by Marian Tee
He nodded.
Christos’ eyes gleamed.
The leader of the Sfagi caught sight of the silent exchange. Fuck. They were dead. It was his last conscious thought, but for once, he had gotten something right.
Chapter Fourteen
One week later
Helios was irritated. One would think that as the President of the Afxisi, everyone in his club would rush to do his bidding. But no, not one fucking member seemed to be listening to him. For one thing, everyone had gone against his wishes about not throwing a party. The club hadn’t just thrown a welcome party to celebrate his return to the club following his discharge from the hospital. They had thrown a fucking huge one, and they had seemingly invited every goddamn student in the uni.
Then there was MJ. His teeth gritted. MJ was now known as the President’s girl, but did that stop her from acting like a damn volunteer? No, it fucking didn’t. There she was, going around like a busy bee, serving beers to the bikers and making sure everyone had food to eat. They weren’t fucking starving. That should be enough.
Patience wearing thin, Helios growled, “MJ.”
Across the vast living room of the club, MJ heard Helios call her name. When she looked up, he crooked a finger at her.
Her heart skipped a beat. That was her Helios all right, her Mr. Sunshine in all his arrogant self. Even now, she had to pinch herself to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming and that he was really hers. Tonight, she had managed to convince him to dress appropriately for the party. For her, he had donned a fancy suede jacket over a gray shirt and jeans. He even had non-biker shoes on, but for that he had asked her for a separate favor, and the thought of what that was had her blushing. It was a favor she had happily given him.
Hurrying to his side, she asked, “What is it—”
Before she knew it, she ended up in his lap, her shriek of surprise caught by his kiss. His mouth slanted over hers, his heat infusing her body, and as his tongue slipped inside her mouth, MJ forgot everything and just lost herself in his kiss. Her arms went around his neck, her body molding against his hardness even as her toes curled in excitement inside her shoes.
By now, everyone in the club was used to seeing their normally aloof President kiss his girl shamelessly in public. Those who weren’t were urged by the members to look the other way. “If you keep staring at them every time they kiss,” Kellion warned a newcomer, “you’ll end up doing nothing.”
The kiss took a long time to break.
Yuri rubbed his chin. “I feel like I should cover my sister’s eyes or something.”
Hallie rolled her eyes. “You’re a few years too late, brother.”
Yuri’s eyes gleamed. “Am I?”
Andreus glared at Hallie. This was all MJ’s fault. Ever since the President’s girl came to live with them, Hallie had gotten a lot bolder.
When Helios lifted his head, he had a hard look on his wondrously handsome face. “Stop serving everyone. You are my girl. You haven’t forgotten that, have you, brat?”
“Not when you’re shouting it at me, I won’t,” she said under her breath.
Helios arched a brow. “What did you say?”
She lost her courage. “I said, umm, I’ll gladly stay next to you forever?”
A smile softened his cruelly beautiful lips. “You’re getting cheekier than ever, brat.” He let his knuckles graze her cheek. “But I love it.” Without warning, he scooped her up in his arms, making her gasp in surprise.
“Umm, Helios?”
“Yeah?”
“Where are we going?”
“To my bedroom.”
“Uhh, why?”
“You want me to tell you why out loud?”
She blushed even as she protested weakly, “But you have a party.”
“This party will last forever, sweetheart. I won’t.” And the look he gave her dared MJ to argue.
When they reached his room, MJ decided it was her turn to surprise Helios. The moment he closed the door, she took hold of his face and kissed him. Helios laughed against her mouth, but soon passion flared into life between them, completely taking over. In seconds, they had their clothes off, and they hadn’t even made it to the bed before Helios had entered her already wet and aching pussy.
A long moan escaped her at the feel of his cock pushing inside her the first time, and she whimpered his name out as Helios lifted her up so she could wrap her legs around him while his cock remained inside her.
She clutched his shoulders when he pushed her against the wall, and her fingers dug into his skin as he began to fuck her long and hard, causing the wall behind her to shake.
“Helios,” she gasped as his thrusts became even more forceful, making her close her eyes as she started to lose herself in the dizzying beauty of his possession.
“Scream my name, brat.”
She shook his head, as he expected, and in retaliation he moved his hand below so he could reach for her clit and tease it to life.
MJ bit her lip, trying to keep herself from screaming. But it was hard to ignore the way he so expertly moved his fingers, and when he lowered his head to take her nipple into his mouth and started to suck, she lost the battle and screamed.
Over and over, and Helios sucked harder on her nipple, the rhythm of his thrusts becoming wild and frenzied. It pushed her to scream louder. And when she had reached her peak, her orgasm had her screaming so loud that tears started to fall from her eyes while Helios kept pounding into her, harder and faster, showing no signs of stopping even as her body was shaking like crazy at the force of her climax.
Helios growled her name and sucked on her neck hard as he came, his seed exploding inside her powerfully enough to make his hips shake.
“I love you, MJ,” Helios whispered when he recovered.
No answer.
When he lifted his head to check on her, MJ was red-faced, a sheepish smile on her face.
