I checked his expression. I’d never thought Glass would kill to protect business interests, but there was so much riding on this. “You can’t kill her.”
We drove to the next intersection and zoomed along a quiet street behind some warehouses, then up behind a tall office building, where there was an entry to a deserted car park. Glass cruised past that, stopping alongside a section where there was only sidewalk and the flat walls of the office buildings rising up to both sides. At around seven in the morning, no one was at work.
“No CCTV here,” he murmured. “And no, we won’t kill her, as long as you have an alternative, because there’s no way I’d trust her enough to let her go, not after this.” He regarded me steadily, like I was a magician about to pull a rabbit out of my ass.
The way he said that made the possibilities obvious and after we’d just rescued her from Gregor it was ironic. I drawled out, “No killing. Which doesn’t leave a lot of options. You keep her somewhere. Someone else keeps her, or I do. Which are you thinking?”
“That you’re a kinky devious bastard with the hots for her. That you want her. Wrong?” He cocked his eyebrow.
I shook my head. “I never thought I’d ever think of doing this.”
“Sometimes fate takes a hand in our lives and we have to do what she asks us to.”
“Philosophy à la Glass?”
“Yep.”
“She won’t like my plan. But I will.” I nodded to myself. “Are you still having trouble with petty thieves taking fuel and supplies on Rakenest Island?”
“I am.”
“Let me be your solution for a month. Me, her, whatever I need for a month out there. I’ll make them rue the day they stole from you. I’ll make her wish she hadn’t run.” I ran through things in my head: pluses, minuses, how she might react. “You need to follow my lead when I talk to her.”
In the mirror I spotted a white taxi overtaking us and it came to a stop just ahead.
“Sure.”
I hadn’t been quite the model citizen for years, but with my hand on the door handle, I said the words that severed my connection to the good, the sane, and the law-abiding world forever. “Let’s do this.”
I flung open the door, jumped down and strode to the taxi, then opened her door. About the same time, Glass arrived on the opposite side. She was sitting forward, saying something to the driver. The moment she recognized me, the exact second those pretty green eyes focused, I registered it like a hit from a missile.
Baby, you’ve done bad, bad things. Seemed like Jazmine discipline was my number one addiction. I was looking forward to this so much I could’ve jerked off to it. My choice of words gave me pause.
Not hunting, discipline, because she was mine, by rights.
Her loud intake of breath warned me. When she didn’t actually scream, I guessed she wasn’t sure of our intentions.
If I could avoid panicking her, I would. Play it by ear.
I spoke quietly, ducking my head to address the driver. “Could you step out for a minute, please, I need to talk to her.”
“Yes, sir.” The man looked nervous but Glass had said he was a relative of the guard.
As he exited, I slipped in and sat beside her.
As long as I wasn’t arrested, I was making this happen.
“Don’t scream, Jaz. We’re not here to grab you.” Except we were. “Just to talk. You know what you’re doing is going to hurt me. Why are you doing this?”
“I...”
Her hands fidgeted in her lap and she looked from me to Glass, who’d slid in on the other side. So I put my hand over her small one and squeezed. Her perfume teased me, reminding me of her sexuality, her femaleness. As if I needed more reminding than the upper curves of her breasts where her bra pushed them above the dress’s neckline.
My new possession. My submissive girl, only she didn’t know that yet. What could I do to a woman who was utterly mine? For a dirty creepy sadist like me, the world was wide open. It was unsettling, in a way, yet such a fucking jolt to the system.
Chapter 28
I had Pieter on one side and Glass on the other. Screaming and trying to get out was on the agenda, only I knew I’d never make it. My one hope, if I struggled, was that a passerby would hear me, or the driver would grow a conscience. The latter seemed unlikely.
That Pieter seemed reasonable and not angry meant I could salvage this, didn’t it? Fuck, I hoped so. I wasn’t going to escalate this situation. If anyone got hurt it would likely be me.
He’d asked me why. For a last second, I tussled with what to do. A big man to either side, and Pieter’s disappointed gaze on me. The man could play the hurt puppy so well.
