Hatred mixed with desire for Kiara. Her sister, Sarina, was now one of the most influential women on earth, giving passionate speeches about the effects of sexual slavery upon men and women. She used her anger over her sister’s capture and consequent imprisonment well. Valdrin often wondered just how much Kiara remembered of his BDSM sessions with her. There was no “safe word” for her. He did as he pleased to her, wreaking pain and pleasure upon her.
When Kiara was on Compliance, she had loved the pain, as it heightened her sexual experiences times ten. But when he didn’t use it, she would scream. He hated that!
As he watched Sarina smile, shake hands, and talk to the eager attendees surrounding her, Valdrin was reminded of Kiara, who eventually broke beneath his relentless weekly BDSM sessions. He found she actually surrendered more easily without Compliance. He supposed it was the pain threshold that had broken her most quickly. Kiara had been a fighter, and he preferred a woman who fought back. They always lost, of course, but their struggles boosted his sexual pleasure.
Someone like Kiara, who had been kidnapped while riding her bike from school, was unskilled, untrained, and inept. Slaves like that were far more volatile and rebellious, always fighting and trying to escape. He had clients who liked them that way, as he did.
Valdrin smiled even more, watching the redhead. She was probably in her late twenties, curvy, nice looking in that purple sheath she wore. It wasn’t provocative, but he sometimes liked to role play with his sex slaves, dress them up and then undress them. He’d like to undress this redhead. She had fine, flawless, white skin. When she partially turned his way, he saw that she was a true beauty.
Instinctively, Valdrin placed her in the “natural woman” category—the outdoorsy type. Her breasts were a nice size, probably 34Bs, and she was fluid and graceful as she moved toward a table close to where he was standing.
As she drew closer, he nearly lost his suave control, which was unusual. He saw on the woman’s name tag that she was Alexa Culver. THE Culvers? His heart started to beat harder. His gaze narrowed to the words beneath her name: Delos Charities. It felt as if the wind had been torn out of his chest for a moment. Valdrin suddenly moved and caught her in a sideswipe. He grunted, falling hard to his knees, cane flying out of his hand.
Alexa gave a cry as she bumped into the older man. She was horrified that she hadn’t seen him and had accidentally knocked him down. What was wrong with her? Feeling guilty, she quickly righted herself, flying to his side, kneeling down beside him. He was on his hands and knees, looking as if he were shaken. She placed her arm across his shoulders, her hand on his right arm. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Are you hurt? This was all my fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going!”
Valdrin smiled and shook his head. “No … no, my dear … I will be all right. Just give an old man a moment.” He twisted, looking directly into her huge hazel eyes fraught with apology and anxiety. Groaning, and not from pain, his cock swelled swiftly. She had lips that were sheer perfection. Valdrin snapped himself out of his sexual fantasies and sat up slowly, leaning back on his heels. Someone else came over, a man, and offered to help him up. He allowed him to do just that as Alexa Culver picked up his cane.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” She peered at his suit coat and looked at the name tag on it. “Doctor Revig?” Pressing the cane into his hand, she whispered, “I’m so very, very sorry.”
“Tut-tut. Call me Analius.” He turned and thanked the gentleman who had helped him to stand, then nodded in a courtly manner and walked away, feeling Alexa’s long, slender hand around his arm, steadying him.
“Would you be so kind as to help me back to my hotel room? I’m afraid my one knee feels very weak.” He saw her expression grow crushed over his admittance of being injured. It always amazed him how gullible people were. He was a wolf, and she was the sheep in his sights. A thrill went through him as she nodded her head.
“Of course, Dr. Revig. It’s the least I can do. Are you sure you don’t need me to get the house doctor, or a wheelchair?”
“No, no,” he said, leaning a bit on her arm, limping. “You will be my house doctor, my dear Ms. Culver.”
“Oh please, call me Alexa. I just feel so terrible about this. I see on your nametag that you have a Ph.D. in human rights from the University of Oslo.”
He hobbled expertly, and they left the ballroom. At the bank of elevators, he pressed the tenth-floor button. “Yes, but I am also an international lawyer by trade, Alexa.”
