by Naomi West
He swore under his breath and dropped his hands to my ankles. He gave them both a tug that made it feel like he had just popped my legs from my hip sockets. I screamed and lost my grip for a moment.
“Did you really think you’d win this fight?” he mocked as he grabbed me out of the car.
I made a grab for the steering wheel and managed to hold onto it for a second before my sweaty palms worked against me. Both my hands slipped, and there was nothing else for me to cling to.
Thump!
I collided with the ground. Luckily, my arms broke the fall, and I was spared a fractured skull. I looked up, and Donny stood there looking like a raging bull.
Gulp.
I had a feeling I’d just dug my grave.
12
“Get up.”
“No.”
“Don’t make me play this game.”
“No…”
He bent down and grabbed a handful of my hair so that I was forced to look up at his face. It was blotched with red, and his eyes were ten times darker. I was pushing his patience, but I couldn’t stop myself from repeating that damned word over and over again. We all do stupid things when we’re scared, and for me, I never seemed to keep my fucking mouth shut. My grandmother always said that it would get me killed one of these days and I guessed she was right.
“Do you know what this is?” he asked as he once again brandished that knife of his.
I nodded.
“Good, so you know that if I carve up your pretty little face with it, it’s going to hurt.” As he spoke, he held the tip of it against my cheek. I stilled. “Or maybe I should cut out that annoying tongue of yours, but then how will you ever give any of us proper head?”
It was a struggle for me to keep silent because I really wanted to beg for my life.
The guy can’t be completely heartless, can he? There has to be some shred of humanity inside that great big chest of his. If only you could reach it, then maybe he would take pity on you and let you go or something.
There was so much that I wanted to say, but all I could manage were some puppy dog eyes that seemed to have zero effect on the brute.
He picked me up and placed me back on my feet. I thought he would march me into the building, but instead, he pushed me into the car and crushed me with his body. I felt his every inch from the bulk of his torso to the mass hiding behind his pants. I bit down on my tongue to keep from screaming because I was sure as fuck that this guy was going to screw my brains out right then and there.
“No…” I shook my head. My eyes burned, but I had no more tears to cry.
Again, that switchblade materialized. This time, it was pressed against my throat. Something warm blossomed on my skin. It took me a moment to realize it was my blood seeping from the thin cut he had just given me. There was so much adrenaline coursing through my body that I didn’t even feel the pain.
“If you don’t shut up then I’ll carve you into tiny little pieces and chuck you into the water and be done with it. Damn the money I spent buying your ass. With all this bitching, you’re hardly worth the hassle.”
I whimpered but didn’t dare to speak. The guy was definitely a man of his word, and I wasn’t very fond of becoming fish food.
“That’s better.” He gave my jaw an almost bone-crunching squeeze before twisting my arms behind my back.
Once again, I was being frogmarched. My body felt like it was made out of jelly. It was incredibly difficult to keep my feet moving, and there were a few times where I almost tripped.
Donny was always quick to steady me, even if it meant dislocating one of my shoulders. Everything was on fire. All I wanted to do was curl into a ball and have the pain disappear, but by the way the night was turning out, I feared I would be in a constant state of suffering.
These monsters probably like it that way.
The barbed wire fence was only a few feet away. My heart dropped down to my feet.
This is it—the beginning of the end.
Two men wearing simple black suits rolled the fence open. Donny nodded in their direction before pushing me inside. It was then that I realized what it was about this place that made me feel so on edge. It looked and felt like a concentration camp, and I half expected to find prisoners of war shuffling about looking like skin and bone skeletons, but the grounds were relatively empty save for a few guards here and there. In a way, that made it worse because what if everyone else was already dead?
I swallowed back the lump in my throat as we approached a side door. It was a bit rusty, probably from the constant spray of sea salt, but other than that, it looked solidly built. It definitely wasn’t the kind of door that could be kicked in. That would require a battering ram, which was something I definitely didn’t have.
A guard unbolted the various locks, and the door opened with a loud groan of defiant metal. I flinched and recoiled into Donny’s body because, right now, he was better than the darkness that lay beyond that door, and Donny was a goddamn lunatic.
“Go,” Donny commanded.
And I went. The place was a total maze. Most of the corridors were dark and dingy. My eyes made a futile attempt at adjusting to the gloom, but it didn’t help very much.
Scuttle. Scuttle.
I halted.
“It’s just rats.”
Rats?
I hated rats.
“Move it,” Donny snapped. “You wouldn’t want to keep the boss waiting. He’s not exactly what you would call a patient man.” He snickered like he found that thought rather amusing.
I didn’t. Not one bit.
A rat dashed across the hall and over my feet. I couldn’t help myself from screaming. Donny laughed his ass off because, apparently, my terror of rats was the funniest thing in the world to him.
“When you get assigned a room, maybe I should make a request in your favor so that you’ll end up in the basement. I hear that they are particularly active down there.”
Just the thought of it chilled me. I couldn’t stand it.
