Distilled Duplicity

by Louise Furley

  Naithon rumbled, “Blok, get Silver out of here. Have Elena bring up some food.” He quipped, “Tell her no lamb chops.”

  Continuous shocked voices exclaiming stunned surprise at their backs, Kiri bumped in his arms as he carried her up steps. “No, let me down, let me go!” she cried, now frantically looking around. The higher up she went in the house the harder it would be for her to escape.

  Chapter Ten

  His grip under her knees and back only grew tighter, holding her in place. How had this happened? Kiri’s brain screamed in captive frustration. One minute she was happy at school, was interning at jobs she loved, the next she’s being carried up the stairs in the arms of some mobster freak who planned to do who knew what to her and she would be helpless to stop him.

  Inexperienced to the max, Kiri still chided herself, she knew what he planned to do to her. He’d told her, sex. Forced sexual assault, because she will never submit to him, never.

  Naithon Adranokov had the worst reputation in Louisiana for just pure brutality with zero mercy or forgiveness. His barbaric actions were practically legend. Clearly he took whatever the hell he wanted regardless of what anyone else thought.

  The carpet under his feet was cream colored, even in her grinding fright she wondered how he kept it clean with all those people around. He was rich and powerful; he probably had armies of servants cleaning ceaselessly.

  They travelled up four flights. A steel door at the end of a foyer blocked the entrance at the top. Juggling Kiri, he put his thumb to a pad on the door and it slid into the wall like a pocket door. As they passed through, it clanked closed behind them.

  On the other side of the steel door, he turned to the right, Kiri saw to the left was a long corridor with many doors. The hall he traipsed down was long, too. That steel door in the foyer slammed any thought of her easily escaping right out of her mind.

  He wasn’t even breathing heavily as he carried her effortlessly. He was so strong, she wondered how he’d fooled so many people for so long that he was paralyzed. Including his family. She chanced a glance at him, and cringed. His hard features were coldly impervious, flinty cruelty threatened in those scary eyes.

  At the end of the hall, he used his thumb again on a security pad and the door swung open, he trod inside. Her heart hammered against her ribs, she hadn’t realized she was clutching his shirt again, her fingers tightened.

  He walked through a sitting room made up of tans and browns and blues, heavy furniture but comfortable looking. An entertainment system covered a wall, fireplace another, a bar another.

  Sofa and several easy chairs faced each other in a semi-circle. Big, sturdy, dark maple coffee table in the middle matched smaller tables in the room.

  He trod down one of the several halls she saw, and then stepped inside a bedroom. He’d said he was taking her to his room. Why would he want to keep her there, in his personal space? Why not another room, a closet, the basement, where he could take her out when he wanted to play with her and put her back when he was done?

  The lush ivory rug muffled his footsteps. The bedroom was huge, enormous bed near a balcony that could be seen beyond the glass doors. Dresser and other furnishings spit-polished and gleaming dark wood. Naithon carried her to the bed and set her down on it. Kiri immediately scooted to the side away from him and jumped up.

  His dark blond brows lowered, lids slid down his eyes giving the stare he aimed at her disturbingly like that gorilla in the zoo that stood waiting, watching for a mistake, a minor lapse in security, and he would get you.

  The probing look smoothed into inscrutable blankness as he tugged at the knot on his tie, got it loose, pulled the end down and off, and tossed it on top of a dresser.

  Next went the suitcoat, he dropped that over the back of a settee by a window. When his fingers went to the buttons on his shirt, her eyes on his every move, Kiri started stepping backwards. A bell chimed.

  Naithon left her for a moment then returned with a tray. He set the tray on a table. When he turned his attention to her, Kiri backed away, towards the door. The brows lowered again in irritation. “We are not playing any games, here, Kiri. I told you, you will do as I say. Stop moving away from me.”

  Her lashes fluttered rapidly with her panicked breaths, she turned and fled out the door and down the hall. She didn’t make it to the end of the hall, he grabbed her hair. Twisting it around his fist he pulled her head, forcing her to look up at him.

