by Raven Dark
“So.” Gavini sipped his wine, licking his lips. “Before I let you walk off with full ownership of my property…” He looked from Kane to me, picking up on my confusion. “…and she and her dad are both mine. They’re debts make them as such. I want to know what it is you plan to do with her. And her father.”
“Why do you care? You got your money.”
“Because.” His tone turned clipped. “She and her father have evaded me for twenty-two years. I don’t want her getting off easy, Kane.”
He lifted his shoulders, face expressionless. “I’m not discussing my plans for her with you, Dominic. I have…specialized needs. She will fulfill them. How, is not to be discussed in polite company.”
This time, the impersonal way Kane talked about me sent a cold shiver up my back. Maybe he was only behaving like the slave owner for Gavini’s benefit, but what if he wasn’t? Countless times, I’d heard how doing business with a Davros led to deals that always turned into something sinister only after the contracts were signed. He all but had me now. Would he change once Gavini agreed to let us go? Would he suddenly become the vicious animal I expected him to become when I’d found out who he was?
Gavini’s chuckle was evil. “Yes, I heard somewhere that you Davroses are into some…interesting bedroom practices.” He swirled his wine in his glass. “Is it true some of you still use whipping posts?”
The first real flash of emotion touched Kane’s eyes as he glanced at me, then at the mobster. Amusement mixed with something more frightening. Arousal.
“You know what they say. All legends have a basis in fact.”
I pressed my lips together, praying neither of them could see me shaking. He was just saying this to make it look real. Gavini would be more likely to let me go if he thought I was Kane’s slave. Still. Kane had talked about whipping the insolence out of me. What if it was true? God, what had I done?
“As for her father,” Kane added, evidently not caring about my distress, “he’s free labor. He’s losing his farm. I’ve told him that once he signs it over to me, he’s getting the earnings from the farm while I get the property itself. But there are clauses in place, ways I can change the deal so that he works for nothing.”
His words sank in slow and dark, a knife to the heart. My heart hammered in my throat and I hissed at him. “Kane, that wasn’t the deal, and you know it.”
“Wasn’t it?”
My face paled. Betrayal ripped through me, sharp and angry. Memories of the times we’d been together, of the passion we’d shared suddenly seemed like a sham, a cruel joke my mind had somehow imagined. Looking at him now, with the casual way his lips turned up, his eyes dancing, he looked like the monster I feared he’d be. I clenched my fists. “Davros, you sick son of a-”
“Ah.” He gripped my wrist and his fingers pinched my flesh painfully. “Watch it, girl. I warned you about that temper. It has consequences.”
Gavini’s gaze was fixated on us, watching every moment. Did I imagine the warning look in Kane’s gaze, telling me to play along? Or was that wishful thinking? Christ, had he always been that hard to read?
I bowed my head and slumped my shoulders, my best submissive look. “Yes, Sir.” Fuck, I’d kill him.
A glance at him through my lashes revealed a slight curve of satisfaction to his lips. Damn him. I glanced at Gavini. The mob boss raised his brows at Kane as if he were seeing him for the first time.
“Wow. You really have become like Victor. Tricking the girl into thinking you were helping her, only for them to both end up as slaves. Nicely done. Okay.” He nodded and took the case. It’s a deal.” He stood, but then stopped. “Oh. Except, one more thing.”
Kane stood as well, yanking me to my feet. The lack of empathy in his eyes or compassion in his grip was heartbreaking. “And that would be?”
“The money is enough to buy Daniella. But not her father. He’ll take something extra.”
“What?” I had to have imagined the steel in his tone. No way did he care about my father, any more than he did me.
“As I said, that man evaded me for years. He took a substantial amount of money from me for a long time.”
“If you want me to make him suffer, I can do that.”
Gavini laughed. “No. I don’t want him suffering. I want him dead, Kane. I don’t care how you do it, but I want him wiped off the face of this earth, and I want you to bring me his head when you do.”
I gaped. “Mr. Gavini, you can’t do this. He paid you!”
