Devils & Rye (Top Shelf Book 4)

by Alta Hensley

  “Of course I came! How could I not come? You forced my hand, Makayla! You went against what your father wanted, and definitely against what I wanted. And now because you thought you could go off and save the day, you are standing here in nothing but my jacket after being paraded around naked in front of beasts of men. You have proven that you are truly a little girl trying to survive in a man’s world. I don’t know what the fuck you were thinking.”

  “Please try to understand,” she said with a quivering lip.

  “I don’t want to hear another word,” I snapped between clenched teeth. I knew I was being hard on her, but she deserved it, and I couldn’t control my rage at the moment even if I wanted to. My stomach coiled as the memories of what had just occurred stabbed at my entire being. Yes, we had already had sex before, but not like that. Not in front of sick assholes gawking and no doubt jacking off to the event which had occurred in this room only moments ago. “Not one fucking word. Because of you, I am now in this up to my goddamn eyeballs, and I need time to think. Tomorrow is the ritual, and you have no idea. No idea at all what you did just by coming here.” I pointed all around the room. “You think what happened in this room is bad? The nightmare is just beginning.”

  “Alec…”

  “No! Just be quiet and go lie down on the bed. We both need to get some sleep so we can deal with tomorrow with sharp minds. I can’t talk right now. Give me that. Give me some peace and quiet so I can try to figure a way out of this disaster before the ritual begins.”

  Makayla

  I woke up in the middle of the night, with the sharp chill in the air and fear of the unknown pumping through my veins. I had to still find my father. I sensed from Alec that he had all but given up, but I wouldn’t. My father was still alive and I knew it. He needed me. He needed us.

  The full moon cast a strong beam of light into the room, only illuminating my harsh reality. I was a captive in bed with a man who claimed he would save me. But I needed to save my father with or without Alec’s help. Even if it meant me dying, then so be it. I would never be able to live with myself knowing I walked away and allowed my father to die. I had only myself to hold on to, even though my strength was fading. A strength turning into a pool of thick dark weakness, threatening to suffocate me in despair.

  “Alec?” I whispered, breaking the silence of the room. I looked up at his face as he slept. He looked so peaceful, gentle, even in this living hell. This was not the rough man who had punished me in front of a roomful of men and then taken me against my will—or what appeared to be so. This sleeping man was not a monster. “Alec,” I said again a little louder.

  His eyes fluttered open, and he turned his head to look at me. “You should be asleep,” he said in a scratchy voice.

  “Am I going to die?” I had to know the truth.

  “Go to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long, grueling day for us. You need your rest, so we can face this head on and get out of here.”

  “Are they planning on killing me?”

  “No.”

  “But my father? Will they kill him?”

  “There’s a high chance. Yes.”

  I should hate him for being so calm. I should scream and hit him over and over demanding he save my father. It infuriated me that he was so willing to accept just because it was the way it always was.

  I should hate him…

  So why? Why did I want him? Why did I want to be held? If he gave me one ounce of affection, it would be all over. I would be his, and only his. One touch, one kind word, one soft look. That was all it would take, and I would be his forever. Did he know how simple it would be to win this war? He would be the victor if only he used one weapon… give me some kind of hope that all was not lost. That was all it would take, and I would follow him blindly to the end of the world. My body already wanted him. As much as I hated to admit it, it was the truth. I knew that the last thing on my mind in this situation should be sex, but Alec… well… Alec.

  “I know you aren’t like the rest of those men,” I declared, voicing my deep-rooted belief.

  “No, I am not,” he agreed with a sigh. “I realized that a long time ago. But bloodline, legacy and southern customs have a pull stronger than you could ever know. Your father is proof of that.”

  “Why? Why would he or you ever be part of something like this? I don’t understand. Why would your father, and your father’s father? Why has no one stopped the chain of this barbaric society?”

  He took a deep breath and then positioned himself on his side, propping his head up with his arm. We were so close that we could have kissed and maybe that would have helped ease the awake nightmare we were in, but I didn’t move in the slightest. I didn’t feel I needed to in order to still feel comfort.

  “You aren’t going to go back to sleep, are you?”

  “How can I? I don’t know where Papa is. I have no idea what will happen to me when I wake up.”

  “What if I told you that everything would soon work itself out? That if you trust me and do exactly as I tell you, you will be able to walk away from this alive and a free woman. Can you do that?”

  I shook my head, more confused than ever. “What are you talking about? What do I have to do to be free again?”

  “Trust me.”

  “Right! Coming from a man who was going to just sit by the lake sipping a cocktail while his best friend died. And you beat me! Had sex with me in front of everyone!”

  “I didn’t beat you, I spanked you. And trust me, if I were any other man in the room, it would have been an actual beating you would have received—one that you would barely survive. I did what I had to do to make it seem I was putting you in your place, but still not harming you. I was trying my best to not hurt you but still make it believable. Our lives depend on making every single thing we do from now on believable. The members of the brotherhood are powerful and wise. We aren’t dealing with ignorant men.”

  I absorbed his words. “So you were intentionally not trying to hurt me?” I studied his face. “It didn’t feel like it,” I said with almost a pout.