Donny sighed. “You girls can never make it easy for me, can you?”
Suddenly, he hoisted me over his shoulder and carried me. I thought about making a fuss, but that would only piss him off further, and I didn’t want him to make good on his earlier promise to cut me into pieces.
We climbed a set of stairs. The metal steps moaned underneath our combined weight, but somehow, they held out. The second floor was a little better. The carpets seemed clean, and the lights brighter. There were still a few cobwebs here and there but nothing too horrific.
After another maze of corridors, we stopped at an elevator. It was one of those old-fashioned ones where you had to pull the gate closed once you stepped inside. The thing shook rather violently as we made our way to the top floor. For a brief moment, I imagined us both falling to our deaths; it wasn’t a pretty thing to think about.
It came to a screeching stop. The abruptness of it nearly had me off my feet, but Donny managed to catch me before I could smash my head against the wall and bust it open.
“Jeez, you’re a clumsy one, aren’t you?”
I was too scared to answer him, and frankly, I didn’t think he was looking for one to begin with.
He pushed me forward, and I stepped towards a couple of bright lights that threatened to blind me. I held my arm to my face to shield my eyes.
As soon as my sight was able to adjust, I looked around. This floor didn’t look like it belonged to the rest of the warehouse. While everything else was old and crusty, this looked newly renovated. The eggshell-white paint was fresh. The chandeliers that hung from the ceilings appeared to have been dusted within the last hour or so. Even the windows were nice and clear. They sparkled like diamonds. Framing them were thick, Victorian-style currents.
Whoever decorated this place certainly has good taste.
“Enough gawking, let’s get a move on.” Donny grabbed me by the wrist and towed me down a long, straight hallway. The carpet that ran the length of it
was plush against my bare feet. It was the only comfort I had felt all day.
That comfort faded as we passed a couple of paintings. Most of them were of high-profile individuals. Their expressions were strict and severe. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that a few of them were watching me as I was paraded in all my naked glory. In all the “excitement”, I had nearly forgotten about my naked state, but now I was hyper-aware of it and the fact that my nipples were rock hard.
It was cold. Yes. Because there was no way in hell that any of this could be turning me on.
I crossed my arms over my breasts, but they were so big and bouncy that I wasn’t able to cover much. But at least the warmth of my hands was enough to get my nipples to calm down. I didn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea.
We stopped in front of a dark, wooden door. It was intricately carved with a pattern I had never seen before. My heart accelerated. This door had to mean something.
Donny stepped forward and turned the knob. I held my breath until I feared my head would pop. Only then did I exhale and open my eyes.
Beyond the door was an office. Just like the rest of the floor, it was nicely furnished. It looked like an old English study complete with bookshelves and a fireplace that flamed with fresh wood. I half expected to find Sherlock Holmes standing by the window with that pensive look on his face, but instead, I got a young man who looked good in a very high maintenance kind of way.
He sat behind a handsome desk with his hands folded together and acting as a perch for which he could rest his head.
I was placed on the small circular rug in front of the desk like an art piece up for display. His eyes seemed to study every inch of me.
Don’t just stand there, came that voice called logic.
What the hell am I supposed to do? Give him a little dance? Because there’s no way in hell I’m getting out of this room alive.
I glanced at the door, and there stood Donny looking like a concrete barrier. There was no way I was getting through that. And if we were truly on the top floor, then jumping out a window wasn’t much of an option.
So, I stood there and counted the seconds that it took this guy to do something. But for a long while, all he did was study me. Occasionally, the corner of his lip would twitch but other than that, his face was an unreadable slate of marble.
As I said, he was pretty good looking, but not in a natural sort of way. His hair was slicked back in a “Grease Lighting” sort of style. It suited him only because his face was so fine. If I had to guess, he spent his fair share on cosmetic procedures. Then there was his nose. It was much too straight.
The more I observed, the more aware I became of the air of utter cruelty that hovered around this man. He wasn’t one for mercy, and I knew that before he spoke a single word. He was the sort of villain that movie directors dreamed of—only it wasn’t a movie; it was just my goddamn luck.
He dropped his hands and leaned back in his chair. As his lips stretched into a grin, he gave a nod of appreciation towards my buyer. Then he waved his hand in a dismissive motion, and the brute disappeared.
Shit.
I didn’t want to be alone with this guy. I didn’t want to be alone with any of these maniacs, but especially not this guy. Clearly, he was the head honcho of the operation, and there had to be a reason for it. Why else would Donny, a guy built like a tank, listen to him?
Shit. Shit. Shit.
13
“You must have a lot of questions,” he said, and it was the first time I had heard his voice. It was normal enough, but it had this edge to it that scraped against me like coarse sandpaper. “But let me start by introducing myself. My name is Lorenzo Brocato.” As he spoke his name, he rose out of his chair.
He was much taller than I expected him to be. Maybe it was because he had been sitting down, but he had appeared average in height when I first laid eyes on him.
Oh, how wrong I was.
