Torque

by Skye Callahan

  “I’ll wait here,” I grumbled, sinking into my seat and hoping that no one would notice my existence.

  “Not in this neighborhood, darlin’.” Colt parked the car and cut the engine as simply as he’d reassured my dark feeling about this place. “You’re staying with me. I already have enough problems.”

  I still felt like the car was much safer—less exposed. And staring down the front of the mansion was less intimidating from behind a windshield. Instead of arguing, however, I decided to play Colt’s tactic. Maybe keeping him appeased would put me in his good graces and keep his hands off of me. Even if only for a little while.

  As we met in front of the car, Colt’s fingers locked around my wrist like a shackle and pulled me toward the large front door. An obviously armed man in a suit pushed the door open and wordlessly nodded to the stairs.

  It was like we’d stepped into the great hall of a house I’d only seen on TV. The walls hung over us, as intimidating as a line of guarded soldiers. I would have sworn the architecture could spy on us. Colt focused on the stairs and hallway, leading me without pause to the right where a large red door waited for us.

  My guts jumped into my throat. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t escape the feeling that Colt was pulling me deeper into hell. My lungs burned for oxygen. For freedom I feared I’d never experience again. Colt pushed open the door and we stepped into a dimly lit office. The large windows flanking the desk were covered with thick curtains to block out the light.

  “Didn’t expect you’d bring company,” said the man standing next to the desk with a tumbler of amber liquid. His gaze raked over me like a seasoned salesman appraising a new car.

  Say something. I mentally willed Colt. Something that will take his attention off of me.

  The man raised his glass, pointing to me. “I assume she’s the object of this little deal you’re trying to drag me into.”

  “She is,” Colt said, taking a step forward and halfway in front of me. I was grateful for the deflection but still uneasy.

  The man finished his drink and slammed the glass down on the corner of his desk. “Why do I care?”

  “I just need you to meet with Devlin—“

  “No,” Wilson said with a tilt of his head.

  Colt kept his shoulders squared, eyeing down the man across the room. “I’ve done a lot for you, Eli. Runs that you know you couldn’t trust anyone else with. You owe me.”

  “I always keep my debts paid—I owe no one.” Wilson peeked behind the curtain then shrugged flippantly. “Even if I did, few things are worth dealing with Devlin. I already know him well enough to know that a meeting isn’t what he wants. He wants a piece of my business and I’m not that stupid. If that’s all you came to waste my time over, I have better things to do.”

  Given a choice, I would have darted out of the room, but Colt stepped forward undeterred by the glare Wilson gave him. “You want more too. My family is the only thing standing in the way of that. A true business man would see the personal advantage in this.”

  “Devlin doesn’t compromise.” Wilson smirked, returning his attention to me. “What makes her so special? It’s been a long time since you’ve been stupid enough to get wrapped up in a girl.”

  So, Colt had once been involved with someone. I shoved my hands into my coat pockets and waited for Colt’s response. Maybe getting dragged out of the car wasn’t the worst thing to happen today.

  “I have my own scores to settle.” Colt crossed his arms, shifting his weight to the front of his feet.

  Wilson scoffed, grabbing his glass and walking to the bar at the edge of the office for a refill. “And they’re adding up like an avalanche. Think you’ll survive when it comes crashing down on you?”

  “I’ll manage.”

  Wilson returned to his desk, sat down, and kicked up his feet, sipping the amber liquid in silence for a few moments before sitting the glass aside. “A true businessman knows death isn’t an ideal endgame.”

  It was like watching a couple of posturing vultures dancing around a carcass to see who got the first bite. Screw this. I wasn’t learning anything helpful and the longer they carried on, the harder my heart pounded until I felt like I’d black out.

  Colt strolled over to Wilson’s bar, leaving me fully exposed. I took half a step backward then froze, hoping neither of them saw my timid retreat.

  Colt poured his own glass of whatever Wilson was drinking, then leaned against the bar and took a sip. “Death is really the only endgame we get.”

