Staring out the window, she saw nothing but blue. Blue sky, endless blue water, there wasn’t any visible land or another boat in sight.
Panicking fear strangled the breath in her lungs, exterminating rational thought. Kiri struggled to fight down the terror that was rapidly overwhelming her. She dropped down on a chair by the window and watched the infinite sea range far and wide, white foamed waves rolled and slapped into each other.
After what seemed like hours, the rocking motion lolled her. Her head twitched, she was falling asleep. Kiri sat up straight. She wasn’t letting Duce sneak up on her. Rubbing an eye, she peered out the window.
She and Melonie had finished lunch around two. It was late autumn and the sun was settling along the horizon. The orange orb spread into the water, painting a vertical, orange streak wavering down the endless, deep dark aqua. Naithon had taken her towards the beginning of fall, and now it was almost winter. The past few days had been temperate, like an Indian-summer.
Climbing to her numb feet, Kiri stared out the glass smeared with saltwater drops and a crusty film. It had to be around four or five o’clock judging by the sun’s descent. Her pounding heart squeezed in fright, there was no way Naithon could ever find her. Ever. As soon as he got his money Duce was going to kill her. Panic gripped her heart, started rising in her throat it was smothering her in dread.
The boat slowed for a bit before she heard the engines ratcheting down, then it came to a rocking stop. A long grinding sound scraped down the side of the yacht, Kiri wondered if Duce had lowered the anchor.
She looked out the window at the shrouding darkness, sky and sea slowly becoming indistinguishable. Still, it would be near an hour though before the sun fully set. There was nothing in sight, not land, another boat, a plane, nothing.
They had stopped out in the middle of nowhere, what could he anchor to? Was this to be her final resting place? Shivers of terror sprinted up Kiri’s spine, chilling the hairs on the back of her neck.
A noise at the door made her swing around in a start. Eyes wide, her hand at her throat, she watched the slow, wicked grin roll up Duce’s fiendish face as he entered the cabin. He was Satan, evil incarnate. A man so morally bankrupt he would murder his entire family for money.
Kiri instinctually stepped back, although there was nowhere for her to go. At well over six feet, shoulders like an ox, she wasn’t getting past that wall of perdition.
He moved into the room, his smile almost friendly, exhibited a shade of confusion at the sheer terror whitening her face. “Baby button, why are you so afraid? It’s me, Duce, your brother.” He held a computer in his hand.
As afraid as she was, she still snorted. “Huh, my murdering, money-grubbing brother.” She sucked in a deep breath. “Have you come to kill me now? I’ll fight you, Duce, to the end. I won’t go easy like a kitten drowned in a sack.”
Dark brows hopped up in surprise. “Kill you? Never, my little button. I plan to force you to transfer all the funds you received from Dad’s estate to me. I hacked into our attorney’s files and saw that the money is already under your name. They did it quickly to keep the businesses running. Dad hadn’t dared to put it under our idiot sister’s name. She’d squander every dime and let the business go under.”
Kiri knew this. Naithon had his IT guy put the false information in the lawyer’s computer files and left it slackly protected so Duce could hack in and access it. Once he thought the funds were in her account, he’d make his move. And he did.
Of course Kiri had always thought when Duce came for her, that Naithon would be there and miraculously save her. Boy was she wrong. No one thought of an ocean attack. The men had all been guarding inside, and outside the front area of the restaurant.
Duce set the laptop on a table, lifted the monitor up and wrapped his hand around Kiri’s neck. He pushed her head down towards the computer. “Now, use your password and transfer all of the funds from your account to the one there,” he motioned to a paper taped to the keyboard.
“But, what if I-”
His fingers pushed bruising into her throat digging into her windpipe, cutting off her air supply. “Not playin’ here, Button, no prevaricating, just fucking do it. You got two seconds. One, two-”
Her fingers typed over the keyboard even as she gasped, choking for breath. They both watched the screen as the money flowed from her account to his. When it was done, he released her; she stumbled back with both hands at her neck.
He closed the lid with a huge rapturous grin, manic euphoria glowing sickly in his brown eyes.
Stalling for time, time for what? To get away? Did she have wings? Anyway, Kiri asked, “Now that the money has gone through, you’ll kill me? Throw me overboard? Let the sharks do their thing?”