Alexa helped him into the elevator. “Is this your first conference with human rights?”
“Oh,” he chortled. “No, no, my dear. I have been involved in this all my life.” He laughed to himself, enjoying the charade, seeing how stupid and accepting she was. He knew a lot about the Culver family, but had only a photo of each of the children when they were in the military.
Alexa was a combat pilot flying the A-10, known as the Warthog. He was having a tough time reconciling the shaky, unsure woman before him with the image of a combat pilot. The two did not mix. Interesting. She captivated him. She would be someone he’d choose for his BDSM group. Although she wasn’t trained, he would look forward to training her. Because once he got her to his room, he would drug her and call his nearby bodyguards, and they would leave the hotel immediately, flying her back to Malgar.
Wait until his friend, Zakir Sharan, found out he’d stumbled upon one of the Culver children! He was sure Zakir would try and buy her off him, hell-bent on torturing any of the Culver children for the death of his two beloved sons, Raastagar and Sidiq. Matt Culver had also murdered his son, Agnon, as well. Both Zakir and Valdrin had a blood revenge against the family, as well as Delos Charities in general. No, he would keep Alexa Culver for himself and extract his own kind of revenge against her. He smiled to himself.
After he grew weary or bored with getting his revenge, if she survived, Valdrin would sell her to his friend, Zakir. He was sure Alexa would not survive at Zakir’s hands very long. Valdrin knew Alexa was not responsible for killing Zakir’s sons, but that didn’t matter. He could still slyly use her to make the Culver family suffer for years to come.
No, he would not kill Alexa Culver. Instead, he would, over time and with drugs, brainwash her, make her compliant to his BDSM demands, and teach her to be subservient to him, the dominator. And of course, while he was taming her into submission, videos would be taken of her, and those tapes would find their way onto Robert and Dilara’s computers. His revenge was going to be painful and ongoing for the Culver family.
He almost laughed over his plan. Alexa would become like the rest of the sex slaves at the compound. She would surrender to him and become subservient, never even thinking of escaping or wanting to leave. She would spend the rest of her life with him, until he either grew tired of her or had extracted the maximum amount of vengeance upon the Culver family.
Valdrin and Alexa walked down the carpeted hall to his suite. As he slowly handed her the card to open the door, he smiled pleasantly. “My knee feels a bit better.”
“That’s good!” she said, relief in her voice as she opened the white door surrounded by gold, ornate trim.
Valdrin liked her maternal caregiving. He might even, after a few years, have her bred to one of his superior breeder studs. He even entertained the thought of impregnating her himself so she would carry his child. Now wouldn’t that be sweet revenge against the Culvers—to make monthly videos showing Alexa being impregnated by him until she conceived! And then monthly updates showing her swelling belly, culminating with actual videos of the birth of his son coming out of her.
Ah! A thrill arced through Valdrin. To him, that would be the ultimate revenge. And the Culver family would never see their daughter again. Yes, he liked that idea quite a bit. Zakir would be angry, but so what? He would have a son born from his archenemy, whom he could teach how sex and pleasure were a natural, daily occurrence and to be acted upon, just as his mother had done with him.
*
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Gage was at his desk at Artemis, having just come inside when his landline phone rang. He’d had lunch outside at a group of picnic tables beneath some trees that had nearly lost all their leaves. Tal and Matt had joined him, and they had discussed their concerns and worries for Alexa. They had sought Gage out to ask him questions about what they could do to support and help her through this rough period in her healing process. Tal and Matt wanted to speak further with him, following him to his office. Gage had just shut the door to his office and when the phone rang.
“Hunter here,” he said, standing again.
“Gage Hunter?” The voice sounded halting, tremulous, riddled with anxiety.
He frowned. “Sarina? Is that you?”
“Yes, it’s Sarina. Gage, Alexa was kidnapped! Thank God, the French gendarmes quickly found out where she was located, and she’s safe. It was Valdrin Rasari!”
His heart leaped, and he pressed a button on the phone. “Sarina, Tal and Matt are here with me. Tell us what happened. Is Alexa all right?” He knew the name Valdrin Rasari, and his gut clenched into a painful, tight fist. Matt and Tal were instantly on their feet, standing close to the desk as Sarina breathlessly told them what happened.
