by Mia Downing
It was also exactly what she needed.
She inhaled and their scents blended—spicy with a hint of winter, citrus and clean. Both comforting and supportive, and for once, she didn’t feel desire in the sexual sense. This desire was to complete her duty, to see her task to the end. To finally end the game.
Danger Girl had come home.
“Ready?” Aaron whispered.
“Yes.” She reached for his hand and then found Chase’s with her other, glad not to have to face John alone. Not in the beginning, anyway. She hoped they were long gone by the time she killed him, and he killed her. “Let’s go see a very bad man about returning Jake.”
****
The party was in full swing by the time they reached the front door with only a minute to spare on their time allowance. Charlotte gave her name to the guards, and they searched all of them. Thankfully, her boots went unchecked, the gun and knives safe.
They were swept into a large, formal foyer, her coat taken by a blond, bulky guard. They let the boys keep their leather jackets, which didn’t surprise her. John didn’t intend for her to leave.
“We have a gun to your girl’s back, so be good,” the tall, blond guard informed her boys. She walked between them, eyes downcast like a good submissive. She took their hands again, more for Aaron’s comfort than hers.
“There are places set up for scenes to take place,” she murmured. The room to the left, a small sitting, had a naked man handcuffed over a spanking bench, his ass already a lovely shade of pink. Several guests politely looked on as his mistress offered another slap. The crop hissed though the air and made a delightful sound as it smacked down pink skin. Aaron jumped at the noise, his hand tight in hers.
She glanced away, eyes still down, gesturing to the room on the right with a food table near some glass windows and some chairs along the back wall. “That’s a neutral zone, where guests can mingle and talk.”
“No talking,” the guard snapped.
She kept her eyes down for the rest of the hallway where the last door was closed.
“Open and go in,” the guard ordered softly. “Your boyfriends will both have guns to their heads once inside. You’ll do exactly as the boss says. Do you understand?”
She nodded and steeled herself, heart pounding.
She went in first, Aaron right behind, Chase a step away. The room was another sitting room, the walls lined with shelves of books, a dark leather sofa against one wall, two leather chairs facing it.
The door on the far wall was closed, and she sensed John waited behind it. She licked her dry lips, refusing to give in to the shudder that threatened to claim her. A moment later, the door opened and John walked out. Charlotte crowded closer to her two men, summoning the coldness radiating from their outerwear to freeze her pounding heart.
“Welcome, Abigail. I’m so happy to see you.”
“John,” she whispered. How many nights had she dreamt about his voice? Higher pitched than Aaron’s, his accent more Northern England than London. A voice that now made her skin crawl with growing dread.
He’d had surgery, too. His nose, cheekbones, and chin different. But his eyes were the same shape, and the slope of his jaw was the same. His body was still lean and wiry, his hair lacking gray. The only thing that truly wasn’t the same was how she felt when she looked at him. That love, that need was gone. Only hatred filled that spot.
He smiled warmly, taking in her outfit. It was definitely something he would have made her wear in the past. “Sweet girl. You look well. Your boys have taken good care of you so you’d be ready for our last night of pleasure.”
“They took care of me because they love me.”
“And I didn’t?” John’s eyes narrowed. “How soon we forget.”
It was so hard to stay in her role when inside she seethed, her hands itching to feel his throat. “You never loved me. You used me. You used how gullible I was to your advantage.”
John backhanded her, his knuckles catching her cheek. Her head snapped to the side, and Chase’s hand tightened on her elbow, keeping her upright. Aaron stiffened on her other side, his hand under her other elbow tight.
John grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him, the fury and madness in his hazel eyes almost too much to bear. He smiled grimly. “Your mouth is still smart, I see. I’m sure I’ll break that tonight.”
“We want proof that Aaron is alive,” Chase demanded.
John released her chin and gave her a sharp slap to her cheek, never breaking eye contact. “He is, don’t worry.”
“We want proof,” Chase insisted.