  Glaring stoically at her, he said coldly, “Last time you do that, lamb, run from me.” Releasing her hair, he slid his hand under her hair and grasped the back of her neck, directing her back to the bedroom. By the time they returned, her body was in a full-out shake-down.

  Pushing her to the bed, he let her go and said, “I have to speak with my men. There’s food there for you.” His gaze slid up and down her form, turning the shaking to a fierce shiver. He tromped to the walk-in closet.

  Came back in a second with a long sleeved, button-down white shirt. “I didn’t think to arrange for your clothes. I could borrow something from one of the girls, but,” a shoulder bumped, “I don’t know how you feel about thongs and nipple tassels.” His lip twitched at the pink that flooded her face.

  His eyes still on her, he laid the shirt on the bed. “I’ll be gone a few minutes. You can shower in the bathroom,” he nodded his head towards an open door. “When you’re done, you will put on that shirt. I want nothing on you but that shirt. No bra, no panties, nothing. Do you understand?”

  Kiri stood with trembling knees, glanced at the shirt then back to him and blinked anxiously.

  Naithon dragged a finger over one eyelid and sighed. “Okay. I get that you’re scared. But, Kiritina, you see, there is nothing you can do stop me from having you. No one will be coming to your rescue. You will find that you will be far better off here with me than with that redheaded swine. Just resign yourself to the task of pleasing me and everything will go easy for you.”

  She blinked more, then, “Pleasing you? You are totally irrational! What you are doing is wrong. Kidnapping me, holding me against my will, any…thing…uh, you plan on doing to me…it’s wrong. Don’t you see?”

  His lip curled up on one side. “Ja, I do. But I don’t care.” His expression sobered, eyes narrowed. “Little girl, I’d been kicked around as a child, spent years on the street with a no conscience murderous gang, then endured years of prison savagery.

  “Twice my old man took everything from me, leaving me with nothing. My brother stole my girlfriend and then made me a cripple. I had to build everything I have from scratch. In prison, a cellmate told me when I got out to contact this man that owned a whiskey distillery and he’d give me a job.”

  Kiri empathized, but still, he was going to cold-bloodedly assault her.

  “It was back breaking work, he used me like a dog, beat me like a goddamned mule. I was on parole, I couldn’t leave the job.” He went on, “But I learned enough, and did some…below the law work shall we say, until I’d built up my own business again. No one ever gave me a damned thing, they just took and took. So,” his hands tucked in his pockets, he shrugged, “now I take.” Those devious gorilla eyes had turned to blank, deadly shark eyes.

  Her arms crossed over her front, she wrapped her hands halfway around to her back as a full-body shiver rattled her. Involuntarily she took a step back.

  “See that, that shit is what you are gonna stop.” He prowled a foot to her, scowled with his whole face. “You will not run from me, or move away from me. You heard my men address me?” She blinked confused, then nodded. “And what do they call me?” He waited, she shuddered, he moved closer.

  “Uh, B- Boss.”

  His boots planted akimbo, he unbuckled his belt, slid it out of the loops, her eyes stayed on it until he tossed it on a chair. “Do you know why they call me Boss?”

  She shook her head. Terror was creeping back up her spine. Flight or fight was smacking her in the head, but she knew she dare not run. There w
as nowhere to go. He’d catch her in two strides like he’d just done. His chamber door was locked, as was the steel door that led to the stairs.

  Shark eyes narrowed to mean slits, he told her flatly, “Because I am the boss. You know what that means, lamb?” When she didn’t speak he barked, “Answer me!”

  Kiri jumped, wrapped her arms more tightly around her body shivering with fright. “I, uh, not sure…”

  The edge of his mouth quirked. “That means, I give the orders, and everyone follows them. You know what happens when people do not do as I command?”

  Silently, she bit her lips and shook her head.

  “Bad things, Kiritina, very bad things. I’m sure your brothers have shared with you some of my…punishments?”

  She nodded, pulled her lips in and gnawed on them to still their trembling.