“MJ?”
I lost my voice, she mouthed at him.
His eyes widened.
Her eyes narrowed. Don’t you dare laugh—
But he was already laughing. “We should go back down now, sweetheart. I think I want to share this with the others.”
Don’t you dare—
****
MJ couldn’t help but smile and roll her eyes at the same time as she made her way out of the club’s headquarters, feeling Helios’ arrogant and possessive gaze following her all the way. Oh, the man was insufferable now, forcing her into situations where she had to talk but couldn’t and he had to explain why.
Making her way to the lab, she was working on unlocking the back exit when she heard the cock of a gun behind her.
And then a familiar voice—
“What took you so long, you damn kid?”
Before she could even think of struggling, something hard and heavy hit the back of her head and she felt herself going down. As she started to lose consciousness, she caught sight of other figures moving in the shadows. The scent of fire hit her. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw the lab catching fire. She tried to shout, but her voice didn’t come back to her miraculously.
The last thing she saw was her father’s smiling face, and it was a smile that made her want to puke.
Swish.
Click
Prologue
Dank floors, pitch-black darkness, and the stench of days-old urine mingling with the odor of sweat and human waste. Things like that made it easier, safer, to just go crazy, especially when I thought of the fact that it was my pee…my waste…I was sitting next to.
A shudder ran through me, and I fought hard against the insidious urge to take the plunge and just end it.
Breathe. Relax. Keep your eyes open.
I repeated the words to myself silently in my mind while I rotated my ankles and wrists. All of them were chained, but I wanted to keep my limbs moving. Skin scraped against skin as I stirred on the ground. Somewhere along the way, someone had torn off my pants, leaving me in my shirt
and panties.
Stay focused. Breathe. Be ready for anything.
Usually, those words were enough. But right now, I was feeling more than a little hopeless, forcing myself to seek comfort in make-believe.
Helios?
You should have called for me sooner, brat. His voice was a loving growl, just like the real Helios’. The voice came from the back of my mind, like Helios was standing behind me…but not letting me see him. He sounded so close it made me want to cry.
I want to see you. Please.
No.
You’re so selfish.
You still can’t see me.
Why?
Because I don’t want to spoil you too much. You need to be stronger right now, not weaker. I’ll let you see me naked—
I just want to see you, not “see” you like that!
Silence—
Are you sure? Helios’ voice was both a taunt and a teasing purr. It made my stomach twist for a reason other than fear, which lately was all that I had been feeling.
Shut up.
Silence again—
No. That’s what I would never do right now. I’ll always be here for you, brat. I’ll keep you company while we wait until I find the bastard who took you and—
“Are you awake?” A hoarse voice, followed by the sound of rattling chains.
Helios’ voice disappeared like I had never heard it. Like it was just a figment of my imagination, which it was, but I was trying my best to ignore that fact.
“MJ?”
His name was No. Or at least that was what they told him, he said. We were both sure it wasn’t true. The man who held us captive, the gender of his victims didn’t matter to him. What he cared about was how much fight you put up. He paid highly for those who resisted and killed those who dared bring him something weak.
No knew all about this because he had been around the longest, he told me proudly. He resisted every time.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him how wrong it was that he sounded so proud of doing what the man wanted, couldn’t let him know that I had a feeling he had already given up even if he thought he was still fighting.
“Yeah.” My voice was hoarse and knife thin. One word, and it felt like I had sliced my parched throat open. I wished I knew how many hours it took to feel this thirsty, but since James hadn’t ever thought of torturing me this way, I had no previous experience to rely on.
“You know what they say about missing persons?” No didn’t wait for an answer. “They say most people who get lost more than three days? Seventy-two hours? They’re rarely found alive…if ever.”
“But y-you’re still alive,” I pointed out, more desperately than I wanted. Inside me, panic was gradually taking the form of a monstrous little girl, tittering as she came close. I hated how contrary my imagination could be, making Helios impossible to see while my nightmares were all too vivid.
Panic came closer and closer, but I pushed her away. She fell back, still tittering.
“Am I?” No chuckled, but this was the first time something he did made me feel skittish and uneasy.
“Are you saying you’re a ghost?” I scoffed, but my voice sounded even thinner and more desperate than before. I wanted to call out for Helios, but I didn’t, telling myself that Helios was right. I had to be strong while waiting for him.
“Mm-hmm…”
“Stop it,” I said sharply.
“I’m good at counting hours, even in the dark. Do you know that?” he asked in a singsong voice. “He taught me.”
“Stop it, No. I mean it.” I didn’t know what got into No, but I didn’t like this psychotic side of him. Had he finally snapped? Had it made him forget that victims had to stick together?
“You know how long you’ve been here?”
“No—” But I wasn’t sure if I was saying his name or if I wanted him to shut up.
“Seventy-one hours.” He started to laugh, and in the background I swore I could hear Panic tittering with him.
I shook my head furiously. My hair swatted my face and my lips with each vigorous shake, but I kept shaking my head because it was the only way to keep Panic from licking me all over.
