The Dark Kingdom Anthology

by Krissy V

  “I’m not celibate, Jay. I’m just choosy.”

  “Choosy who sleeps with a princess. What were you thinking? Jesus.”

  “Look, just because I slept with her doesn’t mean we don’t have to find her.”

  “I never said that. It just complicates things. Right, we need to locate the truck and take it from there. Once we know what we’re dealing with we can make a plan.” He takes his phone out and rings someone.

  “Hey, Gio. We have a problem.” He listens. “Well, she hasn’t run away, but we have lost her. Someone took her. Hmm. Hmm. They were at the supermarket.” He turns his head away. “Just for a minute, that’s all it took for them to take the advantage and take her.” He looks at me. “Yes, he’s here. I’ll set it up and ring you back.” He hangs up.

  “What did he say?”

  “She has a tracker. We need to set up a video call and then we can organize a plan.”

  I open the laptop and we call Gio. He answers straight way.

  “She has a few trackers. One in her bracelet. Was she wearing it?”

  I try to wrack my brain to think. I walk down to her room to see if it’s on the side. It’s not there.

  When I’m back at the laptop, I say to Gio, “I think she’s wearing it.”

  Gio is already tracking it and finds a signal. “It’s stationary which is good. This is her location. Now go bring her home.”

  I’m quick to get up and leave the house, but Jay stops me. “It’s a bit easy. Something about this doesn’t feel right.”

  “I don’t care if it’s easy, I just want to bring her home.”

  Jay jumps into the car with the location and we drive. “Taylor, we can’t just rush in there. We need to assess the situation and figure out the best way to get her out of there alive.”

  “I know that, Jay.” We get to the location, but there’s no one there. It’s a back road not far from where we lost the car the other day. That’s when I see her bracelet. On the ground. “Fuck, they knew it had a tracker. They threw it out.”

  “At least we know she went in this direction,” Jay says as he pulls the laptop up to call Gio.

  “Did you find her?” Gio asked.

  “No, just her bracelet.”

  “Shit.” Gio shakes his head. “Okay, she has a tracker in her neck, but it’s not turned on. We don’t like to use them as it causes the girls a little bit of pain.”

  “Will it tell us where she is?” I don’t want her in any pain, but if it means we can find her…”

  “Yes, but we need to turn it on first. I’ll do that and ring you back.”

  He hangs up. I pace up and down in front of the car. “What if they’ve killed her, Jay?”

  “They won’t kill her. They need her for a bargaining chip.”

  “They’d better not hurt her or they’ll have me to deal with.”

  “Taylor, you need to calm the fuck down.”

  “Calm down. Would you say that if someone took Lena?” That’s his wife.

  “I guess not.”

  “Well, I’m not stopping until I find Gracie. Whatever it takes.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Gracie

  I wake up because I feel someone tugging on my arm. I open my eyes, thinking Taylor is trying to wake me, but it’s pitch black and I can’t see anyone. That’s when I remember what happened back at the supermarket.

  “Let me go,” I struggle against the person holding my arm.

  They pull on it and then I feel something smack me across the face. My head turns to the side and the pain rips through me.

  “Ow, that hurts,” I say as I try to raise my hand to my face to soothe the pain. But my hands are tugged back down and that’s when I feel someone tying my hands together. What are they going to do to me? Are they going to kill me?

  They have pulled my arms behind my back and tied them together. I can’t move. The guy who was tugging on my arm stopped and told the driver to stop. Then the guy throws something out the back door.

  “We never thought to check for a tracker. Bet that bracelet was one. At least if it was then they will only follow us here. We’ll be long gone before they get here.”

  Oh, no. I forgot about the tracker in the bracelet. Oh God, I hope they find it and realize I’ve been taken and I haven’t run away. Taylor must be going out of his mind. Maybe he thinks I ran away from him because I slept with him.

  “Now, Princess.” A voice breaks through the dark. “How do you feel about seeing Mommy and Daddy?”

