He chuckled. “I’d listen to her,” he mused.
My mouth twisted in rage, but I remained where I was, on her lap. My ears strained as Dimitri made calls on his phone. He was barely audible. When he was done, he spoke to Loren.
“It’s for Gia,” he said. “She’s thirsty.”
He must have passed her water. My throat was parched, and mouth dry like cotton. I wanted the water. Loren eased her hold on me, and I sat up. She handed the water bottle to me. The top was sealed in place. I decided to drink it. Looking out the window, I could confirm we were queuing for the Mukilteo ferry. We are headed to Loren’s home? I wasn’t sure. I was tired again and fell asleep almost instantly.
When I woke again, I was on a bed. All my clothing had been removed, but I wasn’t cold. Though there was a thin blanket underneath me. I moved my hand over my bare skin to cover myself and moaned. That briefness of touch felt good. Really good. Why?
A low laugh erupted from behind me, and I stiffened.
“No, please go on,” Dimitri said. He was seated on the bed next to me. “You thirsty?” he laughed.
I closed my eyes and didn’t answer. “You drugged me.”
“Yes, I did,” he confirmed. “E-comply. You’ll come to depend on the good feeling. I like to start by showing you what a small dose will make you do. This will help you adjust to obeying me. I am now your Simon, and when I say do something, you do it. You eat, drink, sleep at my will. If you don’t, then you’ll be punished.”
He was no longer playing the friendly companion. He was setting up his authority over me. What he’d learn quickly about me was that I wasn’t Loren.
“Do whatever you want to me,” I said. “You want to hurt me, go ahead. But I’m not going to be your puppet.”
“Brave. You’ll learn not to make requests like that,” Dimitri said. “I agreed not to maim you, but I am capable of doing things to you that you won’t like. Hit, drug, and fuck you. I don’t want to do them, but I will. You’ll be a sex addict after I’m done. You don’t want that, do you?”
“Where are my clothes?” I asked.
“You didn’t bring them.” His tone implied it had been my fault or choice not to bring them. “You wasted our time in your house,” He slid me over his lap, and my breath hitched. I bit my lip hard to mask my own pleasure, then tried to wiggle free, but that only made me more aroused, and this time, a moan escaped my lips.
“That was kind of cute,” he said in a bored tone. “I like a little struggle, but this won’t only be fun for you.”
Placing his leg across the bottom of my own, he secured my movements. One of his arms placed across my back to keep me in place. I bit my tongue to try to suppress the moan that came as his hand slid over my buttocks and stopped.
No. I suppressed a whimper. My heart sunk as I realized I couldn't resist his touch. But then came a hard swat across my buttocks. It wasn’t his hand. He used a paddle I hadn’t seen.
I cried out in pain and shock.
He laughed hardily. “Now that was sexy. I’m starting to like you already.”
I could feel his erect cock through his trousers. He enjoyed doing this. He hit me with the paddle again, and tears threatened my eyes, but I fought them back.
Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. One after another. I would not cry for him.
“Still no tears?” he groaned. “Stubborn. Well, if pain doesn’t give me tears, I’ll try pleasure.”
I thrash loose on his lap, but he held onto me tight and laughed.
“You fuck two men, but now want to play hard to get with me?” he said and scoffed. “You try to shut yourself off, but you still showed me something. I know what you don’t like now and what to use should you refuse to obey me.”
He massaged his hand over my buttocks, and I shuddered. “There is a camera in this room. What would rent-a-cop Elliott think if he sees you moaning and writhing for me?”
He held onto me so that I couldn’t escape. I swallowed but didn’t answer him. If all I’d known about Elliott was true, I was sure in my heart that he’d know Dimitri bent me to his will. He’d know I was drugged, and I endured to survive. He’d be proud of me. That gave me strength. I was sure Dimitri sensed it.
He pushed me off his lap, and I tumbled onto the musky, coarse Berber carpet.
