Eddie looked at the small, pert breasts pressed against the material. “How old is she?”
“Old enough to bleed. She will give you no trouble and if she does, just take your belt to her arse. She bawls like a baby. Just try to not to hit her in the face. That’s a favour I ask, but up to you…” He pointed to wooden chest at the foot of the bed. “There’s gags, restraints, dildos… You’ve got a double virgin here, Eddie. Give her an education.”
Leo grabbed a fistful of hair at the back of her head and spoke to her in English. “Kelsey, you be a good girl for Eddie. He’s going to look after you.”
She looked at Eddie and began to whimper. “Help me, please. I want to go home.”
Leo fisted her hair and yanked her head back, bringing his face close to hers. “You little cunt, stop your whining. Do as you’re told and you won’t get another beating? Do you want your arse whipped again?”
She shook her head fearfully, but then broke into harder bawling sobs.
“That’s it.” Leo propelled her towards the bed and threw her facedown down on it. He pushed his knee into the base of her spine, turning to Eddie and chuckling as he undid his belt buckle. The girl howled like a wounded animal.
“Fucking virgins. Can you believe them? Give me a moment and she’ll be like putty in your hands.”
“Leave her be,” Eddie demanded. “I haven’t got time for this.”
“You have an hour before the chopper takes you back…”
“And I’d just like some peace and calm before I have to get back into that fucking flying machine.”
Leo chuckled. “They’re great, but yeah sure, man. There’s no end to these sluts, but you are missing out on a treat.”
“My loss,” Eddie nodded. “But my appreciation for your gift.”
“Don’t mention it. Hell, we got ourselves one fucking hot, little stripper coming our way. Did you read the dossier?”
“Yes,” Eddie nodded.
“A classical beauty, and Asya tells us that she likes the rough stuff. I can’t wait to see her in the flesh.” Leo got off the girl but slapped the back of her head. “You and me tonight, you little bitch, and you’ll wish you’d kept your fucking trap shut.”
Eddie couldn’t get out of their fast enough. His stomach was churning long before he saw the helicopter waiting to take him back to the city. The young girl’s distress seemed to have etched itself into his mind. It threatened to revive other unpleasant memories that he’d worked hard to forget.
The stars were coming out and Eddie shivered in the cold evening air. His mood was dark, but he felt a spark of happiness with the thought of seeing Lena again. Another walk with her, a meal shared, anything just to see her smile and her eyes sparkle. Hopefully, it would be enough to deal with the darkness yet to come.
* * * * *
When the video link flashed up on the screen, Dylan could see that Yvette had been crying and found himself bracing for bad news.
“What’s happened?” he asked quietly.
A smile erupted on her face. “It’s Esther. She has made contact, Master… and Mairead…” She broke down into tears again.
Dylan breathed out slowly with his own deep relief. “Get hold of yourself, Yvette. Just tell me what you’ve found out.”
Yvette nodded. “She’s is at Melanie’s house. Mairead has been there too and seeks to speak to you urgently. The message was short but they are both well, Master. I have tried to find a link to them, but there is nothing, no computers, no phones…”
“It’s alright,” he said. “I’ll get to them. What else?”
Yvette took a tissue and wiped her face as she sat up. “I’m sorry, Master. I’ve had no success in breaking into the servers for the GCSB. I don’t understand it…”
“Not your fault. They’ve upgraded their security. Someone seems to know what they’re doing, which intrigues me, because no-one in this country should be able to keep me out. What about our inmates in Rimutaka?”
“I have secured their files, Master.”
“Good girl. Bring them up.”
Fifteen unsmiling male faces came up on the screen. Dylan slowly studied each of them. He drew a deep breath as his gaze fell on one of the mug shots.
“Eduard Utkin, what do we have on him?”
“He’s been released just recently, Master, after twelve years for manslaughter, where three men were bludgeoned to death, after they had assaulted him.”
“Do we have an address?”
“Yes, Master. A block of flats in Johnsonville. I’ve already secured two security cameras set up in the car park.”
“Well done. Let’s send his neighbour some free pizza, just in case, see what we can find out, but no-one is to approach him. I want that made very clear.”
“Yes, Master.”
Dylan continued to stare at the face. “Get Zirconia on to him immediately and set up an alert. I need you on this twenty-four, seven, Yvette. I want to know the moment he’s found.”
“Yes, Master, and what about Esther and Mairead?”
“I’ll get to them as soon as possible, but this has priority. We find this prick, we find the rest of them. Mairead and Esther will be safe at Melanie’s until then. You’ve done good work, Yvette.”
Her sad smile came back on screen. “Thank you, Master.”
“Are you alright, Yvette?”
Her voice came back strained. A tear ran down her face. “Tammy. I miss her… I did not know I would not see her again. It doesn’t seem real.”
Dylan nodded. “None of us knew. We’re nearly there, Yvette, and those who took Tammy away from us are going to pay dearly. You have my word on that.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
It had been years since Dylan had looked at the tapes, and certainly not since Tammy’s death. They had all been digitised and the file was sitting there on the screen, ready to be opened and watched.