“Yes, Alexa is going to be all right. They have taken her by ambulance to a nearby hospital, which is where I’m calling from. The doctor later came back and said she’d been given a drug. He called it a date rape drug. But when the police broke into Valdrin’s suite, she was fully dressed and appeared untouched. Alexa is still coming out of the drug state and isn’t fully coherent yet. When she is, I’ll get her to call you.”
“Then,” Gage rasped, “she wasn’t raped?” He hated even saying the word, bitterness coating the inside of his mouth.
“The woman doctor who is caring for Alexa has talked to her. She has no memory of being touched at all, but of course, with a date rape drug, you usually have no memory. Alexa consented to an exam, and the doctor said there is no evidence of penetration. She thinks that the man who did this had just given it to her and was waiting for the drug to take full effect before he acted.”
Relief plunged through Gage. He wiped his face, sitting down, his knees suddenly weakening. “Thank God,” he whispered. Looking up, he saw the relief on Tal and Matt’s grim faces. Both had paled, and he was sure he didn’t look very good himself. “But she’s going to be okay?” He couldn’t help but ask it again.
“Yes, the doctor found no marks, no bruises, or anything on Alexa.”
Tal made a signal to Gage.
“Hold on, Tal wants to speak. Matt is also here, Sarina.”
Gage choked on bile and looked away as Tal launched into details about getting Alexa transferred from the hospital to the Delos company jet at the DeGaulle Airport. Matt came around the desk and gripped his shoulder, giving him a concerned look. Nausea rolled through Gage. His mind whirled with the implications of this attack on Alexa. There was a fatwa out on the three Culver children by Zakir Sharan. But Sarina had said this was Valdrin Rasari? How did that monster get into that hotel? How?
Tal nodded when she finished speaking to Sarina. “Okay, once you find out when Alexa can travel, let’s get her to the Delos jet and get her home. After that, I think everyone will rest a little easier.”
“I agree,” Sarina said. “I just feel so sorry for Alexa. She was semiconscious and seemed to realize what had happened to her. This is just awful, Tal. She’s just trying to come out of that first sexual assault. Now this. I … I’m sorry I didn’t go with her. The police think it was Valdrin Rasari. He’s known to go into disguise, fooling everyone.”
Matt stepped forward, hands on his hips. “Sarina? Matt here. Do you think Valdrin Rasari recognized Alexa as being a Culver?”
“I-I don’t know. Of course, we all wore name badges at that conference. He could have read it and realized who she was. Maybe we can find out when Alexa gets home?”
Matt’s mouth twisted, and he glanced over at Tal. “We’ve suspected that Zakir Sharan and Valdrin Rasari knew one another. That’s why I asked. It could be that Rasari knew Alexa would be at this conference and came in disguise to kidnap her, drug her, and take her somewhere. Maybe to Pakistan or Malgar.”
Gage sat there hearing the heaviness in Matt’s voice, seeing the concern in his golden-brown eyes. Tal stepped over, protectively settling her hand on her younger brother’s tense broad shoulder.
Gage felt gutted. He was both relieved and totally bewildered. What kind of emotional shape was Alexa in? What did she remember, if anything?
“Tell us how it happened,” Matt said to Sarina.
“I saw Alexa go toward the wine table, and she accidentally bumped into an older gentleman. He fell and she helped him up, very apologetically. I saw her help him to his feet. He was older, maybe sixty-five or so, gray-haired, with a cane. I didn’t recognize him, and I know most of the people in human rights and sex trafficking who attend these conferences. That bothered me, so I dug out my cell phone and put a call in to Alexa.
“She said she was in Dr. Analius Revig’s suite at the hotel, helping him get settled because he’d wrenched his knee in that fall. She told me he was a professor of human rights at University of Oslo. That set off alarms in me, because I am on the staff of the Human Rights Department at the university, and I did not recognize his name. I had a horrible feeling and followed my gut, calling the hotel police, and then they called in the French gendarmes.”
“How long between Alexa leaving the ballroom and when the gendarmes broke into the suite?” Tal demanded, scowling.