He wasn’t as bulky as say, Donny, but it was obvious that he had quite the psychic hiding underneath that suit of his. The fabric of his sleeves looked like it was being stretched across enormous biceps. His thighs were also incredibly thick. Had this been a totally different situation, I probably would have had the hots for the man, but as it stood, I wanted nothing to do with him.
I wanted to shuffle off that carpet, but it was like I had been shackled into place by his gaze. It was as hard and as cold as steel as he eyed me up and down. As he did so, he came around his desk and leaned against the front of it. He crossed his feet, showcasing the designer shoes that he wore. The hardware looked to be made of solid gold.
“Do you know why you’re here?” he asked as he steadied his gaze on my face.
“No,” came my hoarse response.
He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Ah, so Donny didn’t bother to let you know what was going on? Typical. He doesn’t like to talk to the merchandise all that much—unless it’s to scare her into submission.”
I tried to hold his gaze and prove to him that I wasn’t as weak as I appeared to be. Maybe that would make a good impression.
Or maybe it’ll get you killed.
Or that, I agreed.
“Why am I here?” I asked, even though every word felt like a razor blade coming out of my mouth. I desperately wanted a glass of water, but I didn’t think it would be very smart of me to ask for one.
“Because I bought you.”
I nodded. Does he think I’m dumb or something? That much, at least, had been obvious. Or was he not aware of the fact that I had been pushed on stage and sold to the highest bidder?
“Donny goes out to the auctions and picks out the girls that he knows I will like because my time is very valuable and I cannot waste it on such trifling affairs.” He spoke with a pompous air to his voice. Like he thought he was the ruler of the whole goddamn world. “Most of the time, what he brings back is quite the disappointment but you…” His voice lowered to a soft purr as he started to walk around my body with a predatory stance.
I feared that he would pounce on me at any moment. My toes curled against the carpet while my fingers tightened into fists.
Keep your head, Cora. Fighting this man is only going to result in your death.
The voice at the back of my head was right, so I forced myself to breathe and focus on the large floor-to-ceiling window on the opposite side of the room. Through it, I could see the ocean. It looked calmer than it had before. The surface glittered with moonlight. It was like I was staring at a sea of diamonds.
Snap.
I jerked my head in the direction of the noise and saw his hand inches away from my face, thumb and middle finger still fused together.
“That’s better. I wouldn’t want you getting distracted.” He stepped forward.
His body was so close that I could reach out and touch him—not that I wanted to. He wasn’t the tallest man I had met that night, but he was the one that made me feel the most vulnerable. The way he looked at me with those stormy gray eyes of his… it made me feel like some kind of insignificant bug that he could squish underneath the heel of his shoe at any moment.
“And it would be smart for you to learn something right now.” His eyes darkened. “When you’re in my presence, you give me your full, undivided attention. Do you understand that.”
“Y-Yes,” I stammered.
“Good.” He smiled. “I like myself a girl that can take direction. Those that can’t, well, they never last very long, and it would be a damn shame if that were to happen to you.”
When he reached out his hand, I automatically flinched. But, to my surprise, he simply ran his fingers through my hair. In a way, it was almost enjoyable… That is until he gave it a tug and nearly popped my head right off my shoulders. He continued to apply pressure until I was forced to arch my back and look at the wall behind me.
“Good,” he said, finally releasing my hair. “Nice and strong. I’ll be able to do a lot with that.”
His words mad
e me shiver. I didn’t even want to consider what fantasies were playing out in that head of his. If I had to guess, they were all sick as fuck and aimed at making my life a living hell.
Yeah, let’s not go down that path, or you’ll build yourself up to a panic attack.
He circled around at a slow pace. All of this was clearly a means of inspecting me. Like I was some kind of livestock. He poked and prodded, but at least he was a bit gentler than the men at the auction. They had been savages, while this guy was just… methodical.
“Tilt your head for me.”
I did what he asked, but apparently, it wasn’t good enough for his liking because he placed a hand on my chin and tilted it for me. Still, he wasn’t satisfied. With his grip firm on my face, he pulled me toward the window so that my body was illuminated by the natural moonlight instead of the yellow-tinted lamplights.
“Better,” he whispered to himself as he tilted my head this way and that.
What the fuck is he looking for?
“Turn around,” he commanded, and I did.
I felt like a robot with no brain, but what was I supposed to do? The man had me in his clutches, and until he released his hold, I was nothing more than his victim.
Slap!
I wasn’t prepared for the smack to the ass. It sent me flying towards his desk. I braced myself against it and ended up in a very vulnerable position. Lorenzo took the opportunity to slap my ass again and again and again. By the time he withdrew his hand, both my cheeks felt like they were on fire.
“Excellent.” He smirked. “And quite the view too.”
Even though it might piss him off, I righted myself.
But it wasn’t over.
Next, he focused on my tits. He twisted a nipple here, pinched me there. I wanted to scream for him to stop, but my mouth was so dry that it wouldn’t work.
“Yes, I think you’ll do quite nicely indeed.”
14