  “So…” Crossing his arms he mirrored her. Although he was obviously angry, he was ten times calmer than Kiri. The shark eyes glittered at her from under slit lids. “That means,” his deep, thickly accented voice hardened, “you do as I say. Or else…”

  He watched the emotions ripple across her face. Fear, resistance, anger, fear. “Now that we’ve had this little talk, and I seldom repeat myself, I am going downstairs for a brief meeting. You are gonna eat,” he indicated the tray on the desk, “clean up, use my toothbrush,” his mouth twitched at her wrinkled nose at the order.

  “You put that shirt on.” He motioned with his head to the shirt he’d set on the bed. “No bra, no underwear, and you be in that bed,” he lifted his chin to the bed, “when I return. If you don’t do as I say, I will do it for you. Trust me, you will not like it. I’m doing you a favor, girl, just for tonight, allowing you to wear something in bed.”

  What an odd experience, he thought, first time he ever had to order a female to disrobe and get in bed. Usually they were tearing off their clothes, and his and climbing on him like monkeys after his banana.

  Holding herself, Kiri’s eye flit to the bed, the red blanched out of her face, her gaze lowered to stare at the shirt. He’s out of his mind- When he spoke again, her eyes leapt up to his. It felt like he could hear her thoughts, read her mind, oh, another shiver rippled through her, and he saw that too.

  “That belt,” he jutted his chin to his discarded belt and said, “will be put to use on your ass if I come back and you aren’t in that shirt, in that bed. We clear?”

  She nodded miserably.

  Naithon glared at her, her eyes stayed staring at the floor. He waited a minute, she didn’t move. Without another word, he turned on his arrogant heel and the door to his chamber closed, then the lock clicked.

  Chapter Eleven

  Naithon went in search of Mazonn. Unfortunately that meant traipsing through the main floor to get to the back den his friends liked to relax in, play cards, billiards, drink.

  His long legs strode quickly but he wasn’t fast enough, Silver Dae Foxx darted out of a doorway. She’d been gossiping with a few other girls, exotic dancers they liked to be called. Naithon had other names for them.

  “Naity, there you are!” Silver scurried to him, threw her arms around his neck. “Lord, what a shock we had seeing you walking, and then you were carrying that creature!” One hand moved to flatten on his upper chest. “We were so stunned! Blok filled us in since Mazonn said the cat was out of the bag. You are so clever, my baby boy.” She reached up to comb her fingers through his hair.

  Naithon caught her wrist and pushed her away and kept walking. He’d made an error in judgment fucking her. One day he had been home annoyed and tense. Normally he didn’t do the talent in the house, but it was a nasty rainy day and he needed to relieve the tension and she was the first bitch to pass him.

  The week continued long and rainy so he’d done her more than once. Now, the whore felt he was hers. She was showing up at his office in the city. He’d screwed a few other girls to get her off his back, but she still clung to him like frost on a glacier.

  “Sugar,” she pouted and hurried after him. Silver dashed around to walk beside him, her legs working extra hard to keep up with his. “Anyway, we were so surprised, and happy, we need to celebrate!”

  He ignored her as he kept walking, she took fast steps to keep up. “Honey, sex was out of this world when you were paralyzed, it’s gonna be dynamite now! Come, let’s go to your room, we’ll see how different it is,” she grabbed his arm.

  Naithon yanked it away and kept moving. Silver was almost jogging now. “Wait!” She hopped in front of him with her hands up to stop him. He did or he’d trip over her. “Honey,” she wooed, “your bedroom. Now that you’re banging other bitches there we can-”

  “I am only going to say this once, Silver, so listen carefully.” Shark eyes slit to such cold enmity Silver shut her mouth. He gripped her shoulders, crushingly hard, her face pinched in pain. His voice so chilled the words came out frozen, he said, “We will not be fucking ever again, Silver. I will not be with anyone except that girl I brought upstairs.”

  “But, but who is she? If you want it that way,” Silver’s shoulder lifted in a coy pose and an incendiary smile, “I can join you. Does she dig chick action? She like whips? Nipple pumps? We can bring in all the girls you want, Naithon, you have the stamina of a stallion. We can-”

  He shook her so hard her head snapped. “I said,” his words clipped and cold, “I am done with all of you, any of you. I only fucked a few of you, I can’t even remember which ones. Doesn’t matter, we are done. Now, get out of my way.” He released her with a little shove and started walking again. The past few years he’d only been biding his time banging other females while he waited for the opportunity to get his hands on Kiri.