He couldn’t even be certain why he needed to put himself through this. It was rare for him to doubt his eidetic memory, but Dylan was beginning to wonder if it was like anything else that was dulled by passing years. The cold severity of his youth was now too easily affected by emotions and his inability to keep his distance. The more he cared, the easier mistakes were made. Tammy was proof of that. He had cared for her, loved her, more than he’d realised, until she had been taken from him. Her loss was fucking with his head.
To now watch the scenes of her being brutalised was asking for his grief to be renewed. At least the men in these scenes had all suffered an excruciating death of their own, and by his hand, or had they?
At first, it had been a slight annoyance that Zirconia was unable to break into the Security Bureau’s system. Now, with its persistence in keeping him out, it had his full attention, as did the man who headed the division. Apart from being able to utilise an impenetrable firewall, it seemed Bevan Miller also kept much of his history from prying eyes.
Dylan brought up an image of him and it only took a glance to dismiss his final doubts. Turning the audio down to zero, he brought up the video file. He moved the timeline to a few seconds before the exact point that he wanted and then played it. Three seconds and he slowed it to frame by frame, not looking at what was happening to Tammy, but to the very edge of the screen, a face turning directly toward the camera, alarmed and then irate at having been captured, and in another millisecond completely out of shot.
Dylan scowled. “So you didn’t want to participate, but you liked to watch. So who the fuck are you?”
A movement on another screen caught his attention. Adele had come inside, looking slightly lost and eventually sitting down on the couch in the lounge room. Dylan sighed. It had been so much easier despising her, but the moment he had stopped himself putting a bullet into her head, he knew he had a problem on his hands. She was mentally unstable and becoming needy.
Since bandaging her arm, Dylan was aware the dynamic between them had changed. He sensed Adele’s want for more than comfort and acceptance.
He knew how human nature took on contradictory behaviours which wouldn’t be considered under normal circumstances. Adele was a prime example.
“Don’t do it,” he told himself, staring at her.
To even entertain the idea was disgusting, immoral and cruel. Dylan grinned that none of these reasons had ever stopped him from doing anything when a willing body was involved, but Adele was fragile. Despite his initial hostility towards her, he had no wish to see her broken completely. She faced a long stint in prison which would be bad enough.
Still, he couldn’t dismiss the thought of her naked body under him, sheathing his cock into her virgin cunt and introducing her to other carnal pleasures. After a month’s torturous deprivation of his own needs, her sexual inexperience was like an aphrodisiac. It wasn’t long before his thoughts were having a profound effect upon his body.
Dylan quickly got up, shaking his head as he closed down files and exited the room. The sooner he returned Adele to her room, the less chance he had of doing something incredibly foolish. In the morning he would examine the options for her immediate future.
She smiled and stood up when he entered the lounge. “It was lovely, all of it, and I’m feeling much better… thank you.”
He nodded. “I’ll get you back to your room.”
“Do I have to?” Adele asked quickly.
Dylan sighed inwardly, hoping she wasn’t going to go where he was sure she was headed.
“I mean,” she continued. “This house is incredible… and you trusted me outside alone, so I thought that perhaps… a less isolated accommodation. I feel slightly anxious about returning to that other one and perhaps if there’s a spare room on this level…”
She was rambling, and Dylan knew he should be shutting her down and giving her no quarter.
“Alright.” The word launched out of his mouth. “I’ll show you to a bedroom.”
He turned and walked on, listening to her coming after him. She was still talking. “So it’s just you and myself here, or are there others?”
“Just you and me, but you are to stay in the room.”
“I sometimes need the bathroom, a few times during the night.”
“It’s at the end of the hall.”
He stopped at a door and threw it open, allowing her to enter first. Adele beamed as she saw the king-sized bed with an ornate antique headboard, with deep buttoned cream upholstery and gold carved frame. Her expression became fearful as she saw an enormous photographic print on the wall, taken at an overhead angle and looking down at a naked woman, bound to the same bed. Her legs were bent and tied wide apart, revealing a hairless pubic mound and nipple-clamped breasts. Her blonde hair was spread out around her head, and she held a black riding crop in her teeth.
Adele turned away, blushing. “That’s Esther.”
“She takes a great photo,” Dylan grinned, hoping it would be enough to stem her courage.
She took another glance at it. “It’s powerful, and a little unsettling. I’m quite uneducated about anything beyond the pages of a romance novel.”
It was time to get out. “Just don’t be wandering about too much. I’ll fetch a robe and bring you a bottle of water…”
“Where will you be?”
“I have work.”
Adele smiled. “Maybe we could talk again, later. I’d love to hear about your photography. I did always admire your work. That was where I saw you first, at the exhibition you held. Do you remember? I was even a little star-struck seeing you, and here I am now…”
“If you want, I can give you something to help you sleep.”
“No.” Her reply came sharp and brittle, but she quickly smiled. “Thank you anyway. I know I sound a little manic. It’s just… it’s just that I don’t want you to go. I don’t want to be alone. I want you to stay with me.”
“Adele, that’s not a good idea and you know that.”
