by Ker Dukey
I don’t know how long we stay locked together on the side of road, but all of a sudden, Benny pushes away from me and gets to his feet. His footfalls slap the wet asphalt. When he reaches the car, he gets back inside and slams his door. I’m soaked through to my core. The rain picks up speed, hammering down on top of me. I’m stunned frozen for a few seconds, and when he honks the horn, impatient, I follow suit and slip back into the vehicle. We’re both dripping and shivering. Benny doesn’t even wait until my door is fully closed before he takes off, fishtailing on the soaked pavement. After ten minutes of driving in silence, we pull up to my home.
“We should change, then check out the tracker,” he announces.
We both know Lucy isn’t going to be with the car. If she cut out her neck tracker, she will know the car is also bugged. But wherever she’s left it will be deliberate, a message or clue.
Benny exits the car and strips through the house all the way to the shower. The bathroom door slams in my face as I follow behind him. He’s angry at himself for showing emotion. I pull out some clothes for both of us and wait. My clothes begin to itch, chilling me to the bone. Stripping them off, I stand there bare as the bathroom opens and Benny appears within the frame, steam billowing behind him like he just stepped from hell itself.
A towel sits on his hips and his chest rises and falls in fast pants. His muscles pull taut and water rivulets slide down over the ridges. He’s still in a state of heightened emotion—something he’s not used to dealing with.
“It’s okay,” I say as I walk over to him. When I reach up to touch his face, he backs away, a glare on his face. “It’s okay,” I repeat.
I doubt he’s ever showed emotion like that to another living being, and in his eyes, it’s a weakness. He will be fighting with the beast inside to stop from killing me just to prove to me—to him—he’s still the monster and the master. I know that because it’s what would be happening inside me.
His entire torso ripples with energy and I almost expect him to lash out and hit me—to beat me until I’m quivering and begging the monster for mercy.
I’ll take it if that’s what he needs to gain control again. If that’s what he needs to feel whole.
“It’s not a weakness to feel,” I placate.
His eyes flare and he sneers. “You think I’m weak now?”
“No,” I reply, quick and reassuring, but my voice sounds soft to my own ears. Like I’m comforting a child.
“You think I’m some pussy bitch now because I allowed you to see that side of me?” he growls.
“No,” I repeat firmer, squaring my shoulders as he advances toward me.
“You think I’m going to let you be my puppet master? My sugar daddy now?”
His temper is almost palpable. He’s stunning in his rage. Power. Aggression. My dick thickens at the sight of him, and his eyes drop to where I’m naked to his scrutiny. He smirks, cruel and mocking. “You want me to be your bitch now? Let you fuck my ass because you saw me cry. You forced me to feel,” he screams. “You fucking kept prying and prying, like it’s my fault Bethany is gone.”
“No, that’s untrue. I care about you and want to get her back, so I need to know why she was taken.”
“You don’t care why. You’re glad she’s gone so you can have me to yourself, so you can try to make me your doll.” His eyes are wild, his pupils expanding rapidly like he’s on a high he can’t control.
“You know that’s not true. I want to find her. For you.”
“Liar,” he roars, almost chest to chest with me now, his skin giving off a heat, beckoning for me to taste him.
“You want me, don’t you?” he taunts.
“Stop it,” I warn.
“You want me for yourself.”
“Stop it.”
“You think you can take me, Viktor?”
I push at his shoulders, causing him to stumble back. It’s slight and he’s back in control of his body within seconds.
“You lie to yourself and ignore your attraction to me,” I goad, meeting him glare for glare. I shove him again. “You want me to take you. To fuck you. To own you,” I tease, making him almost combust with rage.
“I’d never let you take me or fucking own me,” he booms. “I’m the master here. You’re my doll!” he screams louder, almost shattering the glass of the windows.
