At His Mercy

by S. S. Richards

“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.

  “I can see what you’re doing to Maksim. Manipulating him until he gets us all killed.”

  He takes another step forward and I subconsciously take one back. He stands tall and big in front of me. Despite the fear that’s clawing through me and my shaky legs that can barely hold me, I manage to gather enough strength for a comeback.

  “Let me remind you that your cousin is the one who kidnapped me and brought me here. It was all done against my will.”

  He swallows thickly and cocks an eyebrow up.

  “Right. But you’re just a piece of meat he liked and decided to fuck. Nothing more. Only a matter of time before he gets tired of you and throws you away. Don’t think for a second that you’re special.”

  Hot tears burn the back of my throat. I open my mouth to say something, but the words don’t come out. Cruel, evil, and heartless are the words to describe this man. I close my eyes and swallow hard, fighting the tears from seeping down my cheeks like a fucking waterfall.

  “That’s right. Let the words sink in, sweetheart. You’re a whore and that’s all you’ll ever be. I won’t let you fuck with my cousin’s brain. I’m watching you.”

  He leans in and whispers in my ear, “Maksim knows that too. He even says it about you. A whore is what you are to him.”

  He walks out the door, and as soon as I’m alone in the room, I fall to the ground and let the tears fall. I cry and cry and cry. The feelings of emptiness and loneliness both come crawling back. I’m suddenly back to feeling how I felt back when he first brought me here and locked me up in the west wing.

  “You’re a whore and that’s all you’ll ever be.”

  Aleksandr’s words echo in my head as reality sets in. He’s right. All I’ll ever be to Maksim is a whore. My body shivers and my mouth turns dry. I’m a fool.

  Suddenly anger replaces every single emotion I’m feeling. My blood boils as rage sweeps over me. I get up and wipe the tears away from my face angrily. I allow the darkness to come back, the same one I had when I first met him, and the same one I felt when I pulled the trigger on Roberto. There is no hope or goodness in this dreadful world. Revenge is all I have.

  Maksim

  I take a look at the watch on my wrist then back at Daniel.

  “Aleksandr is usually not late for meetings,” I tell Daniel, who nods and grins.

  “I know. It’s okay. We’re in no rush. We’re only discussing what we’re gonna do with the hotels we own. Just casual business today.”

  Just before I take a sip off the whiskey sitting on my table, Aleksandr walks in.

  “Sorry, guys. Was busy talking to someone. Did you guys start already?”

  “Yes, we did. So Daniel and I are thinking of selling the four hotels. It’s old business and it was mainly something our dads were passionate about,” I explain.

  “Aren’t they bringing you guys good income, though?” asks Aleksandr, frowning.

  “Barely. Not sure if it’s the area where they are at, but Maksim and I didn’t really pay much attention to them after taking over both our dads’ empires. So selling them is better,” explains Daniel.

  “Okay. Did you guys find a buyer or not yet?

  “Of course not. That’s what we would love you take care of. Do you know anyone who’d be interested in buying? Considering the fact hotels are what you mainly own yourself,” I say.

  Aleksandr chuckles. “Hotels are not the only businesses I own, but let me see what I can do. Maybe I could even buy them my—”

  The door slams open. All of our attentions get drawn automatically to the beautiful woman standing by the door. Dressed in a short black nightgown and a pair of black thigh-highs. Her lips are bright red and her eyes are swollen and red. I smell her fear that’s mixed with something else—anger. She lets her nightgown drop to the floor, revealing a black, unlined high neck bodysuit.

  I rise from my seat slowly, my gaze traveling up and down her body.

  “Elena?” I ask hoarsely.

  She walks into the room, her eyes pinned on me. If she could shoot bullets from them, I would be the first one to die.

  “Evening, gentlemen. Anybody wants to fuck?”

  I swallow thickly, fury swelling up in me.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I hiss through gritted teeth. My cock throbs painfully in my pants as flames of anger shoot right through me at the same time. I drift my gaze on both Daniel and Aleksandr. Their eyes are devouring her hungrily.

