To Blind a Sniper (Women of Purgatory Book 2)

by India Kells

  When she stepped away from Rodriguez, solidly bound and at her mercy, his mind still filled with adrenaline, it took her a moment to twist her brain back to reality. The dominatrix had taken over her actions surprisingly, and the assassin sniper had to get back into play and take full control on what was to come.

  She went to the drawers and grabbed her knife in her hand. Just before returning to her captive, she locked the door. Voices erupted in her ear—Lance and Wesley shouted at her, as they had seen her shut the only entry point and that wasn’t part of the scenario. She didn’t dare take a glimpse at the cameras. Part of her understood she would never have been able to make Rodriguez reveal his darkest secrets here, let alone Calvi’s whereabouts. She had her confirmation how he could support a high level of pain, even turning it into pleasure in his mind. In the few hours she did prepare for that final act, and all her research, she was about to use another form of torture, one that would more certainly break Rodriguez. And for her plan to work, she had to appear as going rogue, and definitely crazy, both to Calvi’s henchman and to the people outside this room.

  When she turned to an expectant Rodriguez, she removed her black wig and beamed wickedly.

  First he frowned, but when her red hair came tumbling down, framing her face, something clicked and it was clear to him.

  “You! Damn!”

  She could have smiled, but she didn’t. Some part of her had shut down as so much was at stakes. When she walked back to him, she didn’t hesitate. The time for playing around was over.

  In a single movement, she planted the knife in his thigh and Rodriguez howled.

  “Now, slave. Do I have your attention?”

  She waited long enough so the man understood the danger of his situation. If she had her way, he wouldn’t come out of this room alive. His kind, the same as Calvi, were the men she thrived on getting through her visor. She also realized that such men were like hydras; you may cut one head, but three others were soon ready to strike in its place. That’s why Purgatory existed. That’s why people like her, and even worse than her, needed to walk this Earth.

  Commotion resounded outside the door, but she ignored it for now. The door could resist a lot, giving her enough time to play out what she had in mind.

  Removing the blade slowly, she listened as Rodriguez screamed in pain. Blood barely trickled out of the wound. She knew where to stab to avoid major arteries.

  Rodriguez breathed angrily through clenched teeth. “You will die, I’ll make sure of it, bitch. You will beg me to end your life when I’m done with you.”

  “Tsk, tsk. Threats won’t work with me. But I can promise you something, your pain will finish more quickly if you tell me where Calvi is hiding.”

  His laughter definitely sounded maniacal. “Calvi has dedicated the rest of his life to finding you, and making you regret your mistake.”

  “I already knew that. What I want from you is what I don’t know. Where is he?”

  “Stab me, burn me, break every bone in my body, bitch. I’m not the kind of man to betray someone like Calvi.”

  “Yeah, I suspected that much. And as a dominatrix in training, I learned about ways to find the true pressure points, the ones that hurt like no other. You’re accustomed to physical pain, so I had to find others. Does Mistress Layna ring a bell?”

  Rodriguez paled significantly but said nothing.

  “Yeah, I suspected that name would be familiar. Don’t worry, I haven’t contacted Mistress Layna personally. Apart from this new profession and you, of course, we don’t have much in common. No, instead I asked a friend to hack your computer and found very interesting pictures.”

  Rodriguez’s body strained against the bonds, but they held on.

  As she talked, she let the blade trail over him, drawing blood, cutting wickedly. “You’re a very naughty boy. No, scratch that. You’re a very deranged mind, Rodriguez. I would never imagine a normal man getting off on what I’ve seen. You like the hardcore and illegal stuff, don’t you?”

  “I’m going to kill you! You’re dead!” His voice resonated and echoed over the walls, almost drowning the noise of the people trying to get through the door.

  “Maybe. I can’t predict the future, but one thing I’m sure of is I’ll have plenty of time to show those interesting pictures, all hundreds of them, to your lovely wife, Ana.”

  The instant the words left her mouth, the air stood still, and the room froze. This was a dangerous menace, one that may not work, as Mac wasn’t sure how much Ana knew of her husband’s secret life, and how much Rodriguez truly loved her.

  Now, people from outside were trying to get through the door by force. Mac needed the deadbolt to hold just a few more minutes.

  Rodriguez lowered his head for an instant, his ragged breath the only sound inside the dungeon. Mac refrained from increasing the treat and the pressure. If this didn’t work, she was out of aces.

  When he looked up at her, she hoped it could be interpreted as a sign of resignation.

  “What guarantees do I have that you will never send the pictures to my wife?”

  “None, apart from my word. And the promise that you will never, ever do anything illegal or immoral again. Get yourself whipped or canned as much as you like, leave third parties out of your kink. I will keep the pictures for my own protection, but they will never see the light of day again, unless something bad happens to me.”

  “If I tell you about Calvi, he will—”

  “I only want his phone number. He won’t find out where I got it. I want the direct line to him.”

