Just as I began to tune out, Kirk touched my cheek. I jumped and sat up to look at him. He held a piece of steak for me. Not only was I being ordered around like a dog, I had to eat like one, too. My stomach grumbled and I decided against protest, scarfing down the food before the offer was rescinded—bits of fries, broccoli, and more steak followed.
Despite the circumstances, it was the best steak I’d ever eaten.
I snuck a peek at the other girls—all being fed the same way and apparently basking in the attention, rubbing against their master’s legs and smiling as their masters patted them on the head.
I had to get out before I was that far gone.
Goals, I thought, trying to focus my thought. Kirk, well, to be honest, he could be worse. I could bide my time by being a good girl and hopefully he’d focus more on other things.
But there was still the sex…. I hoped not to be around that long, but I convinced myself that I could play along—if necessary—until I found a way out.
Then again, I couldn’t play along too well. Kirk was smart enough that he’d realize something was up, or get the idea to as one of the brothers suggested, make me “perform for my dinner.” I could only imagine what that would entail, and what my mind conjured was bad enough. I didn’t want to know what could be conjured by the dark minds surrounding me.
With a partial survival plan set, I felt a little more confident until Miles moved to stretch out his legs and positioned his slave between them. She unzipped his pants and took him in her mouth as if he was the most delicious dessert she’d ever tasted.
There went my confidence.
I felt queasy just thinking about what they’d make me do, and now that I had food on my stomach, the nausea seemed like a more troubling problem.
Kirk touched my chin, and I shook my head as much as I dared. I kept my head down, feeling the tears threaten to brim over. At the edge of my vision, I saw him glance over at Miles as if he hadn’t even noticed what was going on then he looked back at me. His finger traced my jaw line, lowered a glass of wine, and put it to my lips.
I hated wine, but it smelled bright and fruity and I didn’t delay in swallowing it down. It tasted like I had licked the inside of a barrel filled with stagnant fruit, and burned my throat.
Wine for the pet. It didn’t seem like anyone was surprised by the gesture and I figured there were things they were willing to concede to have a compliant pet.
His fingers slid through my hair and I stiffened. One drink wasn’t going to make me that tipsy. I heard a low grunt behind me, but despite whatever was going on below the table, the men kept talking. I heard scratching as they moved things across the table above me, then the table groaned and shifted slightly.
I looked up before I could stop myself as Kirk slid his chair away from the table. I dropped my head as soon as I saw his blue-grey eyes connect with mine.
Please, I squeezed my eyes closed.
“You’re not leaving already?” One of the men behind me asked.
“I’ve been kept from my business most of the day,” Kirk said.
I heard the chain of the leash in his hand, and as he fastened it to my collar, I realized how much I was shaking in comparison to his steady hands.
He touched my jaw and I raised my gaze expecting anger, or the same straight emotionless face he always had, but there was something else there, a softness creeping out around the edges.
He looked exhausted.
My insides clenched as another chair scraped across the floor and Miles drew the blond girl into his lap. “You work too much.”
Kirk scoffed as he stood. He nodded to the men behind me and pulled me toward the door. As I crawled along behind him, I stole a glance back, noticing that the two girls who Ross had brought for the guests were now on their knees on top of the table, fondling one another.
The leash jerked and I crawled faster—it wasn’t possible to get out of that room fast enough.
A bundle sat outside the door to Kirk’s apartment and, after he opened the door, he kicked it inside, apparently unconcerned with its contents. After locking the door behind us, he unhooked the leash then pointed to the bundle. “Take it to the bedroom and spread it out on the floor against the wall next to the closet.”
“Do I have to crawl while I’m carrying it?”
“Push the damn if you want to.” He draped the leash over the door knob and rubbed his hand over his short hair. “Don’t act like it will be that hard.”
The rolled up bundle was taller than I was on my hands and knees, but didn’t have much weight, so I rose to my knees pushed what I assumed was my new bed toward the bedroom door.