  She ignores my question and walks over to Daniel.

  “I’m Elena. Do you wanna have some fun tonight?”

  He smirks and looks over at me. Without saying a word, I walk over to where she dropped her nightgown and storm toward her. I grab her by her forearm and begin to dress her up.

  “Go to your room this instant!” I hiss, but she pushes me away.

  “Why? I’m just doing my job. Thought it’d be okay to share me with your friends. Am I not just a fucking whore?” she cries out. Her eyes are watery and her breathing is heavy.

  I look at her with confusion. What the fuck is she talking about? What has gotten into her?

  My nostrils flare. I can barely hold my anger anymore. I grab her again and she yanks her arm away.

  “Fuck you, Maksim. Fuck you and fuck all of you,” she yells at the top of her lungs. I raise my arm in the air, but instead of it landing on her cheek, it lands behind her, breaking the old painting hanging on the wall. She covers her eyes and breaks down in tears.

  “Mikhail!” I howl like a beast in extreme pain.

  “Yes, sir,” he responds.

  I turn my attention toward him.

  “Take her and lock her up in the west wing. Tie her wrists to the fucking bed. Do you understand?” I bite out and all he does is nod as he grabs Elena, who’s crying hysterically and seems like she lost the fight in her as she allows him to walk her out of the room.

  Breathing heavily, I remain standing still, my fists clenched tightly. Aleksandr rises from his seat and looks at me wide-eyed.

  “Are you okay, man?” he asks.

  “Women are complicated species,” says Daniel.

  “This meeting’s canceled.” I storm out of the room.

  In the hallway, workers are standing with their eyes wide, staring at me as I walk past them. Everyone must have heard what happened. I head over upstairs to my room and slam the door shut behind me. I start breaking everything in my room, letting the beast release its anger. Because if I was to go to her right now, I don’t know what I’d do. I don’t trust myself around her right now. I might fucking kill her, but not before fucking her hard until she forgets her own fucking name. How dare she? I knock the TV down. How dare she dress like that and ask to get fucked by another man? I punch the wall hard until my knuckles bleed. But I feel no pain. Nothing. My body’s numb and my heart is swollen. How fucking dare she? Something must have happened. I thought we were good. I fucking thought so. I howl and break everything my hands land on. And by the time I’m done, my hands are sticky with blood and I still don’t feel any pain. My heart races in my chest, like it’s gonna fly out of it.

  I don’t know how long I remain sitting on the floor. Stewing in rage and the anger tearing at my chest, along with misery and dejection. I can get to the bottom of this if I want to. I know she must have heard something, or someone must have told her something that made her act completely out of her mind. But the only way I’m used to getting people into spitting whatever words they’re holding back is through drawing blood and violence. But I can’t do that to her. I fucking can’t.

  I get up and head over to the washroom. I wash the blood off my knuckles and get myself ready to go and face her. I take deep breaths, calming the beast in me so it doesn’t end up ripping the woman I care about the most to pieces.

  I don’t trust the beast.

  I don’t trust myself.

  Elena

  I open my eyes to the sound of his shoes in the corrid
or. I stare at the door wide-eyed. Suddenly, the sound of his footsteps stops. I know he’s standing right behind the door. It all reminds me of when I was first brought to this room. I hated it back then and I still do. The smell of all the women who were once locked in here crawls up my nostrils. I never understood why Maksim loves his dad so much when he was the head of the slavery business, along with my uncle. A tear rolls down my cheek, followed by another one as I wait for him to come inside and punish me, or torture me however he wants to. It doesn’t matter what he does to me anymore, since all I’ll ever be to him is a whore.

  The door unlocks with a simple click. A soft gasp escapes my lips and my hands instantly start pulling at the rope they tied me up with to the bed. Earlier when they brought me here, my body felt numb with the amount of anger that took a hold of it. Now, however, I’m back to feeling every pain, including the stinging cold of the unforgiving ground against my ass cheeks and the tight rope around my wrists that’s digging into my flesh.

