by P Nelson
“Fuck you, asshole.” Her last memories came flooding back in a kaleidoscope of images and feelings. The sub Bondie asked if she would walk him to his car. She agreed even though she thought the request was odd. They spoke of random happenings in the community. He was nervous, but Thea had put it down to his submissive nature. Some natural subs had a hard time turning off their need to please everyone around them. They had reached his car when Bondie swiftly turned on her and tried to restrain her. Even though he outweighed her by at least twenty kilos, they were around the same height. With Thea’s self-defence training, she incapacitated him. Unfortunately, she had been vulnerable to an attack from behind. The pain of a needle jabbing into her skin was the last thing she remembered before falling.
“You drugged me,” Thea whispered the words.
“Yes. I’m certain you know the chemical compound I used since you’re the head of the investigation against me.” Esposito said with a smile. Thea’s skin crawled at the coldness in his eyes.
“You’re going to be caught.” Thea cleared her throat, infusing as much conviction in her words as possible.
“I don’t think so.” He shook his head as if he might be sad at the prospect of getting away with his crimes. “No one cares about a bunch of perverts dying. You’re the last piece of my little puzzle. Something to make sure your friends remember I’m always watching.”
“They’ll never give up until they find you.” This time, Thea didn’t have to pretend she was confident. Flynn and Linkin would use their considerable resources to hunt this asshole down if it was the last thing they ever did. And Dillon. She closed her eyes for a minute thinking of the edge of a moment they had shared in the security control booth. Why hadn’t she just reached out and touched him. Fuck. What a waste of all her passion and love. Yes, she was in love with him, but now she would never tell him.
“I see you’re accepting your circumstances.” Again, a clammy hand brushed over her forehead. “Usually, the girls are begging for their lives by now, aren’t you supposed to bow down to my dominance?” Esposito sounded confused. Fire replaced the sorrow she felt over not treating her feelings for Dillon like the precious gift they were. Anger burned through her gut and she opened her eyes to stare at the man who had tortured and taken the lives of all those girls during the past few months. She was next, but there was no way in fucking hell this asshole was going to hear her beg for anything.
“First of all, dick.” She put extra emphasis on the last word. “I’m not a sub, I’m a Domme. And second, my mother’s labradoodle has more dominance than you’ll ever have. You’re nothing but a second-class chump.”
“So much fire.” The man grabbed onto Thea’s hair and yanked hard causing her eyes to tear. “I wonder how much fire you’ll have while I beat and brand your body?” He pressed his face to hers. His lips brushed against her cheek. Thea took advantage of the touch to swing her head to the side as far as the v in the cross would allow. Sinking her teeth into his lip. She didn’t let go until a part of his lip came away in her mouth. Suppressing her natural response to gag and spit the flesh out, she swallowed the chunk of Esposito’s lip, the taste of iron and salt in her mouth, making her stomach churn.
“You little fucking bitch.” The crop fell on her bare and restrained body over and over. He savagely beat her face until she couldn’t open her eyes. Thea could barely breathe there was so much blood in her nose and mouth. At some point, Esposito had turned his rage onto her exposed back. The leather whip meeting her skin, tearing her open to reveal stinging flesh underneath Thankfully, her mind couldn’t cope with the pain and torment any longer and sought the comfort of darkness.
&
Thea came back to consciousness slowly. Her throat was painfully constricted, and it was a struggle to take in even the shallowest breath. Everything hurt. Her brain was only firing on a couple of synapses unable to comprehend the damage done to the rest of her body. Still unable to move her arms and legs, Thea gently repositioned her cheek against the wooden frame of the cross; the dry blood and matted hair stuck to her face, a shield against further attack.
“She wakes,” Esposito announced. He laughed as he hit her. As he tore her physically open. “If you hadn’t been a naughty sub, I wouldn’t have had to discipline you so much.” The sound of fake remorse in his words made her gag. “You should have begged like the rest of them.”