  Alec smiled for the first time since I had seen him at the mansion. “Yes, well, the whole situation that occurred with you wasn’t my intent, but you not listening to me and running off sort of forced my hand. Again, I had to do just enough to satisfy the men. I had to give the illusion that I was claiming you as mine to them, so they wouldn’t take you for themselves or feel like I was lying and doing this to protect you because I was once a partner with your father. I had to play it off that I always wanted you, and now that I could, I was willing to pay and do whatever it took. They bought my story.”

  “Will they let my father go now that I’m here?”

  Alec sighed. “No. It’s too late. Rhett will have to do the ritual because he refused the brotherhood. That is something you can’t do and not expect consequences. Had you told me this crazy plan of yours before running away from the lake house, I would have told you. You coming here is not a sacrifice. It’s simply giving the brotherhood both you and your father. They get the best of both worlds.”

  “Do you blame me for running off? I couldn’t just sit there after reading that letter. I don’t know how you could.”

  He shook his head looking exasperated. The way he casually spoke and lay only inches from my face—it was as if we were two long-time lovers having a midnight chat deeply in love. This wasn’t the way a Master and his slave should be conversing, or two people part of a sick and twisted reality, and yet it was how we were.

  “I’m lying in a bed in an old plantation mansion I remember from my childhood, surrounded by sociopathic men who are trying to continue a sadistic ritual that should have never existed to begin with. I’m lying in the bed with the man who is supposed to be my Master, or owner, or whatever. But, of course, that is after I was stripped completely naked, spanked like a little girl, and then fucked for all to watch. Oh, and don’t get me started on being chained by the neck and put in a room with other poor
women in the same messed up situation as me.”

  Alec’s smile disappeared, and he grew serious. “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry?”

  “I’m not the same as these men. I don’t expect you to believe that, but I’m not.”

  “Then why? Why are you here being part of it? Why did you do the things to me you did, if you aren’t like them? Why are you just accepting my father’s fate? Why aren’t you stopping it? Why aren’t you trying to save my father and your best friend? Another human being?”

  “I have had one goal since I took you away from Spiked Roses, and that is to keep you safe. I came here to save you. I did what I felt I had to do to save you from someone else doing it and doing it much worse. I’m here for…” He paused and turned to his side, his back facing me. “We’ve talked enough. Go to sleep.”

  I placed my hand on his shoulder, pulling him back onto his back. “No, please tell me what you were going to say. I can tell there is more. I feel it.”

  Alec studied me for a moment and then spoke. “Just trust that I know what needs to be done. I need you to play the part of my sex slave, and not try to do anything stupid.”

  “Have you done this ritual before? Are there other women in the past that you have done this to?”

  “I’ve never had any sex slaves. You are the first I have claimed, and the only reason I did so is because I know it will all be over in a few days, and I didn’t have a fucking choice.” He paused and swallowed hard. “And I will try my best to help your father if I can.”

  My heart skipped. “You will?” I sat up in disbelief.

  Alec also sat up and turned to face me directly. “Rhett and Minka were my best friends. Family. And you were like the daugh—” Alec diverted his stare and swallowed hard. “Whether you want to believe me or not, I was only following your father’s wishes. I care very much about him and what could happen to him.”

  “So you think we have a chance?”

  He nodded. “There’s always a chance.”

  16

  Makayla

  I tried to go to sleep like Alec wanted me to do, but it was impossible. So many thoughts were running through my head. What would happen tomorrow? Would my father be all right? Would The Iron Colt Brotherhood figure out the ruse that Alec and I were playing? So many questions and thoughts of terror would keep even the most exhausted awake. I could also tell that Alec was struggling with the same issues because he stood by the window staring out, appearing lost in thought.

  “I can’t sleep either,” I said softly. “Are you thinking about tomorrow? The ritual?”

  “I’ve been to a ritual before, and I know what they are going to do to you,” he said, not looking at me but still looking out the window. “We need to prepare you for tomorrow.”

  “Prepare?”

  “I want to make sure you can be as comfortable as possible tomorrow, and there is only one way to help do that,” he answered simply.

  He walked over to a dresser and pulled out some items that I couldn’t make out from the angle in which I sat. I clung to the blanket around my body as goosebumps covered my flesh.

  “Lie down on your stomach,” he ordered as he walked toward me.

  I did as he asked, as the mattress gave beneath my weight and embraced me in the softness of the blanket’s fabric.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I told you. I have to stretch you. You’ll be glad I did.”

  “Stretch me? What are you talking about?”

  “Your anus.”

  I snapped my head back to look at him in disbelief. “What? You are going to stretch my an… anus?” I was appalled. He couldn’t be serious.

  “I told you. I know what happens at the ritual.”

  “Which is?”

  He squeezed some fluid out of a tiny bottle onto his index finger and without pausing, touched it to my anus. I gasped and tensed up, but he continued. He rubbed the cool, slick liquid all around the surface and then dipped his fingertip past the entrance.