  He walks into the room, hands in his pockets, but his gaze is sharp, cold, and devilish.

  My breathing gets heavier with every single step he takes toward me. He doesn’t stop until he’s standing an inch away from me, tall, handsome, and powerful.

  “Do you know why you’re here?” he asks coolly.

  I drop my gaze to the floor and remain silent, tears threatening to come out as they burn the back of my throat.

  He reaches for my hair and pulls it until I’m facing him again.

  “I asked you a question.”

  “Why me?”

  He tugs at my hair with a savage jerk.

  “That’s not an answer,” he says through gritted teeth. But I don’t back down. If there’s a tiniest amount of fight still left in me, then I will use it.

  “You could have done this to any other girl. Why me?” I bite out as the tears I’ve been fighting back burst free without my consent. His gaze doesn’t leave me as he stares right into my soul, stripping me off of my clothes, claiming all of me just by a simple glance.

  “I don’t fucking know. I couldn’t let you go and I still can’t.”

  He releases his grip of my hair and walks away from me. My breathing gets louder as he paces the room, back and forth while rubbing his forehead.

  “What are you planning on doing to me once you’re done with me? Just tell me, Maksim. Don’t lie to me. If freedom is not an option, then I just want to know how you’ll end my life.”

  He stops in his tracks. Panting heavily, he scowls at me, making every single hair on my body stand up.

  “What makes you think I’m planning on letting you go? Who told you that all you are to me is a whore? What the fuck happened in that room? I need answers!” He frees my wrists by untying them. He then picks me up off the floor and throws me on the bed like I’m nothing but a piece of paper.

  “Why the fuck were you calling yourself a whore and asking Daniel Walton to fuck you? Speak why?” he yells harshly, standing tall before me.

  When I don’t say anything, he grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me hard.

  “Speak. Fucking say something!” he yells against my face and I close my eyes. I close them because as much as I want to tell him that it was his cousin, I’m also scared. I’m terrified of his cousin when I shouldn’t be. I shouldn’t be scared of him because what do I have to lose when he killed the last hope I had? I fucking thought Maksim cared about me. What a stupid fool I was.

  “I can’t. I can’t say . . . I just . . . need you to let me go, please.”

  You can barely hear the words through the tears that don’t want to stop. But he suddenly lets go of me and silence takes over. The only sound we can hear in the room are my sobs. I open my eyes and look at him. His lips are parted. Frowning, he shakes his head slightly, looking straight into my eyes.

  “Aleksandr . . .” he says softly.

  I instantly shake my head, but no words come out.

  “What the fuck did he tell you?” he says calmly with his eyes shut. And I know he’s building up anger.

  “Maksim, I . . .”

  “Fucking speak!” he shouts.

  “He said you call me a whore and that’s all I’ll ever be to you,” I blurt out, crying like a little child who has just been asked to go on a timeout.

  “I’m gonna fucking kill him,” he says, storming toward the door. I rise up from the bed and run after him.

  Blocking his way, I start begging him to not leave me here alone. I wanna ask him to hold me in his arms, kiss me and tell me that everything will be okay. But I can’t. Because I still sinned. And I know he won’t forgive me without punishment.

  “Why did you believe him, Elena?” he asks, eyes pinned on my lips.

  “Why me, Maksim?” I ask, whispering against his lips.

  “Because I can’t let you go. I just . . . can’t,” he whispers back right before taking my lips in his. I feel him swirl his tongue in between my lips and my skin starts to feel like it’s on fire. He pulls away suddenly and looks into my eyes.

  “It doesn’t matter why you believed him or not. You still walked into my meeting in sexy lingerie and asked another man to fuck you. Do you think that’s okay? That I would let that go so easily?”

  I shake my head as my body slowly relaxes, giving itself to the one man it belongs to.

  Melting in his hands that are holding me by the waist, I whisper, “No. What will you do to punish me?”

  He bites his bottom lip.

  “Stand against the wall, facing it, and wait for me,” he explains “Hands behind your back.”

