by Linzi Basset
“One mistake, one wrong decision, one stupid fucking word completely changed my life. Sometimes I think I would’ve been better off if I stayed in Saudi Arabia,” she said on a dry sob.
Bruce pinched her chin and forced her to look at him. He was shocked at the depth of despair, fear, and hatred at war in her eyes.
“Talk to me, Morgan. Let me help you.”
“I wish you could but … no one can help me.” She heaved in a deep breath. “If only it was that simple.” She offered him a trembling smile, squared her shoulders and opened the door. “Don’t pay attention to me. I’m just being silly.”
Before he could stop her, she jumped out of the car. He watched her walk around the front of his GMC. Her shoulders were slightly slumped, like she was carrying the weight of the world on her.
“It is that simple, Morgan,” he said softly as he got out and followed her inside the club. He caught her just as she stepped through the door. His hand curled around her arm to draw her against his body.
“I’ll be the one to decide if I can help you, squirt. In case you haven’t realized it yet, I don’t scare easily.” His finger on her lips stayed the protest that formed. “I have an entire and highly trained team to back me.” His sharp gaze pierced through her defenses. “All you need to do is trust in me.”
“Bruce, please don’t ask me to …” She swallowed hard as her throat closed up. She had to protect him as best she could. Telling him the truth would mean the end of him. Just the thought of his body beaten and broken or, god forbid, dead shook her to the core.
“You have a choice, Morgan. From your actions, you’re clearly afraid for your life. As your Dom, who takes my responsibility to care for and protect you very seriously, I can’t allow that to continue. Either talk to me of your own free will, or I will make you talk.”
She shivered at the dark look in his eyes. “You can’t hypnotize me without my participation and I refuse, point blank.”
His expression remained impassive as he continued into the Entertainment Room.
“Bruce! What are you going to do?” she cried impatiently as he blatantly ignored her tugging on his arm to break free. He stopped so abruptly that she stumbled against his hard chest.
“Are you forgetting where we are, sub?”
His entire demeanor had changed in a heartbeat. She’d never get used to the instantaneous change from gentle giant to powerful Dom. She bit back the words that threatened on her lips. He was already annoyed with her. It wouldn’t be wise to poke at a mamba ready to strike.
She lowered her eyes. “My apologies, Sir. For a moment it slipped my mind.”
“Don’t let it happen again,” he grunted at her effort to appear contrite, which she knew she failed at miserably. She had to lengthen her strides as he continued on to where Joanne was sitting with Samantha, Rhone’s fiancé, Lauren, Keon’s wife and Paige, Ethan’s wife. Alex and his fiancé, Pamela Seegers, who she’d met when they’d signed their agreement, also approached the group.
Bruce surprised her when he removed a thin red collar from his leathers and swiftly locked it in place around her throat.
“There. Now no one will bother you in my absence.”
Morgan was flummoxed at herself when she caught his hand as he turned away. She clung to it. He had become her anchor. She felt safe in his presence but it shook her that she had the desire to keep him by her side, so that she could keep him safe.
“Now, now, my pet, none of that. Alex and I have a meeting to attend.” He brushed his fingers over her nose. “Behave like a good little sub and I might reward you when I return.”
He offered her a lopsided grin. Her ovaries immediately burst out in song and dance as she felt the effect rush through her veins to settle in a steady throb of her clitoris.
“Think of a club name for yourself while I’m gone. Something catchy and sexy … like you.”
Morgan blinked and he was gone.
“Damn, how does he do that?” she muttered as she sat down next to Joanne.
The women laughed, having asked themselves the same question many a time.
“So, you haven’t chosen a club name yet?” Samantha asked.
Morgan squirmed under the direct regard of the beautiful blonde. She had noticed Samantha watching her throughout the night the first time she was there. It made her feel uncomfortable, like she knew that Morgan was hiding something.
“Not yet,” she replied with a tentative smile, hoping to appear at ease. “Is it really necessary? What’s wrong with Morgan?”