He looked genuinely surprised. “No, sweet button,” he shook his head, moving towards her, “I’m keeping you.”
The hair on her head stung in fright. “Keeping me? For what?” Was the world filled with Naithons? In the gangster world she was purely a possession.
He laughed. “Seriously, Kiri? You are still that naïve?” Another step closer, his voice lowered, darkness inked into it, “Honey, you know I’ve always wanted you. A child, a teen, an adult,” he shrugged negligently, “don’t matter, I just have to have you.”
“Have me?”
With a perfidious chuckle, he said, “Come on, Button, I want to fuck you. I always have. Don’t care if you’re young or old, I admit I am obsessed. I will bind you in our bedroom. You were juicy as a child, now,” he appreciated her figure with a leer, “you are even juicier with all those sexy as shit curves. There’s more to play with now.”
Stumbling back from him, she asked, “You- you’re going to keep me? For how long?”
His mouth hooked in a raunchy smile, in his eyes erotic degeneracy flared. “I’m thinking like forever, babe. I always understood Adranokov’s taking you, his desire to lock you away somewhere with the intent of marrying you so you could never leave him.”
Large hands curled over his jean-clad hips, head cocked, his indecent gape roamed every scintilla of her body, pupils dilating when they traced over her curves. The salacious smirk bunched into a frown, he said, “I would have married you if it had been legal, alas,” he shrugged blocky shoulders, “I can’t. So, I’ll just have to do as that gangster has, keep you hidden away and secured.”
He took a few steps towards her. “But right now, I have’ta fuck you, baby sister, I’ve waited a long damned time to get you under me.”
Kiri held her hands up. “No, Duce, stop. You’re sick, you’re my brother for heaven’s sake! It’s- it’s monstrous! You can’t do this-”
“I’m a male, you’re a female, it’s quite normal, so yeah, I can do this. Yeah, we’re siblings, but our parts will fit together just like anyone else’s.”
“You fucking bastard,” Melonie’s furious snarl drew Kiri’s attention.
Duce didn’t bother to turn around, he ordered, “Get the fuck out, Mel, this is between me and the baby.”
Melonie stomped into the room. “You son of a bitch, Duce. You said you were going to kill her after you got the money.” Her voice wound into a petulant whine, “You said it would be you and me, just us together, without her,” she spat at Kiri with a twisted face, throwing her an antagonistic gesture. “She won’t take care of you in bed like you know I can!”
Flabbergasted, Kiri’s anguished eyes widened in bewilderment. “You too, Mel? For heaven’s sake, you guys keep talking about incest like you’re making out a grocery list. It’s- sick, against human and God’s law.” Shaking her head with stunned incredulity, looking from one to the other, she cried, “My siblings. Lord almighty, murder, rape, incest, what foul seeds did you come from?”
Duce regarded her calmly with a jaded smile. “I had to have someone satisfying my needs while I stayed in hiding. It’s not all that unnatural, Button, plenty of isolated clans fucked each other when there was no one else around, they had to keep the popul
ation going, right?”
Melonie was beside herself, whitecaps of homicidal rage rattled spasms all over her body. Uttering a wild shriek, Melonie ran towards Kiri with her arms out, fingers deadly talons. “I’ll kill you myself you man-stealing whore!” Kiri shrank back, but Duce snaked out an arm, snagged Melonie’s plump waist, bringing her to an abrupt stop.
Melonie pounded at his arm, screaming, “You let me go, I’m gonna get rid of that skank once and for all!”
Fisting her hair until she cried out, Duce snarled into her face, spittle smacking her skin, “You aren’t gonna do fucking shit, Mel. I give the orders here, you do as I say. Sit down and shut up while I show the baby who owns her now.” Gripping her hair and her arm, he hurled her hard, Melonie flew across the room crashing into a chair. She slumped to the floor with a grunt.
“Now, where was I, baby button-” he swung around, and cursed. “Where the fuck did she go?”
While her siblings were fighting, Kiri bolted out of the cabin, slamming the door, she locked it and tore up the stairs to the upper deck. The yacht was big but the sea was rough making the hull bob and roll over large waves. Saltwater slapped the sides and spewed over spraying the deck.