  The door cracked and someone shouted at her, but she ignored it. All her attention was on Rodriguez. “Do we have a deal?”

  Another crack. The door would go down in splinters.

  “We have a deal.”

  Closing her eyes, Mac nodded. The door flew open, almost off its hinges. Lance, Wesley, and two security guards came in, but before a single word was said, she stopped them.

  “He’s almost unharmed, only a wound on his thigh that should be tended. He will help us, keep at least two guards with him. Don’t leave him alone until he fulfills his part of the deal. He promised me Calvi’s cell phone. He’d better be telling the truth.”

  Mac felt light-headed and nausea was slowly creeping in. Wesley took a step in her direction but she warded him off. Her insides were shaking so bad, it would soon show and she wanted to be alone for that. It seemed that Wesley was right, torture wasn’t in her. Not much of a surprise.

  Like a zombie, she walked down the hallway of the club and exited through the back door, climbing the steps on wobbly high heels. She was tempted to crawl into bed but she took a detour to the bathroom. When she saw her face, still hidden under thick make-up, her eyes so wide she barely recognized herself, she shivered. The trembling turned into an internal earthquake she couldn’t control. With great trouble, she got out of her outfit and entered the stall to stand under a blistering shower. Her mind was fuzzy, and instead of receding, nausea took her over. Nothing came out apart from retching and screams. Caught in a roller coaster of images and sounds, the face of Wesley blurring with Rodriguez, the pleasure she offered earlier was mixed with the pain she inflicted and the realization of what she had done.

  Her legs gave out and she slid to the ceramic floor, curling up in a tight ball, wishing the water would be even hotter, when her mind finally shut down.

  Chapter 19

  It was the pounding of her head that forced Mac to surface from comforting darkness. Her brain wanted her to remember something, but the rest of her screamed to let it go. What was she to remember?

  She felt so safe, tucked in a comfortable bed, why would she want to remember anything?

  It took her several minutes to realize that she was in a bed. Still in denial, she refused to open her eyes, but her mind was already starting to shake itself awake. Her final memory was of the shower. Why wasn’t she in a shower anymore?

  And that single thought broke open a d
am inside her, forcing into her mind every detail of the last twenty-four hours. She couldn’t escape anymore, she was awake and needed to face what she had done and what she had to do.

  Mac pushed the covers from over her head to confirm that she was in her bed. In her apartment, with the curtains drawn. That part she didn’t remember. She must have been completely out if after the shower; she was unable to recall the few steps to her bedroom. Did she close the water? No sound from the bathroom. What a relief.

  She realized she was naked. She never slept naked, but again, her state of mind could have overseen her usual sleeping habits.

  Now, she had to face everyone, and get what Rodriguez had promised her. And take the next step … Breathing deeply, Mac reached for a T-shirt, when she realized something off. The smell of bacon.

  She only took time to put on her T-shirt and shorts and grab her spare gun tucked in her underwear drawer before realizing how stupid that was. No enemy would cook her breakfast. So placing it back on her dresser, she went to inquire of the origin of the smell.

  Arriving in her kitchen, Mac did a double take when she saw Wes, busy at her stove, manning two skillets. Beside bacon, she now smelled butter and frying eggs. The scene was so domestic, it looked almost surreal. So she stood there, blinking rapidly, either until the vision dissipated or she realized she was still in her bed, dreaming.

  Instead, the vision continued when Wesley turned to her and gave her a half smile. He was wearing the same clothes as before—blue-washed jeans that fit his muscular thighs like sin and a dark, long sleeved T-shirt. How could his arm fit in it? And then the sexy vision talked.

  “I hope you don’t mind. I was getting hungry watching over you. And while I was preparing breakfast, I decided to make some for you. You wanna eat?”

  Mac only nodded, and still unable to comprehend the scene, went to sit at her small dinner table. She observed him so at ease in her kitchen. He poured her a cup of coffee and put it in front of her before returning to the stove. Black and hot, it burned on the way down and it was pure bliss. Caffeine kicked in soon after, clearing her mind enough to speak.

  “You cook?”

  At her question, he didn’t glance at her, but his smile widened.

  “Yes, ma’am. Lessons forced by my mother to all three Sorenson boys. Nobody was to be spared. And I’m grateful for that. It allowed us to avoid starving and impress girls.”

  “Well, I’m impressed, but mainly grateful for the food. You said you were watching over me?”

  Wesley turned off the stove and divided the food on two plates. Well, divided meant one normal portion for her and the breakfast of champions for him; a heaping mountain of food in her opinion.

  He placed the plate in front of her and sat.

  “Yeah, after the show you did yesterday, and how you left, I decided to come to your apartment and see how you were doing. Don’t get me wrong, I was pissed at you.” He took a bite of the eggs and shook his head. “You should have told us what you were intending to do.”