“It’s a requirement when you join, and it forms part of the allure of the club. It adds a little mystique, I think,” Paige said with a dimpled smile.
“What about … hmm, Emerald is overused based on eye color, so that’s a no. Fern! Yes, that’s it. Sometimes when you’re emotional your eyes turn the same deep green as the leaves of a fern tree.”
“Not exactly catchy and sexy, like Master Goliath wanted,” Lauren interjected. She shifted on the seat, groaning as she tried to find some comfort. “I can’t wait for these four weeks to pass. I love being pregnant but I’m so uncomfortable lately and I feel as big as a whale,” she complained. She patted her large belly lovingly. “Don’t worry, Tiger, mommy loves you to bits already.” She made big eyes at Morgan who stared at her in wonder. “Keon believes he can hear every word I say and feel my emotions, so I’m forever catching myself apologizing,” she said with a tinkling giggle.
Morgan glanced between Lauren and Joanne. “Two babies so close together. That’s amazing.” She felt a sudden yearning for her own little bundle of joy. Life had passed her by so quickly and just when she’d thought things were changing for the better, she made the worst decision of her life … a life altering one that had turned her into a prisoner.
“And Samantha isn’t too far behind.” Lauren smiled indulgently. “I can’t believe we’re pregnant together.” Her eyes teared up. “Especially as we both believed the other was dead for so long.”
“It’s all in the past, sis. Let’s concentrate on the future.” Samantha looked around. “At a guess, I think all of us are going to have our children close together.” She winked at Paige and Pamela. “How about it? Either of you have some news for us?”
“Whoa! Ethan and I just got married,” Paige blushed prettily. “But we are trying, so you’ll be the first to know if there’s a little Brodie on the way.”
“And you Pam?”
“Alex and I decided not to wait, so if Paige and Ethan are trying as hard as we, then we might be pregnant together,” Pamela said with a wide smile. “I just hope we’re married before that happens.”
“Alex is so head over heels for you, I’m sure he’s already got everything planned and all you’ll have to do is arrive and say I do,” Lauren teased. “Like my Hulk did with me.”
“Who would’ve thought Keon was such a romantic,” Joanne laughed, still heartsore that she had missed the joyous occasion, seeing as she was still stuck in Saudi Arabia at the time.
“I’m not sure how much of it was his idea or Beckie’s.”
“Beckie?” Morgan asked with a frown, feeling somewhat lost as she tried to connect the dots of the conversation.
“Keon’s daughter from his first marriage. She was still very young when his wife was murdered. He had believed Beckie was dead too, but the man who had his wife killed had abducted Beckie and kept her from Keon for six years. It was such a wonderful thing when they found each other again,” Lauren wiped the tears from her cheeks, remembering the dark years that she had been the key player in Beckie’s upbringing. She waved her hands in the air. “But we digress. We’re looking for a club name for Morgan.”
“What have I missed?” Lexi Calvert asked as she took the seat next to Morgan.
“Not much. We’ve been reminiscing about the past and talking babies.”
“Ah … babies,” she said with a telltale blush on her cheeks.
“No!” Joanne sat forward to pin her
down with a questioning look. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
Lexie looked around and whispered urgently, “Shh! I haven’t told Lance yet. I had a suspicion and the home pregnancy test I did last week was positive but I only saw the OBGYN today.” She smiled widely. “He confirmed it.”
“That’s wonderful news! Now we only need to work on Paige, Jordan, and Pam,” Sam beamed. Her eyes narrowed on Paige who blushed prettily but a warning glance kept her from further prodding.
“How is Jordan?” Lexi asked with a worried frown. “I haven’t had the time to pop in at the hospital.”
“She’s fine but refuses to leave Jack’s side. Ethan conceded and had a bed set up for her in his room. God, I don’t know how he survived the torture. He’s in pretty bad shape,” Paige said with a shudder.
“My brother is super strong and fitter than most. Don’t forget, he trained in combat warfare, being captured and how to withstand torture. He lasted six months in captivity in Afghanistan and also in Iraq. Jaden Bower doesn’t have what it takes to get past Jack’s resolve.”