“I don’t think you have room to bargain.” John gave a nasty laugh and finally tore his gaze from hers and pinned Chase with it. “You see, you all need to pay. You two for luring my Abigail to your side, away from me. The actor for fucking my daughter and Abbey. And Abigail needs to pay for betraying me and sending me underground when I had so much to live for. I had an empire. She turned it to dust.”
Both boys squeezed her hands at the same time, and she leaned against their hard bodies, Aaron’s belt digging into her bare side, Chase’s buttons firm on her other hip.
John’s smiled, covering his anger like icing smoothed over a cake. “So here’s how it will go down. You two will have the pleasure of listening to the scene I have planned for Abbey. She’ll get to live it, the actor will watch, and when it’s done, I will return them both.”
“Alive?” Aaron asked, so stupidly hopeful. Charlotte dug her fingernails into his hand in punishment.
John’s hazel eyes glittered with amusement. “The actor, maybe. When he’s done watching what I do to her, he’ll never fuck a woman again. You two will remember my words when you collect her dead body and you’ll dream about how horrible her death was, because it will be bloody and full of decadent pain. You’ll think twice about dragging a young woman into your plot.”
“You hate me that much?” Charlotte asked, her throat tight.
“No, I love you that much. I have never loved anyone like I loved you, Abigail. To know you betrayed me and then cheated on me with these men…” He shuddered. “You deserve to be punished.”
Charlotte didn’t get it. The man was fucking crazy. “You shared me at parties when I was unconscious. What did you care who I fucked?”
“I shared you at the parties. That was my choice.” John shot her an incredulous look. “You fucked another man without my permission. Two men, without Sir’s permission. You were mine to share.”
“So you punished me.” She shook her head. He’d never believe she’d never slept with Chase or Jake.
He shrugged. “I also gave you wonderful things. Just like your baby. It wasn’t mine, but I gave you the opportunity to bear a child, because I loved you.”
“The baby wasn’t yours.” She should have been shocked, horrified, but she felt nothing but relief. The baby had been hers, and only hers, and what little life it had lived, it had done so with one parent who loved it desperately.
“No. I had a vasectomy after Celia was born. So I had to share you, to give you a baby. But when it came time for you to die, it was easy. Your life, the life of your child, was my gift to take from you, just as it was my gift to give you.”
Charlotte nodded and vowed, not for the first time, that death would be her final gift to John. His death.
Aaron listened, horrified, and a part of him wished he hadn’t come. Hadn’t forced himself here, to listen to this, because he wasn’t strong like Charlotte. She stood there and took it all in, almost accepting of the hell John dished out, her face like beautiful porcelain. Aaron wavered from wanting to barf and wanting to strangle John with his bare hands.
“Come, Abbey,” John beckoned in a gentle voice. “Because I love you, I’ll give you a choice. Your life for theirs. Come, submit, and I promise you all your men will live. Would you like that?”
“If I go with you, you won’t hurt them.” Her voice was clear, calm. Rational, despite the hell she had to be
feeling.
“It will be my last gift to you. Your life for theirs. Kneel and they live. Stand and you take your chances.”
She pulled her hand from Aaron’s, and he wanted to scream for her to stop. She walked forward, head down, and sank to her knees at John’s feet in a graceful flow of muscles. Then she surprised Aaron by stretching out, chest on the floor, arms outstretched, ass in the air. The Danger Girl inside Charlotte had to be humiliated. Degraded. Exactly what John wanted.
“So beautiful,” John whispered as he walked around her. “You’re harder, leaner now, Abbey. So pretty at my feet. Do you still abhor pain?”
“Yes, Sir.”
He bent and ran a finger down her exposed spine. “That will be your punishment for living. Ultimate pain. I can’t wait to fuck you, knowing for the first time you’ll be dry until your blood flows over my cock. So many ways to fuck you, too. I plan on cuffing you and hanging you from my ceiling. I can’t wait to pierce you, slide my knife into your sweet skin. Make you scream. Will you scream, Abbey?”
“If you wish, Sir.”