  Tentatively, Mac began eating the food and closed her eyes. This was good. In fact, she was starving.

  Once the growling of her stomach subsided, she sipped her coffee before looking at him. “I wasn’t sure of what I was going to do. Margot had warned me that it would be difficult to break him in such a small amount of time and especially since we didn’t have a true dominant/submissive relationship. Perhaps even tying him up may not have worked. So I decided to do some research of my own, see what I would be able to find. More leverage, so to speak.”

  “Brilliant to have threatened him with those photos. I didn’t know you were such a good hacker.”

  Mac stayed silent for a moment, concentrating on her food. As the silence grew, so were Wes’ suspicions.

  “You have those pictures, haven’t you?”

  Mac winced at his tone. “Well, I’m sure if I were a hacker I would have been able to find such photos … I hope Dogberry can unearth them.”

  “What? You threatened Rodriguez without having those pictures in hand?” Wesley waited half a beat. “Are they even real?”

  With a mouthful, Mac frowned and swallowed. “By the type of things he was searching on the Web and his reaction, it was easy to deduce that they exist. Well, that was an educated guess between Dogberry and me. A good start, isn’t it?”

  Wesley blinked repeatedly before breaking into a roaring laugh. Mac stopped eating at the unusual.

  “Whoa, you’re quite a bluffer. I give you that.”

  “I found out about a certain Mistress Layna and the fact that Rodriguez used her services, several times, as per his bank account. And then, I discovered an article about a lawsuit of one of her clients about illegal photos taken in the act. The step to take wasn’t that big. And talking about the devil, how is Rodriguez doing?”

  “The last time I saw him, he was well tied in another position, still in the dungeon and dressed. But not so much spilling his guts about what he knew about Calvi’s known locations and his cell phone numbers. Probably would require more work to obtain anything from him.”

  At the mention of the room, Mac stayed silent and turned her gaze back to her plate. But seriously, for how long could she ignore what happened? And it wasn’t in her to skirt around the problem or discomfort, better go through and be done with it.

  “And you? How are you feeling?”

  Wesley was certainly no fool, as it was clear she was referring to what happened between them. She found it both hard and easy to dip back into that memory as it allowed her to forget what she had to do with Rodriguez, difficult as she wasn’t sure if her inexperience had done more damage than good. Who was she to decide or even risk the well-being of a man to help him? The more she thought about it, the more she feared she made an awful mistake.

  Wesley didn’t look at her at first. Taking another sip of his coffee, he then placed his hand over hers. Panic surged and words stumbled out of her mouth.

  “I want to apologize. What I did to you, I shouldn’t have. It was presumptuous of me. Please forgive me, Wes.”

  Wesley shook his head and tightened his grip on her hand. “There is nothing to be sorry for. On the contrary. I should be the one offering an apology. Unconsciously, I pushed you to do it, to try something. And after speaking with Lance, I realized he put you in a difficult situation, too.”

  Breathing more easily, she could answer. “Well, if you and Lance talked, even for a few words, I’m happy. It was worth it.”

  Wesley swallowed. “I never really told you why I pushed them away, I didn’t want them to see me broken. I don’t have clear memories of Lance entering into my cell, reaching for me. That part of my life … it’s painful and blurry. Little by little, I regained access to my brain, but I wasn’t able to process it. At the hospital, Lance and Owen, they were hovering over me, worried … it was the pity in their eyes I couldn’t stand.”

  “They are your brothers and they love you, Wes. I know Lance, he would have preferred taking your place in that cell rather than leaving you there. And I suspect both your brothers felt guilty also.”

  “Guilty?” Wes really seemed stunned by her declaration.

  “Yes. That they were unable to find you sooner, that they didn’t reach you before the torture.”

  Wesley seemed to ponder on that, and she continued.

  “And as you men are so good at talking and expressing your emotions, it all became a giant mess. You were pushing them away because you couldn’t stand their guilt, and they felt guilty that it was impossible to save you sooner, and it became even worse when you withdrew.”

  “Yeah, as you said, a mess.”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “But I wouldn’t have been able to see it or find a way out, before what you did … what we did yesterday.”

  Mac wet her lips, but didn’t say a word. What could she say?

  “I have still a long way to go. And it won’t be easy or fun, but now I have a sense of direction. And hope.”<
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  When he resumed rubbing his thumb against the back of her hand, she lost herself in a sea of blue when he spoke. “And about what happened with Rodriguez, you have to promise never to do it again.”

  One glance at him, and she realized the stubborn pitbull was back in place.

  It was difficult not to react at his glare. “I can’t promise that.”

  “Look at the toll it took on you, Mac.”

  “It was necessary.”

  “The stunt you pulled with that scumbag in the dungeon … I’m telling you, never again hide your plans from me. Not only did you put yourself in danger, but you played with a man who has power and can use it to destroy you. You were reckless down there, Mac.”