“I know you have every reason to dislike me, and I don’t blame you, but is it also because you find me unappealing?”
“It’s because you are not in a fit state of mind to be making that kind of decision.”
She finally looked up at him. “It’s probably the last decision I’ll get to make for a while. When I go back, my life won’t be mine anymore. Others will make all my decisions. From what I’ve heard about the prison system, I may not even have any say over what my first sexual experience will entail, unless...”
“I can’t give you what you want, Adele,” Dylan insisted.
“On the contrary.” She straightened up and smiled, though she was trembling again. “I understand you have a title of Master. I must assume that is aptly bestowed.”
He peered at her with a thin smile. “There are other connotations with the title that you wouldn’t like.”
“I’m sure there are,” she nodded. “But amongst them is the suggestion that you have achieved a prowess in sexually pleasuring a woman, even an inexperienced one such as myself. That’s what I would want.” She glanced over to the photograph. “And nothing too aggressive, if you were open to the idea.”
She had no idea of how open he was to the idea. “And what happens, the moment I touch you and you hate it?”
“You told me yourself that you don’t rape women. Would that be any different with me?”
“No.”
“Then I guess the decision is yours,” she said. “I’ve already made mine, without duress, or coercion, though my sanity might be held up for question in a court of law.”
Dylan grinned. “You like to talk, don’t you?”
“A nervous habit…” Adele gasped as his hand came to rest on her arm.
His head bowed and he gently kissed her. As his lips came away, Adele went to speak and he kissed her again. This time she stayed silent, staring into his pale eyes. His hand glided down her arm as his gaze dropped to the t-shirt she was wearing. Taking it by the sides, he slowly drew it up and off, leaving her in a lacy purple bra.
Adele swallowed nervously and went to take hold of his shirt.
“No,” he told her quietly. “I want you to listen to me and do nothing other than what I tell you. Is that understood?”
She nodded.
“Turn around.”
When her back was facing him, he unclipped her bra, glided the straps down her arms and took it away from her. His body pressed up against her and his arms encircled her waist. Her body was stiff as he brushed his lips against the thick black waves of her hair. His hand moved it aside and softly he placed a kiss at the base of her ear and another further down her neck.
His hand came up to cup her breast and Adele gasped and became rigid, as her hand went to his forearm.
“Put your hand down, Adele,” he whispered, still softly kissing her neck. Her nipple was hard and erect as he delicately and slowly brushed it with his thumb. Her hold eased but didn’t fall until his voice became firmer. “Take your hand away.”
She let it drop and trembled as her other breast was claimed and attended to. Dylan took his time, getting her used to his touch before taking hold of her waist. His hands moved down to her track pants. He pushed them down just far enough to allow his fingers to grip her panties with them.
Her hand again seized his. “Just wait… please.”
He kissed her shoulder. “Do you want me to stop?”
“No.” She was trembling. “I just wish I wasn’t so nervous.”
“It’s alright,” he told her. “Just know that you are safe and I won’t hurt you. If you call it, I’ll stop. That’s all I can do for you.”
“This can’t be very satisfying for you.”
Dylan grinned. “You hear me complaining?”
Adele spun about to look up at him. “Would you kiss me again?”
He lifted her into his arms, cradling her as her arms went about his neck and their mouths came together. The kiss was deep and soft as Dylan carried her to the bed and lay down with her, his arm still under her. Lifting up from her, he was relieved to see the passi
on in her gaze, as his own wandered down to her breasts. This time she didn’t flinch as he caressed them.
“Why have you waited so long?” he asked.
Adele shook her head. “Morality. Stupidity. Having romantic notions that have done nothing for me. Waiting for Mr. Right, I suppose you would say.”
Dylan chuckled softly. “You’ve strayed way off course.”
“Haven’t I?” she grinned, but her mirth faded quickly “This is so wrong, against everything I believed in. I don’t even know who I am anymore. Certainly, not anyone I like.”
“And what we’re doing isn’t about to change that.” Dylan studied her. “Is that why we’re here, Adele? So you have something else to feel bad about?”
“No. We’re here…” She bit her lip as tears ran down the side of her face. “Because there’s no-one left to love me.”
“This isn’t love.”
“No,” she smiled sadly and wiped her tears aside. “But it’s as close as I will ever get, and you have no idea of how well I can fantasize.” She met his gaze squarely. “You will become the lover that is waiting for me, no matter how many years I’m locked away. At night, when I’m alone, I will believe that you are thinking about me, yearning for me to be with you. When everyone is hating me, I’ll know that there is someone who loves me. There, now you know how insane I can be, but I still want it.”
Dylan wasn’t about to tell her how fucked up that sounded. He’d allowed this to happen and it was much too late for regret. About the worst thing he could do now was reject her. Nurturing her fantasy could go either way, but it was about his only option.
He smiled at her. “Of course I’ll be thinking about you. You’re going to be my brave girl, tonight and in the future, and you’re not going to let them defeat you, are you? Because that wouldn’t please me.”
“I’ll be strong,” she smiled. “You’ll see.”
“I know you will.”
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