Ripping his towel from his waist, he throws it to the ground, his thick cock bouncing. Hard. Jerky. Needy. With a roar of rage, he shoves me back onto the bed. Then, with the power of a beast, he flips me onto my stomach and growls, “No one owns me. I’m the fucking master here. I’m the master. I’m the fucking master. I own you.”
Dillon
THE MONITOR IS MAKING MY eyes blur. I’m tired and hungry. My eyes dart to the office where I’ve set up a bed for MJ.
“She’s okay,” Jade assures me. “It’s like an adventure for her. She’s surrounded by family.”
I can’t stand the fact that my daughter is held up in the precinct because I can’t risk Benny having any chance of turning on us and taking my girls.
“I hate this. I don’t want my daughter to have to look over her shoulder her whole life. What happens if we don’t get Beth back alive?” I breathe my fear into the room and Jade rubs my shoulders.
“You will. You’ll find her and kill him.”
Damn, I hope she’s right. This job has taken its toll on me. I feel old. I feel fucking defeated.
“Maryann’s flight gets in tonight. We should collect her from the airport. She’s been through so much already. She shouldn’t have to still be dealing with Stanton’s fuck-ups,” Jade murmurs.
I grunt. “We shouldn’t still be having to deal with Stanton’s fuck-ups either, yet here we are. Just sitting and waiting for the next blow.” I can’t take much more of this. Every single day this job takes a chink out of my soul.
“Here,” Jacob announces, tapping at the screen. “I found where it leads back to and downloaded everything it’s recorded since it was set up.”
Harris’s IP address. Of course it was his setup. “Are you going to release me now?”
I signal for Reeves to take Jacob back to the holding room.
“You promised you would drop me home after I helped,” he grinds out.
“And I will,” I bite back, “but I may need you again and I’m not searching for you if I do. So, until I know for sure, you can stay where I can locate you. Reeves will go bring you some snacks.”
Jacob is a hacker too clever for prison. The moment this shit started going down with Harris, I had them pull him and bring him to the station so we could strike a deal. He’s an asset to this precinct because he has a valuable skillset. And the moment this case is closed, he can go on his merry little way as we bargained.
Jade moves around me, taking the seat Jacob just vacated. “Let me watch through this. You said you had a name to look into.”
Right. Lucy. Real name Jessica Johnson. I search her name in the database and the internet. It’s surprising how much information we find simply by using Google or Facebook. An article about a couple, Fred and Marla Johnson, dying in a boating accident comes up. They were survived by one daughter, Jessica Johnson.
A missing person’s report pings in our database, listed with the runaways.
“If she was the only child and they were wealthy enough to own that boat,” Jade says as she raps her finger on my screen, “then they must have left money.”
“You’re supposed to be watching that feed history, not worrying about what I’m doing,” I tease.
“It’s boring so far,” she huffs. “Nothing of interest at all.”
I look into the Johnson’s wealth, and Jade’s right. They left money and property. “They owned a small chain of motels,” I grumble at her being right. Everything was left to their daughter. “If she’s a runaway, she wouldn’t have claimed her inheritance.”
“Or the system wasn’t updated for when she came of age. She’s not a child runaway afte
r she’s reaches eighteen,” Jade points out. “Oh, here we go.”
Jade hisses, looking back at her screen.
Benny appears on the monitor and Jade clutches my hand, squeezing so tight, the blood stops pumping to my fingers and they turn numb. “I can watch from here,” I tell her, rubbing her back.
“No, it’s fine.”
He’s not alone. Elizabeth is with him. I don’t need to see this. I want to look away, but it’s like a train wreck you can’t help but stare right at it.
Moments pass in silence and Jade almost relaxes in the chair. “He’s so different with her.” She sighs, relief evident in her tone.
“What do you mean?”
She tilts her head, studying the screen. “Like he cares what she thinks and how she feels.”
“And?” I growl.
“He wasn’t like that with me. It was about what he needed and punishing me. Domination. With her, he’s not punishing. More like worshipping her. And she’s not fighting,” she says, astonished. “She’s completely compliant.”
