by Raven Dark
Blood thudded in my ears. My fingers slowly went numb and I dropped the remote with a thud.
God, Kane, what have you done? What have you done?
Dread slid through me like a cold steel blade. Panic and fear for my father mingled with betrayal, and I backed up, dropping to the couch before my knees could fold under me. So that’s what he’d hidden from me. Obviously he hadn’t been as open as I thought. What would Gavini do? He’d know by now.
I only half registered the sound of the hotel door opening. Heard Kane say something to David, then the door close. A moment later, David’s door to the adjoining room opened and closed.
A slow, quiet anger seethed in me, rising to the surface, scouring away any of the tenderness I’d felt earlier for Kane.
When he came into the room, his brows knitted together as he looked at me.
“Anika, what’s wrong?”
Not trusting myself to speak without shouting at him for the whole hotel to hear, I just nodded at the screen and picked up the remote. I rewound the broadcast.
The portion of the news I’d just watched played out. When Kane heaved a long sigh and looked at me, I punched the pause button and stood up. Arms crossed. Waiting.
“Anika, take it easy.”
My brows climbed. No amount of submissive training would have kept the acid out of my voice when I spoke. “Take it easy? Seriously?”
“Yes.” His eyes hardened. “And keep it down. We don’t need the whole hotel hearing.”
“Oh. Hearing what, Davros?” I spat his name at a hiss. “That you murdered four men?”
He stalked to me, his eyes hot. “Be quiet.”
“No. Tell me, when did you kill them? Right after you left me? Or did you wait until I was asleep last night? I know you like doing dirty work in the early hours.”
“Shut your mouth, Anika.”
“Not a chance. And when were you going to tell me, huh?”
He let out a forced laugh. “Never. You don’t need to know what I do when you aren’t there.”
I made a mocking “Oh,” with my mouth. “The tough guy code again.”
Kane raked a hand through his hair, but he looked like he wanted to tear it out. “Damn it, Anika, knock it off. I did this to protect you. To protect us.”
“Bull shit. How does four dead men protect me, or you? It makes things worse. Now Gavini knows you killed at least one of his men. He’ll want payback.”
“This was payback!” he roared. “This is how this life works, how the family works!”
“What, to solve everything with guns and fists?” For some reason, my eyes stung. I hated that he could see it.
“Yes. In my world, if someone hits you, you hit back. If you don’t, you don’t last long.”
“There has to be another way.”
“There isn’t.” He stabbed a finger at me. “The sooner you learn that, the sooner you’ll understand how to get through the next six months with me.”
“No.” I balled my fists. “There is always another way. There is always an alternative to violence, Kane.”
A scoff pushed out of him, and his expression was almost cruel. “God, you are so fucking naïve, girl. You think everything can be solved by changing your name, running away.”
“That’s not fair. If I had known you were a killer, I never, ever would have agreed to your deal.”
“Well, you did.” He crossed his arms, looking satisfied. “Look, is it so bad that I want to protect you? That I’d kill for you, to keep you safe?”
“Oh, my hero!” I threw up my hands. I turned, pacing the room, and Kane caught me, whirling me around. “You are an asshole of the highest order, you know.”
“Hey. I get that you’re scared, but if you want to keep slinging insults, you’ll face the consequences. You have to learn respect, Anika, before you get us both killed.”
I shoved him off. “I can’t respect you when you take people’s lives, Kane. But it doesn’t matter. You won’t have to break me in. This deal is over. I want out.”
The soft, dangerous laugh he let out sent a chill through me. “That’s not gonna happen.”
I stared. “You’d keep me here?”
“Anika, in case you forgot, you have a kingpin after you. My money keeps him from coming after you or your father directly, but he’s just waiting for the right opportunity to strike. I let you go, and I can’t protect you. I’ll take my money back.”
“You wouldn’t.” God, I hated that my voice broke. If he went back on his payment to Gavini, my father and I were both dead.