“You cold, defiant whore,” he spat out. “There’s the woman that thinks she’s smarter, tougher than a man. There’s the woman that thinks she deserves something while she makes a man like Patrick beg for help.”
I eased to my side. “He cheated on me,” I said to him again.
“You keep saying that as if that’s an excuse. It’s not,” he said morosely. “You’re to blame. He didn’t want to divorce you, but you forced him. You emasculated Patrick by taking almost all the money and contacts you knew he needed for his re-election, and then tried to ruin him by embarrassing him with two men. All you whores are the same. You take until you get what you want and then you think you can walk away. Well, you won’t. I’ll make sure Patrick gets his revenge.”
His voice was loud in the small space, and I fought not to cover my ears to its effect. Now knowing how much he hated women and how committed he is to making women suffer, there was little chance he’d change his mind, and let me go.
My mind struggled with what to do next, but then I heard the strike of a match. My gaze shot over to where he stood, taking a drag on a cigarette. “You know, one of my favorite scars on Angel was the row of burns I scarred on her side. For you, I’ll put it on your spine.”
I sluggishly scooted across the carpet, but not as fast as I wanted to. “Don’t… you promised not to maim me,” I stuttered.
“Don’t move,” he ordered and crossed over to where I was on the floor. My breath bursting in and out as I tried to curl on my side away from him in an attempt to make myself as small as possible. From what I could see, the room was small, and there wasn’t much chance of getting away from him.
“You afraid of scars?” I whimpered as the heel of his foot dug into my back. “Afraid you can’t sell yourself like the whore you are at orgies if you’re not perfect?” Ash fell on my skin.
“Patrick doesn’t… doesn’t like scars,” I stammered and gulped in air. “He’s your client.”
“Patrick wants your money,” he said. “He’ll trade you to me once he has it. I think I might keep you. Now that I’m beginning to see how you react to me. That and your almost flawless skin. It’s practically a blank canvas I could form into my image.”
I spoke as quickly as I could, “Why would you keep a whore, as you call me?? Don’t you have someone?”
“—I don’t need anyone,” he replied brusquely. “Enough delays or I will start burning your skin,” he said and walked over to the opposite corner of the room. “You need a lesson in obedience. I want you to crawl to me. Crawl or I will burn your face.” His tone was empty, and he’d gone calm, just as he’d done before he hit Liz. He wasn’t going to ask again.
I placed my hands on the carpet at the sides of my body and lifted up slowly to my knees. I could do this. But with each move on the floor. Hatred grew inside me for him and myself. This was what I had always told myself I wouldn’t do for a man. I’d never allow myself to be treated like I was nothing and worthless again. This was worse than the drugs, worse than his taunts and hits. This was me doing what he wanted. Me giving up on myself.
I collapsed and curled into a ball with my knees up and squeezed my eyes shut. Let him do his worse. No more.
“That’s all the time I have for you now,” he said and crossed to what I discovered was the only door in the small space and paused there. “But you get it. Even moving an inch means you submitted to me. Fuck. I think that was better than my cigarette. Seeing you fold like a cheap suit, over a little pain and scars. And Patrick couldn’t handle you?”
I startled in the shot of pain as the cigarette he dropped landed on my skin and twisted away from it.
His foot came down and gro
unded into the carpet. “What I’d just done was nothing. You must have seen some of the visuals on Angel’s body. I wasn’t responsible for those. Walter and some of my chosen friends that I allowed to play with her enjoyed her pain. That alone should make you think twice about defying me,” he closed the door with a slam. The scrape of a key in the lock let me know he secured it behind him.
My stomach lurched, and I vomited on the carpet. I looked around for something to clean it up, but there was nothing. I cleaned up as much as I could with the thin blanket and sat back down on the bed. I closed my eyes. This can’t be how it ends for me.
I would find a way to resist. I would survive.
***
I awoke again sweating profusely.
It was too hot, but I took the fresh sheet that I found at the end of the bed and covered myself. My eyes darted to the wall and found the camera he had mentioned. I wasn’t going to help him record any footage to use against me.