“She’s brainwashed,” I grunt.
“Or she’s just as messed up as him. Benny, Chief, now Beth. It’s in their blood. The crazy runs through their veins, polluting their minds.”
“Do you really believe that?” a small, strained voice questions from behind us, startling us both.
“Elise,” Jade stammers, jumping to her feet.
“You really think crazy runs in our veins?” she asks.
“No, not yours,” Jade assures her. “I didn’t mean…”
“What about our children?” Tears well in Elise’s eyes as she clutches her stomach.
What the fuck?
“No, she didn’t mean that. What are you doing here?” I ask, concerned.
“Marcus wanted me to come here and stay with Jade and MJ until he’s discharged.” She moves closer. “What are you watching?” she asks, and her mouth parts upon seeing the screen with her two siblings.
Jade quickly turns and clicks to the next activity. Benny is there with that woman Kami. He’s beating her.
“Oh my God,” Elise cries out.
Jade tries to stop the video, but instead hits the volume, and Kami’s screams ring out into the silent precinct. “Stop, stop.” Jade panicks, and I rush to help her, exiting the entire program. Jade is panting, her distress evident in her eyes. Seeing Benny hurting Kami brings with it memories of her time with him. Witnessing his brutality on others. “Dillon,” she breathes, her eyes growing so large, they almost eclipse her forehead. She’s holding her stomach.
“What is it?” I ask, fearing for both her and our baby.
My heart pounds erratically in my chest.
“My water just broke,” she gasps.
Oh, fuck.
“It’s too early.” Her bottom lip trembles.
Fuck. Fuck.
“It will be okay,” I assure her. “The baby is big enough. People have them early all the time.”
She nods in agreement as I scoop her up. Her dress is soaked and the floor is a small puddle. My heart almost stops when I see blood mixed with the clear fluid. “Elise, stay with MJ.”
“Of course.”
Pacing the hospital corridor is familiar to me. I fucking hate this place. Marcus sits in his wheelchair twiddling his thumbs, and watching him is making me more nervous. He came down to help calm me and it’s having the opposite effect. He’s fucking nervous and it’s ramping up my own anxiety.
“Mr. Scott?” a doctor calls out, and I almost tackle him.
“Yes, that’s me.”
His eyes drop to Marcus, who’s wheeled almost over the doctor’s toes. “It’s fine. He can hear what you have to say. Just tell me.”
“There was some internal bleeding and we had to deliver the child via an emergency cesarean section. Your baby is in the NICU receiving oxygen and being monitored. He will need shots to help his lungs finish developing, but it looks positive.”
“He?” I choke out. A boy.
“Yes. Congratulations.”
“And Jade?” Marcus demands.
“The mother is still heavily sedated, but we expect her to make a full recovery.”
“Oh, thank God,” I sigh, bringing the reluctant doctor in for a hug. “Can I see her?” I beg as I release him.
“She’s being moved to recovery. When she’s ready, I’ll send the nurse for you.”
“Thank you,” I utter. “Thank you.”
He nods and retreats.
“Congrats.” Marcus grins up at me. “A son.”
“Yeah, a son.”
“Elise is pregnant,” Marcus announces, and my smile falls.
“I got that impression.” I stare down at him. If anything, this scare with our child and Jade has taught me that life is unpredictable and too short for us to deny love. “If you love her, then you should make a go of things,” I tell him.
He blanches. Shocked. “She lied to me.”
“Sometimes we all lie to get what we want.”
“You’re not mad?”
“Oh, I am mad, but I’ll get over it, and hell…” I tease as I kick his foot. He flinches. “She could do a lot worse.”
I mean, after all, her sister hooked up with Benny the psycho of all people. Marcus is one of the good guys.
“Fuck.”
Yeah. Fuck.
Benny
MINE. MINE. MINE.