“You’re not leaving.” When I went for the bedroom to grab my clothes and change, he blocked my way. Huge frame in the door, arms crossed. A wall of muscle. “I said you’re not leaving.”
“You can’t keep me here against my will.”
“If it will keep you alive, I can and I will.
“I knew I was right about you. I should never have trusted you.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that you belong here with me. To me.”
“Ugh. Get out of my way.” Why the hell did his words send the weirdest heat through me, and make me feel protected? As long as I was with him, no one would be able to hurt me, he was right. No one would get past him, and if they tried, they’d die.
“I’m not staying here. I don’t need your protection.”
“Yes, you do.”
“And if I try to leave?”
Another soft laugh, dark with possession. He slid his hand slowly under my chin and walked me backward to the nearest wall. I’d be lying if I said he didn’t scare me a little right then, but at the same time, the thrill I always felt when he controlled me like this raced through me and my knees wobbled. Pressed to the wall, I watched his mouth twist in the most menacing smile I’d ever seen.
“Sweet Anika.”
“Kane, get off…” I wish my anger weren’t laced with lust.
He put his face so close to mine, his hot breath bathed my cheeks. “I told you I would do whatever it takes to protect you, and I meant it. But, Anika, I promise you this. You try to leave, and you’ll see what I’m capable of.”
* * * * *
If I’d thought my anger with Kane or his threats, or God, even what he’d done to those men, would make me any less crazy for him, I couldn’t be more wrong. All I could think about the entire day at the hospital was what might happen at the club. What wild and wicked things he would do to me there. Maybe it was because I knew he’d killed those men for me, because they’d endangered me by bugging his car. Or maybe it was because, as much as I wanted to hate him for threatening to keep me with him whatever my wishes, I knew he’d keep me safe, something only he could do.
It didn’t help that, with the lust in his eyes when he’d threatened me, I couldn’t figure out if he was threatening to fuck me, or something much darker. My skin hummed every time I imagined him cuffing me to his bed and spending a whole night inside me, taking me again and again.
But there was a problem with my thinking, and I knew it, even as I prepared for our outing to The Dungeon. With a man like Kane, his wanting to keep me with him couldn’t be about anything other than his own twisted lust for me, his need to control me. And his killing those men…he’d said it was for me, but he’d also admitted it was payback, and I suspected his actions were far more about the latter than the former. Which meant any feelings I had for him were not only sorely misplaced, but dangerous. Too bad my lust addled brain wasn’t getting that message.
As I got in the cab that pulled up to the hospital, I looked around. Where was Kane? Why hadn’t he come for me himself?
Disappointment betrayed me again and I shook my head. Distancing again, but now? Now, when we were headed to something so intimate? So personal? His absence only served to confirm what I’d thought; that his actions earlier, with those men or at the hotel, weren’t because he cared for me.
The cabbie handed me a small envelope. “Mr. Davros said to give this to you, Miss Heath.”
It didn’t go unnoticed that he used the name my father and I had taken when we’d last run from Gavini. I was willing to bet, unlike Kane, he didn’t even know my real last name was Montrose.
I opened the card and looked at the fine handwriting in gold on black. The card had the club’s name, The Dungeon, and the logo, a curled whip, in gold, and the back had my name on it, with “VIP to Kane Davros.” I swallowed. It all felt so formal, so high echelon. I was too wired, too nervous to feel the usual resentment at the wealth this whole situation implied.
Pocketing the card, I watched the city flash by until the cab pulled up at the club. I got out, staring at the building with wonder. To the eye, it looked like a grand mansion, all white walls and high roofs, pillared entrances. A man in a suit at the door took the card, looked at it, nodded, and unhooked the red rope across the entrance.
“Mr. Davros is already waiting for you inside, Miss Heath.”
Gulp. I walked inside, and immediately froze, staring. “Jesus.” The place was gorgeous, huge and open, with a winding double staircase in front of me, twenty-foot-high ceilings and marble floors. Well, at least my attire fit.
