Protector's Claim

by Airicka Phoenix

  It was her turn to bob her head. “I wasn’t told you would be bringing a friend.”

  “Yeah, sorry...” I frowned. “Where’s Professor Weber?”

  “He’s running behind. He asked me to get you started.” Her full lips curved. “Let’s sit in the den, shall we?” She started around the island. “It’s the door on your left.”

  I hadn’t seen another door, but I turned back into the hallway.

  “Which way?”

  I heard the twin pops, the distinct snap of a paintball gun discharging, but never had a chance to find the source when I was struck on the side of my neck, the sting of a large mosquito.

  “What...?”

  Something slammed into my back. The impact sent me sprawling to the floor, sending the hardwood vibrating beneath me. The sound reverberated through the corridor, through my bones and echoed in my ears.

  I twisted over and the room swam in murky, gray light. Shadows shifted in bleeding smudges. It all danced in time with the drumming of my heart. The air thickened with the oppressive weight of heat. It choked me, stealing my voice along with my consciousness.

  “WHY IS SHE UNCONSCIOUS?”

  The question circulated through the cavity of my throbbing brain. It rolled in a thick fog along my senses, making me painfully conscious of the weight of my tongue.

  The rest of the world didn’t return any gentler. It roared into focus with a ferocity that ripped two realities in half. Light and shadows swam in and out through milky waters, making my eyes water and my brain spike.

  I started to bring my hands down to shield my face only to have them catch somewhere just over my head. Something rattled. Their clattering against something beneath my head resonated along the walls of my skull. I tried again to pull my hands down. The efforts sent a shower of needles down my arms. My fingertips prickled. I became aware of the ache in my shoulders and along my back.

  “Kieran?”

  The stench of sulfur, bleach, and urine greeted my full awareness. It circulated around the stink of blood, wet concrete, and my own sweat.

  I opened my eyes.

  The room was dull, a grimy dreariness associated with dank basements and prisons. I was strapped to an upright X. My arms and legs chained at the wrists and ankles by padded cuffs found in hospitals beds. My skin was bare, my clothes gone, except for my bra and panties. The simple cotton undergarments were no match to the chill sweeping through me and around me. They certainly left nothing concealed from the man looming above me.

  It took my panicked brain a full minute to register his face, but it was the man from the party. I couldn’t remember his name. That whole night had been such a nightmare, one I had wanted desperately to escape. Meeting one of David’s friends hadn’t been high on my priorities.

  Now, I wished I’d paid closer attention.

  The room was small, barely larger than a prison cell, but perfectly square with concrete walls making up three of the four sides. One held a metal door. The fourth was a sheet of thick glass the color of a murky pond. There was no ceiling. The space above our heads was open to the rafters and a single light, a strip of fluorescent that blazed down with a harsh, white glow. It reminded me of a fishbowl, one that only contained him, me, and the X.

  I pulled at my binds.

  “Where...?”

  “You’re in my doll factory,” the man said as if that were the most natural response. “I’ve been asked to fix you.”

  I blinked. “Fix me?” I glanced at the window, but couldn’t see anything from my angle near the corner. “Where’s Kieran?”

  The man’s head bent to one side, giving him the air of someone trying to place an important detail.

  “Do you mean Mr. Kincaid?”

  I nodded vigorously. “Yes, please, I need to see him.”

  “I’m sorry, but I’ve been given very clear instructions.”

  “By whom? Please!” I fought against the restraints. “There’s been a mistake. Kieran will tell you—”

  “I don’t answer to Mr. Kincaid,” he interjected. “He doesn’t own you.”

  I shook my head. “Own me? No one owns me.”

  “That’s where I’m afraid you’re wrong, Ms. Thornton. I’ve been over the paperwork. They are in order. I assure you.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, please ... please, let me go.”

  He checked his watch. “We’re just waiting for your owner to arrive. We’ll decide what to do once he has.”

  “My...?”

