With the hood still in place, My Monster guided me down one hall after the next. The tapping of my shoes against tile reverberated all around us, as if we traveled through massive rooms and down endless hallways. Once, I thought I heard the rushing of water, as if a waterfall or stream meandered inside this foreign place.
It seemed as if we walked forever. Two sets of feet marched in front of me. Two followed behind. My Monster remained by my side. His hand never left me, and I hated to say I found comfort in that. He was the only thing I knew.
The only thing familiar. I clung to his presence, needing an anchor in this sea of uncertainty he dragged me toward.
We stopped for a minute while what sounded like massive twin doors ponderously opened. Before I could take a breath, we were on the move again. The hard tile beneath my feet changed to that of padded carpet, and the echoing sounds from before became muffled.
The room felt different. I couldn’t describe what the difference must be, except it felt as if I’d stepped inside a tomb.
My Monster guided me to a stop. His hand fell away. Without his strength to fortify me, I swayed on my feet. Then before I could blink, the hood came off.
Bright lights blinded me. What looked like professional-grade movie lights shone down at me. Three video cameras focused on the center of the room. White reflective panels redirected light, softening it as it bounced around a room designed with only one purpose in mind.
In front of me, a wooden contraption formed a large X, and to that device, a naked woman had been cuffed in place. She faced away from me. Her legs flexed and she yanked at the cuffs binding her to the frame. Something wrapped around the back of her head and when she turned her face, I realized it was a gag. Low, garbled sounds made their way past the gag. They were unintelligible, but filled with fear.
A warbling moan vibrated in my throat. I pumped my fists, clenching them as I swallowed bile rising from my stomach.
My Monster glanced at me, his expression pained, but resolute. For whatever reason he brought me here, either as a witness or participant, only time would tell. Fury seethed beneath his scowl, but he wasn’t angry with me. I somehow knew it to be true.
Quickly, he unbound my wrists from behind my back, but if I thought I was free, I was in for a surprise. In an economy of movement, without any of the intricate ties I’d become used to, he lifted my hands over my head. Two loops of rope, a quick knot, and my hands were bound over my head.
He barely looked at me while he worked. But I watched as something within him snapped.
You’re a damn fool!
I might just be.
Once he had me secured and out of the way, he approached the woman. With a glance over his shoulder to watch me, he placed his hands on her body.
His fingers swept along the curve of her shoulders, meandered down her back, and curled around her tiny waist. His fingers danced back up her spine, tracing each vertebra with a caress I knew all too well.
That’s how he touched me. A flare of jealousy rose within me. I bit back the odd emotion as his fingers curled around her neck, digging into her skin.
Her strangled breath rattled in the air. Her hands clenched and her entire body bucked beneath his deadly grip. He faced away from me and stared into the lens of a professional-grade camera.
“I have something I wish to share with you, if you’ve got the stomach for it. Consider it a business proposition and this merely something to whet your appetite. Only serious inquiries will be considered.”
The woman gagged and coughed as his grip tightened around her throat choking her. I couldn’t see her face, but the moment her entire body went limp I knew everything had changed.
You’re not walking out of here!
He walked over to a table and lifted a large knife. Checking the heft in his hand, his fingers curled around the handle. He glanced at me, eyes pinched tight with a scowl firmly fixed on the granite features of his face.
I shook my head, pleading with him not to do it. It couldn’t be. He wouldn’t.
He will. And you’re next.
No!
He stepped up to the woman who was coming back around, slowly regaining consciousness. He gripped her spiky hair in his fist and yanked her head back. The knife went to her neck and he stared directly into the camera.
“This is a prelude to what I will do to the bitch, Kate Summers, and a message I’m sending her. I’m certain you know all about Kate and what she intends. Mitzy is her assistant, and the two of them thought to use me.” He placed the knife to the woman’s throat. “Nobody uses me.”
My eyes widened as he dragged the knife from one side of the woman’s neck to the other. I couldn’t see the cut, but the gurgling sounds painted an adequate picture. The woman thrashed as a curtain of red spilled down her body where it gathered in a puddle at her feet. Her movements grew weaker and weaker as her lifeblood pooled on the floor.
Breath surged into my lungs preparing for a scream I couldn’t keep buried, but when My Monster turned around, his penetrating stare pinned me in place. I swallowed that scream as a whole-body shiver overtook me. His look commanded me to obey, and hell if I didn’t do exactly that. He’d conditioned me to be the perfect slave.
The woman’s body sagged and he tossed the knife to the floor.
“I don’t like being used.” His words were aimed at the camera. “Kate is next, but I’ll spend more time with her and give you a taste of what I’m offering. As a connoisseur of similar things, I’m certain you’ll be interested in my business proposition. I’m extending an invitation, a front row seat as it were, but I want something in return.” He released the body and took a step back. “My offer expires within the hour.”
My inner voice screamed at me, howling about how I hadn’t tried hard enough to get away, but the murderous look in My Monster’s eyes told me resisting would be the last thing I ever did.
He once asked if I wanted to live. I had to find a way to reach him because I didn’t want to die.
