Saving Olivia (Team Cereberus Book 1)

by Melissa Kay Clarke

  Chapter 24

  The days passed in a whirl of classes, training, and boredom. Olivia settled into the routine with the same sort of tenacity that had gotten her through her childhood and a stint in the Army. She listened, she learned, but more importantly, she observed. De Jääger (she refused to think of him as Meester since she learned it was Dutch for 'Master'), left the day after he had locked the hated shock collar onto her neck. Now, each day, she got up well before daylight and joined Catori and Mishi for breakfast in the kitchen. The two women were becoming extremely close to her, even though Catori never spoke a word. She hadn't given up her hopes of escaping, but now they included the other two women as well. Rana didn't associate with them, choosing to stay distantly aloof. When Livy asked, Mishi said the woman had always been that way, and Catori agreed with a bob of her head. After breakfast, the three joined Rana in the gym for workouts. Etiquette and poise training was followed by language, art, and music. Olivia gave the trainers no reason to hurt or humiliate her, and that seemed to infuriate Anton more with every passing hour. Not even Rana, the so called First of their group could find fault in her obedience, as much as she tried.

  Olivia learned she could not sing and dancing was rudimentary at best. Sketching was obviously centered completely on Jayden because she couldn't draw a stick figure if her life depended on it. However, she took to learning art history with gusto. It seemed that in her quest to immerse Jayden in as much art as he could consume, it had imprinted on her as well. She was able to pick up the finer nuances quickly. De Jääger employed several tutors and the amount he paid them guaranteed their silence. If they suspected anything underhanded going on in the house, they kept their mouths firmly shut. After several attempts at engaging the teachers, which resulted in another session with the collar, Livy gave up. Now, she was in survival mode. That included mastering her classes. Apparently, her attitude had garnered De Jääger's approval, for he had appeared this morning while the art tutor was quizzing her. He stood in the doorway, feet shoulder length apart, hands clasped behind his back and an enormous smile on his lips as she discussed the differences between styles and how to determine if a painting may be forged.

  As she finished her discussion, De Jääger stepped forward and clapped. "Very well done, Olivia. I'm pleased to see you have learned your place and are becoming comfortable. If you keep this up and become completely trustworthy like my Rana, I'll have the collar removed." He studied her a moment. "Go to your room and change into something comfortable such as what you would wear for exercise. Meet me in the gym in five minutes." With that, he turned and left the room.

  Dread filled Olivia. Something had changed. It was obvious he was happy with her training so far, but something in the back of her mind worried at her conscious. He said he would oversee the next phase of her training personally. What if that time had come? Something told her she wasn't going to like what this new training involved.

  Olivia fled to her room to change then to the gym. Entering the room, she looked around, but it was empty. Her eyes stopped when she realized the door to the playroom was unlocked. She had asked Mishi about the room, but the smaller woman had refused to talk about it. Instead, she disappeared for the rest of the day. Whatever “play” went on in that room frightened Mishi, and that, in turn, frightened Livy.

  Walking to the open door with trepidation, Livy peered inside, and her eyes widened. De Jääger sat on what could only be described as a throne with cushions at his feet. On one, Rana lazed with her back against his leg. She had one arm wrapped around his calf and a half smile upon her full, sensuous lips. Catori and Mishi were both on their knees, connected to the wall by intricate chains terminating at the collars upon their necks. Olivia shook her head and backed out of the room. She was stopped when she touched someone. Looking over her shoulder, she spied Anton and Daan. She yelped in fright.

  De Jääger waved one hand around the room while the other stroked Rana's hair like a favored pet. "Look around this room carefully, Olivia. This is the playroom. It's so called because I enjoy playing with my possessions in this room. I have many toys." He nodded to a wall to her left where all types of contraptions were displayed. She had no idea what most of them were for, but others were obvious. She blushed.

  "Ah, yes, my sweet little virgin. I suppose you haven't seen such things before? I will start slow with you, acclimating you to my ways. There will be no penetration until you beg me for it. That is an absolute. Each of my special treasures begs me to take them. Even my sweet, shy Catori." He glanced over at the woman. Livy's gaze followed, and she anguished to see the momentary flush of humiliation on Catori’s face. Livy shook her head.