“Yes, and now he’ll make sure your father understands what happens when someone tries to steal from me.”
“He didn’t-”
Kane strangled my arm, shaking just enough that I stopped. Gavini smiled, at his discipline, I thought.
“Well? Is it a deal? Or do I take Daniella inside? You dressed her up nice. I’d love to take advantage of that perfection.”
“Dominic, you’ll get a lot more out of her father if you let me handle him. Torture makes a man do incredible things.”
I shivered.
“I don’t care about torture. Kill him, Kane. Bring me his head in two weeks, or he and Daniella both die.”
Kane gave a sigh, bored, I thought, and nodded. “Fine. It’ll be done. Just give me the two weeks, no interference. I do this my way.”
“Of course. Ferguson will see you out.”
Before either of us could speak, the butler who’d led us out here appeared and led us back through the house. Once inside, I looked around. I didn’t see any armed guards watching, so I rounded on Kane.
“You sick, twisted bastard. I swear, you touch my father, and I’ll—”
“Shut up, Anika.” He grabbed my nape and marched me outside. The icy way he said that left no doubt. He’d deceived me. I twisted violently, trying to hit him. Kane cursed and his grip tightened until it almost hurt. He pushed me toward the car as David hurried and opened the door. “Anika, stop it!” he hissed.
Behind him, I caught a glimpse of one of the armed guards by the gate. Was he just doing this because he was being watched? No. Damn it, no, I wouldn’t trust him again. I wouldn’t let a Davros suck me in, only to find, by the time I knew what he’d done to me, I was in too deep, too trapped to get out.
When I kicked at him, he spun me around to face him. I opened my mouth to yell at him, to bolt down the drive for help, anything to get away from him. He slapped his hand over my mouth and his voice was a dangerous rumble.
“Shut. Up. Anika, I know this will be difficult for you to believe, but you have to trust me.”
“Nmmm!” I screamed against his hand and flailed. He shoved me back into the limo, scrambled in, and the door closed. The front door opened and the limo dipped as David got in. Kane had his hand over my mouth again, face hard above mine. I flailed and kicked, trying to tell him what a piece of shit he was, how much I hated him. How I’d kill him.
“David, go,” he growled, and he sounded like a devil. “Anika, I’m sorry. I had to do it this way.”
I bit his hand and he yanked it away with a curse. “You’re going to kill my father you low life thug!”
“Stop it! Listen to me.” He reached for me and I snapped my teeth at him, hammering my heel at the window. I thought I heard the glass crack. “Wow. Fuck. Okay. Have it your way, angel. You leave me no choice.”
“What—”
He dug into a pocket and pulled something out. Before I had a chance to see what it was, his fist moved in a stabbing motion. There was a painful prick in my shoulder and I cried out. The sting grew hotter, and dizziness washed over me.
“I’m sorry, angel. This is the only way.” Then he kissed my forehead, of all things.
I don’t remember his lips leaving my skin before blackness consumed me and the world disappeared.
END OF BOOK 2
Book 3
1
I couldn’t bring myself to leave her side.
I know, nearly everything I felt for Anika was wrong. And the things I fe
lt that were right were dangerous to both of us. But it didn’t seem to matter to whatever fucked up part of my heart still felt them.
As I leaned forward in the chair beside my bed watching her, I tried to tell myself I was only there to make sure she didn’t run. But that was only part of my reason for sitting there like a hawk watching its prey. Protectiveness unlike I’d ever imagined also roared through me like a storm, the kind that savages everything it touches and breaks bones. Emotions like that made a man weak, and I wished to hell I could cut it out of me, bury it deep, until my father could no longer use it to tear up everyone I ever cared about.
And remember that sick part of me I mentioned, the part that likes to see her hate me? That part wanted to turn the protectiveness I felt for her into something monstrous, something twisted. Something all the other monsters in my life—my father, Dominic Gavini—understood and would accept enough not to destroy her to get back at me.
