted, like a man who had almost lost the love of his life—or like a man who was in the process of losing her. She waited in the long space of silence wanting it to go on forever because she knew she didn't want to hear the words that were about to come out of his mouth.
“Damian is on his way,” he finally said. “You belong to him now.”
Shannon let out a strangled sob. “No, I want to be with you.” She struggled to sit. He sat behind her and just held her in his arms stroking her hair.
“I know you do. I want the same. But we can't be together. You know Brian will never allow it, and now that he's proven he's willing to go this far again, you can't stay in this house. It's not safe.”
“Just fucking kill the bastard,” she said, surprising herself at the amount of venom in her voice. Mina might not be the only one with a switch. Brian clearly had this effect on people, as if his sociopathy were a contagion on the air.
“How would you feel if Mina killed me?” They both knew why he hadn't used Brian in that example.
“Mixed feelings right now,” she said.
Lindsay's laugh rumbled against her. “I love you so much, Shannon. And that's why you have to go. You know you have to go. Damian will be good to you. He will love you, and you will love him. I know it hurts now but...”
Shannon pulled away from him. “No. Fuck you. No. You don't need this fucking house. You don't need the job in the city. You're rolling in money. Let's just GO. Far from here. We can run away and be together.”
Lindsay shook his head sadly. He'd already made up his mind. It was clearly visible in the stress lines on his face.
“I treated Brian for a long time. I know him better than almost anyone in the world. Maybe as well or better than Mina does. And I know without any doubt that he would stalk us and find us. There is no place on this earth we could go where he wouldn't eventually find us. He will not allow us to be happy together.”
“Well then won't he just come after me if I'm with Damian?”
Lindsay shook his head. “It's not about hurting you, not really. He just doesn't want me to have you. If I give you to Damian, he'll let it go because either way I can't have you, and that's what he wants—to take something from me.”
“We could still see each other. You could come see me at Damian's house? Or I could see you at your office?” She knew she was grasping. She knew there was no part of him that could do that. It would be too painful for both of them to have such small stolen moments, always in hiding from Brian.
“If I was with you, even for a little while, I'd be happy. And Brian would know, and you wouldn't be safe. He won't stop unless he knows you're out of my life. This vendetta he's built up in his head toward me, it's not reasonable but it doesn't matter. He's not reasonable.”
She knew he was right but she didn't want him to be right. She didn't want to just be a piece on somebody else's chess board being molded and shaped and managed by the men around her. She laid her head against Lindsay's chest and sobbed.
Chapter Sixteen
It was after ten pm when Damian arrived at the house. He parked his BMW in the circular driveway and turned off the ignition. Lindsay's directions had been surprisingly easy to follow given the isolation of this place. Who the hell built a mansion like this out in the middle of nowhere? He took several deep breaths to calm himself.
He didn't know who he was more angry with, the vicious psychopath for hurting her again, or Lindsay for letting her live in the same house with that rabid animal. He took another deep breath. After what she'd just been through, being out of control would only scare her more. Even after the weekend they'd just shared, Damian was under no illusions about how this would go down.
Lindsay had no doubt decided not to even tell her about the plan for all three of them. Now that the plan was dead on arrival, what would be the point? So she just thought she was being thrown away again. Lindsay. That fucking asshole.
But it was hard to hold onto that anger knowing what he was about to possess. He got out of the car and locked the doors with a quick press of a button on his key ring, then he rang the doorbell of the large estate.
A blond man in his thirties answered the door. “You must be Damian,” he said. “They're in Lindsay's office. This way.”
The guy didn't bother introducing himself and quite frankly Damian didn't give a shit what his name was. Damian followed him through the house. Several young women in their early twenties stood in groups along the walls, checking him out and whispering. They all wore casual colorful sweatshorts and strappy t-shirts like they were having a sleepover.
The blond guy knocked on a door down one of the hallways on the main floor.
“Come in,” Lindsay called from the other side.
The blond guy went back toward the front of the house and Damian stepped inside, closing the door behind him.
This office was smaller than the one in the city. Lindsay sat in a large leather swivel chair behind the desk and looked up to acknowledge him. It was grim in here. Shannon sat in the chair opposite from Lindsay. She hadn't bothered to look up at Damian. She sat quietly crying—like her world had just broken apart.
And even though she could have died tonight, Damian didn't think she was crying about that. She was crying about this. What was about to happen.
“Come here,” Lindsay said to her.
She slowly got out of the chair, wiped the tears off her face, still avoiding looking at Damian, and went to where Lindsay sat. He didn't tell her to but she knelt in front of him and laid her head on his thigh, her small hand stroking him through his pants as if she could coax him with sex to keep her.
“Please, Master, don't do this. I don't want to go.”
Lindsay didn't say anything to that, he just reached around her throat and removed the collar. That action resulted in full-on sobbing.
“No!” She reached for it, but Lindsay held it out of her reach. He put the collar in a black velvet box and put it inside the desk drawer.<
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Then his hand was on her upper back, resting there. He stroked her hair. “You belong to Damian, now,” he said. “You have to accept this. Obey me this one last time and go with him.”
She finally looked up, her face red from crying, tear-streaked. Her gaze found Damian as if he were a complete stranger she hadn't spent the weekend with. As if they hadn't bonded. As if they hadn't laughed together.
He tried not to let it bother him. Of course she didn't want to leave Lindsay. She obviously loved him.
When she didn't make a move, Lindsay looked at Damian and nodded. Damian sighed and went over and pulled her up off the ground. She shrieked like a banshee and flailed. Lindsay made eye contact again and then looked pointedly at a paddle hanging on the wall beside the desk. This time it was Damian who nodded.
“Hold her,” Damian said.
Lindsay gripped her wrists and held her in place. Their eyes locked together. She didn't realize what was about to happen. She just knew that her master's attention was on her once again.
Damian swung the paddle. It landed with a hard crack against her ass, the sound filling the small room. She let out a howl and struggled against Lindsay's grip, no doubt wanting to rub the sting out.
“Are you going to calm your ass down, or do you want more?” Damian asked, his tone hard.
She turned to him, a hurt look of betrayal in her eyes, like he was breaking some kind of promise to her. But he'd told her he would punish her.
“Let's go,” Damian said. He was too angry about this entire situation to use the soothing voice with her, even though he knew he should use the soothing voice with her.
Lindsay released her wrists.
“I'm not leaving,” Shannon said. As if she had the power to decide that.
Lindsay rose from his chair and moved to a cabinet. Shannon's wary focus was on Damian. She looked ready to fight, scream, kick, do whatever it took to keep him from taking her. How the fuck was he going to get her home in this state?