I really didn’t like Min, his stylist, not after he’d dressed me in that outfit I’d worn to see Gavini, with my ass left bare. But now, I couldn’t help feeling grateful for his skills. He’d dressed me in a long, velvet, blood red dress that draped my frame and gave me a luscious mermaid look. It added allure to my generous hips and ass instead of just making them look big. Diamonds, real ones, Min had been quick to point out, sparkled on my wrists, neck, and around my waists, while glass slippers covered my feet. Even I thought I looked incredible, a Cinderella at her ball.
A ball, in which my prince carried a gun, and would do who knew what wild things to me when I saw him.
When I walked into the wide front foyer, my brows climbed. Two women sauntered past, one of them on all fours, the other leading her by a collar. Both were dressed in fishnets and tight leather. Across the room, a man led a woman on a chain, linked from her neck to his wrist.
I was never one to judge, but I was far out of my element here. What the hell had Kane gotten me into? And yet, the thought of him ordering me around in a place like this, perhaps having me crawl to him on hands and knees, made my skin flare hot. Where was Kane, though?
My phone buzzed and I fished it out of the small clutch I’d taken with me. Kane. “Hello, Sir.”
“You’re inside then?”
How did he know? I looked around, but didn’t see him.
“Yeah, I just got here. Kane, I don’t think I can—”
“I’m waiting, Anika. I won’t let anything happen to you that you don’t want.”
I sighed, loathing how easily I felt reassured by him. “Where do I go? Where are you?”
“Go through the big oak doors to the right of the stairs. There’s a set of lockers for anything you’re carrying. Then follow the signs until you get to the back room that says, Exclusive.”
“Wait a minute. Kane, how do you know Gavini or his men won’t be here? If he’s watching us, he’d probably make sure he had someone on us here.”
“This club has very strict rules, Anika. He has no interest in a place with rules. He won’t set foot in here, and everyone is screened too well to let a Gavini get in the front door.”
When he hung up, I drew a breath and went through the doors. At least we’d be safe from the crime family here, and Gavini wouldn’t know Kane was training me, not like a slave, but like a sub who still had rights.
Inside the main room, the lights were low, dim red and orange tones giving everything a mysterious, dark feel I wasn’t sure I liked. Music pounded through the room, a soft, throbbing beat. Here, the lights were almost too low to see much, except for a lot of leather and the occasional whip or chain. I shivered, but was it with fear, or excitement?
A bouncer led me to the lockers, and I stored my clutch, then followed him back to the main room. I nearly bumped into a well-muscled man carrying a woman to a room marked “Extreme.” She had whip marks crisscrossing her legs. I shivered, wondering exactly what sorts of things he would do to her in a room that warranted the label extreme.
Glancing around, another question hit me. Why hadn’t Min dressed me in the same outfit I’d been made to wear to Gavini’s? Why had he instead dressed me like a fairytale princess when everyone else was dressed in leather, in revealing clothing obviously meant for sex?
Just then, the large doors at the back of the room caught my attention. Above them in red neon flashed the word, ‘Exclusive’. Kane waited in there.
Throat dry, I made my way through the crowd toward those doors.
Another man in a suit opened the doors and I went in. The change in atmosphere caught me off guard and I blinked.
The lights were still dim, but in soft pink and blue tones, and it was easy to see. Men and women sat at tables around the outer area of the room, while the center was dominated by a cage about the size and shape of a jail cell. Various implements hung from the four sides of the cell, whips, crops, cuffs, restraints. A man in a police uniform holding a baton moved around a sub dressed in fishnets and leather. She lay across a metallic table, the kind you might find in an interrogation room. Metal rungs were affixed to the foot and head of the table, obviously meant for cuffing a “suspect” to it, the light cast over it glaring overly bright. Eyes glazed with passion, the girl groaned, and when the officer slid the end of the baton into her mouth, she made a sucking motion.