Esposito spoke right in her face unafraid of a repeat of her last attack. If she had any strength left, Thea would have jerked away from the smell of his breath, the cloying scent of washing detergent. Only able to open one eye, Thea fought to control the last piece of her body she could move. Flicking her eyelid open, she glared up at him. Forming the words through swollen lips crusted with blood, spit and god only knew what else.
“Fuck you, asshole.” Thea realised the words were hardly recognisable. He had knocked a couple of teeth loose. The gist of it was obvious. The sadistic son of a bitch scowled.
“Your body is broken,” he said with a clinical interest. “And yet your mind is still strong.” The man mused as he walked away from the cross and out of Thea’s line of blurry vision. She tried licking her cracked lips but couldn’t feel whether she was making any contact. A whimpering noise caught her attention, and she stopped breathing. No, she wasn’t making the noise. There was no way she was going to cry for this asshole. While he was beating her, she screamed her lungs out, but she had not shed one single tear of self-pity. They were all her response to the extreme pain she suffered.
The whimpering intensified, and Thea couldn’t help straining her neck around to find the source. Her good eye was fuzzy around the edges, but she recognised Bondie. Esposito had beaten the sub severely, his hands and ankles bound in a single chain causing him to shuffle along. Hunched over with a chain leading from his neck to his bound wrists, Bondie whimpered, but when he lifted his gaze to her, the smile spreading across his lips was all she needed to know about the sub’s sanity. His expression triumphant; he hobbled contently behind her torturer.
“I think my naughty sub needs a lesson from my obedient sub.” The man stood in front of a set of manacles drilled into the wall.
“Yes, master.” Bondie stared at Thea’s torturer with a look of utter adoration on his face. Esposito took a few minutes to transfer Bondie’s bonds to the manacles set in the wall for his wrists and ankles. He was naked and spread-eagled on the wall, raptly waiting for what would come next.
Thea blinked. Esposito came back to the cross. He brushed her matted hair away from her face, pulling gently on the strands. Thea could only gurgle in protest, her tongue and face too swollen to create real words.
“You’re so strong.” His look was full of pity. “Too strong for a woman and frankly, far too strong for someone who’s not carrying out God’s work. That’s what I’m doing here: cleansing your soul to be received unto heaven.” Thea focused her one-eyed gaze on the man in front of her and mouthed the next words, her voice less than a whisper.
“Eat shit.” If she could have pulled her lips into a smile, she damn well would have. Instead, she had to enjoy the fleeting satisfaction of witnessing the expression of startled shock on her abductor’s face.
“As I said before, you’re strong. However, I believe there’s a way around your stoicism, through the heavy walls fortifying the essence of who you are in your mind.” He walked back to Bondie who had surveyed the exchange with jealousy in his expression. The thought the sub wanted to be a part of what this man was doing sickened her even more than if it had only been this maniac. Bondie was how this asshole was getting into contact with vulnerable subs. How he had taken the pictures inside The Feather Flogger. “I bet you can’t watch him scream.” The serial killer picked up an implement from the tray of items. A blowtorch and what looked like a branding iron.
“No. Master. Bondie has done everything you ever asked of him,” the sub whimpered as he and Thea saw the flame of the torch heat up the end of the metal. Thea wanted to
feel some level compassion for Bondie. For herself, she might be able to forgive the wayward sub. But several girls had died because he had been complicit with Esposito. There had been no remorse on his face as the man had led him into the room. Bondie had been preening at a job well done.
Screaming interrupted Thea’s musings. She stared in horror as the brand met Bondie’s cheek, scarring the smooth skin forever. Bondie cried out in pain and terror. His head trying to get away from the terrible burning. Fingernails clawed at his restraints. The smell of burning flesh brought bile into Thea’s mouth.
The next several hours were a blur of squealing and crying punctuated by sobbing and begging. The man the media had nicknamed the Reverend enjoyed his work so much, it made Thea try to scream at the horror of it. When the last blade fell against Bondie’s throat, slicing the vein taking his heart’s blood up to his brain. It was a mercy for both him and Thea. She closed her eyes and willed them to open no more. She wanted to exist in the darkness.