  "I see you doubt me. Rest assured, it will happen. One day, very soon, you will beg me to take you and if you've been very, very good, I'll acquiesce."

  She swallowed, "You're going to torture me."

  His laughter was loud. Anton, Daan, and Rana joined in. De Jääger pushed up from the throne as the chuckles petered out. "No, my darling girl. In the hands of a Meester such as I, these tools will tease and tantalize until you can't bear the thought of another moment without release." He reached down and cupped Rana's cheek in his palm. "Tonight, you watch. Tomorrow, we start."

  He nodded to the men behind her. Daan grabbed her arms and forced walked her over to the wall. Seeing what they were about to do, Livy fought against them. An arc of pain sliced through her, causing her to fall to her knees before him. Anton picked up a silver chain, and within moments she had joined the other two women. Daan quickly ripped the clothes from Livy's body as Anton did the same for Catori and Mishi. Once they were finished, De Jääger turned his attention to Rana, who looked up at him with bright eyes and a look of adoration on her face. Her scantily clad chest heaved as he gently pulled her to her feet and led her to an opposite wall where shackles waited. Her lips parted, and she whispered, "Yes, please Meester, please." As he locked the woman into the restraints, he removed her clothes and Olivia squeezed her eyes shut. The breathless sighs of pleasure from Rana intermingled with strikes and moans made her stomach threaten to heave. Livy was wrong. There were things in this world worse than Sly and his leering gaze or even his attempt to grab her. There were nightmares too hideous to imagine. Livy bit her lip and kept her eyes shut. She would survive and make it through this. She refused to give up or give in. She was strong enough. She would temper this storm. She would.

  The door to the room closed as Daan and Anton left the women alone with their owner.

  Later that night, Olivia lay in her bed, but couldn't sleep. De Jääger kept them in his playroom until well after midnight. He called what he did with Rana, "a scene," as if it were part of some Shakespearean play. She kept her eyes shut and even put her hands over her ears. That had infuriated him, resulting in him shackling her wrists to her ankles. Each time she looked away or closed her eyes, he shocked her. He told her she would watch, would learn the correct way to behave or she would spend time in one of the cages. Beside her, Mishi begged her to obey.

  Slipping out of bed, Livy pushed the fine netting she used when she left the balcony door open aside. She ran her hands through her hair. She was so close to breaking. Tonight had been brutal, and she wasn't sure she would be able to hold it together. It had been bad enough to have to watch the man with Rana, but when he pulled first Mishi and then Catori to join them, she cringed. She could see Mishi's eyes go blank as she obeyed mindlessly. A part of that sweet girl was dying, and Livy had to do something to get them out of here. As before, Catori said nothing, merely blindly followed instructions. She was only one step from catatonia. Livy's heart ached for her.

  Olivia stepped out onto the balcony and raised her face to the sky. Tonight, the ever present clouds had finally disappeared and left behind a beautiful full moon in an indigo sea of stars. The sounds of the lake waves brushing against the shore should have been comforting. Instead, it reminded her how completely isolated she was. She fingered the collar then dropped he
r hand. Leaning on the railing, she whispered, "Bruiser, where are you? Why haven't you found me yet?" The tears that had threatened to fall finally won, and she dropped her head and sobbed.

  Bruiser stood in the shadows of the tiny island they had found earlier that day. He had a pair of high powered binoculars pressed tightly to his eyes. They had been scouting Garritt De Jääger's estate for two days now, and this was the first concrete proof that Olivia was here. They had seen three other women wandering the compound, but not Olivia. The rest of his team were ready to check the other two estates, but something told him to be patient and wait. That vigilance had netted him a prize he most treasured. A glimpse of Olivia.

  He watched her, fascinated by the way she looked, standing on a balcony of the second floor. She was a feast for his eyes. Her beautiful long hair hung down her back in a cascade of chestnut curls. She was more toned and had less of those fabulous soft curves than he remembered. Either way, she still took his breath away. She was wearing a bright yellow pajama set that gleamed in the moonlight. It took every ounce of his willpower not to storm the walls and take her in his arms. When her shoulders began to shake with sobs, he almost lost it. Seeing her upset nearly shattered him. "Hold on, sweetheart, I'm coming for you," Bruiser muttered under his breath.

