Bought

by Jaymie Holland

  She raised an eyebrow. “And what’s that.”

  His voice was low as he said, “That I didn’t meet you sooner.”

  With a smile she said, “Me, too.” She thought for a moment and said, “How do you just happen to be into kink?”

  “It was one of the reasons that I wanted to be on this case,” he said. “I knew about KC and I like a little kink. I could be more active in the group and observe things and talk to people inside without raising suspicions.”

  After a moment she changed the subject back to something she needed to know. “What about the killer? Do you think he’s a member of KC? Was he at the auction?”

  “One of our leads is a member of the KC but his alibis have appeared solid.” John frowned and shook his head. “Something about the guy just isn’t right. We don’t have the manpower to keep an eye on him and the other more suspect individuals in the case.”

  “Who is it?” she asked then realized it was a question that wouldn’t get her anywhere.

  “I can’t discuss that type of information.” He pushed his hand through his hair again. “I wish I could.” He leaned close to her. “Let’s just say I’d like you to steer clear of Drake Pierson. If you see him around at all, you get somewhere safe and call the police and me.”

  A slow chill rolled through her. “I bumped into him at the grocery store the morning after the auction.”

  The line of John’s mouth grew tight. “He approached you? What happened?”

  “I was getting a carton of milk and he was right there when I turned around and I dropped the milk. He—he had a loaf of bread and wanted to invite himself over.” She rubbed her arms, trying to chase away the chill. “He offered to walk me home but I said no.”

  John’s expression grew darker. “Has he made any other contact?”

  “I saw him at that dungeon party.” Her cheeks warmed. “Where I thought you were with another woman.” John gave a nod for her to continue. “He wanted to go someplace but then you talked to me and he disappeared.”

  “Does he know where you live?” John grasped her upper arm, surprising her.

  “I don’t think so.” Confusion clouded her brain. “Oh.” Her eyes widened. “He has my phone number.”

  “Damn.” John cursed something worse under his breath, too. “You need to stay here. With me.”

  She started to protest that she’d be okay at home, but she saw the wisdom in what he was saying. “Okay. I just need to get a few things.”

  He gave a nod. “I’ll go with you.”

  Chapter 10

  Another week went by and then another. The killer hadn’t struck again and she hadn’t run into Drake Pierson. She started to feel more relaxed. John had said Drake’s alibi had panned out, and he was currently out of state on vacation, staying with a relative in Boston.

  John was still concerned about Drake, though. He’d said something about the guy just didn’t sit right with him.

  It was after work on a Friday. It had been a long and trying day, but like always when she came home to John’s house, she was able to leave her problems on the doorstep. She sat down in his recliner with her iPad, wishing that he were home. She would be happy to make his day far more enjoyable.

  An email popped into her inbox and she looked to see that she had a message from him. “Speak of the devil,” she murmured. She loved getting messages from him. Sometimes he emailed her or sent her text messages just to tell her that he was thinking about her. Other times it was to give her instructions on something he’d like her to do that would liven up their evening.

  She opened up the email and read it.

  I left a package for you in the closet, on the shelf above my suits. I want you to put on the handcuffs, hood, and blindfold, plus something else I’ve left you. When you’re ready, lie on the bed with your wrists cuffed together. Leave the ball gag on the bed.

  I’ll be home at 7:00. Be ready by 6:30. I like the thought of you waiting there, secured and blindfolded, waiting for me and thinking about me.

  She smiled and replied to his message:

  I’ll be waiting.

  She glanced at the time on her tablet to see that it was around five-thirty. She set the tablet aside, went to the bedroom and into the closet, and reached up on her tiptoes to grasp the box he’d left and took it down. It wasn’t too heavy and she carried it to the bed and opened it.

  Inside was a wide collar with an O-ring in the front and D-rings on each side. She had seen these used before. It was a posture collar that restricted head movement. Also in the box were sets of ankle and wrist cuffs, a small lock, and a red hood that had an O-ring on top of it. She set those aside and saw that John had picked out some very sexy lingerie for her. A red and black corset, with matching panties and stockings.

  He had wanted her to be ready early and she intended to make her man happy.

  Her man. She liked that. Liked it a lot. She hoped that he thought of her as his woman.

  She stripped out of her clothing and slipped into the lingerie that he had left her. It was silky and erotic against her skin. She felt sexy and wanton and so hot for him she could hardly stand it. She loved the fact that he had bought it for her and he had picked out just this for her to wear. There was something hot about a man buying a corset, panties and stocking for her.

  She still had plenty of time so she sat down to read a little more and kept an eye on the clock. She wanted to be ready when he’d told her to. For all she knew he was going to come home early and check to see if she had obeyed him.

  After she climbed onto his king-sized bed and pulled on the hood and blindfold. She had gotten so used to the hoods he had that she actually enjoyed being inside them and had started to look forward to wearing them. It was hard to explain to anyone who hadn’t experienced wearing a hood. It made her feel like she belonged to him somehow. She was his property.

  When the hood and the blindfold were on, the ball gag on the bed beside her, she locked her wrist cuffs together with the small lock that he had left. She settled back on the pillows and closed her eyes as she waited.