“It doesn’t matter,” I whispered fiercely.
“Doesn’t matter what?” No was taunting me. Why?
“Doesn’t matter how long I’m here! He’ll find me!”
“No one will find you—”
“Yes, he will—”
“No, no, no,” he sang, and Panic sang along with him.
“Yes,” I shouted. “He’ll find me! Because Helios loves me—”
He answered in his singsong voice, “Who’s Helios? I don’t know no Helios. Helios made a fool of us all—”
“He’s Helios Andreadis, the President of the Afxisi—”
Lights suddenly switched on, blazingly bright, blinding me for a second. For a second, I was terrifyingly disoriented, feeling like I had been transplanted from a dungeon to the operating ward of an asylum.
Something rattled, the sound of chains being yanked down, and when I forced myself to look towards the sound, I saw a man calmly releasing himself from his restraints.
“No?”
The man glanced at me—
One eye pulled down by sunken skin, the other half turned into a maze of scars, and sneering, drooling lips.
“My name is Manolito Chavez, MJ. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you, my dear. Your strength has amazed me all this time, but I knew there had to be a reason for it. You thought someone would come after you, didn’t you?”
The lips folded into a smile, making the face more grotesque. But what really made me want to throw up was the look in his eyes. He wanted to devour me, bit by bit, and he wanted me to cry with every inch he ate.
Something told me that my flesh wouldn’t be the first this man’s tasted, literally.
“And who knows? Perhaps he might have succeeded. But now that I know his name, I know what to look for. I know who to hide you from. I’m sorry to say, my dear, he will never find you again.”
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I screamed the word inside my mind. I would rather die than let him know how much he had me terrified. I tried to summon Helios, but it seemed even his image, his voice, was blocked from my mind.
NO, NO, NO!
This time, I knew I wasn’t saying his name.
This time, I knew there was no escape.
Swish.
Chapter One
“I think I’d have killed you again if I had found you dead, Rick.”
Rick swallowed, knowing that every word spoken by the man framed on the doorway was true. He was more than a few years younger than Rick, but only the greatest fool on Earth would let something like age make him think Helios Andreadis was harmless. At sixteen, Helios had turned his back on his inheritance and moved halfway across the world to build his own billion-dollar underground racing club. That was the least of his achievements.
Standing six-foot-seven, golden haired, and with striking leonine eyes, Helios was often compared to the sun god. It should have been a comforting analogy, but the younger man’s cold hard visage reminded Rick that suns could just as easily burn people alive with its heat and, in some cases, destroy entire planets and galaxies.
“President,” Kellion Argyros murmured. “Maybe we can let Rick lower his hands first and have a peaceful discussion?” Normally, the VP of Afxisi would have a wickedly charming smile playing on his handsome face, but not now. It had been almost three days to the second since they discovered MJ had been abducted, and they had been on the road since then.
The tension eased from Kellion’s frame when Helios slowly nodded, lowering his gun. Helios had been like a ticking bomb all these days, and there was no telling what could trigger him. Even now, the memory of how Helios had gone berserk upon finding out MJ had been taken made Kellion wince. He definitely did not want that to happen again.
“Shall we sit down?” Yuri Athanas’ voice was q
uiet and smooth, the sound of it having a calming effect on everyone in the room. Helios shook his head, but Kellion took the decrepit-looking chair across Rick’s narrow bed. Beside him, Andreus Economou, the club’s hot-headed treasurer, walked towards the dusty window, taking a peek outside before perching himself on the window sill.
Sparing a glance at his surroundings, Yuri noted a few interesting things about the room that Rick had rented for the week. Unused towels, an unpacked bag, and the neat bed. “You really didn’t plan on staying here for a week, did you?”
Rick shook his head. “No. The men after me tend to be lazy. When they find out I’m checked in for the week, they’ll take their time to get to me. By the time they come here, I’d have crossed several towns already.” He looked at Helios. “You’re either a really good tracker…or you’re more desperate to find me than James’ men…or your brother Herod’s.”
The mention of his older brother’s name made Helios take a deep breath. Yet another man whose death was pending. He would get to Herod soon, but for now, he had to focus on what mattered most to him. Helios said abruptly, “MJ’s gone.”
Rick paled. “How?”
Helios’ fists clenched. “It was my fault—”
“No,” Kellion said sharply. “It was not. If anything, this was my fault since I’m in charge of security when you’re unavailable.”
“It was all our faults,” Yuri said flatly. “We underestimated the enemy, and we had not seen fit to let MJ know the danger she was in. And now, she’s the one paying for it.”
“Do you know why James took her, Rick?” Helios gritted out. “What kind of sick bastard would give his own daughter to a psycho like Manolito Chavez?”
“You don’t know?” Rick asked tiredly. “James is not MJ’s real father. I’ve done my own research before I got out of town, and I was fortunate enough to be able to speak to Madeline Cartwright’s lawyer before he passed away. He had taken care of the adoption, made it legal, then at James’ behest, got rid of the paper trail to prevent anyone from knowing that MJ wasn’t his real daughter.”