Chapter Eight
“I told you three times already.” Dillon’s hands fisted on his lap, and he mentally forced his fingers back into a relaxed position. He hadn’t lost control of his temper in his entire adult life. Not when Tiffany had accused him of physically harming her, not when she stalked and tried to kill him, but Detective Stanford was pressing every single one of his buttons. The result was not going to go well for anyone in the interrogation room.
“Shouldn’t you be out there looking for Thea? That asshole has her.” He gritted his teeth at the detective’s lack of emotion. This dick was Thea’s partner, and he didn’t even give a shit about her.
“We need all the facts before we know where to look. Why don’t you tell me about your ex-girlfriend Tiffany,” Detective Stanford asked for the fourth time.
“Read about it in the file. I’m sure you’ve been using it to prop an uneven table leg up with.” Dillon’s reserve of patience had run out. This was a building full of fucking monkeys. When Flynn, Linkin, Lovett, and he had reviewed the tape in the surveillance room, it was obvious that little shit Bondie was up to his clamped nipples in this whole fucking disaster.
The four of them had decided Linkin along with his security team members, all ex-military men, had the best chance of tracking Thea down. Dillon had always known that under Linkin’s socially awkward persona, there was a stone-cold killer. It was the only reason he stayed behind with the others to give statements to the police. He wasn’t useful in a fight. Sure, he could give you a hundred plus ways to tie up subs and spank their asses, but he was useless in this situation, and the knowledge burned soul deep.
“I don’t like you,” Detective Stanford announced. Dillon was about to give the detective the middle finger when another man walked into the office. Dillon recognised the older policeman from media shots.
“Before you flip Detective Stanford off, I want you to know that I don’t like you, either.” The Chief of the Vancouver Police Department pulled one of the two unused chairs sitting opposite Dillon out from the table. He took his time settling into the chair.
“I’ll be sure to cross you both of my Christmas card list. It’ll save me the postage.” Dillon studied the man Thea had spoken fondly of whenever the subject of her work came up. It wasn’t often the two of them didn’t have a contentious relationship. They spent most of their time provoking the other because of the sexual tension.
“A typical Mr Dillon Ross response.” The police chief nodded his head. Dillon wanted to jump over the table and grab the man by the front of his perfectly pressed uniform and demand why he was wasting Dillon and Thea’s time. “I’ve made a study of you. Even before I understood you had links to Detective Demopoulos. You like to hurt women don’t you, Mr Ross? But after a while, hurting them wasn’t enough and you had to experience the rush of murder. It was the only way for you to receive sexual gratification.”
“Is there a question in all that nonsense you just spoke?” Dillon was furious. He was back to being a suspect, and there wasn’t a shred of evidence pointing towards him. Anger pulsed underneath his skin.
“In two minutes, an officer is going to come to the door. The officer will announce you’re free to go, because even though you’re a degenerate rot on the city, you appear to have some powerful friends, who employ only the best in legal counsel. The rule of law ensures your release. But until this happens, I want my questions answered.
“Fire away, chief. If I have the answers, I might be persuaded to give them to you.” Dillon responded understanding the chief was trying to trap him.
“You were acquainted with a few of the recent victims killed by the Reverend,” the Chief stated. Dillon wanted to explain the intricacies of the kink community to the chief and how it was inevitable he would meet any number of subs. He realised the man in front of him wasn’t listening.
“A couple of the girls were known to me. I met them at previous events, but I wouldn’t say we were friends or even acquaintances.” Dillon kept his reply short and to the point.
“But in your lifestyle as you call it, you don’t have to be more than acquaintances to have sex,” the chief pressed.
“Is there a question here?” Dillon took a deep breath. Those two minutes had to be up soon. He needed to get out and do the police’s job and find Thea before the Reverend or whoever it was did any permanent damage.