  Beside him, Cowboy crouched under the low hanging tree, his own set of binoculars turned toward the woman. They both watched her cry for several minutes then wipe her face with the back of her hand. Taking a deep breath, she let it out, turned and re-entered the door. After a moment, the light flicked out, and darkness again encompassed the compound. The men lowered their binoculars and retreated to the other side of the island where the team had made a camp.

  The minute they stepped into the site, Hick reached over and touched the others where they were sleeping, rolled in thin blankets. "Well?" he asked in a whisper.

  "She's there. We saw her." The relief on Bruiser's face spoke volumes. The uncertainty of the past two weeks had melted away with the confirmation of her location.

  Toad clapped him on the shoulder. "Hallelujah! Now we've got to get her out."

  The other's started to grab their stuff, but Bruiser stopped them. Though it tore at him to wait, he knew it was prudent to do so. "It's the middle of the night. She's not going anywhere. Get some sleep, and we'll start planning in the morning. This thing needs to go down slick and easy."

  The others went back to their beds, leaving River and Bruiser watching over the camp. River handed a bottle of water to his friend. "How does she look?"

  "Freaking amazing. Beautiful. Olivia was standing on the balcony looking up at the moon with her hair all loose and falling down her back. Then she started crying, and I felt like somebody had reached in my chest and squeezed my heart. It's damn near killing me not to storm that place and pull her out right this minute." Bruiser looked over at River. "How did you do it, man? How did you keep your head when your woman was in danger? Weren't you afraid her mind was going to break? Weren't you afraid of losing her?"

  "I was freaking terrified." River lifted his shoulders. "Being scared for somebody you love doesn't make you weak, Bruise. In a way, this is exactly like every mission we've ever been on. You do what you have to in order to get through. But when it's your lady involved, the adrenaline is ramped up about a million times more. While Joselyn was being stalked, we fought like cats and dogs. She is so damn independent and head-strong. It would drive me nuts. But it's part of who she is. I had to trust her to keep her head and do the right thing. In the end, it all worked out. Trust, Bruise. You have to have a ton of trust and a whole lot of faith. Livy's strong. I don't know what all she went through when she was younger, but that fire forged her into the steel she is now. In that way, she's a lot like my Jos. They had to be tempered earlier not to shatter now. Have faith in your woman, Bruise. She'll come out of this, too."

  River finished his water and pulled out his blanket. "Get some sleep. We have a lot of planning to do before we can get her back again."

  Bruiser continued to sit, propping his back against a tree trunk. He listened to the insects singing in the quiet of the lake. Olivia was here. They had beaten the odds and found her. That was the hard part. Now they had to get her back. He let out a breath and closed his eyes. They would get her, and once they did, he was going to strengthen the budding relationship they had shared before this nightmare had begun. She was his, and he wasn't ever going to take the chance of losing her again.

  Chapter 25

  From the gossip circulated by the small staff employed by De Jääger, he had immigrated to Suriname from the Netherlands in the mid 90's. No one knew exactly how he had amassed his huge fortune, but one thing that sprang up more than others was "strip mining." He did own many of the aluminum processing plants in the Brokopondo district. With the obscene amount of money he amassed, he could afford many creature comforts. Having hailed from a much colder climate, he preferred his house to be cool. Therefore, when Friday morning dawned warm and muggy, the temperature in the house was lowered tremendously. Unfortunately, Livy was raised in Southern California, so the colder interior made getting up in the mornings harder. Olivia had slowly been getting acclimated to the vast discrepancies between inside the massive house and the exterior. Still, waking up before dawn and standing on cold floors made her teeth chatter and her bones ache. It always took her a while to warm up. This morning, after a night of little sleep, she woke up later than usual. The sun was already above the horizon. Cursing to herself, she ran to her closet, still shivering. Unable to take her normal shower, she knew it would take longer to warm up. Ignoring the customary shorts she usually wore, she threw on a pair of yoga pants and topped her tank with one of the only long sleeve sweaters in her closet. She sprinted down the hallway, throwing her hair up into a ponytail. Flying down the stairs, she entered the gym where the other three women were already into their exercises.

