Cruel Seduction: A Dark Romance (Underground Kings Book 2)

by Kelli Callahan

  “Is she pure?” the man with brown hair asks. “She has to be pure for it to work.”

  “She’s pure,” Kendrick hums. “I made sure of that years ago when I scoped her out and married her to make sure she’d stay that way.” He doesn’t tell them that we are no longer married due to Sebastian’s effort to make sure I was free of Kendrick, but I guess that is a detail that doesn’t matter.

  “You married her and didn’t fuck her? Bullshit,” the green-eyed monster says, leaning back in the chair surrounding the table. “If I had a woman like that lying next to me every night, you better believe I’d fuck the hell out of that sweet cunt until it was sore.”

  My body trembles from the cruelty of his words.

  “Well, this is more important, isn’t it? Do you know how difficult it is to find a woman of Mediterranean descent? And a virgin? If she were in your hands, none of us would be able to trust you with her. The purpose is more important than the temptation. Isn’t that right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Damn right.”

  “I know,” the man says with an annoying roll of his eyes.

  “Okay, then. It isn’t up for discussion.” Kendrick’s words end the discussion, and his fingers still play along the ties of my robe and tug.

  My breath whooshes free, and I closed my eyes when I hear them all inhale, as if they are staring at a goddess, someone from another world and time. Kendrick’s hands slip down my torso, tracing the curve of my breasts. He hums in delight, and the cold air wraps around my nipples, causing them to bead.

  My body betrays me. They think I am reacting to them, but I’m not. I’ll never react to them.

  “She is perfect, isn’t she?” Kendrick’s hands trail down to the trimmed top of my bush and pauses before traveling upward again. “Sheer fucking perfection. Do you know how hard it is to control myself? It’s been so difficult, but it will be worth it. I’ll finally get my share when she is delivered.”

  None of this makes sense. I don’t understand what he is talking about. He is sick in the head. Whatever he has planned for me, it isn’t good. I’m not going to wait around and find out either.

  This is my limit.

  I’m not a fucking show pony.

  “My sweet, make us breakfast, and leave your robe open. I want us to have something beautiful to look at.”

  “Whatever you want, Kendrick.” I turn on my heel to make my way to the kitchen. As I walk by the man with brown hair, his hand reaches out and squeezes my ass. I jump, and he chuckles darkly.

  “I can’t wait to get inside you. You have no idea what you’re going to do for the—”

  “Shut up, you fucking idiot!” Kendrick bellows, and a harsh slap has the guy letting go of my ass, and I bolt to the safety of the kitchen. Ten feet isn’t enough.

  I need ten lifetimes to get as far away as I want.

  Opening the fridge door, I appreciated all the different foods we got at the market yesterday. Fruits, cheeses, vegetables, and meats. The cold air from inside the fridge sends a chill running through my body. Something is telling me I am running out of time.

  And I need to dig down deep for the need to survive. I have to wake up. I need to start caring about myself again. Kendrick has spent years brainwashing me, making me this compliant little bitch. I was meant to be more.

  I grab a few pieces of fruit from the fridge and take the biggest knife from the block that I can find and start to chop. I glare at the men, slicing the cucumbers, apples, and oranges with more force than necessary, wishing it was their cocks I was ruining. I lay the knife down and think of my options.

  If I run… I might be able to disappear into the woods or the security guards would shoot me, and I’d die. What would the difference be? Dying in attempt to survive instead of dying at the hands of the monsters waiting around the table to prove they are my worst nightmare?

  I thrust my shoulders back and grab the assortment of fruits and veggies off the counter and bring it over to the table. I plaster a smile on my face as I set it in the middle. “I thought you would like a snack before I start to cook.”

  “I’d like a snack alright,” the blond says, wrapping his hand around my wrist and tugging me around the brunette until I am sitting on his lap, and his hands cup my breasts.

  “Please, let me go. Kendrick, please, tell them to let me go. You didn’t give permission for them to touch your pet.” My eyes water, and no matter how hard I try to get away from him, he tightens his hold on me.