I laid it out near the closet. Even though it was nothing more than a rolled up cushion—like a pet bed big enough for an adult human—it was soft at least, and it came with a blanket and a pillow.
It also meant that I didn’t have to share Kirk’s bed, so I counted that as a double win.
I spread everything out, neatly arranging the only little thing I could reasonably call my own.
My mind wandered, going over how much everything had changed over the last several hours: waking up in horror surrounded by a sex-obsessed brute squad, and being thrown into life with Kirk.
All I wanted to do was go back to normal, but it seemed so far away that I wasn’t sure that would ever be possible. I had to find a way back while there was still hope—before I became a complacent slave with no hope. Until then, I’d find benefits where possible and hope that Kirk wasn’t feeling frisky after watching the sex fest.
I turned to see him watching me, no doubt wondering what was going on in my head. “Satisfied?” I asked.
“I could ask that of you.”
My mouth dropped open. “How would I be?”
“You’re alive,” he tilted his head, “and I presume, no longer hungry.”
“There’s that,” I conceded. But if we balanced that with being forced to give up my own life and live in this nightmare, satisfied wasn’t exactly how I would define it.
“How’s your pain?”
I turned away and fidgeted with the edge of the bed. I couldn’t figure out why it bothered me more when he seemed concerned.
“Silver, I just want an honest answer.”
“I got beat up this morning. I hurt, okay. You weren’t concerned with that when you shoved that plug up my ass, or when I had to kneel through dinner, or crawl through the hallways.”
Kirk shook his head and disappeared. He returned and handed me two more red capsules and the rest of the water from the nightstand. Instead of just dropping them off and leaving me in peace, he crouched beside me. “I can be reasonable, but you need to stop considering the impossible. You can’t go home, you can’t escape, and I can’t let you go. It is what it is.”
It is what it is. I hated the fucking bastard. Anger tightened my muscles and tendons and clouded my brain—sending it into overdrive. “Go to hell. You don’t really give a damn about me.”
“Don’t press your luck, Silver. I don’t have time for this, but I won’t stand by and watch you get beaten to death for no reason.”
“But if there’s a reason, it’s okay?”
Kirk shrugged, I could tell he was trying to look nonchalant, but his muscles were just as tense as mine. “Your choice. Do as I say; I’ll protect you and we’ll get along just fine.”
“I don’t know whether to be offended or amused that you don’t really want me here. I’m not a damned whore.”
“Never said you were, but things change, and sometimes you don’t have a choice in the matter.”
“So, my new role in life is to stay chained to your bed all day until you decide you’re horny or you want me to kneel at your feet during dinner?” My body was shaking so hard that my voice quivered with each syllable.
“I’m trying to be patient but you’re cascading down my bad side. You’ll do what I tell you to do,” he yelled, yanking me off of the cushion and slamming me into the closet door. �
�Beyond that, stop berating me and stop looking for a way out unless you want to learn your place the hard way.”
I stood on my toes to keep him from ripping all of my hair out of the top of my head. This was supposed to be the easy way to learn my place?
He pulled harder until it felt like part of my scalp would tear away.
“Okay.” I squeaked. “Master. I understand, please.”
He released me and I slumped against the door, sliding to the floor as he walked away. I tried to push my hair away from my face, but as impossible as it was, it seemed like the strands themselves hurt.
“You have anything else to say?” he asked, partially concealed by the doorway.
I shook my head, and after he disappeared, I curled up on my bed, pulled the blanket over my head and tried to ignore the screaming thoughts that would only get me into more trouble.
Groomed
The sun peeking around the curtains woke me the next morning and I looked around the empty bedroom. I wouldn’t have even known that someone else had slept in the room if I hadn’t stirred the night before when Kirk locked my wrist to a chain connected to a hook in the floorboard before crawling into bed. There was no doubt that these rooms were set up for the men and their slaves.