  “A guarantee not a goal,” Wilson sneered. “But that’s your problem. I want more if I’m going to invest.”

  Wilson’s attention flew back to me like a searchlight focusing on an escaped prisoner. I stood straight, holding his gaze. My mom had always told me that works on dogs, but I’d never been stupid enough to get into a situation to try it. Not against a four-legged dog, that is.

  Never be the first to look away.

  Wilson grinned. “How about a test drive?”

  My stomach fell and I barely resisted the overwhelming need to look to Colt for help, assurances, anything. Please. No. I could barely handle Colt, but this man…

  I wanted to vomit.

  “I don’t share,” Colt growled, returning to stand between Wilson and me. “Thought you had your own girl for that.”

  “Pity,” Wilson said dismissively. “I had to get rid of that cunt.”

  “Devlin has plenty to choose from.”

  Wilson grunted. “So he does. I’m going to assume this little scheme of yours involves revenge, which is the only reason I’m even entertaining this insanity. I enjoy a good show as much as the next man.” Wilson leaned back in his seat, staring toward the covered windows and stroking the stubble on his chin. “But dealing with your brother is more than I care to stomach on a good day—let alone making a deal with him. But I might be convinced if you do a job for me.”

  Wilson slid a slip of paper across his desk to the corner near Colt, then picked up his glass and finished it off.

  Colt lifted up the paper, then a growl rose from deep in his throat. “You have to be kidding.”

  “If that’s how you feel, you might want to kiss your girl good-bye. I want it tonight or no deal. And no one outside of this room is to know a thing either way.”

  What the hell could he be asking for? I felt like I’d swallowed a ball of glass. All I wanted was for all of this to be over with, but deeper and deeper I fell.

  No way out.

  Soon the only thing I’d be able to breathe would be Sulphur fumes.

  “Even if I agreed,” Colt said. “I can’t do this alone.”

  Again, Wilson eyed me. “I hope she’s a fast learner and worth the trouble.”

  The door behind us opened and a large muscular man led in a blonde and redhead in tube mini-dresses.

  “Now if you’ll excuse me,” Wilson said leaning back. “I’m auditioning my new whore.”

  Chapter 5

  Aubrey didn’t say a word until we were back on the road. I figured she was torn between wanting to know what my deal involved and fear of the same thing.

  “What do I have to do now?” she whispered.

  “Just drive.” I hadn’t intended to take her on another boost. The last one had been simple. Too simple and I needed some fun. This one would be anything but simple. Even with an experienced partner, it’d be a crap shoot, but I couldn’t let her know that. “Pretend to be Buck for a night and let me do my thing.”

  “You’re stealing another car? From your reaction, I thought he asked you to murder someone.”

  “He wants me to steal an unstealable car, tonight. Unstealable because Merc owns it.” A 1962 Ferrari GTO that was probably worth more than Devlin’s business assets tripled. He’d picked it up shortly after Mom died. Never told anyone how or why, but it was his prized baby. The envy of everyone on both sides of the law. He drove it every time he wanted eyes directed on him and jaws on the ground. It was a reminder of everyth
ing he’d built and every life he’d taken in the process.

  And one life he’d never admit to taking.

  Thankfully, I didn’t have to explain further, her elongated featured said that she understood perfectly. “We have to steal your step-dad’s car?”

  Step-dad. I groaned. “I wouldn’t put it that way.”

  “He’ll fucking kill us. Or kill you and give me back to Devlin.”

  She was dead right. Even Devlin, Merc’s perfect little henchmen, feared him. “We won’t get caught.”

  “Oh right. I assume you’re the last person he’ll suspect.”

  “We’ll give him a reason to think it was someone else.” This required more than one night of planning, but Merc had plenty of enemies to exploit. He’d have to have someone stupid enough to steal a car on that list, so I just had to sell it.

  First, I needed to make some calls and go on a little scavenger hunt.