With only the thought to get away, Kiri ran to the railing and grasped it. Her lips parted in dismay, still, all she could see were miles and miles of open water. A faint thunderous roar rumbled somewhere. “Great, a lightning storm, can things get any worse?” Her purse, she suddenly thought, “My phone!”
She ran to the part of the deck where she had tumbled aboard. When Melonie pushed her and she dropped, her purse had flown off. Maybe Naithon could follow the GPS in her phone. There was no question in her mind that he would come after her.
They were so far out it was unlikely she could call on the cell. She spotted her purse, her phone was on the deck a few feet from it. Hope withered, the phone was smashed to smithereens, probably by Duce’s boot. There were only pieces of the shell, he must have thrown the guts overboard.
“What to do now?” She tried to think. Hurrying to the bridge, maybe she could drive the boat. Sure. It was worth a try.
The yacht had three decks, the bridge was on the top level. As Kiri slipped into the bridge, she could hear Duce bellowing and beating at the door downstairs. She went to the control panel, and her stomach fell. She hadn’t a clue what to do. “Well,” she told herself with determination, “I have to try something, anything. First, the anchor.” Glancing around, she scrutinized buttons and switches but saw nothing that said anchor.
The rumbling grew louder, only a few cotton clouds shuffled across the darkening blue sky. The sun was melting into the sea, but it was still light. She couldn’t see the dark clouds of the storm, but she could hear it, it sounded closer every second. Growing more frantic, “There has to be a lever,” she muttered, “somewhere.” Kiri bent and read every label on every piece of equipment, button, switch, then-
“Oh yes!” she crowed, spying a small lever, under it read ‘anchor.’ She reached for it, her fingers pushed, and a hard hand dropped on hers and crushed her hand in his palm. She cried out with the pain.
“Don’t think so, baby sister,” Duce grated, anger mixed with a speck of amusement. Squeezing her hand to stop her action, he snapped it off the lever. Still holding her hand, he swung her around and jerked her against his body and grinned down at her.
“Now, baby girl, we’re done fooling around, actually, we’re about to begin fooling around,” his voice went from hardened with wrath, to husked with lust. “You aren’t getting away from me again. Not ever again. Finally, there’ll be no father or two-bit gypsy gangster to get between us.”
Curving his arm like an iron brace around her back, he grabbed fistfuls of her blouse. Growling into her hair, “I wanted our first time to be special, downstairs on the bed, candlelight, music, wine. But,” he sighed with annoyance, “Mel ran into the bedroom and locked the fucking door where she’s having a fit. As soon as we’re safely away, I gotta dump her ass in the ocean. She ever gets anywhere near you she’ll gouge your pretty eyes out.”
“Duce, don’t do this,” she begged, but like a mountain he didn’t budge when she shoved at him.
“No, I can’t wait, I won’t wait any longer to have you,” he exclaimed and wrenched her blouse, buttons flew pattering against the bridge, seats, the floor.
Kiri screamed, pushed him, he laughed and jerked her right back against his chest. Duce dug his fingertips into the side of her face and dragged them down her skin leaving red trails in their wake.
Smiling at her wince of pain, he told her, “I was gonna make our first time nice, gentle, slow, now,” his hand moved to grip the front of her throat, he tightened his fingers. “You’ve pissed me off. I had to break the damned door downstairs and chase you up here. You’re gonna be sorry because I’m gonna beat you bad and fuck you raw, baby sister, right into the ground.”
Adding his other hand to wrap around her neck, shaking her roughly, he snarled, “Every time you try to run from me, you’ll pay. And it won’t be a tiny playful smack on your little ass like Adranokov would give you. I’m not like those Romanian mobsters that think spanking their disobedient women is punishment, keeping them in line.”
Grinning in her face, he said, “Don’t worry, I won’t scar up that beautiful face, but I’m not averse to breaking a few bones. You can’t run away on broken legs. Dig me?”