And, as if things weren’t fucked up enough, I was living with a criminal who made his bed.
I sat and felt the heavy movement of the chain. It clattered across the floor as I dropped my arm and flopped back. I wouldn’t have guessed that tedium would have been one of the worst parts of the experience.
“You’re up.”
I heard Kirk’s voice but didn’t look up.
“I figured you were already gone,” I mumbled.
He made a sound in his throat and I heard his shoes moving across the floor toward me. I wanted to roll toward the wall, to keep as much distance between us as possible, but I didn’t have anywhere to go.
“I figured I should at least feed you first. Hungry?”
I was, but asking him for anything made me feel even more hopeless. “I could eat.”
His knee popped when he knelt beside me to unlock my cuff. He was already in a new pair of jeans—dark blue, and a V-neck shirt that clung to every rippling muscle. As he hovered next to me, I chewed on the inside of my cheek to keep all of the questions churning in my mind from spilling out.
He rested his forearms on his knees, balancing on the balls of his feet. “What is it?”
“I’m keeping my mouth shut and staying out of trouble.” I tried not to look at him. I didn’t want to remember the things I’d seen the night before, or think about all of the things that were yet to come. If I looked at him, all of my hate and anger would rise to the surface again.
He touched a finger to my chin, and I almost thought I could see a smile. “We both know that’s not going to last long, so you may as well say what it is while I’m offering to listen.”
I rolled over, trying to push myself up as my sore muscles and bones objected. Don’t do it. My heart pounded in my throat, anticipating my mouth’s inevitable betrayal of my better judgment. “Why can’t you just let me go home?”
Kirk stood, towering above me. I wanted to shrink into a ball, shrivel away where he couldn’t hurt me. But, he was going to hurt me. It didn’t matter what I did or didn’t do. I at least deserved a reason why.
He grabbed my hair, and I pushed myself to my feet as quickly as possible. My scalp was already sore and at this rate, I’d be bald by the end of the week.
“Look I don’t even know where we are, who you are… And I don’t care. I just want to go back to my life. To my home.”
“That’s not an option. And you and I both know that you wouldn’t keep your mouth shut for anything. There’s only one way you get out of here, and it wouldn’t involve going back to your life afterward.”
My body went numb as I struggled for words. “I can’t do this.” My chest shook with every syllable, leaving my words chopped off and mangled, just like my optimism. “What I saw last night—I can’t do that.”
“You don’t have a choice.” His jaw was tight, but his voice displayed the same lack of emotion he had when he sealed my fate in the basement.
“Why’d you bring me up here?” My armor cracked, leaving me with nothing but seething agony. My skin felt tight and foreign, like it was squeezing to keep me together. “You don’t give a fuck what happens to me,” I yelled with every bit of strength I had left.
His hands went to his belt. My eyes widened and I tried to duck away, but he grabbed my arm and swung me against the bed, pinning my knees against the footboard and pushing me over against the mattress. I heard his belt slip free of his pants, but the impact I braced for didn’t come. Instead, he twisted my arms behind my back and looped the belt around them, tightening it then using it to pull me off the bed.
He kept my arms raised behind me, right on the threshold of pain. Every movement felt like it’d rip a shoulder out of socket. Pulling me away from the bed, he turned me to stand in front of him and nudged my chin around to face him. “Still haven’t learned your lesson, huh?”
“I learned running is useless. You asked what was on my mind and I told you.”
With a twist of the belt, I yelped and lowered my upper body, trying to change the angle that my arms were rotated.
“Please,” my voice squeaked at the top of its range.
“Stop questioning the things that don’t matter and stop begging for the impossible. When you’re given the chance to talk, use it wisely.” He dragged me into the bathroom and turned on the tub faucet, letting the tub fill half way.
“Decision?” he asked, knocking my legs out from under me so landed on my knees next to the tub.