I cleared my throat. Did Kane expect me to let him do things to me in that cage? In front of all these people? A mix of confusing emotions I could barely process washed over me—trepidation, intrigue, dislike for him—and I scanned the room for him. No way would I let him subject me to something so personal in front of all these people.
When my gaze found him, my pulse jumped. Kane sat alone at a table, black suit and tie giving him the look of money and power, his gorgeous face all hard angles in the soft light. He saw me, and the corners of his mouth turned up. Did I imagine the amusement in his eyes at my shock?
Letting my anger with him burn away all else, I strode across the room to him and up the set of two small steps to where the tables were.
“Anika. I’m so going to enjoy working that fire out of you tonight.” He slid his hand in mine almost gently, then yanked me to him so hard I almost stumbled into him. His arm circled my waist as if it belonged there.
I made a livid sound. “Kane, if you think I’m going to let you push me into a scene in front of all these people, you really are demented.”
“Relax, angel.” He grinned. “We’re only in this room to watch. When I want you, it will be in private. This time.”
“Oh. But I thought—”
‘What? You thought I’d toss you into the deep end of the BDSM pool right off? I’m not into scaring my subs, Anika. Not unless they get off on fear.”
“Could have fooled me.”
He gave me a wicked smirk that made my knees weak and caressed my chin. “Love your spunk.” Then he became serious, and his hand massaged my waist, sending a ripple of warmth through me. “If we do a public scene, I’ll make sure you’re fully prepared.”
I nodded and scanned the crowd, nervous, wishing I could get a hold on the galloping of my heart.
“Anika, there’s no one here who can endanger you. Dominic isn’t here. Standard protocol will be in effect at all times. This means you have a safe word. When things become too much, you will use it, do you understand?”
Another nod. I’d never tell him how much calmer his words made me feel, or how safe I felt with his reassurance. He would take care of me, and he wouldn’t push farther than I was ready for. The implications in his words weren’t lost on me. If the mob had been there, the same protocols that protected me wouldn’t be there. Dominic thought I was a slave, which would mean Kane would have to treat me like one. “Yes, Sir, I understand.”
His fingers traced my
lips. “Good girl. Sit.” He patted his knee.
I bit my lip, but walked around the table, about to slide onto the couch, onto his lap.
“Funny, I thought slaves to the Davros family don’t get to be comfortable.”
Kane had slid his hand in mine, and at the deep, mocking sound of the kingpin’s voice, it tightened, as if in protective reflex. My blood turned to ice in my veins. I turned slowly, afraid if I moved too fast the weakness rushing through me would send me to the floor.
Dressed in a black tux as elegant as Kane’s, Dominic Gavini looked at me expectantly. Panic welled in me, and I turned my head to Kane, trying to be as casual as I could. Fuck, now what?
“Aren’t dogs supposed to be on the floor?” Gavini added.
Jesus. I closed my eyes, silently begging Kane to do something to get us out of this.
“What the hell are you doing here, Dominic?” Kane growled. “This club has a strict, no-thug policy.”
Gavini chuckled, sounding almost friendly. “Not any more they don’t. Ownership of this club, and all its subsidiaries, were transferred to me just hours ago.”
A muscle in Kane’s jaw gave a violent jump. “Not for long.”
“Go ahead and try. But for now, I want to see you two in action.”
I could feel more than see the irritation in Kane at the way Gavini had trapped us. If he we wanted Gavini to believe I was being forced to be Kane’s sub, we’d have to prove it, right here in front of this whole room. What would he do now?
Kane shifted his grip on my hand to a hold that was more like a shackle on my wrist, one Dominic was meant to see as forceful. Then he gave me the barest inclination of his head, his eyes full of warning. In an instant, without a word between us, the new rules of the game became clear.
Play along, his gaze commanded. Did I imagine the regret there? My spine tingled with dread as I literally felt the safety net Kane had just given me being ripped away.
