by Lana Grayson
“Yes, Ms. Atwood, you are acting so…hormonal.” Bryant laughed. “You understand your responsibilities now, I take it? Permit an old man’s curiosity and please, relieve the board’s concerns. You were to be fucked by all three of your brothers. Were our orders satisfied?”
Peter chuckled. “Hopefully, her brothers were.”
How dare they.
How dare they ask such terrible questions.
My night shattered into visions of hell—moments of forsaken violence at the hands of men I trusted, friends I loved, and a man I needed. Darius meant to destroy me with their relentless thrusts and murmured apologies and the punishment for our disobedience.
I’d struggled to imagine myself anywhere else.
I’d fought against my every fear if only to make it easier on them.
I didn’t let myself hurt.
Before, I had submitted to Nicholas, Max, and Reed because it was something sensual, new, and terribly forbidden. I thought it’d bring no consequence but pleasure.
Until now.
Until him.
Until the board feared for their fortunes. I confronted the vile nature of fearful men, terrified of losing their power and tempted with greed to acquire more.
Darius forced an innocent woman to lose her virginity, pride, and all control over her body just to add a few more blood-soaked dollars to a fortune already sickeningly untouchable.
I wasn’t answering any of their damn questions.
“Why don’t you ask my father?” I spat. “He was there. Holding the gun.”
Darius sighed and gave a helpless shrug. “Little girls, what can you do? They never do as they’re told, and, when you get hard on them, they crumple.”
The board murmured their agreement.
“Too rough?” Bryant asked with dark amusement.
Darius shook his head. “She overreacted. Started crying in the middle of it all. Nick had to stick his cock in her mouth to stop her sobbing while Reed did his part.”
I launched from the table.
Darius trapped me before I could run. He forced me into the chair with a grip that might have wrenched my bones from the socket, but his insult hurt me more. He chided me for the memory and cursed as a wheeze shortened the last easy breath of air I took. I gasped, shallow and worthless. It aggravated him.
He shoved a bottle of water into my hands. “Even now, she’s a little prima donna, refusing to believe her cunt wasn’t made to be bred. I had no idea she’d be this difficult of a whore.”
The eldest man, Stanley, frowned. “Regardless of her…efforts, the board has only one concern. Did she or didn’t she conceive?”
“Oh, it’s much too early to tell,” Darius said.
“Unfortunate.”
“That’s the way of nature, Stanley. However, she was aided by the fertility drugs and seeded by three men. She will bear a Bennett.” He smiled “Her body simply does not have a choice.”
“No,” Stanley said. “But we do.”
Darius silenced. So did my coughing.
A surge of hope sliced through the tightening of my chest, a burst of warmth and radiant sanity I hadn’t dared to imagine.
They’d let me go.
God, they’d let me go!
Maybe they understood? Not the cruelty, these men were beyond empathy for others, but they saw the business, the empire, the wealth all crushing within my grip.
They’d release me because they knew I’d seize control.
They cared only for the money, not the feud. If it no longer benefited them, I’d be released.
And, if I could escape from Darius Bennett, I’d be free.
Stanley couldn’t intertwine his arthritic fingers, and so he held his palms instead. He leaned over the table, his lips loose and words slurred over saliva.
“This plan has always been…distasteful, to say the very least.”
Darius brushed a finger over my cheek. “True. But you know my daughter was only taken into my home because of these desperate times. This plan was a circumstance of last resort, created by Mark Atwood’s refusal to leave his empire to Sarah.”
“She’s been raped.”
Darius grew impatient. He sneered at me.
“I assure you, my sons were kinder than she deserved.”
Stanley wasn’t moved. “Darius, you realize the staggering amount of money riding on this one conception is...well, quite frankly, it is a risk I was unable to justify without your assurances.”
“I understand.” Darius spoke of me as though I wasn’t sitting beside him. “I had hoped her time spent within my family would be easy. I was lenient. No bindings to the bed or terrible injuries. At least, not yet. But anything can happen. Should the board worry for her behavior, I could break both of her legs and leave her bed-ridden.”
Bryant chuckled. “Or ridden in bed.”
I shuddered. I had no reason to doubt Darius. He’d hurt me in every way he possibly could—mentally, physically, emotionally—and then he’d rut whatever remained to ensure I never recovered.
Worse, he wouldn’t be the one to issue the pain, not now that his own flesh and blood turned on him. He’d make them do it, and, like the fool I was, I’d sacrifice myself again and again to protect my step-brothers.
Stanley grumbled, cursing at Bryant. “The point is, all this funny business is for nothing if the girl doesn’t conceive.”
“She will.”
“When my daughter married, she tried for three years, not three months.”
The board quieted. I didn’t react.
“The girl is young, of course,” Stanley said. “And with the fertility treatments and the…amount of intercourse she’s subjected to, I’m sure her chances are substantially improved; however, the time has come to ask…what if it isn’t enough?”
Darius’s patience wore thin, his plastic smile an invitation to continue. “What’s your concern, friend?”
“I move to end this experiment.”
“And do what instead?”
Stanley hesitated only to nod in my direction. “We should kill the girl.”