  I do as he orders. Every sinew in my body tightens as I await my punishment. Whatever it is, I want it desperately. More than he’ll ever know.

  I close my eyes and try to steady my breathing. I feel him standing right behind me, his breath warm against the back of my neck, sending a chill running right through me.

  He grabs my hands and begins to tie my wrists gently. “What kind of punishment do you deserve?” he murmurs against my earlobe.

  “I . . . I don’t know,” I say hesitantly.

  I hear the unzipping of his pants, followed by his legs parting mine. He slides my panties down my legs savagely, and without giving me any warning, he plunges his cock into me. I cry out. The sound is uncontrolled and feral. And as he picks up his pace, I can tell my moaning excites him.

  His hand comes to hug my neck, tightening the grip slightly. “Who do you belong to?”

  “You,” I cry out. Feeling the undeniable need in me for his body, his touch, his dominance . . . He thrusts harder as if to make a point.

  “That’s right. This is your final warning. I said it before and I’ll say it again. As long as I’m alive, no one will ever touch you. Understand?”

  I nod my approval. And as soon as he climaxes, the release feels like it’s coming from someone who’s been waiting for years and years. He drops his head on the crook of my neck and pants hard, struggling to gain his strength back.

  “Maksim?”

  “Hmm.”

  “Are you gonna keep me in this room?” I mumble in fear of being locked in this cold room once again.

  “No, I’m not. You’re coming to my room.”

  Maksim

  I stare at her for a long moment before pulling myself off the bed and heading to the washroom. She’s beautiful, like a shining star in the dark, night sky. I would do anything in my power to wake up to her for the rest of my life. To protect her and make her mine. But not right now. I have business to take care of. Starting with Aleksandr.

  I head downstairs to the kitchen and find Mikhail as always flirting with Yeva. Their expressions turn grim as soon as they notice me.

  “Is he here?” I ask Mikhail.

  “In your office, sir,” he blurts out.

  “Cool. Double security inside the house and outside. I’m not taking Leonardo’s offer.”

  “Will do, sir.”

  I head over to my office, my hands already clench
ed into fists. I swallow the lump in my throat and open the door. Aleksandr rises from his seat as soon as he sees me. He appraises me with a serious look on his face. Like he knows what he did. He knows he fucked up.

  I dart toward him. Surprisingly enough, I expect him to move away, or prepare himself for the hit. But he doesn’t move as I punch him right in the cheek. Silence prevails as he spits blood on the floor, still unmoving. I punch him another time. When I try to hit him for the third time, he stops me by pushing my arm away.

  “I know what I did,” he says firmly.

  “Oh ya? Do you?” My temper sparks, kicking him in the gut. This time, he doesn’t back down. He punches me back right in the jaw, sending a sharp pain radiating up my cheek.

  “I just wanted to protect you from her. That was my fucking intention,” he bites out.

  I push him hard, sending him flying right through the bookshelf in the wall behind him.

  Aleksandr is a strong man, even stronger than me when it comes to physical fighting. The fact he’s not fighting back means he knows he’s in the wrong this time.

  “I told you before that my life and my choices have nothing to do with you. Mind your own fucking business,” I hiss at him through gritted teeth.

  He winces in pain as he struggles to pull himself off the floor. He wipes the blood off the side of his mouth and nods slightly.

  “Fine.” He holds his arms in the air, a sign of surrender. “I get it. Fuck, I get it now. I knew this was going to happen. The girl has you under her spell.” He spits a chunk of hot, red blood on the floor.

  I get closer to his face and stare right into his eyes.

  “Don’t ever talk to her again, you understand?” I hiss and he nods. Walking away slowly with his arm wrapped around his stomach, he stops at the door and glances over his shoulder.

  “You’re in love, cousin,” he says and then he’s gone.

  I remain standing still, the beast growling at his words. I don’t know what love is. All I know is that Elena is important to me. She’s everything the beast has ever wanted. Letting her go and giving her freedom can never be an option no matter how bad she wants it. No matter how desperate I am to make her happy.