Because as long as they thought I wanted to hurt her, that she hated me, and I’d bound her to me just to make her suffer, they’d leave us alone. They’d let her belong to me, instead of going after her just to show me what happened when I cared too much.
Laid out across my enormous bed, Anika looked like she belonged there. Her auburn curls spilled over my pillow like pale flames, some of the locks falling almost to the floor, like the curls of some fiery Sleeping Beauty. A smile twisted my lips. If this was a fairytale, it was a warped one. What kind of prince would tie his princess to his bed, her wrists bound by ropes that attached to my headboard?
Worse, what kind of man imagines her waking up from a kiss, and gets hard at the idea of her trying to knock his teeth out? But then, I’d always told her I wasn’t a good man. What was it she’d said? If I was, I wouldn’t have offered her the deal I had. She was right. And I had a feeling that, given the right set of circumstances—or perhaps the wrong ones—I’d become much worse.
A soft sigh left her and I rose slowly from my seat, expecting her eyes to open. Excepting the fight to start the moment she became aware of her situation. As if what I’d done to her an hour ago after our meeting with Dominic wasn’t enough.
Except her eyes didn’t open. Her fair features remained peaceful in sleep, chest rising and falling in a slow, even rhythm. She was relaxed now, but she wouldn’t be for long.
Images of her launching herself at me the moment I untied her, clawing and punching at me, filled my thoughts, and I cursed. My cock jabbed at my slacks with the thought of subduing her, restraining her tighter. Except in my mind, I imagined myself stripping her clothes off so she knew her body was mine, and my control was absolute.
The images flashed with vividness as sharp as glass and I groaned, adjusting myself.
In such a situation, I wouldn’t do anything as shallow and temporary as fuck her. Oh, no. I’d stand over her, making her taste my raging hard cock, making her eat it, and then pounding myself to a heady release all over that perfect curvy body until she was thoroughly marked with my cum.
Jesus, what the fuck was wrong with me? I ran my hands through my hair, drawing a deep breath, but it didn’t calm the beast raging behind my ribs, behind my eyes. I needed to get control of myself, or when she woke, I would wind up traumatizing her.
“Mr. Davros.” David. My driver’s voice, lowered for Anika’s benefit, I thought, pulled me out of the darkness of my own head and I jerked around. He crossed the large room and handed me my phone, voice all but inaudible. “It’s Gavini. You’ll need to take this one.”
“Fuck.” I’d told David not to disturb me while I was with Anika, wanting nothing to distract me from the perfection that, thanks to our deal, was all mine. After ten years of working for me, that David was interrupting me now meant whatever that bastard kingpin wanted, it had to be handled immediately. I took the phone from him.
“What is it, Dominic?” I didn’t try to keep the acid out of my voice, like I usually did when I spoke to him. Quietly, I signaled David to watch Anika and crossed to the oak double doors of the bedroom.
“I hope I didn’t interrupt anything, Kane. If I had Anika as a slave, I wouldn’t want anyone taking me away from her either.”
The smugness in his voice made me grind my teeth, as much with hatred for him, as with protectiveness for Anika. Out in the living room portion of the hotel suite, I closed the doors. “What do you want, Dominic?”
“One of your father’s shipments is late.”
“Again?” Sometimes I swore my dad stalled the mob on purpose. It didn’t make sense, when all his money and connections wouldn’t stop the Gavini crime family from hurting him.
“Yes, again. Apparently Victor likes to run on his own schedule.”
“What else is new? Why are you talking to me?”
“Because I’m giving you a chance to show your loyalty to me. There’s a construction crew that needs that shipment, and I know he’s stalling the shipment on purpose.”
“It’ll be taken care of. Send me the information on what’s late and it’ll get to you by this evening.”
“It had better. You have until this afternoon. I’ll leave you to what I’m sure promises to be a very fulfilling morning.”
The phone went dead before I could reply.
Damn it, one of these days, if the Gavinis didn’t do it first, I’d kill my father myself. I’d love to say he wouldn’t do anything so dangerous as to deliberately piss a crime boss off, but I knew he would. I just wasn’t sure why, yet. My fists clenched. Finding out why would be just another reason in a long line of reasons for my father and I to fight.