  I bucked and cried out. It didn’t hurt, but the invasion surprised me. I wiggled and whimpered when his finger went even deeper inside and the small bite stung.

  “Just relax. My finger is nothing compared to what will be put inside of you tomorrow.”

  “Oh God,” I whispered as I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the ministrations going on in the depths of such an intimate part of my body. What would be put inside of me tomorrow? I didn’t want to know… and yet, would my imagination be worse than the actuality?

  “I’m adding a second finger. It might hurt a little as I stretch your bottom hole more, but in a few minutes, your body and mind will adjust.”

  “Why? Why is something going inside of me there tomorrow?”

  “Because it’s always been done that way. The ritual hasn’t altered since the beginning, nor do I ever see it changing,” Alec said as he added the second finger. And just as he’d warned, the small bite from before grew in intensity.

  “Ahhh,” I cried. “I don’t like it.”

  “Well, I think you are a smart girl. Your current situation isn’t about liking things from this point on.” He shoved both fingers in deeper, making me moan loudly as I clutched the blanket with balled fists.

  He continued on with the stretching of my bottom hole, ignoring that I gasped and moaned with each tiny thrust of his fingers. He pushed his fingers in deeper. He shoved a little harder.

  And then finally… he pulled out his fingers and I sighed in relief, happy my stretching was over. I moved to sit up but he placed his hand on my lower back, pinning me down. “I’m not done yet. The dildo is next.”

  I looked over my shoulder, with less shock this time. Of course, it couldn’t be as simple as two fingers. “Will this hurt?”

  “Yes.” He lubed up the phallic instrument. “But if you relax and take deep breaths, you may actually find some enjoyment in it.”

  I smirked as I turned my head and hid my face in the crumpled up bedding. “I doubt that,” I mumbled.

  I knew the instant the dildo touched my puckered entrance that it was going to hurt. It was big. Far too big to enter inside of me—

  “Ahhh,” I cried out. “It’s too big. Please! You are going to tear me!”

  He paused with just the tip of the dildo inside, burning the entrance to my bottom. “Shh… take that breath. Come on.”

  I inhaled, and let it out with a shaky exhale. As I did so, Alec pushed the awful instrument all the way in. I screamed… or at least, I think I did. I really didn’t know at the time because my head spun as the sensation of pain mixed with a fullness that gave me an odd sense of warmth. I wanted it out immediately, and yet, when he slowly pulled it almost from the depths of my channel, I moaned loudly when he pressed it back in.

  “Does it hurt?”

  “Yes,” I replied, yet oddly, I didn’t want him to stop. My mind screamed no, but my body reacted the opposite.

  “I know. But you have to get used to something of this size in your backside. You will most likely be sitting on one of these for most of tomorrow.”

  I whimpered at the thought. “Why does the brotherhood do all this?”

  “Because they can.”

  “So why do you? Because you can as well?”

  He moved the dildo in and out in a slow and steady pace. I felt electric shocks run along every nerve inside my body, and although I didn’t necessarily want this to continue, I didn’t exactly hate it either. My pussy pulsated with each movement, and I knew if I started to gyrate my hips and rub my clit against the fabric of the sheets beneath me, it was very likely I could reach completion.

  “I left this all a long time ago. I never thought I would be here,” he said softly, never ceasing in the thrusting.

  “But you once were one of these men?” I asked, trying to keep my mind off the pleasure and the pain of confusion that erupted in my backside. “And my father?” I couldn’t imagine a decent man ever wanting to be in a position of suc
h atrocity. Nor could I picture my father willingly being part of a society like this.

  “Bloodline and power,” he confessed. He paused the action of the dildo but kept the tool inside. “Ambition, drive, and the need to reach what to many is an unrealistic goal. The Iron Colt Brotherhood gave us the tools to build an empire. It gave each member the keys to what could be a very lucrative kingdom.”

  He sounded so sad as he said the words. I didn’t want to say or do anything, scared it would distract him and he would stop sharing.

  “But power comes with a price. We all knew this.” He took a deep breath. “But sadly by the time we realize the consequences, it’s too late.”

  “But why would you ever be part of this?” I asked, realizing there was so much more to this man.

  He pulled out the dildo slowly and stood up. I turned my head and watched him walk to the bathroom silently. He seemed like a different man since our time at the lake house.

  He walked back into the room, reached under my arms, and pulled me up to the pillow and adjusted the blankets so they were covering me. Was he tucking me into bed? “You need sleep. Tomorrow is a long day.”

  “Alec?” I asked softly, looking up into his eyes as he pulled the blanket to my chin. “Please tell me that we will all walk away from this in one piece. You, me, and Papa.”

  Sadness washed over his face, and I saw such pain in his eyes. “I’m going to do everything within my power to make sure that happens.” He placed a soft kiss on my forehead. “It isn’t going to be pretty tomorrow. It’s going to be the worst experience of your life. But you will get through it. I will make damn sure you do.”

  17

  Makayla

  I walked around Alec’s assigned room, crunching on an apple he had given me for breakfast. A shower and a fresh shirt of Alec’s that hung to my mid-thigh, and I almost felt human again. Almost.