  “I’m really hoping you have some idea of how to do that,” Aubrey said. “Preferably something a little more than running on instinct and hoping for the best in this case.”

  I needed more sleep for this shit. A clear mind.

  But I didn’t have time for that. Fuck.

  I dragged my hand through my hair and yanked. The pain igniting my cells and driving my brain to work faster.

  “Colt?” Aubrey prompted me to respond.

  Her voice sounded annoyingly like the throbbing pound in my head. “You’re not going to like what I tell you, so why rush the news?”

  “I—” she stuttered for a moment. “Just tell me you have some kind of plan.”

  “More or less. Merc usually isn’t home during the evening, so we hope that he doesn’t get some insane idea to drive the car we need. We take the car we need and let someone else take the fall.”

  “Sounds like a lot of hoping—I ran out of that a long time ago.”

  I scoffed. In this case, we had no choice except to leave a few things up to chance, however there was far more to it than that. Merc was never far from his car. It was one of two that he kept at home in his personal garage. Very few people would be stupid enough to try and break in to steal from him. Apparently, I had just been corralled into that category. “It’s more talent than hope. I’ve never botched a job and I won’t start tonight.”

  “Comforting.” She crossed her arms and leaned against the door.

  I slid my hand between her legs and she pressed them together.

  “How does it feel?” Sore, I imagined. I needed something else to concentrate on.

  “Stop.”

  “Spread your legs.” I demanded, sinking my fingers into her muscle.

  “No.”

  I jerked her leg. “You’re mine, darlin’. You do what I say, and now’s a good time to start practicing that.”

  “Fuck you,” she spat, knocking my arm away.

  “Soon. Soon you’ll be begging for that release.”

  “You’re a deluded asshole,” she scoffed, pulling both legs away and angling her knees toward the door.

  “Very soon. The more you fight it, the more you’ll want just that one more push.”

  “I’ll manage.”

  I had no doubt that she would. I loved her struggle. Reveled in it. She’d fight it to the last straw. And that’d make it so much more powerful. The moment when, overwhelmed by the sensations coursing through her body, she’d finally succumb to everything she wanted and didn’t want to admit.

  Even if it was only to escape the pain for a few seconds, to escape the binding, pulsing flood of thoughts and sensations.

  Escape.

  I let her go and rubbed my nose.

  Escape.

  Mother fucker, Devlin. He was doing the same thing to me. Taunting me with my escape. Dangling it in front of my face.

  Someday he’d be the bitch. As long as I lived to see that, it might all be worth it. Pitiful to think that dragging down my brother was the sole reason I kept breathing.

  I didn’t care how or why, even if he dragged me down with him. I was no better, but at least I could admit that.

  Aubrey and I carried her stuff into my house and piled it in a corner of the bedroom so Isabella wouldn’t get any ideas about digging through it in search of new toys.

  I picked up the box of vibrators and sex toys again and Aubrey flushed.

  “Don’t you have planning to do?” she asked.

  “As soon as I figure out what a seemingly unassuming girl like you is doing with all this stuff. A lot of lonely nights?”

  She turned away.

  “But a rabbit will usually take care of that. This”—I picked up the Hitachi—“is serious shit.”

  “Why do you need pain to get off?” She spun around and stared me straight in the eye.

  “Touché.” I didn’t have an answer for that. Not one I could put into words. I knew the pull, the drive, the need. I got off on the edge of fear and pain and madness.

  Maybe it was a classic power trip. I’d never concerned myself with those questions.

  Anger management. It popped into my head. The only way I could channel everything I felt into a few moments of erotic bliss.

  I popped a piece of mint gum in my mouth. In some strange way, it helped with the cravings—although they never relented completely.

  I dropped the box on the dresser.

  I needed more.

  I always did and always would.

  “Take off your clothes.”

  Aubrey stomped her foot. “You have work to do.”

  “Afraid you won’t be able to hold out?”

  “I’m afraid that Devlin is going to kill us. Or even worse, go after my family. Remember?”