“I bet you’ll scream your actor’s name, too.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Christ, no. Chase slid closer, grabbed his wrist, and squeezed. Hard. Aaron swallowed just as hard, unable to bear what she’d go through. He hoped to hell she had enough training to make him scream first.
“You’ll scream my name again, many times, especially when I share you with my new friends. They like pain, too. When they’re done, it will be my turn to have you. I’ll get one orgasm from you. Just one, because it will be the ultimate humiliation for you to come in front of your actor. I still bet you love your ass fucked and a vibrator in your pussy, don’t you?”
She must not have answered quickly enough, because he kicked her in the side, the thud sickening.
“Yes,” she managed to choke out.
He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. “Yes?”
“Sir,” she whispered.
“You’ll come for me, and I’ll slit your throat.” John hauled her to her feet by her hair. He tipped her chin up with a finger and traced a line across the pale, creamy flesh at her throat, the skin Aaron loved so much. “Will you like that, Abbey?”
“Yes, Sir.”
He chuckled, and Aaron’s skin crawled. “There will be more, so much more. I plan on using you all night. Only tonight, you’ll remember everything.”
“Would you…drug me again? Please?” Her voice trembled, and Aaron’s heart went out to her, hoping this was all a really good act. “Sir?”
“Darling, no. But I love hearing you beg again. Such a good girl, Abigail.” He glanced at Chase and Aaron, his gaze harder, colder. “You boys can collect her body in the morning. I’ll be long gone, back underground.” His gaze softened, and the look he gave Charlotte was one of love. “You and I, we’ll meet again in hell, and I hope Satan will give you over, so I can do it again. And again. Mine forever, Abbey.”
John kissed her then, just a gentle touch at first, then it grew more insistent, demanding her surrender, his tongue crammed down her throat. Chase’s hand gripped tighter, and Aaron swallowed the bile. Shoulders sagging, she surrendered and kissed him back. After what seemed forever, John ended the kiss, his breathing heavy. “God, I missed you.”
Aaron’s stomach couldn’t churn any harder, nor could his heart pound much more ferociously without bursting.
John smiled at them, every inch the gracious host. “Would you like a parting gift from our sweet girl? You,” he pointed at Aaron, “she fucked you first. Abbey, give your first American lover your panties. Have you fucked them both, pumpkin?”
“Yes, sir,” she lied.
“They’ll have to share your sweet gift, then, just as they shared you.”
Eyes to the ground, she tucked her fingers under her skirt and tugged, struggling to get her panties over her boots.
John rolled his eyes with impatience. “For Christ’s sake, hurry.”
“Yes, Sir.” Panties in a purple ball, she turned and stood in front of Aaron, staring at his chest. “May I say goodbye to them, Sir?”
“Yes, of course. I can be kind when you deserve it. So far, you’ve been very good.”
She shoved her panties in Aaron’s pocket along with something cold and hard. A compact gun, the size of his wallet. She raised her head, the glint in her eyes all Ma’am with not a drop of fear. She rose on her toes and kissed him, a gentle, soft touch of the lips that said so much. She whispered, “Go.”
She turned to Chase and kissed him as well, and though it should have killed Aaron to see her lips touch Satan’s, he felt nothing but despair. She exchanged a long look with Chase, one that Aaron wished he understood. Chase nodded and she dropped her eyes.
“Come, Abbey,” John said, opening the door he’d come through. He pulled a gun from his back waistband and gestured to her impatiently. “Your actor waits. I bet you’re impatient, too.
“Yes, Sir.” Her voice was a meek whisper, so unlike his Danger Girl. He hoped it was all an act and his Danger Girl lurked somewhere, underneath, ready to fight. She had to be ready to fight.
Aaron held his breath as she walked out the door, out of his life, probably for good.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Aaron and Chase were escorted to the front door by the two guards. Cold gunmetal pressed into Aaron’s sweaty back. Chase, off to his left, didn’t seem fazed a bit, the picture of calm and cool with balls too big for life. All Aaron could hear was his own heart pounding, his breathing labored, and it wasn’t because of the fucking gun at his back, either.