My lungs crumbled, and the sudden fear shot pain through my chest as though I breathed pure smoke. Darius gripped my arm and prevented me from fleeing.
“She might be pregnant already,” Darius insisted. “It’s too early to make such rash decisions, especially as this particular drug induces ovulation. She should be taken regularly, beginning today.”
“And your sons would do this?” Stanley’s eyebrow rose. “Where is Nicholas?”
Darius didn’t blink. “Exhausted from his night, of course. He is not the only Bennett available to take responsibility for this family.”
No, he wasn’t.
Darius would be more than willing to restrain, hurt, and breed me, especially now. Especially as my step-brothers stormed the estate with guns drawn prepared for murder.
Darius had watched, of course, tapped into the estate’s security cameras. He forced me to make the call, to taunt his sons, to speak with the man who broke me well after I surrendered to him.
Clyde, the only yet-silent board member, checked the time on his cell phone. “Darius, I’m inclined to agree with Stan. You must admit, controlling Ms. Atwood is not only an exhausting procedure, the legal ramifications of this arrangement are dire. Your sons couldn’t even control her at the charity gala.”
“That damned Wescott,” Stanley said. “Who knows what she said to him.”
Darius’s attention was a brand of fire and the threat of utter incineration. He steeled his voice, but I recognized the hatred clenched within his fangs. “Well, my dear? Ease our fears. What did you discuss with Mr. Wescott?”
I’d regret saying it, but either the asthma or intentions of the board would steal my final breath. I had nothing to fear except Darius Bennett, and even he could hurt me no more than what he forced his sons to do.
“We discussed how best to raze the Bennett Corporation headquarters to the ground.”
Stanley sighed. “She’s her father. It’s as if he’s been reincarnated.”
Darius crushed my hand. Fortunately, my cry silenced within the gasping cough. They didn’t hear my pain.
But I heard the crack of bone.
“As I said, she is difficult.” Darius rolled my fingers, grinding the knuckles over the fracture that pierced me with tears. “Nothing a good strap and some time at home won’t fix. After all, who hasn’t had to discipline a misbehaving daughter?”
Stanley shook his head. “I call for a vote. I’m sorry, Darius, but every moment she’s without child is another moment closer to the release of the trust. She is a liability and threat to this corporation. She must be handled quickly.”
A vote.
They would vote on my life. Not just on my treatment or torment or the decisions I wasn’t permitted to make about my body and the men I had no choice to obey.
They voted on my life—my last right, stolen by men more concerned with money than the evils they perpetrated.
I was glad I couldn’t breathe. Glad my asthma stole my voice and robbed me of any chance I might have used to humiliate myself in running or hiding.
I’d look into the eyes of the men who damned me into a world of violence, and they’d stare back as they judged my life as either too important or too worthless to risk impeding their plans.
Darius glowered, his voice a rumbling growl.
At home, he expressed himself in damning brutality and blood.
Here?
This was another world, one he chose to hide in to avoid the retribution of the sons he betrayed.
And yet, the headquarters wasn’t safe for him either.
“You will not kill my daughter,” he said.
“Oh, please, Darius.” Stanley groaned. “Do you actually care for the girl or are you simply waiting for your own opportunity to bed the child and create an heir?”
“I am protecting my investment.” Darius strengthened his words. “She has the fertility treatments. She’s been fucked and properly seeded, I saw to it. I admit, ridding ourselves of the problem is an easier solution, but I will not allow us to squander this opportunity. The child she bears will be worth billions.”
“If she conceives, if she carries to term, if if if,” Stanley warned.
Bryant frowned. “What will ease your concerns, Stan? Darius can fuck her here on the table then. Would that convince you she’s been impregnated?”
Stanley waved a disgusted hand. “Heavens, no, but the very fact that we are yet discussing her future conception is reason to worry. If she were already with child, we’d be celebrating. She is not, and so we must vote to preserve our hold on this billion dollar investment, our present holdings, not the potential benefit for the future.”
Short-sighted bastards. I clutched my broken hand, forcing shallow breaths.
Stanley looked over the table.
“All in favor?” He asked. “Aye.”
Clyde didn’t look at me. “Aye.”
Peter scratched his head. “Seems a little harsh so early, doesn’t it?”
“Nothing personal,” Clyde said. “We’re a company specializing in herbicides. Consider this a pruning of a dangerous weed before it spreads into the garden.”
Peter frowned. “Sad day when such a fine piece of ass is pruned. Aye.”
Darius hadn’t moved. He gazed across the table, awaiting Bryant’s vote.
“Christ.” Bryant said. He leaned away, rapping his fingers on the table with a mounting agitation. “I wanted this. Bad. Do you have any idea how much money is at stake? We could have prevented this takeover and gotten more.”
Stanley aged as the vote extended, and I couldn’t wait for the puckered asshole to keel over.
“Never faulted a man for his ambition.” Stanley pointed at Darius. “But when a man endangers those around him? That’s the problem. Too much money at stake. Generations of investments and the future of this company all rest on Ms. Atwood.” He glanced over me. “It might not matter how many times your boys roll her over. Despite their intentions, she’s just as hostile as ever. She hasn’t been properly subdued.”