  “If you are my pet, you are their pet. We are one in the same, my sweet.” Kendrick watches eagerly as the blond touches me.

  “Can I make her come, Kendrick? Has she been a good girl?” the blond murmurs against my ear, but the question is directed toward Kendrick, as if he is the boss.

  “If you can. She’s stubborn.”

  “Please, don’t,” I cry, wishing I had the knife in my hand. I can’t let him touch me. It has been too long since I was properly touched, and whether I want it or not, I have a feeling I’ll go off like a bottle rocket. “Please, let me go.”

  “She’s being disobedient, Kendrick. I thought you said she was a good pet?” the blond sneers and bites my ear so hard, I cry out in pain.

  “You have my permission to do what you need to make her submit to you,” Kendrick says the worst thing imaginable.

  The blond brings his hand down on my face and then slams my forehead against the table. I see stars and blood trickles from somewhere on my forehead. My entire body feels numb and the fight I had moments ago is gone. It’s four against one.

  My chances are slim to none.

  He hands dart between my legs and find my clit, as if he has done this a hundred times. Tears slide down my face as the first electric buzz makes my thighs shake.

  “I knew you’d like it,” he whispers. “Just relax. I can make you feel good.”

  “I don’t want you to make me feel good,” I say, bending my head down. In one last effort, I swing back and smash my skull into his face. His hands drop from around my waist and from between my legs, and I bolt toward the kitchen, grab the knife, and I don’t look back.

  I keep running down the hall, passing the blank canvases of the wall, and where the back door narrows, like a light at the end of a tunnel, I push myself faster, pumping my legs until they shake.

  “Gabriella!” Kendrick roars and I hear a crash behind me and a stampede of footsteps. “Get your ass back here before I decide to punish you.”

  I’ll never turn back. Whatever the hell they have planned for me, I’m not going to be a part of their sick little group. My hand lands on the knob, twists, and the wind blows over my bare body. I twist the robe around me in a hurry, careful not to cut myself with the knife I have in my hand.

  The balcony overlooks the ocean. I isn’t that high up, but it’s the only way I can get away from them. I climb over the rail and stare at the sea below me. The fall could kill me, or I could stay, and get raped, which is what it sounds like their plan consists of in some way, shape, and form.

  “Get down from there, Gabriella. You have no idea what you’re doing! What you’re risking!” he shouts over the gust of wind.

  “I know I’m getting free of you.” I turn my head to give Kendrick one last parting glass. “I fucking hate you.” With a grunt, I toss the knife through the air, and Kendrick jumps out of the way, slamming against the rail that lines the balcony. The butcher knife pierces into the blond’s chest, the one who touched me, and nothing feels more satisfying than watching blood drip off the blade and spurt from his mouth. “Karma can be a bitch,” I say my last words to Kendrick and then he lunges for me, but not in time.

  Without any fear, I step off the balcony and fall through the air. I should be afraid, but all I feel is liberation. Why didn’t I do this sooner? The air whips around me, my eyes water from the quick speed of the breeze, and my robe cone undone. I spread my arms out, flying to my death, and close my eyes.

  I hit the water so hard, it
feels like concrete. I can’t breathe. I open my mouth to get air, but water fills my lungs instead. I let my body sink into the unknown depths of blue and blink my eyes while the current took me away.

  Small fish swirled around me, but nothing scary swam by me. It was peaceful. No one could see me cry now. I wouldn’t get punished for tears. The ocean soaked up every drop that left my eyes.

  No more chains.

  No more abuse.

  I should have done this years ago.

  My last thought before I closed my eyes was of a dark-haired man with bright blue eyes. I let my mind turn back the clock and I was standing in the middle of the market again. Instead of being frozen in fear, I ran to him.

  And I never looked back.