  “No, but wait, Naity, come on, what’s so special about her? I can do whatever it is that she does that turns you on so much! Just tell me her action, let me watch, I’ll learn!”

  His strides grew longer and faster.

  Huffing to keep up, Silver cried, “Who is she? Who the hell is she? Naithon!” She screeched after him but he reached the den, strode inside and slammed the door in her face, locked it. The door muffled her shrieks but they continued on, along with her fists pounding on the door.

  Taking a deep breath, he rolled his eyes at a chuckle. Turning around, he saw Mazonn lounging in a big chair, feet up on a hassock, a drink on the table beside him, European cigarillo clamped between his teeth.

  “Sounds like Miss Silver Dae is having a bad day.” Mazonn chuckled again, blue eyes mischievous. Silver’s rants and pounding carried on.

  Naithon snorted and moved to the bar to pour himself a drink. Once done, he carried it to a chair and plunked down. “She’ll get tired in a minute and go away.”

  “What bug flew up her ass?” Mazonn asked, dragging on his cigar without taking it out of his mouth.

  Naithon tipped a long drink down his throat then set the glass on an end table and lit his own thin cigar. A few tokes, watching the smoke spiral from his mouth, he shrugged. “I told her whatever unremarkable shit we were doing before is done now.”

  Mazonn squinted through the smoky haze in front of his face. “What does that mean?”

  The screams and pounding diminished then ceased after one last bang, which sounded like a kick. Sitting back, Naithon set an ankle over a knee, sucked in a drag. “Fucking. I told her I was done fucking her and whatever bitches I did or didn’t do before. I stayed away from most of them that hang here anyway, they get too clingy.”

  Pondering his words, Mazonn asked, “Why? You have more pussy dropped in your lap than there are stars in the sky. Why would you turn it away? Everyone else here has been through each bitch at least a hundred times around, and all the other strippers at the clubs that you turn your nose up at.”

  Naithon’s lips twisted in revulsion. “Why would I want to stick my quill in every inkwell that every other male here and more has?” He shook his head, sipped his vodka. “I have what I want. Took a while to get it, but I got it and I have less than zero de
sire to shove my dick in any other cunt.”

  Brows arching, Mazonn’s lips pushed out. “By ‘it’, you mean the girl, Ignacio’s daughter? I thought you took her just to screw with him. You aren’t seriously thinking about…banging her? I mean, you forced her to come here bro, she was clearly petrified when you tossed her in the limo.”

  Lids lowering, Naithon glanced briefly at his friend. “I told you why I was taking her. You were all well aware of my intentions. Why are you surprised I have her in my bed?”

  Mazonn studied his friend. Naithon had told his men, his friends, that he was going to take Ignacio’s daughter, by any means. The meeting was his opportunity. He had made a plan on how to take her easily, without harm or gunfire, and Ignacio had fallen right into his hands, as had his daughter.

  Naithon hadn’t gone into depth about his attraction for the girl with his friends, he hadn’t needed to, it flamed out of his eyes every single time at the sight of her, but he hadn’t given them details. Just that he wanted her.

  Mazonn asked, “Ah, so, what does the girl think about all this? She didn’t look too happy being on your lap or stuffed into the car. If I recall, she ran from you.”

  One shoulder bumped with indifference. “She isn’t. So what. I took her for my wants, not for hers.”

  “Hmm.” Mazonn drank carefully, took a slow drag, sucked in the smoke, blew it out. “Is she willing to have sex with you? She didn’t look the type to bed hop with just any dude that asks her.”

  “She isn’t. And no one is asking her.”

  Mazonn’s head tilted back in misgiving, blue eyes narrowed. “You planning on taking her against her will?”

  Naithon’s shoulder bumped again, he didn’t respond.

  Mazonn set his drink down, laid the cigar in an ashtray and stood up. He wore grey trousers and a black sweater, he stuck his hands in his pockets and looked with serious intent at his friend. “Ah, Nait, bro, they call that rape.”