I actually felt guilty. What if they did plan to only help me? They’d staged a full-scale assault to get me out. A man had been shot. Maybe I was stupid? And plain ungrateful.
“I’m sorry. I had a brain spasm. I panicked. I thought you weren’t going to get me home.”
The crease between his eyes made me feel even worse. “You did?”
“Um. Yes. I did.”
“She doesn’t know me,” Glass murmured. “It’s understandable.”
The sad look on Pieter’s face shamed me.
I felt as small as a pebble between these guys. My thoughts of running shrank to nothing.
“What can we do to make it up to you? You want to get home faster? Glass?” He put his arm on the backrest and toyed with some strands of my hair where they’d draped across the upholstery then looked across me at his friend.
What was I supposed to do in the face of this? I’d betrayed the man who’d been my one reason for staying alive for the most terrifying time in my life. On the other hand, if they were prepared to drop their quest for my name and address, I should grasp this opportunity with both hands before they changed their minds again.
“I’m sorry, Pieter. But...yes. I do want to go home.” Hope stirred.
Glass cleared his throat. “I guess I could do a flight tomorrow? I have got a job I need to do. A delivery. We’d have to stop at Rakenest Island though. I’ve had some islanders stealing fuel and equipment there. You cool with that, Pieter? You were coming on this flight to take her back?”
“Yeah, I was.” The low rumble of his voice settled into me, as comfortable and familiar as a rainstorm sweeping in on a day when you were snuggled in bed.
I hated myself in that moment. The least I could do was to let them do this the way that was safe, for them.
My memory jogged. I’d heard Glass mention that he’d salvaged a hard drive from the office at the House. My name might be on that. They mightn’t know who I was yet, but it was possible they’d find out soon. “Is there any chance of this happening today? Or do you have to lodge flight plans?”
Glass guffawed. “Flight plans are the least of my worries. I don’t know. Maybe?”
“Tell you what.” Pieter opened the door at his back. “Give us some time to run around getting everything Glass needs prepared and I’ll see if I can get this expedited.” He slipped out and put a hand out to help me from the taxi. “How’s that?”
“Expedited?” I grinned. “That would be wonderful.” Glass slammed his door and came around to us. “Is it really do-able?”
He grimaced. “For Pieter, and for you, I’ll do my damn best. Main thing I have to do is make sure there’s someone to take you farther once you’re back on the coast of Australia. So it’d be best if you’re there anyway, Pieter, to keep her safe, get her to the nearest town. Once we land there, I can give you money, for food, a bus maybe, but you’ll be on your own. Okay?”
It was happening. Ohmigod. “Yes!” I squealed, just a little.
Pieter smiled. “I can’t stay in Australia. Wish I could. How do I get back here, Glass?”
He wished. Once again I was torn by that attraction to this hunk of a man, but I could see a strange glitter in his eyes, as if something disturbed him. He’d been a little obsessed with me. I heaved in a breath. For the best.
Maybe I could contact him again one day. Make things friendly but not too close. Yeah, I could do that. I just needed to be a safe distance from him.
“I can pick you up on the coast, a day later. I’ll show you on a map.”
My guilt swung back, full force, and I swallowed, finding I’d teared up a little. “Thank you, guys.”
“No problem.” Glass nodded. “Let’s get back to my house and do this.”
Which was how I ended up squeezed into a seaplane with Pieter, Glass and some supplies only a few hours later. Whatever checklist they’d run through had been finalized in what seemed superhuman time, but Glass had been planning this for days, just not with me in mind. Whatever he was smuggling in the boxes he’d loaded, I did not want to know.
After my stupid debacle of trying to go to the high commission, I’d decided to be good, for once. I’d write up what had happened as best as I could, in a way that didn’t implicate anyone...or I wouldn’t do it at all. Likely, that meant a no. I’d wear it. I’d get therapy. I’d get over this, somehow. Criminals or not, Glass and Pieter had hearts. I owed them.
We flew for over half an hour before the little island he was aiming for appeared on the horizon and slowly grew. It was late afternoon and it seemed he meant to arrive on the Australian coast around sunset. That meant instrument flying on the way back, I figured.