I checked my watch. 2AM. Plenty of time to deal with my father before noon, which was just as well, because I wouldn’t leave Anika before she woke if I could help it. I’d put her in this situation, the least I could do is be here when she came to.
Slipping back into the room, a new kind of anger toward Dominic fueled my blood. I’d wanted so badly to tell him Anika wasn’t my slave. To tell him the same thing I’d told her so often, but I knew better. He wasn’t supposed to think her and I were in some kind of lovey dovey romance, not that I would ever end up in anything so wholesome anyway. He was supposed to believe I’d manipulated her into being my submissive for six months, in return for paying off her father’s debt to him, only to turn the deal into something more sinister after the contract was signed. As long as he believed that, both Anika and her father were safe from him, and if he chose to interpret what she was for that time as a slave, so be it. I wasn’t entirely sure his thinking was all that far off the mark.
“Mr. Davros.” David stood up as I came across the room to him. He nodded toward Anika. “She’s coming to, sir.”
My heart picked up its pace. I looked at her, lying across my bed, wrists still tied to each end of my headboard. She visibly tried to swallow as if her throat was parched, and her eyes struggled to open. Oh, she would not be happy with me when she fully came around. The beast in me growled for her animosity, thirsted for her bloodlust, and my cock gave a violent twitch.
Her eyes fluttered. Was she supposed to have that much trouble coming out of it? Fuck, I didn’t know shit about medical crap. That was Anika’s thing. “I think I gave her too high a dose.”
“I doubt it. I filled the needle myself. Some people just take longer to come to.”
Right, I sometimes forgot, David possessed medical knowledge. One of these days, I’d find out how. When I gave him a curious look, he turned and left without another word. Apparently drugging and tying a girl up wasn’t against his moral code, any more than stalking her was.
I moved to Anika’s side and touched one wrist, gaze fixated on the way she tried to move her long, slender fingers. Then I saw out of the corner of my eye the way her little pink tongue flicked out to wet her dried lips, and everything else ceased to exist. Everything else, except the painfully hard shaft of my dick.
Then, finally, her eyes opened enough that she caught sight of me. They widened, and instant anger filled the
m. No, not anger. This was something far deeper, far darker. Something far more exciting.
As she twisted and writhed, trying to free her beautiful hands, her sea-blue eyes radiated with pure, livid rage. They burned with betrayal, with the need to make me suffer.
“Morning, Angel.”
She writhed and bucked. “Kane, you son of a bitch, what have you done to me?”
I grinned. Here we go.
For a moment, as reality began to reassert itself around me, I was too groggy to fully realize the situation I was in. Still, being a nurse, I recognized the signs. The grogginess, the sluggishness I felt in waking up, the way my brain couldn’t grasp a coherent thought—I’d been drugged. I’d administered sedatives to patients often enough to know, whatever I’d been given, it was mild. Meant to knock me out, nothing more. But why?
Then, slowly, as I fought to open my eyes, the memories started to return.
Kane. We’d met with the head of the Gavini crime family. Kane had changed the rules of the game, revealing his true colors. He hadn’t been trying to protect me, as I’d hoped. He’d manipulated me into becoming little more than his slave. Myself, and my father, too. Gavini had changed the rules too, and what had Kane done? He’d agreed to bring the crime boss my father’s head in two weeks. Then when I’d tried to get away from him at Gavini’s estate, he’d shoved me into the back of his car, jammed a needle into my arm, and ordered David to drive off like it was all par for the course.
As soon as I saw Kane standing next to me, the same white hot betrayal I’d felt for him at Gavini’s mansion rushed through me. It dawned on me I was in his bedroom, tied to the bastard’s bed, no doubt how he’d always intended me to be. Then when I’d demanded to know what the hell he’d done to me, that sinfully sexy smile that always made my insides go wild spread across his face. Smug, arrogant, amused, fueling my anger further.