Darius’s voice lowered. “She will be.”
I believed him. Stanley didn’t.
“Whether you care for the girl or if you only wish to see her suffer, the problems are the same. I demand to know that my money is secured, and I’m not afraid to find leadership who will ensure my investments are protected.”
Bryant rubbed his face. “Christ, you’re right.”
“Is that an aye?”
He apologized to Darius, not to me.
“Yes. Aye.”
Darius’s fists curled.
I hoped they killed me.
I wished the asthma would take me.
Either the board would mercifully end this, or Darius would expel every suppressed coil of rage inside of me. He couldn’t target the investors, but he would eagerly punish me for not conceiving.
I never wished I would get pregnant. The fear changed my mind. At least if I were, I’d stay alive long enough to fight Darius.
“The ayes have it.” Stanley softened his voice. “Call your boy, Max. We’ve trusted him in these matters before.”
No.
This wasn’t happening.
Not now. Not after everything I had been through. Not after everything I endured.
I had been captured and imprisoned, tortured by my attraction with Nicholas and lost in every moment I weakened for him. I survived their love, and I survived their violence, and still, my path led me to the maw of hell.
I’d die, wheezing in the middle of the Bennett boardroom, without the breath to beg for my miserable life.
Darius’s voice slithered with quiet indignation. He faced his board members, the men he trusted, with a rage I hadn’t expected.
“She’s not dying,” he hissed. “Not until she’s been fucked, bred, and births a Bennet. Then, I will do with her as I please. I would remind the gentlemen the name of this corporation. Sarah Atwood belongs to the Bennetts.”
“With all due respect, Darius, I’m speaking as a friend and partner.” Stanley nodded his head. “The girl is a liability. One you shouldn’t indulge. Get rid of her.”
“No.”
“You’re outnumbered on this, by friends you’ve trusted for years. The girl has to die to preserve this company. Don’t be a fool.”
Was it better to die at Darius’s hand or be rescued with his mercy?
Not that it would save me. He would spare my life only to deliver me to a torture bound under his control. I let hope guide me. I didn’t want to owe my life to Darius, or have to repay him for saving me, but at least I’d be alive.
I handled the Bennetts before. I needed only a chance to live for the chance to escape.
I never thought I’d depend on Darius Bennett for anything.
Now, he’d be my hero.
And even his power wasn’t enough to sway men just as treacherous to him as they were to each other. My life rested on the decisions of a Board of Directors eager to toss their fortunes to whichever bidder promised the most return.
They were traitors for the right price, rapists to earn a penny, and murderers to save their investments.
My coughing hid the truth, buried the secret beneath layers of wheezes and choking, half-breaths and pathetic whines.
I had never been so scared before, but I’d die before I admitted it to any of the monsters so eager to ruin me.
“Darius?” Bryant sighed. “What do you say?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Nay.”
Stanley tapped the table. “You’re alone in this.”
Darius didn’t answer.
His attention focused on the door, and the thinnest amusement coiled over his lips.
“No. I’m not.” His voice edged hard. “Nicholas has yet to vote.”
I stared at the doorway in blind panic, utter terror, and such stark, abandoned relief I nearly cried out for Nicholas
despite the attention of the board.
But Nicholas said nothing, simply adjusting the buttons on his suit and facing the men he considered enemies with a confidence unrivaled by any of their voting, threats, or implications.
For a moment, only a flicker of perfected warmth, his gaze studied me. The golden halo of his eyes returned, though the hardened crest of amber was nothing he previously possessed.
Had I not known Nicholas Bennett—had I not fallen for my lover, submitted to his hand, and earned his devotion—the authority radiating from his presence would have convinced me this man was every bit the enemy I once believed him to be.
He didn’t greet the board. They turned to see him. Like a prince seizing the crown from a wayward king, he chose the empty seat at the opposite end of the table and made it into his throne. The warm mocha of his voice froze with an unspoken threat, as smooth as ice and every bit as dangerous as the thinnest layer over the endless depths of a black and terrible lake.
“Sarah Atwood is mine.” He made no apology for his words. He stated the truth. “She belongs to me. Her life, pregnancy, or death is, and always has been, my decision.”
Darius stared at Nicholas, his voice mimicking his cool, even tone. “And what have you decided?”
“She stays alive, no matter the consequences.”
“Are you prepared for those consequences?”
“Are you prepared for the war which will come if she dies?”
Darius looked over his partial board, the few men who traded their souls for power, wealth, and more control over an innocent woman than any one man deserved.
“Two Bennetts in support. Motion fails.”
The board grumbled, but Darius took my broken hand and squeezed, grinding the fractures.
My life was spared, but it was anything but safe, not if Darius stole me away only to make my every surviving moment a living hell.
His voice lowered to a growl, a prelude to the animalistic and vicious instincts that would mount me before the day had passed.
“Meeting adjourned.”
My vision darkened with my failing breath, but Nicholas didn’t move as the board shifted.
“We have one more matter to discuss.”
He adopted a perfect stillness and didn’t ask twice. The board members waited, watching in silent confusion as the son of their leader assumed a control he never before exploited.