  Only a few minutes seemed to have passed by when the bed dipped and she heard the muffled sound of the bedsprings squeaking. He had come early like she’d thought he might.

  She started to tell him hello, but he pushed the ball gag into her mouth. He did it so hard that it mashed her lips against her teeth and she tasted a bit of blood.

  He pressed a cloth to the nose holes in the mask and she tasted and smelled something odd. A mere fraction of a moment passed and then she slipped away.

  “Wake up, princess.”

  Roni felt groggy and out of it as she heard him speak. Everything was dark.

  Something felt strange and odd, almost like she was floating yet bound, and she tried to think through the fuzziness in her mind. Then she realized she was hanging, her body somehow suspended. She could feel rope against her bare skin she felt a kind of rope body harness.

  She was wearing a blindfold now and not the hood, and the ball gag was in her mouth. She tried shifting her head and neck, but the posture collar kept her head from moving and the D-rings had been secured to either side of her neck.

  John had drugged her and suspended her. Apparently he was taking their play to a whole new level. Was this yet another way to cause her to experience fear? It had been a couple of weeks since the last time he had scared her. She could still remember how freaked out she’d been when she thought he had brought other men into the room.

  “Are you awake now?” His voice was still low, hard to hear, as if he was talking from a distance. With her head and neck secured she couldn’t nod, so she made a sound behind her gag to answer his question.

  “Good.” He unfastened the gag and she licked her lips as he moved his hands to her blindfold and removed it. She blinked and her eyes unfocused and the focused.

  It wasn’t John looking at her.

  It was Drake.

  Raw terror ripped through her and she ins
tinctively pulled against her bonds. “No.” She tried to control her breathing as she stared at him. “Please, no.”

  “That’s a big yes, honey.” He reached out and pushed her and she swung back and forth and she felt like she might fall even though she could tell she was secured to well. “Isn’t this perfect? I like redheads and you like fear. Before I kill you I’m going to give you a lot to be afraid of.”

  She stared at him, her heart beating so hard it was going to come out of her chest. Drake. The killer was Drake and he had her. He really had her.

  Her voice shook and she almost couldn’t speak because she was having a hard time catching her breath. “Did you hurt John?”

  Drake brushed the question away with a wave of his hand. “I’ve got a better way to deal with that dick. I ditched a few things in his apartment that will be considered evidence that he’s the real killer.” He gave a smile that was in no way handsome. “When I’m finished with you I’ll drop you in the dumpster. His fingerprints are going to be all over your collar and cuffs. He might be facing the death penalty for what he’s going to be accused of doing to you and the other poor girls.”

  Adrenaline pumped through her body and she trembled from it. She could see just enough to tell that she was in some kind of basement and a door was just at the top of a rickety looking staircase.

  Could John possibly find her here? Where was here?

  She struggled to find something to hold him off. “How did you know I was at John’s apartment?”

  “I’ve been intercepting your email for some time which is how I found out about your taste for fear.” Drake smiled. “It wasn’t hard to figure out where you lived. Broke into your house a couple of times while you were at work.”

  He reached for her and squeezed her shoulder. “I like computers. It was not too hard to set up to tap into your router and follow your emails. I’ve been monitoring it, waiting for the perfect time. The plan the dick laid out today was too perfect.”

  She bit the inside of her cheek hard as she tried to figure a way out of this. “Please don’t do this. I’ll let you do what you want but don’t do this.”

  “What would be the fun in that? I like fucking with my women. Figuratively and literally. So I will fuck with you for a while.”

  Cold fear made her start to tremble. “Please let me go, Drake.”

  “I don’t like hoods too much so I took yours off.” He tugged at strands of her hair. “I don’t like how it covers up your pretty hair and the fear on your face.” He picked something up and then she saw that he had a butcher knife with a gleaming edge. “I’m going to cut some of your pretty hair for a souvenir to go along with the rest of my collection. While I’m at it, I might just carve your face a bit. You are so beautiful and I will love seeing my mark, on you.”

  He moved closer and held up the knife and repeated, “So beautiful.”

  Roni screamed as loud as she could, putting everything into it that she had.

  Drake slapped her, cutting off her scream, the power in his swing so hard that she felt dizzy.

  “Shut up, bitch.” He shoved the ball gag back into her mouth, mashing her lips against her teeth and she tasted blood again, only this time more.

  He picked something up and raised it so that she could see. It looked like a policeman’s baton. “I can snap every bone in your body with this. Do something as stupid as that again and I start with the bones in your face first.

  “But right now I want to play.” He set the baton down then raised the knife and put it to her cheek—

  The door at the top of the stairs exploded inward.

  John stood at the top of the stairs with a gun aimed at Drake. “FBI. Don’t move.”

  Roni’s heart leapt.

  Drake looked shocked but the knife was already at Roni’s face. He shifted fast enough that he had it pressed against her throat, hard enough that it bit into her skin and she trembled as she felt a droplet of blood roll down her throat.

  “Put the weapon down.” The expression on John’s face was murderous. “Move away from her, Pierson.”