The door unlocked a while later with Loren. She rushed over and placed a cool cloth on my face. “Don’t speak,” she whispered. “He said I can bring you food.”
She unpacked a sandwich, fruit cup, and juice pack from a brown paper bag. “This is one of my lunches for the nursery I volunteer at. There are no drugs, I promise.”
I had little choice, and I needed my strength. I ate fast just in case they changed their mind. “There is a toilet and shower stall across the hall. You knock, and I open it when I’m allowed down here.”
I continued to eat, forcing through my semi-haze, from the drugged water to remember what she said. I was even more certain we were at her home. She also said she had to go down to get in here. Was I in the basement?
There were no windows, at least not in here. The only furniture was my bed. The other things in the room are my bedding, a bucket, and a roll of toilet paper.
“That’s if Simon or I can't get down here in time,” she said following my gaze. “At least for the next few days.” She mumbled and covered her mouth. “I…I better go.”
“Please help me,” I begged.
“I… I can’t. I’m sorry,’ she stammered and wiped tears from her chin.
“This was what you did to Angel?” I asked. “Angel loved you. She told me to contact you to help me. She thought you were a friend. She believed you’d help me.”
Loren glimpsed me and sobbed. “I’m…I’m so sorry.”
“She believed in you, and you hurt her. Think on that,” I said as she rushed to close the door back in place.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Dmitri was sitting on the edge of the bed when I woke. He was naked from the waist up. His chest was covered with a large tattoo of blind skeletal justice holding the scales. “Like what you see?” he mused as I recoiled, rolling as far as I could across the full bed to lay on my stomach. The top sheet was gone, and I was still unclothed. Still here with him. Surely someone had to be looking for me by now.
When was now? My head throbbed as I tried to think.
“Come back over here,” Dmitri demanded. “When I come in here, I expect you to be down on your knees at my feet or do you have a taste for chastisement?”
I licked my dry lips. I could have pointed out that I’d only just woken up, but he wouldn’t care. “You’ll hurt me anyway.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I will and every time I have to ask you it will get worse.”
I gritted my teeth. I may be forced to do what he asked, but I wouldn’t put on a show. I did it as ungraciously as I could. Scooting back over to his side of the bed and unceremoniously flopped down onto my sore knees and crossed my arms.
He chuckled. “Damn. You’re spoiled to the core. You’re just the type of clients that I like because it’s so satisfying when I see you come to your new reality and break.”
I glimpsed him and frowned. There he was working on my head again, but he was talking and not touching me. That I could deal with.
“How many clients have you had?” My voice came out coarse.
“You’re my seventh full time,” he answered.
“Is this all you do?” I rasped. “Or are you a lawyer or judge or were you one at another time. I mean your tattoo has me…curious.”
“I’m your Simon,” he replied curtly. “That’s all you need to know about me… Moving on, how about we get rid of that scratchy voice. You must be thirsty.” He reached down to his side, which was hidden from my view, and produced a bottled water and opened it. “Open your mouth, and I’ll pour you a drink.”
I was parched, and I wanted to take it. However, every time I took their water, I lost time. “I can’t take that anymore. I need real water. From what you learned about me, you must know that I didn’t take drugs. Ever. Please…”
He rose, from his seat without a word, and I held up my hands to ward off the blow should he hit me. But he went to the door and unlocked it and left but returned a few seconds later. This time, with another bottled water bearing a brand I recognized.
“I give you my word. I haven’t injected this bottle with the E-comply drug,” He stayed by the door. “It’s clean, but the only way you’ll get it is if you crawl over here and thank me for it.”
The room was quite heated now, and without ventilation, it was stiflingly unbearable. I needed the water and reminded myself this was about survival. I was unsure if the label was real or a fake, but I was going to drink it. Answering to his command was a part of his training. The thought of becoming a useless drone for Patrick made me fume. He would pay for this. That was if I returned as myself.
I fought through my misery with every move as I crawled across the abrasive, musty carpet to where he stood by the door. I stopped when I saw his bare feet.