“Did you and your accomplice Mr Bond lure those girls away from the safety of the club by claiming a previous acquaintance? Using their trust to lead them to their deaths?” The chief’s gaze locked on Dillon’s. The animosity in the room ratcheted up to the point where Dillon thought the entire place might catch alight with a single spark.
The door clicked open in the next second, saving Dillon from telling the most powerful man in the building to fuck off. The chief turned his head and stared at the intruder. A middle aged woman with short, brunette hair scraped up into a bun underneath her austere police uniform hat. She nodded once at the police chief before turning her attention to Dillon.
“Mr Ross, you’re free to go. Thank you for cooperating with our investigation.” The woman’s crisp tone cut through the tension in the room.
“He’s damn well not free to go anywhere.” The police chief shot up out of his chair to the shocked expressions of his staff. “Where’s my…, Thea, you asshole?” he started to come around the table, and only Detective Stanford’s presence physically restraining him saved Dillon from a punch to the face. Like he needed two black eyes. “I want to know where the fuck she is, and if you’ve harmed her, there isn’t anywhere in this city to hide.”
“No thanks to you.” Dillon spat the words out as he stood up. A sharply dressed man stood in the doorway holding a briefcase. There was no mistaking one of Flynn’s sharks on a leash. The man looked like he could eat every person in the room and somehow talk his way out of the charges. Dillon wanted to say more, but the shark in the expensive suit shook his head vigorously. He had to content himself with ignoring the chief as he walked out of the room. The lawyer fell into step beside him.
“Mr Flynn has a car waiting in the back for you.” The lawyer’s razor-sharp gaze took in everything as they stalked down the hall.
“Is he there?” Dillon asked they waited for an elevator.
“Regrettably, Mr Flynn was called back to the office for a conference call. However, he wished me to inform you about the progress so far, and you’ll receive a full update once you’re free.” In other words, the lawyer was refusing to speak about Linkin’s efforts on Thea’s behalf inside the police building. As much as Dillon wanted to know whether they had a lead on where to find her, he understood that at this point any private investigations into Thea’s disappearance would be viewed as obstruction.
“I understand.” The doors opened, and they pushed their way into an elevator car full of cops. Dillon felt the eyes of every other passenger on him, and he smiled for the first time since he realised Thea was missing. These assholes thought they could i
ntimidate him. He fucked in front of a camera for a living and was the best Dom in the business for a reason.
With his head held high, Dillon strode out of the elevator when it opened. He understood the rest of the elevators occupants followed him out. Only the lawyer’s presence at his side prevented Dillon from doing something idiotic and foolish as he left the police building by the back entrance and opened the door to the brand-new black Mercedes waiting by the curb. He wanted to salute the fuckers, but the lawyer entered the vehicle with him.
“Well done, you’re not always an asshole,” was the lawyer’s only comment as the car swept out of the department’s parking lot.
“I want to know about Thea.” Dillon twisted to face the man in the other seat. The lawyer opened the briefcase on his lap and reached inside.
“This phone is encrypted. Flynn instructed me to give it to you. Mr Linkin Pearce and his associates will call you on this device.” The lawyer emphasized before he placed it into Dillon’s hand. “The latest news has Mr Pearce homing in on three possible locations for Thea’s abductor and accomplice to be hiding with her. They’re investigating as quickly as possible, but as you know, these things take time, especially as Mr Pearce is currently doing his best to avoid police interference. You saw how they were at the station. They believe you’re the Reverend. They’re not going to explore any other avenues until they’ve decided you had nothing to do with the murders or Detective Demopoulos’s disappearance.”
“Idiots.” Dillon stared at the blank screen, hoping it would ring. Wanting to hear Thea on the other end so badly, tears started in his eyes. Dillon had to blink them away.
“Not really.” The lawyer responded and shook his head at Dillon’s incredulous expression. “You’re the best suspect they had before your little performance at The Feather Flogger the other night. The fact you haven’t had much interaction with the police on the subject of the Reverend is mainly because Detective Demopoulos believed in your innocence.”