  Chapter Nine

  SEBASTIAN

  I’m on my fifth cup of coffee, and my body is jittery, but I can’t stop. I have all my laptops set up on the counter, looking through every face through the camera lens from the farmer’s market. I didn’t realize how many people were there. I’ve been running faces through facial recognition software for hours with no luck.

  While that was in the works, I did research on Kendrick. It seems there is one thing he is smart about, and that is covering his tracks. Like me, he has no records; just an old mug shot I found when he got arrested back when he was a teenager.

  Other than that, he doesn’t exist, but I know better than that. He’s here. I’m running the software against his face too. It’s only a matter time before I catch him. No one is perfect when it comes to covering their tracks, besides me.

  We aren’t talking about me, though. We are talking about my idiot brother.

  “Any luck?” Owen asks as he takes a sparkling water out of the fridge. The bottle hisses as he twists the top of the green bottle and chugs half of it down.

  “Not yet, but I have a good feeling about it. She was there. I’ve seen glimpses of the purple dress in the footage. It’s her. It has to be.” The way my body comes to fucking life when I talk about Gabriella is pathetic. My fingers fly over the keyboard as I focus in on another image.

  I reach for my coffee cup without looking and grab air. I look to my right and see Owen holding my mug in the air. “What the fuck? Give it back.”

  “Hell no,” Owen says, then he dumps the remainder of the life-saving liquid into the sink.

  “Wh—” I reach for it at the last minute, listening to the sink gurgle as it drinks my caffeine. “I needed that!” I shout at Owen.

  “You are typing so fast, you’re about to smoke your damn keyboard. You’ve had enough. I can see it in your eyes. You’re all feral and shit. No more coffee for you.” Owen snags another bottle of water from the fridge and sets it in the same place where my coffee was just a minute ago.

  “I don’t want water.”

  “Too fucking bad.”

  “You can’t tell me what to do.”

  “Fucking watch me.”

  “Make me a cup of coffee!” I slam my fist on the counter and stand.

  “You are being ridiculous. You have a serious problem.”

  “The only problem I’m about to have is your death on my hands if you don’t give me my coffee. I’m working around the clock here. I can’t afford to crash!”

  “Both of you are being ridiculous. Can you shut up?” Jaxon glowers at each of us, pointing his index finger. “Fucking children. And, Sebastian, cool it on the coffee. Owen is right. You get to be a pain in the ass when you’ve had too much. Owen, stay out of other’s people’s business. Whose turn is it to do a perimeter check? I know it bounces back and forth between the two of you, but I think I can do it today. It’s been long enough,” Jaxon says on an exhale as he sits on the barstool.

  Owen smirks before hiding his mouth with the water as he drinks. “Right, you look up to it. One-hundred percent healed.”

  “It’s my turn,” I say. “But I’m not leaving. Owen took my coffee; he can fucking do it. I’m busy trying to save Gabriella, remember?”

  “I’ll go if it means getting away from him. He is a mad man right now.” Owen lifts his hands and walked away, slamming the door shut that leads to the garage. It’s the only way in or out. Jaxon is bound and determined to keep the Cliff House safe. Everything has a weakness, though. Like a few months ago when Quinn’s ex-fiancé was trapped in the house and somehow outwitted us.

  Until Jaxon took his head off, literally.

  I can’t wait to do that to Kendrick. Blood brother be damned. He means nothing to me.

  “Sebastian, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” I say, typing away on my computer again.

  “You’re obsessing.”

  My hand freezes on my keyboard, and when I stare at Jaxon, it’s like I don’t even know him anymore. “Obsess? Are you seriously using that against me right now? The man who objected at his ex-girlfriend’s wedding and locked her in a room against her will, and I’m the one obsessed? Are you kidding me right now?” My voice raises as I vent. “Of course, I’m fucking obsessed! She’s the only woman I’ve ever loved. At least you got to be with Quinn before you went to prison. I haven’t even kissed Gabriella. I never had the pleasure of that. Instead, my monster brother did god-knows-what to her, and you expect me to not obsess? Fuck. You. Jaxon. If obsessing kills me, I will do it gladly until I’m six-feet fucking under!” The computer dings and I fall over the stool to check it out. “Shit, damn it,” I barely catch myself on the counter before pulling myself up and kicking the stool away. The annoying metal object flies against the couch, then bounces off and scrapes against the floor.