“Probably fifteen minutes maximum.”
Gage breathed heavily. That wasn’t enough time to drug and rape a person, was it? He knew so little of sex trafficking, the drugs, and the monsters who were the worst kind of predators in the world. He saw Matt’s face show relief. Tal’s did, too.
“In your opinion,” Tal asked, “is that enough time to drug a victim and then rape her?”
“No. Depending upon the dosage of such a drug,” Sarina said, “it takes at least twenty minutes to actually take effect and render the victim unconscious.”
“When the gendarmes broke into that room and found Alexa,” Matt asked, “was she unconscious?”
“No. I was there. She was still awake. Not very coherent, quite confused, but not unconscious.”
“Did you apprehend those who did this to her?” Tal demanded.
“No, he slipped into the next room and escaped the gendarmes. There were three men, and they ran for the exit stairs and got away.”
Matt muttered a curse, his hands flexing into fists. Tal nodded, her eyes flashing with anger.
“Let’s just get her home,” Tal ordered. “I’m calling in two of our security contractors who work the Paris area. I’ll have them there at Alexa’s hospital room within an hour.” She picked up her cell phone, found the addresses, and quickly gave the two men’s names. “At no time,” she warned Sarina in a dark voice, “is Alexa to be out of sight of our Artemis team. Is that understood? We don’t know who tried to kidnap her, even though your suspicions may be well founded.”
“Oh,” Sarina said. “I fully agree with your plan, Tal. It’s a good one. Right now, two gendarmes are standing guard outside her hospital room door. I’ll tell them what will be happening so they know to expect these two Artemis contractors.”
“Good idea,” Tal said. “But I’ll have Matt call them and get them up to speed, probably in another hour. Will Alexa be more coherent then?”
“For sure. I know the doctor gave her an IV full of medication to wash whatever they gave her out of her bloodstream faster. The doctor also took blood samples, so she’ll know what drug Alexa was given as well.”
“Absolutely,” Tal said. “Have that doctor send Becka, our therapist, the results here at Artemis, okay?”
“Of course. Well, listen, I’m going to go—there are two French detectives coming down the hall toward me. They might have more information. If there is, I’ll
call you immediately, Tal.”
“Do that,” she growled, scowling.
Tal looked at Matt and Gage after hanging up. “The good news is Alexa was rescued and she wasn’t raped. The bad news is that this is happening to her again in a very short space of time. Dammit, anyway!”
CHAPTER 4
Gage tried to contain his emotions as he stood with the Culver family at Reagan National Airport. It was late afternoon, chilly, but this time the skies were clear. The group stood huddled together near a ten-foot-tall cyclone fence. The Delos jet had just landed, and Alexa was on it.
Dilara, her mother, was nervously shifting from one foot to the other, her leather-gloved hands clasped against her heart, her gaze pinned on the jet as it came to a stop. Alexa’s father, General Robert Culver, had been at the Pentagon and rushed over from his office, still in uniform. Now he stood with his arm around his distraught wife’s shoulders.
His eldest daughter, Tal, stood back, letting her parents be the first to greet Alexa as she came down the ramp. Alexa’s twin, Matt, was still at Artemis handling an overseas emergency.
Gage was impatient to see Alexa, but loved and respected how close her family was. He also knew how upset they were over what had just happened to her. As Alexa descended the steps of the plane, Gage anxiously scanned her pale face for clues to her condition. Dilara, unable to hold back, ran toward her daughter as Alexa stepped onto the tarmac, then burst into tears of relief, gripping her youngest daughter close. Robert Culver enfolded both of them into his large embrace.
Tal exchanged a look with Gage, her face impassive. “Give them a moment,” she told him. “This is a shock to my parents, as well as to Alexa.”
“To all of us. I understand,” Gage rasped, standing next to her. His hands were thrust deep in the pockets of his leather jacket. He saw the deep shadows, the shame, and humiliation written in Alexa’s expression. She looked fragile, and Tal had warned him that it would take at least forty-eight hours for the drugs to leave her system. He could feel Tal, the eldest of the three siblings, tightly reining in her emotions, too.
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