  The door behind him clicked open and a girl slipped in dressed in nothing but a tight, black corset and leggings. Her dark hair was combed back into a ponytail to accent the black cat ears perched on the top of her head. She wore high, thin heels and black opera gloves, and a tiny, red ribbon around her throat, reminding me of a slit throat.

  She paused just inside, hands clasped delicately in front of her, chin lowered respectfully.

  “Here?”

  She gave a slow nod.

  “Excellent. Show him in.”

  I wasn’t surprised when David stepped through the door. No one else would have gone to such lengths to possess me, no one else would have the reason to chain me naked to a board.

  “Hello Gabrielle.”

  Hatred frothed in the pit of my stomach, fanning bravery I knew I didn’t possess.

  “Kieran is going to kill you,” I hissed, ignoring the crack of my heart raging against the walls of my ribs. The chains on either side of my head rattled, giving away the extent of my fears as every tremor rolled over me in waves.

  David chuckled. “There is nothing he can do. You broke our agreement. You belong to me now.”

  “I will never belong to you.”

  He reached into the inside pocket of his coat and withdrew a folded piece of paper. He snapped it open and held it in front of my face.

  I recognized my signature at the bottom of the long and heavily worded document. Several spots held my initials, places that required my full understanding. I hadn’t. I couldn’t while he’d been standing behind me the entire time, close enough that I could just feel the brush of his clothes on my naked skin, his eyes taking in his deposit, the first half of the payment.

  It was to prepare me, I think. To show me just what he would take when the contract ended. The whole thing, making me strip in front of him, making me stand at his desk, legs a wide V, torso bent forward, my crotch on display for his violating eyes had been a preview of what I was to expect. I’d barely been eighteen a week, and that had been the pleasure point for him, my young, untouched body splayed across his desk. I couldn’t even guess how long he kept me there like that. It could have been minutes, but it had felt like hours. I’d trembled the entire time, hands in fists at my sides. Blood filled my palms from the deep gashes created by my nails.

  But it would be over soon, I kept telling myself. Once I was out of that house, I would never come back. This was just a necessary evil.

  “You’re lucky I won’t ask you to do this every Sunday,” he’d said, a dark shadow between my legs. His chair squeaked with the forward motion of his body leaning in. It took all my resolve not to cover myself. “But the wait will be worth it.”

  My freedom was temporary, a loan I had to pay back, a game he could use to torment me with every Sunday. Something to hold over my head, a new type of torture before the toying cat ate the mouse.

  “So, you see?” he interrupted gleefully. “You promised me something in exchange for something you wanted, but you broke your word. You fucked another man.”

  The humor was gone now, replaced with a hatred that chilled me all over. He put the paper away and took a step towards me. I would have edged back, but I couldn’t move. Instead, I found myself crowded by him, by his smell and heat. The proximity made me want to vomit.

  “He’s never going to find you,” he drawled. “Because he will never look here.” His gaze lowered to my chest covered only by a scrap of lace. “This is where the really bad girl
s are sent. I warned you.”

  His fingers settled on the skin of my waist. The contact seared flesh like acid. I flinched, which seemed to amuse him.

  “I told you what I would do, didn’t I?”

  The fingers followed the bend of my hips to where my panties started.

  “Get your hands off me.”

  My voice wavered, a choked whimper contradicting the strength I was trying to put forward.

  David smirked, a filthy twist of his lips that made me sick to my stomach. “You say that now, but in a few weeks, you’re going to beg for my touch. You’re going to want nothing else.”

  The retort was hot on my tongue only to die when he slipped past the elastic of the only thing covering my mound. They plunged past the folds of my sex to my slit.

  I closed my eyes against the assault. I fought with everything in me to let my mind wander to a dark, empty place, but he kept bringing me back.

  “Someone’s already wet,” he breathed, voice ragged and thick.

  I wanted to laugh in his face, but I couldn’t unlock my jaw to speak.