  The brand-new hardwood Jaxon just installed.

  I press a few buttons, and the picture zooms in. It’s just her profile, a bit blurry, but it’s her. The blinking square around her face beeps, and the important peaks of her face have small dots connecting, signaling that it is a ninety-percent match.

  “It’s her. It’s her!” I jump in the air and clap. “It’s really her. I fucking got you, baby. I got you. Where did he take you? Huh?” I ask more to myself than anyone else as I type away. Now that I have a lock on her face, getting the other images is easy. My smile fades when I see her being tugged along like a dog, a collar wrapped around her neck.

  Wait a minute.

  The collar.

  I did see her.

  I fall back, forgetting the stool isn’t there, and my head hits the floor with an unforgiving thud, ringing my brain.

  “Shit, are you okay?” Jaxon tries to help me up, but I bat his hands away.

  I stand and hold a hand against my head, waiting for the echoing sounds to clear. “It wasn’t just a dream. I did see her, but I couldn’t tell the difference between what I saw and the dream the other night. I fucking knew it, but as soon as I saw her, she was gone,” I comment, knowing no one will understand how I feel.

  Has no one had dreams so real, they couldn’t decide what was a facade caused by the imagination?

  I click on another image and hold my breath. She was staring right at me, holding a leash in her hand. She saw me, and she didn’t move? The air is knocked out of my lungs, and I press the power button the computer.

  She saw me when I wasn’t looking, and she didn’t flinch. Does Gabriella love Kendrick? Is that what this is now? Has too much time gone by for me to save her? He has infiltrated her mind once and for all, and she is his.

  “What’s wrong? What are you doing?” Jaxon pushes me out of the way to turn the computer on. My back hits the wall and I think about the last time I saw her, truly saw her. Something that is a memory, not a twisted dream.

  “Leave it alone, Jaxon. She doesn’t want me. It seems like she stared right at me and didn’t move. She waited for Kendrick.”

  Jaxon boots up the computer again and while the screen loads, he props his hip against the counter. “For someone so smart, you can be fucking stupid. Did you think, that maybe, just maybe, she wanted to go to you? She was afraid to move, afraid something bad would happen? Did you think about th
at?”

  “But why wouldn’t she just come to me? She didn’t need to be afraid of me. I’ve proven myself to her, showed her I’ll always have her back.”

  “Sebastian,” he says my name with pity. “Do you really think it is you she is afraid of? It couldn’t possibly be the man who has a collar around her throat and a leash in his hands.”

  He's right. I know that. I’m being irrational, but there is a small part of me that thinks she have Stockholm syndrome. What if she is in love with Kendrick? Does my job to save her become that much harder?

  For so long, I have dedicated my life to keeping her safe, as safe as I could. Even when I was in prison, I did my best to keep her safe and secure. It was tough, but it paid off knowing people on the outside were willing to get their hands dirty. I did my best to protect her, but I obviously didn’t consider one thing.

  Gabriella might not want me at all.

  The kitchen door bangs open, and Owen comes in with a girl in his hands. She is soaking wet, pale, and I am not sure if she is alive.

  “Holy shit,” Jaxon hurries around the island and pushes her hair out of her face, then freezes.

  My foot kicks off the wall, pushing me forward to see what the big deal is. Jaxon’s eyes are wide, and he takes a step back to give me room. I step closer, and my knees give out. I catch myself on the island and shake my head. My entire world comes to a halt. All this time, all this effort, she came to me. She looks so tired, her skin has goose bumps along the surface, and her nipples are in a permanent state of distress against the drenched robe she cloaking her body. Her lips are blue, and her chest isn’t moving.

  Not after all this time.