“Simon…thank you for the water,” my voice rose an octave. I wasn’t sure what exactly he wanted to hear.
Dimitri handed me the bottle, which I took and gulped down quickly. Too fast. I covered my mouth as my stomach churned.
“Don’t you do it,” he gritted, but it was too late. I vomited the sandwich I ate earlier and the water.
He hit the side of my head, and I fell over. “You did that on purpose.”
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “I didn’t.”
He grabbed ahold of my hair anyway and yanked it back. “Yes, you did, but you’ll clean this up. Loren!” he called out her name.
She came inside and bowed her head to him. “Yes, Simon.”
“You’ll watch her clean up this floor,” he said. “Gia needs a lesson in appreciation. She’s too used to having it good, unlike you and me. She doesn’t know what it’s like to have nowhere to stay and to go to bed hungry. Her daddy and Patrick gave her servants, so she didn’t think twice before messing up your carpet. She was sure someone would take care of it for her.”
Loren glowered at me, and Simon grinned.
“I didn’t,” I said to her miserably. “I was sick.”
“She pointed out that you are beneath her. She bragged how she was smart enough to just say no to drugs and you couldn’t. She didn’t give it a thought that you hadn’t a choice. Or how hard it must have been for someone like you who was born addicted. Or how your junkie father sold you to his friends in exchange for drugs when you were a child.”
Loren started to cry.
“Stop it,” I begged him.
He rubbed the front of his pants and groaned. He was getting off on her pain.
I turned to Loren and pleaded, “That’s not what I meant. I didn’t know about your past, and I would never make fun of it. I only ask him to stop giving me drugs in the water. That’s all.”
She wouldn’t look at me.
“This is a teaching moment,” Dimitri said elatedly. “Gia needs a lesson in learning to appreciate things I so generously provided for her. What do you think, Loren, no more food for her?”
Loren nodded in agreement. “Yes, Simon.”
“Good girl,” he praised her. “The next time she’s given something she’ll care to appreciat
e it. No food for her for the rest of the day. If she wants water, she drinks what I provide her.”
Loren nodded and said. “Yes, Simon. But…” she fidgeted.
“But what?” he asked harshly.
“Do….do you want her to clean the floor?” she stammered.
“Oh,” he stroked his chin. “Yes. She can do that but watch her. If she does anything you don’t like, you have my permission to punish her.”
“Yes, Simon,” she answered quietly.
He turned toward me. “You going to behave now and think before you respond, Gia. And just so you know, I just ran out of patience for you.”
“Yes, Simon,” I replied between clenched teeth.
He was smart to turn her against me. Immediately he left, and Loren returned with a bucket and sponge, I wasted no time in trying to remedy whatever damage he might have caused between Loren and me.
“Thank you, Loren,” I said to her as I scrubbed the carpet with the cleanser she had sprayed on it.
“For what?” she asked.
“For offering to let me clean up,” I said calmly. “I’m sorry. I ruined your floor.”
“You didn’t. We don’t use this place… I’m sorry I can no longer give you food,” she added gently.
“I feel too ill. I don’t think I could eat anyway,” I responded and coughed.
“He can hear you,” she pointed out.
“I don’t mind if… Simon hears me, but he was wrong about me and living luxuriously,” I told her.
“No, he wasn’t,” she answered haughtily. “Simon never lies when he talks about someone’s life.”
“He had somethings right, but not all,” I admitted. “I didn’t have servants my whole life. Patrick wanted them. He wanted a life of extravagance. That was what made him happy. All I wanted was to be loved, and that’s the truth. I never said anything about drug addiction. I hadn’t tried drugs mostly out of fear. I’d never make fun of anyone suffering.
“You’re trying to make me think better of you,” she said frowning down at the carpet. “You want to be a better person, you need to listen and follow him. I don’t want to get you in trouble, but I will if you make me. Be quiet,” she shouted.
Dauntless (The Agency Dark Affairs Duet Book 2) Page 18