  “You have Mom and Dad?” I whisper and the sound reverberates around the van.

  He laughs. “Yes, we do. And when we get you there, we will finally be able to help General Stocker to take over Yugotan.”

  Holy shit, they really do have my parents. “What are you going to do to us?”

  “We’re going to use you to get your father to step down so General Stocker can take his place and he can rule Yugotan.”

  “He won’t do that. He won’t ever do that,” I spit back at him.

  They all laugh, and I can hear three men in the back with me. “That’s where you come in.” One of them grabs me and pushes me on the floor. “You see, when we show your dear daddy a picture of you, he will do whatever we want him to.”

  “Well, you don’t know him very well. He will do anything for his country.”

  “That’s right, he will. And he will step down to prevent you getting hurt anymore.”

  “Anymore?” I just get my words out when another blow hits my face. I fall to the side, landing sideways on the floor. Someone pins me to the floor and then I feel a boot in my stomach. I scream; the pain is unbearable. “Stop, please.”

  They all laugh, maniacal, hysterical laughs. Then they take it in turns to kick me. I curl into the fetal position, tucking my head in between my arms to protect myself. I’ve never had a fight with anyone. I’ve never taken any self-defense or martial arts training as my bodyguards were always there for me. I didn’t need to, but right at this moment, I wish I had.

  “Stop!” I hear a shout from the front of the van. “We need her alive or none of this will work. Give it a rest.” He bangs on the screen between us, sending a deep thumping sound around the van.

  They all grumble and pull back. My body is stiff, but I slowly uncurl myself. Stretching, I scramble to sit up and slowly push myself back into a sitting position.

  One of the men pulls me up to sit back on the bench. He pulls on the ropes around my wrists, making me lean backwards. “I want to have some fun with you before we hand you over. I’ve always wanted to know what it feels like to fuck a princess.” His voice is deep, smoky, and it sends chills down my back.

  “You will not touch her,” the guy in the front shouts. I relax slightly. At least one of them is looking out for me. “If anyone is going to touch her then it’s me.” He laughs and hits the steering wheel with his hand.

  Crap. I think about Taylor and how things were going. I picture him in my mind as he leans down and kisses me. His kisses are addictive and I wish I could have one right now. I want his big arms to wrap around me and hold me tight. What I wouldn’t do to see him again. I feel a silent tear escape and make its track down my face. Will I get to see him again?

  The van veers right and I slip off the bench onto the floor. I scream, but no one takes any notice of me.

  “What’s going on, boss?” one of the guys asks.

  “Some moron just pulled out in front of me. It’s fine, I just panicked.”

  There goes my hope of being found. As one of the guys lifts me, I scream. The pain is horrendous. Not the pain in my arm, but a pain at the back of my neck. It’s a searing pain and I’m surprised I can’t smell burning flesh.

  “Who’s touching her?” the guy in the front shouts back.

  “I only lifted her from the floor. I didn’t hurt her, I swear,” the guy that wanted to hurt me says.

  The pain in my neck has subsided, but I would love to just reach my hand back and run it ove
r the soreness.

  The van comes to a stop and we all jolt forward. The guy at the front gets out and then the next thing I know, he’s opened the back doors. The light is blinding and I squint to block it out.

  One of the guys jumps out but grabs me and pulls me out of the van too. He throws me on the ground as they all look around. We seem to be outside a warehouse or something.

  “Right, we need to get her inside and then I’m going to dump the van. We have another vehicle in the warehouse,” the boss man says. The other guys lift me and carry me inside. I kick and scream for them to let me go, but it’s futile. They just hold onto my legs and arms even tighter. When we get inside, they take me over to a chair that’s just sitting in the middle of the floor. They place me on the chair. Well, they try to. I stiffen my body so my legs are out straight and they can’t get me on the chair. Proud of myself, I smile, but it’s short-lived because one of the guys punches me in the stomach and I automatically curl up and they sit me down. They then tie my legs to the chair legs and stand back.