“Duce,” Kiri croaked through her squashed trachea, scrabbling at his hands. “Don’t do this, you don’t want to do this-”
“Oh yes I do,” he said and bent his head and smashed his mouth over hers. Clamping his teeth on her lower lip he bit, hard enough a split of blood rose. Duce licked it, then shoved his tongue inside, and like the gluttonous beast he was, brutally raped her mouth, the foreshadowing violence of what he planned to do to the rest of her. She cried into his mouth, and he laughed.
He held her thrashing body so tightly she couldn’t breathe. Gasping for air, she struggled to thrust away from him, her actions only brought more hilarity to her depraved brother. “Keep struggling, my babydoll, your fear and pain excites me. I hung with your fiancé Rueford, learned a lot about S&M, not the normal fun stuff but all the real sick, violent stuff. Can’t wait to explore shit with you.”
An arm wrapped around Kiri, Duce kicked her legs out from under her and dropped her to the floor. He scrambled down on top of her, forcing her legs spread wide to accommodate his. Grasping both sides of her torn blouse, he pulled them apart, eyes gleaming, his tongue rolled out. Lowering his head, he sank his teeth savagely into her breast and she screamed.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Outside, the thunder grew into loud rumbling engines, and the thwat-thwat of helicopter propellers twirling nearby. Duce’s head popped up. “What the fuck?”
Dragging Kiri to her feet by her neck, Duce suddenly had a gun in his hand. Hauling her out of the bridge, he squinted up to the darkening cobalt sky. A helicopter hovered, slowly moving in on the yacht. Several boats bee-lined over the waves, streams of surf trailing them like white bushy tails.
“That fucking Adranokov, it has to be him, how the hell did he find us?” His hand still on her neck, he held her a few inches away and perused her body. His gaze hit her diamond earrings, then lowered to the watch glinting gold on her delicate wrist. Lips quirked in a wry smile, he nodded with admiration. “The guy loaded you up with tracers, my girl. You captivated yourself a clever one indeed.”
Snapping her around, he slammed an arm under her breasts, over her arms, cuffing her tight against his broad chest. He jammed his gun into her temple ignoring her whimper of pain. “But not clever enough. Melonie!” he roared. “Get the fuck up here!”
The boats and chopper moving closer, Melonie’s footsteps hit the steps and slapped the tile as she ran across the deck. Her eyes bugged in startled fright at the boats, then rose to the chopper, she turned to Duce, shouted, “You just had to take her, you idiot! You got the money, you have
me, why didn’t you just kill her and toss her body into the sea? What are we going to do now?”
Smirking at his sister like she was a moron, he told her, “Get the anchor up, start up the engine. We’re getting out of here. As long as I have this gun trained on his sweetheart, Adranokov will do as I tell him.”
Towing Kiri with him, Duce stayed in the shelter of the doorway to the bridge, out of sight of snipers. His cell rang. With a grin, keeping the gun pressed hard against Kiri’s temple, he fished it out and swiped it on. Naithon’s name came up.
Putting the phone on speaker, he set it on the ledge and wrapped his arm back around Kiri. “Adranokov?” he said smugly into the phone. “I’m a hacker and even I can’t figure out how you got this number.”
Naithon’s heavily accented, deep voice rumbled out, “You give her up right now, Delducci, and I might let you live. Draw this out or hurt her, and you won’t make it back to shore alive.”
It sounded like Naithon; Kiri frowned in confusion, but not quite.
Duce chuckled, “I’m the one holding the prize, you filthy gypsy jailbird.” His voice shifted to anger. “Now, it’s you that has five minutes to back away, and do not follow us. I’m removing the watch and earrings and tossing them into the drink. You come after us and I swear, I’ll cut tiny pieces off my sister until you back off.”
Sounds of the anchor scraping up the side of the boat and the engine revving could just barely be heard over the rumbling of the other boats and hovering chopper.
Naithon growled from the phone, “Delducci-”
“Three minutes,” Duce threatened with slight amusement. The boats inched closer, the helio hovered. “Melonie,” Duce called out, “come here.” To the phone he said, “Time’s up, hero.” He pushed Kiri to her knees, snapped a wire out of the counsel and tied her hands behind her back.
Melonie stepped from the controls and went to him. Worry wrinkled her brow. Her thin lips turned down in an impatient sneer, she asked him, “What are you doing? I need to drive the boat.”
Distilled Duplicity Page 31