When he came back to me, I couldn’t help but flinch.
“My sweet Clara,” he lowered his voice, “I see what’s going on in that pretty head of yours, but this is the kind of man I am. I’m a murderer. A rapist. Don’t ever forget I’m a monster. There is no hero in this story and despite what you want to believe, I’m not here to save you. I never was.”
My head shook side to side. Unwilling to believe this was the same man with whom I had spent the last few weeks, the same man who read aloud to me, the man who crawled into bed with me that one night and did nothing but hold me.
“You’re wrong.” The words spilled from my lips and I felt the truth in them.
You’re insane!
Maybe, but I know I’m right.
“Don’t presume to think you know me, slave. We’ve only just begun.”
I pressed my lips together because I knew the truth. It resonated in my bones and fluttered in the pit of my belly. I dared to lift my gaze, telling him without words what I believed was true. In the space between us, something shifted.
“This is not who you are.”
“This is exactly who I am. What I am.” He pointed to the dead girl. “I’m a monster.”
“You’re My Monster, but you’re not that. You love me.”
His eyes widened and he sucked in a breath. “If you want to live, don’t ever say that again.”
A phone rang behind him and he spun around. With a glare toward the camera, he stalked toward a small table set to the side with an old rotary phone sitting on top. He lifted the receiver and placed it to his ear.
“Yes. No, that is my personal slave. No one touches her, but I have Kate. If you’re interested I’ll arrange another demonstration. You’ll see what I have in mind.” His eyes pinched as he glared at me. “That’s correct, but not what I’m offering. My clients aren’t interested in videos which can be faked. They want ring side seats to the real thing and have the means to pay for the privilege. My price?” He squeezed t
he bridge of his nose. “I have unique tastes as well.”
What the hell was going on here?
He’s a monster. Why won’t you listen?
Because, there’s good in him.
You’re an idiot.
I was ready to fight for what I believed in and I believed there was good in him. When he slammed down the phone, I straightened my spine and prepared to do battle with the man I loved.
Chapter 33
I hated everything about this shit plan. Every bit of this had been my idea. Nobody agreed until I spelled things out. Then grudgingly, they all got on board.
I wish they hadn’t. If they’d been more forceful, then Clara wouldn’t have had to watch me strangle a woman in front of her.
After slamming the phone down, I couldn’t place enough distance between myself, the vileness of the man on the other end of that call, and poor sweet, innocent Clara.
She stared at me, the look on her face did not bode well for either of us. I wanted to go to her, comfort her, and tell her it had all been faked. But I didn’t.
I could have. Carson wouldn’t know. Chambers cut the video connection after Mitzy’s fake death, but Clara couldn’t know about the deception.
Not if I was going to keep her safe.
Her reaction needed to be real for any of this to work. And it gutted me for her to see what I was truly capable of and the kind of monster my father had made me.
Not that I had been the one to kill any of the girls he used in his vendetta against Jake, but I had been the one forced to rape them, planting DNA evidence to frame my twin for the girls’ murders.
Having to strangle and garrote Mitzy to an audience made my skin crawl. The girl’s performance had been perfect. Even I believed I had snuffed out her life. And, fuck if Mitzy hadn’t stayed in character the whole damn time, even sagging against the bonds as she turned limp, lifeless, and dead.
Shit, I needed a moment to gather my thoughts. My hand shook as I dragged it through my hair. With a sharp tug, I pulled at the roots, needing the bite of pain to remind myself I was human.
I needed Clara. I needed her calming presence. With her, I felt like a different kind of person. She didn’t know about my past, and she seemed to see something in me no one else could.
But I couldn’t go to her.
If she was to see me as a monster, I had to embrace my role. I waved to Chambers.
“Take her.” My path from the phone had been on a direct line to Clara. I needed to feel her in my arms, but I angled away. Her eyes widened as I ignored her and left the room.
There was supposed to be a debrief, but I couldn’t face my business partners. Shit, what kind of business were we in? Some kind of vigilante justice league I supposed.
It had been so fucking real.
Forest assured me his makeup artists would create the impossible, but I didn’t really believe until I saw it for myself. The knife to Mitzy’s throat hadn’t been necessary, but Forest wanted to make a statement. I understood. That little shitshow hadn’t been just for Carson but rather for the elusive Snowden.
The whole thing had been rigged, but damn if it didn’t drag up the worst memories. If Clara knew the things I’d done, or the eagerness with which I had framed my brother, she would never be able to look at me again.
I had raped women, violently, and felt justified doing so, convinced by my father that Jake deserved to suffer for the crimes he committed against me. I’d been such a fool and too easily corrupted by my father’s vile sickness to see the truth.
My father used me, and I let the shithead do it.
The worst part, as if raping and murdering innocents wasn’t bad enough, was that I could never undo those sins. I couldn’t beg for forgiveness from my victims because they had all been murdered by my father’s hand.
It would haunt me for life, and honestly, I deserved to suffer. I tried to convince myself shutting down the Georgia operation would redeem me. There would be fewer victims as a direct result of my actions.