I’d told them over and over that I’d pay them back for fuel and other costs but Glass had only smiled and refused. I’d do it still, I vowed to myself. Somehow.
From the sounds of it, I’d be on the far north tip of the country. Catching a bus south would be the best idea. All the way to Brisbane, if I could, to make it less likely people would wonder how I’d ended up in far north Queensland.
Landing on the ocean in this plane must need low seas surely. Despite Pieter taking my hand, and running through some spiel about safety, I worried. The palm trees on the island grew in size as did a small jetty on one side, and a collection of low dwellings. The island was crescent shaped and we were heading for the more sheltered concave part of the crescent. The plane tilted, angling in, the engine lowering then roaring in tone when Glass adjusted the throttle. I clung to Pieter’s biceps.
“Here we go. Don’t worry. Glass has done this a hundred times. As long as the weather’s this good, with quiet seas, he can land without fuss. Years ago, a foolish entrepreneur tried making this a resort and failed. No one else lives here.”
“Why?”
“Why’d it fail? In storms, the place isn’t good. No water supply. A tsunami would sweep straight across it.”
Ugh. Thank god we weren’t staying long.
The plane shushed along in the water then purred its way to the jetty.
“Out we get.” He unlocked the door and swung it open before stepping down into the sea.
Smiling, I followed, jumping into a couple of feet of water and feeling the sand squish under my toes. This was a deserted island in the middle of the most amazing environment. Open space all around, sky, sea, and me...deep rolling ocean farther out. I needed a camera so badly.
The water was clear as the sky, like blue glass, and small fish, colorful as china ornaments, shot away when my legs pushed through the coolness. “This is paradise. Like serious holiday material.”
“Let’s get all the stuff unloaded that Glass wants to leave here.”
The small pile seemed to be most of his cargo. What the hell was left to take to Australia? It had to be drugs.
But before we left, I ran over to do a pirouette on the beach with my dress swirling out in what must be a revealing way. Who cared if they saw my panties? On the last turn Pieter stepped up and caught my hands, sliding down to hold my wrists. Odd. I frowned as his hold tightened.
“I’m glad you like this place, because you’re staying here with me, meisie, until I say we leave.”
What. The fuck. I blinked at him but before I could process that or say a word, he spun me around. Metal clicked on my wrists, circling them. Cold metal. Handcuffs.
“Pieter!” My mind batted back and forth for all of a second. What was going on? He couldn’t be... Not him. Heat and cold flashed and buzzed inside my head, running down my body in a paralyzing wash. “Why are you doing this?” My throat caught on the last word.
I’d been betrayed. By Pieter. And Glass. The men I’d thought had hearts. The breeze blowing across this little beach made me shiver. I tried to turn but he held my elbows, his grip so rock hard it hurt. Then he pulled me into his body.
I panted, still trying to squirm loose.
“Hello, Jazmine Foulkes.”
I stiffened.
“I know who you are. And that you’ve lied to me all along, and now I get to teach you why that was wrong. When I release you, you’re to kneel in the sand.”
His fingers, encircling my elbows, pulsed on my skin.
Then he let go. I stood there breathing hard, deprived of oxygen and dizzy. He knows who I am. He knows. Even if I escape, he will find me. Then I turned and sprinted for the sea. I’d rather drown than be his thing to play with. I couldn’t face more of this darkness.
He caught me in the shallow waves, and dragged me, sobbing, back to the beach.
“No. Fuck no. Let me go!” I whispered the words in a squeak. My tears and the seawater wet my face. My nose ran with snot and sand stuck to my face.
With his hand screwed in my wet hair he towed me forward and made me go to my knees, and he held me there.
I trembled, eyes puffy, heart pumping so hard it might burst from my chest.
A seashell decorated the sand at my knee. Perfect and delicate. And a monster had me, again. I waited for my sentence. I’d been so close to going home. So close! Home. My bed. My neighbor’s cat who came to visit. My garden. The café down the road. Almost, nearly, real, if only the plane had kept going. I jammed my eyes shut. But it was not to be.