  They’re just staring at me for a few minutes until boss man comes back. He sneers at me. “Well, well, well. You don’t look much like a princess today, Gracie. Look at the blood matted in your hair and the dirt on your clothes.” He moves closer to me and runs a finger down my face, making me flinch away from him. He grabs my chin. “Look at me when I’m talking to you,” he growls at me. When my eyes rest on him, he smirks. “Good girl. If you do everything I say then you’ll live, but if you start fighting me then I’ll make sure your parents know you’re dead.”

  He wouldn’t kill me, would he? He moves even closer to me. “You are going to tell me what I need to know. We need to sneak into the palace and surprise the guards. We need the element of surprise. How do you get into the palace that’s not the front or back door?”

  I won’t tell them about the tunnels. That’s Mom and Dad’s only escape route and hiding place if things get bad. There are plenty of other ways into the palace, but they are usually heavily guarded.

  “There are no ways in that aren’t guarded. You’re wasting your time if you think you’ll get in without being detected,” I sneer at him.

  His punch to my face comes too quickly for me to even flinch. He hits me so hard, the chair rocks to one side. Luckily it settles back so I’m still upright.

  “You bastard!” I scream at him. But he reaches out and grabs my neck, squeezing his hand around it. I feel light-headed and there are spots dancing in front of my eyes. Suddenly, he lets go and stands back upright.

  “I need you alive. Well, just about, anyway.” He turns to the guys standing behind him. “I want one of you on each door. No one gets in here undetected. She is worth a lot of money to us alive.”

  One of the men looks me up and down. “Can we have a taste of her?” He adjusts himself. Clearly the sight of me being tied up is making him horny.

  “She needs to do the video first and give us the information we need, and then you can all play with her as long as I get to first go.” Boss man grins at me.

  “Ah, I don’t want sloppy seconds,” one of the men says. Boss man walks over to him and punches him in the stomach.

  “You’ll get what I say you’ll get. Now fuck off and man the doors.”

  They all walk away and I sit in the chair, staring at boss man.

  “What do you think this is going to achieve? If General Stocker gets power, and that’s a big if, what is in it for you? Do you really think he’s going to want you on his team? You kidnapped a princess. Who says you won’t do the same thing to General Stocker.”

  “I serve General Stocker. I would lay down my life for him. He knows that. Now stop talking. I’m going to get the video equipment, and when I come back, we’re going to have a good talk.” He walks away and I relax into the chair.

  I really want Taylor. He doesn’t even know where I am. He’s not going to be able to save me. I think of our night together and how much I want to do it again. I’m not going to get that opportunity now and I can feel the tears welling up. My parents won’t see me again and I won’t see them. I know I moved away for my safety, but the plan was that I was always going back to them. The tears start to fall and there is nothing I can do to stop them.

  It’s not long before boss man is back. He sets up the video camera in front of me. “You know, it doesn’t matter that you won’t tell us a way in. This video will be the key that gets us in the door.”

  “I won’t say what you want me to say,” I grind out.

  He laughs. “Oh, Princess, you have so much to learn about the real world. You will say what I want you to say because otherwise I’m going to have a gun pointed at your head. One wrong word, one clue, and I’ll shoot you.”

  “But then you won’t get what you want. That doesn’t make sense.” I’m goading him. He can’t kill me because they need me.

  “Who said anything about killing you?” He raises the gun and points it at me and then he shocks me by pulling the trigger. It’s like slow motion as the bullets slices through the air and hits me in my leg, just below my knee. There’s not much flesh there so it hurts. I scream and try to curl up into a ball, but I can’t because of my bindings.

  “I can’t believe you did that. You need to stop the flow of the blood or I’ll bleed out,” I shout at him as he stands there with a smile on his face.

  The other guys come running in with their guns out. “What the fuck?” one of them shouts.