  “I’ve wanted to do this since that night you asked me to let you leave for school. Do you remember that night?” He plunged deeper, harder, making my insides recoil. “The memory of your tight, hot body naked on that desk has kept me company daily until the time I had you like I do at this moment.”

  He withdrew. I tried to close my thighs, to rub them together in hopes of easing the pang he’d left behind. But the chains wouldn’t allow it.

  The fingers were brought to his mouth and he sucked each one into his mouth.

  I waited until he’d licked the last one before allowing myself to grin around the pain and revulsion.

  “How does it taste?” I growled through my teeth. “Do you like it?”

  My questions seemed to momentarily catch him off guard. He stared at me as if trying to decide if I was serious.

  My grin widened until I was laughing, the sound boarding on hysterical.

  “What you’re sucking off your fingers is Kieran fucking me all last night and three times this morning. That’s the wetness soaking my panties, his hot, delicious come.”

  The recoil of his entire body only made me laugh harder. The sound of it echoed over and along the walls, a half mad cackle that made my own skin prickle. It ended abruptly with the crack of his palm. The pain and burn brought tears to my eyes. Copper filled my mouth. I gagged on it.

  “I was going to be merciful.” Blunt fingers bit into my face, wrenching my face back in his direction. “I was going to go easy, but now, you’re going to wish you were dead. I’m going to ruin and destroy you.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “You can do whatever you want, because when Kieran gets his hands on you, you’re going to wish you were dead.”

  He released me with vicious shove and stepped back. He was breathing hard when he turned to the man by the door, the man watching the exchange with a quiet deliberation.

  “I want the full training,” David said. “I want her to suffer. I want her broken. I want her so completely beaten she can’t even shit without asking permission.”

  The man stared at David.

  “I don’t break or beat women, Mr. Thornton. I don’t think you understand our purpose here.”

  Hope prickled in my chest. It wasn’t enough to make me think maybe I stood a chance, but maybe he’d help me.

  “I want one of her.” David jabbed a finger towards the girl standing still and quiet over the other man’s shoulder. “Can you do that?”

  The man turned his chin and peeked at his companion from the corner of his eye. “Lady has been my special project for almost six years.”

  “I don’t have six years,” David muttered. “I’m giving you two months. I’ll double what I’m paying you now.”

  The man looked past David to me.

  “Perhaps this is something we should discuss in private.” He pivoted to the door, but paused to address his companion. “Keep our company entertained until I return, Lady.” He reached up and brushed the side of her face, but the way she practically melted into that single touch, he could have brought her to the brink of orgasm. “Be a good girl.”

  She made a deep purring sound and blinked up into his face with an adoration that seemed deeply personal.

  He left with David in tow. The door snicked shut behind them, and I was alone with the unnaturally thin woman with her feline eyes and unwavering stare.

  “Please,” I whispered. “I don’t belong here. I’m being held against my will.”

  Her head cocked to one side, but she remained immobile and mute. I wondered if maybe she couldn’t speak, or maybe she’d been forbidden to do so.

  “What are you going to do to me? I didn’t consent to any of it. Please, you have to let me go.”

  She continued not to speak, or move.

  “I can’t feel my fingers,” I tried one last time. “Can you just undo the straps?”

  I was wasting my breath. I needed to talk to the man, her ... boss, or whatever he was. He was clearly in charge.

  He was the only person who could help me.

  Chapter Fourteen — Kieran

  Time had always been a fickle lover. No matter how I attempted to tame and conquer it, it continued to win. Since taking over Father’s company, I kept a tighter rein on it. I monitored and controlled every second of my day, not so much when Gabby was there to occupy me, but in my day to day, time was essential in everything I did, especially when it involved her. Time was a leash attached to a leather collar tightening around my neck until the time I was with her again. Counting it had nothing to do with keeping order, not anymore.

  I checked my phone again. Unnecessary, because I would have noticed any messages. The device hadn’t moved from my hands in nearly twenty minutes. It hadn’t vibrated. It hadn’t lit up. It sat warm and smudged between my fingers, mirroring my scowling expression in the dark screen.