  “You are going to let me out of here or she’s dead.” Drake spoke with a calm, even tone, as if he was talking about getting himself a cup of coffee. “And she’s coming with me.”

  He pressed the knife tighter against her throat and she felt more blood trickle down. “Throw your weapon over here. Slowly. Then I want you to come down here.”

  John kept his eyes on Drake as he tossed his gun. Drake caught it and then pointed it at John.

  Roni’s terror rose. She looked from John to Drake and saw death in Drake’s eyes. He wasn’t planning on letting either of them out of here alive.

  “Hands up.” Drake waved the gun at John. “And take it real easy walking down those steps. Wouldn’t want you to have an accident.”

  The stairs creaked with every step that John took until he was at the bottom. He stood there with his hands still raised.

  “I’d love to hear how you found the basement door.” Drake said. “It’s well hidden.”

  “Not hidden well enough,” John said in a growl.

  “You heard the bitch scream didn’t you.” Drake’s jaw tightened.

  John said nothing, just stared at Drake.

  “Take her down.” Drake stepped aside, gun still on John. “Don’t move too fast.”

  John met Roni’s gaze. Without words he seemed to be trying to tell her that everything was going to be all right and that they would get out of here some how, some way.

  He moved to her and started by crouching and untying the rope from the cuffs on her ankles. When they were free he moved up to her knees and to the rope cuffs on her thighs. If it wasn’t for the rope body harness she would have been feeling more pressure on her elbows and wrists.

  When he reached her arms he murmured, “I’m going to get you out of this.”

  Drake chuckled from behind John. “Go ahead and delude yourself and her, Special Agent Taylor. It’s going to be hard getting her out of anything when you’re dead.”

  Roni swallowed down her fear. They would get out of this before Drake had the chance to kill either of them. She had to believe that.

  John untied the ropes that had been secured to the posture collar then took the collar off and let it drop to the floor. She felt a moment of relief to be able to move her head and neck again. It was only a flash of relief. It was hard to feel anything but fear in their current situation.

  He turned to Drake when she was hanging from only the body harness. “I need to cut her down so I can catch her.”

  “You’ll just have to let her fall then.” Drake shook his head. “You’re not getting the knife if that’s what you’re angling for.”

  “I’ll be fine.” Roni said. “Just get me down from here.”

  With a grim expression, John moved directly in front of her. “Hook your legs around my hips.”

  Drake looked on with what seemed like interest. “Go on,” he said.

  Just feeling John so close was in some way comforting. He worked on the rope tying her body harness and then she fell backward.

  He caught her in one arm right before her head could hit the floor. He brought her back up and set her on her feet. She was unsteady at first after having been hanging. Circulation slowly returned to her limbs.

  Drake barely gave her a chance to recover before he pointed the gun at John. “Push her over here.”

  John met Roni’s gaze. “It’s going to be okay.”

  He released her and she refused to budge. Instead she got in front of him. “I’m not letting him kill you, John,” she said as she stared at Drake.

  Drake gritted his teeth. “You’re both going to die anyway, princess. So it ends now for both of you or I get the opportunity to play with you a bit.”

  “Go.” John gently pushed Roni. “I’ll be fine.”

  No way was she going to let Drake murder John. She moved toward Drake, not knowing what she was going to do, just knowing that she
was going to do something to help both her and John.

  When she got close enough to Drake, he grabbed her arm and jerked her to him. She was off balance and almost fell but he kept her on her feet. As he jerked her to him, she spotted the policeman’s baton that he’d threatened her with earlier, sitting on a small table beside them.

  “This is it, Special Agent Taylor.” Drake cocked the gun as he pointed it at John. “Say goodbye.”

  Roni grabbed the baton and with a two-handed grip she swung up as hard as she could beneath his wrist.

  The baton hit him dead-on. A shot rang out as bone snapped. He screamed and dropped the gun.

  John lunged for Drake, but Drake grabbed her by the throat and jerked her to him with his good arm.

  “I’m going to break her neck,” he shouted.

  She clenched her fist and brought it down on his wrist.

  Drake screamed in pain again and Roni jerked herself away from him. She landed on the floor, near the gun.

  She scrambled for the gun as Drake grabbed the butcher knife from where it had fallen on the floor and raised it up as John was coming down on him.

  She wrapped her fingers around the gun’s grip, pointed it at Drake, and pulled the trigger.

  Drake went still.

  A hole was in his forehead, a single drop of blood rolling down his skin.

  Chapter 11

  Roni reeled her line back in as John was casting his as they sat on the mid-sized boat they had rented for the day. They were alone out on the water where John had driven the boat. Their weekend at Half Moon Bay was almost over and she hated to see it end.

  It was two months after the ordeal with the serial killer and it seemed like life was back to normal.

  John brought his line in again and then took both of their poles and set them aside. He brought her into his lap and hugged her close to him.

  “You know I love you, don’t you?” he said once again with a smile.

  “And you know I love you.” She smiled and kissed his cheek that was rough with stubble. “Now that we have reestablished that fact, why don’t you show me what you have below deck?”