“I’m not Gregor, meisie, but I will not be lied to. You’re going to learn and I’m going to enjoy teaching.” His hand turned my face so I had to stare into his eyes. With a cloth, he wiped away some of the sand, some of the tears. “You may not believe me yet, but I think you’re going to be happier by the end. You’re mine now and you’re precious to me. I’ll never hurt you terribly like him. Never. Understand?”
Understand. As if his words helped.
Though maybe they did. Even in my misery I began to think. He wasn’t Gregor.
“I won’t be gentle all the time,” he continued, in that horribly reasonable tone, like a man aiming to convince his pet that it couldn’t go out through the cat flap today.
Choking in breaths in an attempt not to cry, I frowned, looking downward.
“But sometimes, I will be. It’s the punishments you should fear, and I need to punish you now because you’ve been bad.”
“No.” I shook my head, in a determined way. If I wished it enough, it might come true. “You can still let me go.” I met his gaze, though I cringed. “Please? Let me go, Pieter. I wasn’t going to write about you, or Glass, or the others. I swear.”
“Shh. You can bear it.”
“I won’t do it. I won’t tell. Doesn’t that mean anything?”
But he only snorted, and picked me up, then he toted me up the beach to a bench under a roof at the jetty. He dragged me across the bench with my bottom up, sat beside me and pushed up my dress. Then he edged my panties down to the top of my thighs and spanked me. My knees were jarred into the sandy concrete. Every finger mark he left seemed an insult. When I attempted to rise, in spite of still being handcuffed, he tsked and pushed me back then hit me harder. With Glass somewhere nearby, I bit back my noises, clenched my jaw. Only a gasp or two escaped me. Damned if I would show how this affected me.
Another slap landed on my ass, cramming me forward onto the metal slats, then another, and another, until the pain seemed to balloon out from my skin with each pulse of blood. My humiliation, anger, and misery, tangled up and shattered my self-control, and I cried.
<
br /> From then on each blow drew more loud cries or words of protest from me until I was barely conscious of what came from my mouth.
By the time he was done, Glass was preparing to leave, and the props on the plane were turning. Through my tears, I saw this, before I turned away, embarrassed that he too saw my degradation.
This was far beyond what I could have imagined Pieter was capable of and I was trapped here with him, with no one to see what acts he perpetrated on me.
I had to get away. From the corner of my eye, I could see the endless surface of the sea. This was so far from civilization, from other people and he could overpower me with one hand. There’d been a rifle unloaded with the boxes. I didn’t even know where this island was. Despair wrenched another sob from me.
Then he laid his big palm over one cheek of my ass. The burn from the spanking seemed to intensify where his skin met mine.
“Poor Jazmine. I guess I should feel sorry for you. Do you think you’ve been punished enough?”
What a dumb question.
If I was good, subtle, sneaky, maybe I could slowly win him over and convince him to free me?” “Yes,” I squeaked out past a sniffle. “I do.”
“Hmmm.”
Chapter 29
The ache in my finger stump on my left hand reminded me of what I’d lost to Gregor, but having Jazmine ass up before me, over this bench, what did that mean to me? The feel of her softness under my palm, and knowing I could stop or I could keep going until every bit of her was equally red...
Crazy.
Such a gorgeous ass too, attached to a woman I should really have naked right now. The breeze played with the blue-and-yellow cloth of her dress where it lay shoved above her waist. Where I had left it. Me. Her owner.
I could do what I liked with her.
The headiness of this situation was getting to me.
All my careful thoughts had been obliterated by the reality.
The roar of the plane’s engine faded into the noise of the surf crumpling onto the beach on the other side of the island. The sun would be going down in a few hours. I should be thinking of organizing all the gear, but I had a woman here, trembling at my touch. I squeezed her butt then scraped my calloused thumb across her skin, brushing a mark I’d just made. Nothing. No reaction. I dug my nail in harder, still harder, scratched it along. And she whimpered and tried to shift away.
Seize me From Darkness (Pierced Hearts Book 4) Page 18