“Jaden Bower? Who is he?” Morgan felt her hands start to tremble. Was it possible that they were talking about Dexter Powell? She pushed them under her legs to hide her distress. It was the one thing she’d never considered. That the men she knew weren’t who they really were.
“Jaden Bower and Reece Talbot are the two leaders of The Sixth Order. Something we just found out. The goddamned traitors. I still can’t believe Reece betrayed his own cousin and best friends like that,” Samantha sneered.
“Lance is taking it very hard,” Lexi said quietly as silence descended on the group of women. Each experiencing a moment of anger mixed with relief that the end was in sight.
“Is that where they went today? To catch them?” Morgan asked. She waited with bated breath. It was the first ray of hope she had. She had tried to find out more about Mr. Z and Dexter Powell with no luck. They were like phantoms.
“Mostly to find Jack and Jordan to bring them home, but yes, they were both there. According to Rhone, they believed Jaden was dead but when they went back to check on him, he had disappeared,” Samantha said with a small frown. “Of course, the coward Reece took off the moment he heard they were coming.”
“So, both of them are somewhere out there?” Morgan felt the walls of the Entertainment Room, vast as they were, close in on her. Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. She jumped up. “Please excuse me. I need to go to the ladies’ room.”
“Now there goes a very troubled woman,” Pamela said, watching her walk away.
“Scared is what I would say,” Samantha said with a pensive expression on her face. “I wonder why she’s so upset about Jaden and Reece. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear she knew exactly who they are.”
“Don’t go looking for something that’s not there, Samantha. All the women who we managed to bring back with us from Saudi Arabia live with the fear of recapture every day. Why do you think most of them elected to leave the U.S? Believe me, I’ve seen it happen a couple of times while I was there. Sex slaves manage to escape, leave the country and within a couple of months, the human traffickers found them and returned them to the buyers,” Joanne spat out in disgust. “If not, they had to supply replacements and that would mean loss of income to them.”
“Was Morgan a slave to an important Sheikh?”
“Yes, one who was in the running to become second in charge to the King. Morgan was Sheikh Johayman’s private concubine. He treated her like a treasured wife, albeit in captivity. I can only imagine how furious he was when he realized she had escaped along with the rest of the slaves.”
“Good lord, no wonder the poor woman is in a state,” Lexi said. She looked at Joanne. “Is the rumor I heard true? That Master Goliath agreed to an exclusive D/s agreement with her?”
Joanne grinned. “Indeed.” She laughed. “As Queen says so eloquently, ladies. Another one bites the dust!”
Morgan sank down on top of a toilet seat in the ladies’ room. Her heart rattled a staccato against her chest. She stared at her hands, not surprised to see then visibly trembling.
“God, how I hate feeling so helpless all the time.” Her hoarse whisper echoed back at her. She wrapped her arms around her waist and rocked back and forth. The days when she was assertive and didn’t stand back for anyone were long gone; more than two years before she’d woken up in Saudi Arabia. She’d been brought up not to carry grudges but for the past four years resentment had turned to hate—toward her own stepbrother. Her eyelids fluttered closed as the day her destiny was rewritten flashed through her mind.
“Don’t be such a sour puss, Morgan. When was the last time you went on a date?”
“When doesn’t matter. I don’t like that man. There’s something scaly about him. Just the way he undresses me with his leery eyes gives me the creeps.”
“Do you blame him? You’ve got a hot ass, even if I have to say so myself.”
“Jesus, you’re such an asshole and that’s exactly why I’m not interested. All you and those two creeps are interested in is how much pussy you can get.”
“What’s wrong with that? None of us are interested in getting hitched, thank you very much.”
“Good for you. Now piss off, I’m busy.”
“Not until you agree to go on that date.”
“You’re not going to stop until I say yes, are you?”
“I don’t know what you have against him. He’s attractive, rich and powerful. What more do you want in a man?”