That asshole had his girl. If Chase hadn’t grabbed his wrist he would have leaped as John spewed that shit and would have gotten them all killed. At this point, getting Charlotte killed seemed like a better solution than letting her go. A bullet to her brain was much kinder than what John had planned.
Aaron held it together and cased the place, noting the exits, the arrangement of rooms, the guards, just as she’d taught him. He hoped to hell Chase was doing the same thing on his side. He was getting back in, no matter what.
The bouncers shoved them out the front door with a warning. They’d be contacted in the morning. Try to get in and they lost Jake, too.
The fragile hold Aaron had on sanity snapped. He staggered to the side of the driveway and vomited. Twice. He grabbed a handful of clean snow and shoved it in his mouth, washing away the foul taste, hating that he was such a pussy in front of Satan.
“Go ahead, make fun of me,” he grumbled to Chase when he finished, joining him in the driveway.
“I vomited before I came. If I had anything left, I’d be right there with you.”
“Don’t fuck with me.” Aaron stomped down the driveway with Satan in tow.
“You think I wanted to leave her there? Just believe she’s not going to let him do that to her. You have to believe at this point.” But Chase didn’t sound so sure as they approached the car. “Come on, we’ll pretend to drive down the road and regroup.”
Chase drove down to the end of the lane, turned around and returned with the headlights turned off, parking at the end of the line of cars. He pulled night vision binoculars from a bag and scanned what he could see of the grounds.
“Well?”
Chase put down the binoculars and consulted what looked like a shrunken blueprint on a page. “We need a new plan. The schematics on the house were wrong. They’ve renovated.”
“Can’t you do some spy magic and find out where she is? Use a heat sensing satellite? Drones? Something?”
Chase stared. “This isn’t a movie, asshole.”
“Well, you couldn’t have come here with just you and her.” Aaron panicked under Chase’s glare. “Could you?”
“We need a new plan. Good plans always start with guns.” Chase grabbed a pistol from his bag and loaded a magazine into it. He stuffed two others into his pockets. “I don’t have one for you.”
“She gave me a gun, wh
en she gave me her panties. She must have had one in her boot.” He pulled the compact gun from his pocket and handed it to Chase. He tucked her panties back into his pocket, though.
“My God, she’s good.” Chase dug in the glove box and found another magazine that would fit her gun. “Here. We’ll have to wait for support, but we’ll move when they get here.”
“Wait? Fuck, no. We’re getting in.”
Chase pinched is nose with his thumb and forefinger, his eyes squeezed shut. “Aaron, this isn’t a fucking movie. I don’t know where she is for sure, and every door I saw was heavily guarded. There are guards all over the fucking place, and I’m damned good, but I can’t storm the castle with the movie version of Jake. It will get us all killed.”
Aaron looked back up at the house, the lights an eerie yellow in the darkness. His heart had calmed a bit. John had wanted to take his time with her. If he used a combination of smarts and hot, he could find a way in and not get anyone killed. “Haven’t you ever crashed a party?”
“No.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you got into all the parties with a handwritten invite, sealed with a kiss. You’re fucking hot.”
Chase flinched at the assessment. “You sure you’re not bi?”
“Yep, sure. But it’s hard to tell with us actor types.”
Chase gave one last scan of the building with the binoculars. “If we wait for support, we’ll have a better chance.”
“All we have to do is go to the side door and knock. The one at the patio isn’t guarded. I saw it on the way down. There’s a food table or something in front of it, and you have to climb through the snow, up to that door. There were a couple of women sitting in there who would love to get their hands all over you.”
“I didn’t see that.” Chase gave him a begrudging look. “You’re sure?”
“Charlotte taught me how to look for stuff like that in spy camp. There’s a foot of snow on the ground, they’re not thinking anyone will want to trudge up in that and get in. If that doesn’t work, there’s a balcony that’s not guarded. I saw that going in.” He hoped the snow was the reasoning behind the no guards, or they were toast.