  “Help me, please. Don’t let him hurt me anymore.” I’m crying now. My leg is killing me.

  Boss man laughs. “They’re not going to help you, Princess. They work for me.” The other guys leave to man the doors. “Now, we are going to make a little video and send it to the General for him to show your parents.”

  He sets the video up so they have a view of my face. Then he gives me a piece of paper to read on the video.

  “Mum, Dad, I’m okay. General Stocker says he will deliver me safely to you as long as you surrender Yugotan to him. He wishes to combine the two countries and rule over them both. If you agree to this then no harm will come to me. But if you don’t, then I’m dead.” Having finished what’s on the piece of paper, I add my own line in too. “I love you both. Make the right decision, but just remember that I’ll see you soon and I’ll have my pink ring with me.” He stops the filming and steps forward.

  “What did you say? That wasn’t in the script.” He slaps me across the face. “Were you sending a message?”

  “No. I just told them that I love them and will see them soon. Honestly.” I cry. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me now.

  He takes his belt off his trousers. My eyes look up to him when he snaps it. “Now it’s time for some fun.” He reaches inside his trousers and grabs his cock.

  Oh my God. What is he going to do? Is he going to rape me?

  “Seeing as you have your mouth open, I’m going to fill it. I’ve been dying to sink my cock into you, Gracie, but this will have to do until we get to our next location. Then I’m going to destroy you. You’ll know what it feels like to have a real man inside you.”

  Tears flow down my face. He’s going to rape me. I’m going to bite down on his dick if he even attempts to shove it in my mouth.

  He moves forward and wraps the belt around my neck, sliding the belt inside the loop and pulling it tight. Is he going to strangle me? No. He said he’s taking me somewhere else after this.

  “Did you know it can heighten an orgasm if someone restricts your oxygen supply? I think it will heighten mine just watching you losing your breath as you suck me off.” He laughs.

  He pulls on the belt at the same time as pulling the bottom of my hair so my head tilts backwards slightly and my mouth opens for him. He pushes his cock inside and I want to bite, but I’m afraid he’s going to pull tight on the belt.

  I don’t suck him or do anything. I just leave my mouth as slack as I can. He tugs on the belt and my hair at the same time. “Suck, Princess
. Enjoy it.” He thrusts in and out of my mouth, and when his cock hits the back of my throat, I feel my gag reflex kicking in and I retch.

  “Oh God, do that again. It was so good.” He thrusts in deep until I retch again. He is like a mad man, pushing further and further down my throat each time.

  Suddenly, there’s some shouting. Just as he’s about to come down my throat, the doors open. There are armed men everywhere. Tears run down my face, firstly because they’ve found me and secondly, because they found me in this position.

  Someone shouts at boss man to step away from me. He looks around him and knows his jig is up, so he steps back and tucks his cock away. I know he has a gun in the back of his trousers. I try to scream but my throat is raw. As he reaches for his gun, someone shoots him. They don’t kill him, but they bring him down.

  Suddenly, there are hands all over me. My eyes are closed, but I smell him. Taylor. He’s here for me. Opening my eyes, I see him and I sob. He had to see me doing that to another man.

  “Taylor, I’ve been shot. My leg.”

  He looks down and sees the pool of blood, then unties my legs and my arms, massaging them so they don’t hurt when I bring them forward. When I look down and see the hole in my leg, I pass out. I feel strong arms around me, carrying me out of the warehouse.

  “I’ve got you, Princess. I’ve got you.” His words caress me as I fall into oblivion.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Taylor

  Getting Gracie out of there to safety is my number one priority. I can’t un-see what he was doing to her, but she needs medical help. It’s taking everything in me not to go back and kill that fucker for what he did to her. I know I’ll get my chance later. Jay promised me.

  I get her back to the farmhouse. One of the other guys has come back with me. He’s a field doctor. He takes a look at her leg after I lay her down on the table in the farmhouse.