  "Someone's in trouble," Rana sang from the rowing machine. The smug look of satisfaction made Olivia's stomach roil. Mishi and Catori were running on treadmills, and both had their faces down. Dread coiled in her stomach when she realized the door to the playroom was open.

  "Shit," she muttered and quickly jumped onto the stationary bike. Setting the timer for the amounts listed on the whiteboard, she began her workout. After only a few moments, her head was snapped back by a fist full of her ponytail. She swallowed as she saw the malicious glare of Anton staring back at her.

  "You're late," he stated simply and yanked hard on her head. Her scalp prickled and stung from where he pulled her and she fell from the bike to her knees at his feet. "This is much better."

  "Anton, bring her to me."

  Keeping his hand curled around her ponytail, Anton dragged her to the playroom, through the door and dropped her at the throne. Taking a step back, he smiled smugly at her.

  "You know my rules. You were to be in the gym by dawn to do your workout. You were late." De Jääger eyed her critically. A frown marred his face. Reaching down, he grabbed a handful of the sweater she wore and pulled it. "What is this?" He snarled, yanking the sweater from her and threw it to the side. "I have gone to great lengths to ensure my treasures are beautiful, elegant, and desirable. To this end, I have supplied you each with every luxury. This includes the proper clothing for every occasion. What you have on is not proper nor is it suitable for this occasion. I don’t spend the money I earn to see you dressed like a hobo!"

  Livy watched in horror as he pulled the square controller out of his pocket and pressed on the surface. Pain arched through her body as her nerves took the electroshock administered by the collar and forced her limbs to clench. She fell to the ground, unable to breathe or even scream, pain arcing through her frame until darkness curled around her vision. She could have wept with happiness as the darkness expanded and encompassed her and she slipped from consciousness.

  Her happiness was short-lived when she awoke sometime later to discover herself shackled to the wall of the playro
om, naked and staring into the eyes of Anton. He reached out a hand and tugged on her hair, pulling the elastic from the mass, and tossing it over his shoulder. Her eyes widened as they fell on De Jääger sitting upon his throne, fingers clasped over his stomach. Anton took a step back and looked over Olivia's head. Her skin prickled with goose bumps as the cool air caressed it. She wanted to ask what he was going to do with her, but she had learned to keep her mouth shut. She also knew he preferred that his possessions to not look him in the eye, so she dropped her gaze even as her fury blazed up. She filed this moment away, along with every other horrible moment she had endured. She let it bank her anger but not blaze out of control. There would come a time she would need it, but not now.

  "You've disappointed me, Olivia."

  De Jääger's words were low and metered. "I had such high hopes for you. It seemed you fit in so well." He frowned. "Then today you presented yourself filthy, incorrectly dressed, and late for your appointment. Last night, I showed you the pleasure of these walls. Today, we'll discover some of the pains. Normally, three indiscretions at one time would get you beaten and caged. However, I cannot have you marked before the gathering tomorrow. I've been a bit boastful of my newest acquisition. It was too quick, much too fast. I should have waited, but that can't be helped. However, there are things that can be done to express my... shall we say... adamant insistence in your complete acceptance and cooperation." He settled back against the throne and nodded to Anton. "Begin."

  Later, laying on the floor of one of the cages in the gym, she pulled the thin blanket they had left with her around herself tightly. The tears she so desperately needed to shed wouldn't come. Her voice had given out from the screams of pain Anton had inflicted upon her over the course of the day. She had given up counting the number of times she had passed out from what had been done to her. True to De Jääger's words, other than a few red marks, she bore no visible damage. However, the emotional torture had been more than she thought she would ever be able to endure. They had shown her the intricate finesse of the collar and how it could be used to control her and coerce her into doing anything they wished. Livy shuddered as her mind shied away from so many of them. It was horrible, disgusting and degrading. Anton treated her like an animal, walking her on a leash as she crawled on her hands and knees, barked, and ate her dinner from a bowl. He laughed and called her his little bitch. He even put her hair into pigtails to resemble long ears, added a muzzle and... she shuddered. She wouldn't think about the rest. It had been one of the worse parts of the day.