  Back too that again. Legitimate fear I reckoned, but I refused to be controlled by fear. Anger, hatred, lust, ecstasy, now they were feelings I welcomed. Temptation and I were good friends. “I won’t let it happen.”

  “You keep saying that but I can’t help feeling like you’re digging me in deeper.”

  I grabbed her wrist and flung her on the bed, she landed face down and I leaped on top, pressing my knee into her back.

  “Colt. Fucking Asshole.” Her muddled words sank into the bed.

  She kicked up her legs, but I twisted her hands behind her back. Rope… I looked around the room. I needed rope…

  I grabbed my cell phone charger from the night stand and wrapped it around her arms, pressing my knee into her spine every time she struggled against me. Once her arms were secured behind her back, I flipped her over.

  She moaned, her back arched up as she laid on her own bound arms. I had a box of bungee ties in a box at the top of the closet, so I left her wriggling like a worm on a hook while I dug them out. She inched herself to the side of the bed, and tried to roll off, but without her arms, I was back before she made it far.

  I dragged her back across the bed. She kicked one leg up and I caught her ankle, slipping the bungee cord around it and stretching it down to the leg of the bed. Then I did the same with her other leg, spreading her out in front of me. Now that I had her tied and spread, I had quite a predicament. As much as I enjoyed her in the dark, skin-tight pants I’d bought her, I couldn’t have much fun with her clothed, and the way she bucked and pulled at the restraints, I wasn’t untying her yet.

  This scene was far too entertaining.

  So, I pulled out my pocket knife, flipped it open. Her eyes widened as she stilled, staring at the glinting silver blade.

  “Smart choice,” I said. “Moving with this against your skin might not be the best idea. I freed the bottom of her pants from the bungee cord and starting at the inside seam, I cut slowly up the material. Her moans turned to whimpers as the back of the knife pressed into her skin, closer and closer to her awaiting pussy. When I got to the crotch of the pants, I started over on the other leg. Then, I pressed the back of the knife against her pussy and ripped through the last of the material—aside from the dainty thong, but that wouldn’t be much of a deterrent. Starting at
the crotch of the pants, I cut up to the waste line, and flipped the material off of her, then I cut each band of the thong and jerked it away.

  Chapter 6

  I hadn’t even lasted forty-five hours with him and I had run out of curses. What do you do with a mad man, when he has you tied to a bed with a knife pressed to your most intimate regions?

  Listen.

  I had no idea what he was planning, but I could imagine. And I didn’t want that knife coming anywhere near my skin more than necessary.

  More than necessary? I couldn’t believe where my thoughts had begun to take me.

  I’d rather be stripping.

  The thought hit me like a speeding semi-truck. But I’d rather be here than stretched out over Devlin’s desk with all his “friends” pawing at me. My life had become nothing more than searching out the lesser evil of every situation.

  Six months.

  One hundred and eighty days.

  Give or take.

  Or did yesterday count?

  I didn’t agree until the evening. That meant I was less than twenty-four hours in. I imagined that in a few days, twenty-four hours would mean nothing.

  Would the days and weeks bleed together to form something incomprehensible?

  Would the novelty of having me wear off for Colt?

  He stood above me. Green eyes drilling into me. His tousled hair falling around his face.

  I waited.

  Waited for his ferocity.

  His anger, and lust, and sexual greed. But he simply stared down at me.

  Then, his calloused fingers lightly graced my skin. I froze into a statue while his gentle stroke moved up my leg, to my stomach and barely under my shirt leaving a tingling trail as my skin rose in goosebumps.

  My arms and hands ached beneath me as my blood struggled to flow through the compressed extremities.

  He grabbed my hips and dragged me to the edge of the bed. I squeezed my eyes closed.

  Just let him get it over with.

  Spread wide and on display, I waited. My core burned with embarrassment and anticipation. My shoulders ached and my arms tingled. But still, Colt did nothing.