I screamed as my bones crashed against the floor. Luckily the bathmat kept them from hitting solid tile, but it still shot pain through my bones and up my back. “Please, stop.” My voice echoed off of the tile walls and floor.
“That’s not a decision,” he pushed me over the tub wall leaving my face millimeters above the water. He left me there for a few seconds, and then pushed my face lower until the water danced at my nose. I had to breathe through my mouth to avoid inhaling it.
“No,” I gasped, taking in a mouthful of water and choking on it. He gave me just enough time to catch my breath before shoving me down again.
I tried to kick out my legs to dislodge him, and finally, he jerked me back.
“You’re fighting pretty hard, so which is it? Choose to die or fight to live.”
“You don’t want me to fight.” The water ran down my face and neck, and tiny droplets got caught on my breath as I tried to breathe or talk.
“I don’t want you to fight and continuously question me—the person who’s trying to keep you alive.”
Trying to keep me alive while forcing me to give up my life and turn over my body and soul to his sick fantasies. “You’re the person trying to turn me into a sex slave. If I shouldn’t fight you, who should I fight.”
“If you want to live, it’s all a matter of perspective. I’m not asking you to be okay with it. You can choose to live, but beyond that the choices are mine. You simply do as you’re told.” He eased up and let me straighten then he pulled my hair until I had to face him. “It might not be so bad.”
I gritted my teeth together, feeling the sour bile rising up in my throat. “You’re sick.”
His lip twitched. “Years spent in the wrong profession will do that to a person. I can always give you back to the others.”
“No,” I answered immediately. Given the choices available, the idea of ever having any of them lay a hand on me was the most repugnant.
“I won’t deliberately hurt you unless you give me a reason. I can’t say that about your other options.” He wiped the mixture of water and tears from my face.
“I hate you,” I spat.
“I wouldn’t expect otherwise. All I want is for you to do as I say. Can you do that?”
My chest didn’t wa
nt to expand to take a breath. My mind screamed, No, so many no’s I couldn’t keep up. I didn’t want to be offered up to the motley crew. I didn’t want to die. And I didn’t want to listen to this jackass so he could take his perverted pleasures from my body.
Unfortunately, those were my only three options at the moment. And of them, Kirk was the least offensive. There was nowhere else to hide. I knew he could rip me apart—he could certainly do more than ripping out my hair and pinning me against the bath tub. But he hadn’t yet. It was hard to ignore the fact that within our context he was probably downright gentle.
I nodded.
Kirk pulled me to my knees and up off the floor, slipping the belt off my wrists before releasing the plug to drain the tub. “Go to the kitchen and sit down at the table. Do not move, and do not touch anything.”
I looked down at my nakedness, but didn’t think it was a great time to mention clothes. I didn’t dare push him any further, so with a defeated sigh, I dropped to my already bright red knees, and crawled quietly out to the kitchen. I fidgeted in the seat, twisting my hands in my lap as I wrestled with my decision. When I heard footsteps behind me, I froze.
Kirk walked past me and opened up one of the cupboards, setting out a bowl and slamming the wooden door closed. He poured out a portion of cereal, covered it in milk and dropped a spoon in the bowl, then slid it across the table to me.
He sat down across from me and took a deep breath. “Ask your questions.”
I choked on the first bite, the milk attempting to try a new route through my nose. “Do you want me to shut up or open up?”
“Do as I say. Let’s get it over with.” He leaned across the table. “No asking about getting out.”
“What do the—” the word slaves echoed through my mind, but I couldn’t get it out “—girls do all day?”
He smirked. “You saw what the slaves do last night,” he emphasized the word as if he knew I struggled to say it, “during the day, some of them stay with their masters. There are also some who stay in a common room when they’re not with guests. A lot of them are thankful for their situation. They’ve been in worse places. We keep them fed, give them a place to live, and medical attention.”
Irrevocable: A Sins of Ashville Abduction Dark Romance (Irrevocable Duet Book 1) Page 6