“Integrity, honor, and morals, which I know for a fact none of you have.”
Morgan had regretted allowing her stepbrother back in her life more than once over the past year. After her mother’s death and the fall out over her inheritance, he’d disappeared for years. A sense of duty to her dear stepfather’s memory was what had swayed her to accept Will’s apology. The relationship was rocky at best and at times like these, he irritated the hell out of her.
“Like you are the image of perfection,” he snarled. His eyes narrowed. “You owe me, Morgan. You know you do and it’s time to repay your debt.”
Morgan could only stare at her stepbrother. She should’ve known it would come down to this sooner or later, especially since he’d met the men she referred to in her mind as the demons from hell. More often than not, she wished they had never come to Canada all those years ago on holiday while her mother was still alive. He had become as corrupted and unscrupulous as they were.
“You’re not seriously going there? It’s not my debt and you know it.” Will hated her mother, believing she was the cause of the rift between him and his father. He'd made her life a living hell after her mother passed away. She had left Morgan her entire estate which included what his father had left her when he passed..
“No, it was your mother’s and since her death, who better than you to settle it.” He pressed his nose against hers. “Hear me well, dear sis, either you go on this date or you can kiss your career as an artist goodbye. So, what’s it going to be?”
It was then she’d made the wrong decision, tired of the constant manipulation of her brother and just wanting him out of her studio, she uttered the one word that forever changed her future. She cringed as the word, “Yes,” echoed in her mind.
She started as her cell phone rang. She dug it out of the small clutch she’d carried with her.
“God, talk about the devil,” she muttered and swiped the screen to answer. She’d learned never to ignore any of their calls. The way they retaliated the last time she had tried to get away from them, had turned her into a sex slave for a year.
“What do you want?” she snapped. She might have to bow to their demands, for now, but it didn’t mean she had to be civil about it.
“Watch your tone, or have you forgotten the lesson you learned not so long ago?”
Morgan bit her lip to keep back the sneering response.
“Where are you?”
“At Club Devil’s C
ove,” she said in a low, clipped voice. She couldn’t afford anyone overhearing the conversation.
“With the bastard Bruce Rickett, I imagine?”
Morgan frowned as she detected a chilling bitterness in his voice.
“Like you wanted.”
“Mr. Z changed his mind. We withdrew the contract on Rickett. He’s yours now.”
“What do you mean?” Hope sparked to life inside her. She sat upright as she waited for his response with bated breath.
“Zee wants him dead, Morgan, and you’re going to kill him for us.”
Morgan closed her eyes as she struggled to fill her lungs with oxygen. She should’ve known better than to think this bastard had one ounce of humanity in him.
“I’m not a killer, brother dear, and you know it,” she clipped in a sarcastic whisper.
“You are what he tells you to be.” He breathed hard in her ear. “You have a week. If he’s not dead by the end of next Friday, he’s coming for you and believe me, Morgan, this time, you’d pray to be back in Saudi Arabia.”
“You don’t own me, you bastard. Neither of you do.” She rose from the toilet seat, her body quivering with rising anger. “You know what? I’m done. You can go straight to hell.”
“Be careful, Morgan. Don’t believe for one minute you’re safe because you live with Bruce. We have ways and means to get to you, some of which you can only dream of.”
“Go for it. The worst you can do is kill me and I would rather die than continue to be under the control of any of you a moment longer.”
“You think it’ll be that easy, bitch? Did you forget about the debt you owe Zee for keeping silent about your indiscretion? No one is safe from them, not even your precious new friend, Joanne Blackmore.”
Morgan froze for a moment and then barked out a raw laugh. It was the one thing she hadn’t been able to get over. That it was her own stepbrother who had handed her to the human traffickers. She hated him with more passion than she did his demented friends.
“I dare you to try, but you better be quick because the moment I end this call, I’m talking to the entire Precision Secure team and do you know what, brother dear? I’m going to make damn sure I’m there when they end your miserable life. Or better yet, I’ll do the honors. This is one time I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger.”