In saving Wu’s children, I might be able to abolish the vileness of children forced to kill other children in those damn death matches. But the honest truth was that there was no erasing the sins I committed. No matter how many I saved, I couldn’t bring back the ones who suffered by my hands.
While Chambers secured Clara, Forest’s team was probably in there cleaning shit up. Mitzy’s stunning performance deserved a damn Oscar. The gurgling after I dragged the knife across her throat nearly had me believing I delivered a killing blow.
I was supposed to debrief with the others in Xavier’s study, but I turned right instead of left and wandered until I located an exit. The man’s estate was a maze of white upon white and confused the fuck out of me.
But I made it outside and navigated my way through the gardens until my feet found a path leading toward where I hoped to find the beach. Not wanting to ruin my shoes, I stopped to take them off and rolled up the cuffs of my trousers.
This place was a fucking paradise. Puffy white clouds dotted the sky and the faintest whiff of salty air flooded my senses. The path opened up onto a cove bordered by pristine white sand where waves lapped against the crescent shaped bay.
Hot humid air surged into my lungs and perspiration beaded my brow. I rubbed my palms on the fabric of my trousers and stopped to admire the tropical paradise. The shoreline beckoned and I dropped my shoes in the sand to stroll toward the water’s edge.
I stood there, for what seemed an eternity, expecting someone would eventually be sent to retrieve me. Two sets of feet sounded behind me. I figured Chambers or one of his associates would be the one who fetched me. I did not expect to turn around and stare into a face identical to mine.
My twin made his stance about my plans known to all involved. He would do what was necessary and play his part, but he wanted nothing to do with me.
It hurt, but was expected. I was trying to make amends, but that didn’t mean anyone had to forgive me. His presence here, however, came as a complete shock.
“How are you doing?” Jake’s jade-green eyes took me in. The complete opposite in every other way, our appearance wasn’t just identical. It was freakishly the same. I’d used it against Kate a couple of times, and she hadn’t been able to tell us apart.
Or had been. I had more muscle than my brother. Our differences in musculature had been something Kate brought up. Jake had been working out to bulk up over the past couple months. He was nearly the same size as me and hopefully Carson wouldn’t notice.
We would use that to our advantage shortly.
“Are you saying you care?” The sharp reply slipped out of my mouth before I could regret the harsh words.
“Ease up, Josh,” Kate said, “and stop being an ass to your brother. Jake’s concerned about you. That scene…” Her lips twisted and her expression soured. “It was intense.”
No shit, Captain Obvious.
“How is Mitzy?” If that scene fucked me up, I could only imagine what it had done to Mitzy.
“She’s good,” Jake took a step toward me, but stopped when he realized what he’d done.
“I doubt it, but please tell her thank you. I know this whole thing is a shitshow, but it’s going to work.”
Jake may not have confidence in me, but I had enough for us all. Killing Mitzy had been nothing but the warm-up act. Once Carson saw me torture and then kill Kate, I would be given carte blanche within Carson’s operation.
“You don’t know Mitzy,” Kate said. “She’s living up her prima donna performance. I swear there’s something twisted in her head.” Kate laughed, although I saw nothing funny about any of this. Her smile tried to ease the tension between us, but it did nothing for me. From Jake’s rigid stance, it didn’t affect him either.
“I just fake-killed the girl in front of an audience and she’s living it up? That’s not twisted. It’s wrong.”
“Like I said, you don’t know Mitzy.” Kate soothed her tone. “She knows what’s at stake and why w
e’re doing this. She’s been practicing her death scene for the past two days.”
I shook my head. Yeah, twisted didn’t come close to what that was, but I believed Kate. Memories of Mitzy waving Clara’s picture in my face and spelling her name haunted me nearly every night. The one thing Mitzy did not lack was passion.
“I thought Mitzi knew Clara, but it didn’t look like Clara recognized her.”
“Mitzy is passionate about many things. Telling the truth is not one of them. She wanted to make sure you took the job.”
“So, you’re telling me that was an act as well?”
Kate smiled. “It worked.”
I supposed it had.
My brother stood beside Kate with a deep scowl on his face. He had asked me how I was doing, but remained quiet since. I turned to him.
“And what about you? What do you think of your upcoming performance?”
Jake would stand in for me. He demanded it, even knowing his role. But the thought of me touching Kate had been more than he could stomach. Not to mention, he was a master with the whip.
Forest’s moulage team could only do so much. The whipping would be real. Kate would suffer, but she would do so beneath her Master’s lash. Not mine.
And when her life was taken, it would be done by Jake.
Not me.
That was another part of the plan which sucked. Mitzy’s performance had been via live feed. That allowed some leeway in the staging of her death. Kate’s death would be in front of a live audience.
Forest brought in his medical team, a specialized crew who would literally bring Kate back from the brink of death. I didn’t understand the medicine behind it, but he assured me the certified nurse anesthetist could. The whole operation seemed to be a damn family affair.
I had my brother Jake. Forest had his sister, Skye, an emergency physician. I didn’t know Tia or Ryker. Tia was the anesthetist and Ryker was a respiratory therapist.
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