The chanting in my head won’t stop.
Rage has clouded my vision and I’ve transformed into the beast I can barely contain. The monster.
“Benjamin.”
His voice. Calm. Soothing. Comforting. It parts through the red haze and finds me. Splashes cold water on my blazing soul. Reminds me I’m not alone.
But he betrayed you.
Did he, though?
He’s here, bent over his bed, in complete submission. Master bows for one. He bows for me. My hand trembles and I fist it. The urge to strike him over and over again is overwhelming. His powerful back decorated in beautiful tattoos screams of stories I haven’t been told. Stories I’m desperate to hear.
Why?
Why do I care so fucking much?
“Benjamin,” he says, “we’re a team.”
A team.
The thought is still foreign, even after all this time.
I drop my fisted hand to the middle of his spine, but I don’t hit him. Instead, I find my palm splaying out to touch the tattooed flesh.
“Benjamin. We’re a family. You. Me. Bethany.”
Now, his words find their intended mark. My heart hammers in my chest. I always wanted a brother. Would this have been what it was like? Someone always looking out for you? Someone who seemingly loved you no matter what sort of fucked up shit you did?
“He took them away. He took my family away.” I blink and growl and slap the side of my head to drive away thoughts of my father. The way he destroyed everything—everyone I loved. How he fucked with my head over and over again.
“Benjamin.” The voice is hard. Firm. Demanding.
I open my eyes to find him farther up the bed, lying on his back with his arms outstretched like Christ on the cross. Like he’s offering himself to me. A sacrifice to the beast.
I prowl up the bed, my feral instincts taking over. I’m intrigued as fuck over the use of the word family. Viktor’s powerful body could take mine in a second if he truly tried, but he doesn’t. His cock, heavy and aroused, bobs against his lower abdomen. Each breath he takes is measured and controlled.
Straddling his muscular thighs that bear nearly as much hair as mine, I find myself fascinated at the fact my dick is erect as well. I want to inhale him and see if he smells like family. I want to taste him to see if he tastes like family.
His dark eyes lock with mine as I lean forward. My dick rubs against his and a choked sound escapes me. I hate the desperate quality of it. Shame ripples through me, hurtling me back to the past with my psycho fucking parents, but it’s Viktor—my brother of sorts
—who brings me back to him.
“Benjamin.”
That’s all he says. My name. Just like Bethany would say it. The old her. The new her. Loving. Caring. Fucking sweet.
“You’re my doll,” I snarl. “I made you.”
He smirks and slightly thrusts his hips at me. His dick rubs against mine again, sending pleasure sparking down my spine. “We belong together, yes.”
“She’s my doll,” I challenge. I don’t understand this. I don’t understand the dynamics or my fucking brain. How I want two different things.
“A family can be made up of more than two people,” he says back. “Where I come from…” he trails off, his features darkening. “Family is everything. It’s the most important thing. You have your brother’s back until the end.”
A low growl rumbles in my throat and I snap my eyes closed. My body seems to move on its own accord. I sink down against Viktor’s hard chest and seek out his heartbeat with my ear pressed to his flesh.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
He’s calm. He’s quiet. He’s in control.
Yet his heart rages wildly in cadence with mine. When I thrust my hips against him, we both groan. Our dicks are sandwiched between us and the friction is dizzying.
“We’re going to get the rest of our family back. You must trust me, Benjamin. Always,” he states, his palm clutching the back of my neck. Possessive. Owning. Greedy. “You can’t always be in control. It’s exhausting. This is why we need each other. When one is weak, the other can be strong.”
“I’m not weak,” I snap, but it’s a fucking lie.
Here I am rubbing my dick against my best friend while my Bethany is out there in the hands of some sick bitch. I don’t know what to fucking do about it. Until I have more information, I can’t.
“You belong to me,” he says simply. “And I belong to you. We’ll get back your missing doll. Then, we can go back to being happy.”