  It had been too long.

  Gabby should have sent me something, a simple note letting me know she was leaving the library, or that she’d arrived at class. But it had been nearly an hour and nothing.

  I texted Jeremy, not wanting to disturb Gabby if she was still studying.

  I hadn’t asked the man to keep me informed of her every movement. I wasn’t some rabid, controlling boyfriend who needed by the minute updates of everything his girlfriend did, where she went, who she talked to. Jeremy’s only job was to keep her safe, get her to where she needed to go and bring her back, but with the whole David situation, I couldn’t help the unsettling unease scuttling down the back of my neck.

  He hadn’t returned after that afternoon nearly three weeks before. He hadn’t called, or texted. Neither had Cordelia. Both had seemingly forgotten my number. A blessing overshadowed by the terror that still haunted Gabby, a terror I was helpless to sooth. No amount of assurance calmed her demons. No promise I made was enough. It infuriated me that I could do nothing when the mere mention of the man’s name bleached the color from her cheeks, but it also fed my monsters. It spurred the beast within, deepening its thirst for blood. It was only a matter of time before even I could no longer control him.

  I peeked at the phone once more, knowing I would find nothing, but still holding my breath. My single message to Jeremy stared back with an almost malicious glee. My thumb hovered over the call button, giving him another minute before I really lost my patience, before I could no longer talk myself out of all the horrific scenarios, visions of a crash and death.

  The plastic squeaked in protest of my crushing fingers. Its frantic creak sent a vibrating jolt up my arm, startling back the red haze of panic. It took me a second to realize the phone wasn’t trembling in fear, but actually vibrating with an incoming call.

  “Gabby?”

  There was a moment of hesitation, followed by someone clearing their throat.

  “Mr. Kincaid? This is Professor Weber. I’m tutoring Gabrielle—”

  “Yes Professor, is
everything all right? Gabby hasn’t been answering my messages.”

  “Nor mine, sir. I waited at the library for nearly thirty minutes, but she hasn’t arrived. I understand I only get paid when we—”

  I cut him off.

  “I’ll get back to you, Professor.”

  The wheels of my chair clattered across the hardwood with the violent shove of my weight away from the desk. I pushed to my feet and stalked to my office doors, fingers a blur across the pad as I dialed Gabby’s number. I listened to the ringing all the way to the foyer before Gabby’s voicemail picked up. I tried again as I sprinted down the steps and jogged to my car.

  I didn’t try a third time as I ducked in behind the wheel. I started down the road Jeremy had taken, keeping my eyes open for delays or wrecks. I made it all the way to the library without spotting her.

  I called her again as I made a U-turn and started towards the school.

  There was still no pick up.

  “Come on, Gabby!”

  I ended the call only to punch in Jeremy’s straight after.

  It went right to voicemail without ringing.

  Don’t panic! I willed the whining, snarling creature threatening to burst out of my chest, claws extended. I forced myself to take in a breath and call Jeremy’s security company.

  “Watchtower,” said the female voice almost sweetly. “Lindsey speaking.”

  “This is Kieran Kincaid.”

  “Hello Mr. Kincaid. How can we help you today?”

  The fact that she was asking suggested that she hadn’t heard from Jeremy either, that he hadn’t checked in with a complication. I wasn’t sure how that made me feel, except that I didn’t feel better.

  “I can’t get a hold of Jeremy. I need to know where Gabby is.”

  Lindsey made a soft, contemplating hum, careful not to reveal concern, only a subtle interest.

  “I’m sure everything is fine,” she assured me in the same breath. “But if you’ll give me a moment, I would be happy to reach out and get that information for you. One moment, please.”

  She was gone before I could agree. Then there was nothing but me and the endless span of seconds and minutes intertwining around me in a maddening flick of numbers passing across the dashboard. Each time the digits changed on the clock, the knot in my stomach tightened. My nerves prickled. It was all I could do to keep from hanging up and calling back.