Distilled Duplicity

by Louise Furley

  Mazonn went back to Kiri. “Kiri, honey, I have to go out. Dan here will stay with you until you’re done and take you back upstairs.”

  She set her fork down. “Maz, if he’s with me, uh, protecting me, can’t I stay down here? It’s lonely and boring up there all day by myself.”

  Maz shook his head. “No. You know his orders.” He smiled at her sad sigh. “I know honey, but when we settle who is taking out ours and your family’s people, things should lighten up. I’ll see you later, you behave now, right?”

  Rolling her eyes, she exhaled her exasperation. “Of course, what trouble could I get into locked in a room?”

  “Okay.” He squinted a warning at Dan then took off.

  Kiri sipped her tea very, very slowly. Sitting in a chair, Dan pushed back on the rear two legs and propped himself against the wall. Staring blankly into space he started yawning…and yawning. Finally, his head lolled back and he started snoring. She got up quietly, carefully, and slipped from the room.

  Breathing a hunk of relieved air, she wandered around the first floor. She didn’t come across a soul, Thank God. They would have snitched on her and sent her back upstairs.

  She passed a grand room, then the kitchens which she didn’t go near in case a cook was in there, she checked out a salon, a den, gym, dozens and dozens of rooms scattered the huge mansion. With the four floors and several wings, Naithon could, and did, house an army in the compound. If she heard voices she avoided that room and moved on.

  She made her way to the front door and peeked out the window. She saw the boots of a guard standing in front of it. Every door she checked she found the same thing. Frustrated, she wasn’t getting out through a door.

  Creeping into room after room, she started checking the windows. “Yes!” Back in the library, she peered out the window and not a guard was in sight. It was tough to get the lock open and the window up.

  Kiri climbed out the window and dashed across the lawn. She ran and ran for what seemed like forever until she reached the 14-foot high fence surrounding the back lawns. Her heart plummeted, how was she going to get out? She raced along the fence, praying it wasn’t electrified then she came across a part that looked like it could open.

  A thick steel beam lay across handles securing them. If she could get the beam off, the gate could be pushed apart and she could slip through.

  ********

  Naithon was at one of his businesses when his phone buzzed. Swiping it on, he answered, “Ja?”

  “Ah, sir,” the voice sounded edgy.

  “What, Johannssen, cough it up, I’m busy.”

  “Yes sir. Well, that girl, the new one that stays in your room?”

  Naithon’s heart started racing. “What about her?”

  “Um, well, it seems she managed to climb out a window, and, well, she’s running across the back area. What do you want us to do? Do you want us to apprehend her?”

  That little… “No. Keep her in your sights on camera, and tell the stable kid to bring out my steed, I only need the bridle.” She would be in the woods by the time he got there.

  He wasn’t far from home, he sped the entire way. By the time he parked by the stables, his horse was ready and outside the barn waiting. Naithon tossed off a terse, “Thanks,” and slapped the horse’s flank. The stallion took off and Naithon grabbed the reins and jumped up throwing his leg over, mounting the already racing steed.

  Galloping across the lumpy grass, Naithon placed an earpiece in his ear to follow the guard’s tracking Kiri’s location. “Huh,” he grunted, he didn’t feel so bad now for the waling he’d given her on her fine little ass. The grunt turned into a frown. Of course that could be why she fled. However, she’d only earned herself another beating.

  Maybe he should use his belt this time to make it sink in she was never to leave him. Her being outside the protection of the mansion was damned unacceptable. He was so pissed his gut churned acid.

  She had gone quite a way by the time he’d driven home and saddled up. She was at the far west perimeter gate. The only gate other than the front one. They used it to travel the woods and also to run the horses.

  Way up ahead he could see Kiri struggling to lift the steel bar off the handles. Looked like she had been working at it for some time. She managed to push one side up and jumped back as the end slammed into the ground just narrowly missing her foot. She quickly pushed the gate open and slipped through it.

  Naithon could feel his blood boiling, he was almost as mad as he was when he thought she was fucking his friends. He needed to tether his temper before he got to her. Man and steed roared over the grass, the hooves pounding faster then slowed as they reached the gate. They just managed to slide through, and trampled the tall grass chasing after her.

  Kiri heard the sound of thunder. She turned, eyes widened like green saucers at the sight of Naithon coming at her on a horse. With an ‘eek’ she spun around and ran as fast as she could. The pounding hooves galloped up behind her, then beside her, and leaning way down, Naithon’s long arm snaked out, hooked her under her arms and hauled her up and dumped her in front of him on the horse.

  His arm dropped down under her breasts and he slammed her against his torso so hard the breath snapped out of her lungs. He held her tightly as he turned the horse to head back to the gate. Her long curls fluttered from the wind at their movement, the tresses tickled his chin.

  “Mister, uh, sir,” she gasped, “I can’t breathe, please.”

  He didn’t want to, but he loosened his hold on her. The horse trotted at a slower pace, causing their bodies to jostle up and down. Kiri’s breasts bobbed on his arm,

  Naithon felt the sudden constriction in his pants, it got worse when her bottom rubbed against his dick. He’d ordered the horse ready without a saddle, he didn’t want to try fit the two of them on the saddle. Without the saddle, Naithon directed the horse with the reins, his knees and his heels.

  When they passed through the gate, Naithon dismounted from the steed landing lithely on the ground. Holding the reins, he moved to the gate and shut it. What had taken her several minutes to wrestle the steel beam off the handles, took him a second to lift the end up off the ground with one hand, and drop it back down.

  He turned back to the horse and scowled his ire up at Kiri. His heart clenched. She sat tall and proud, her beautiful mane tossing in the wind, blouse ruffling, and she looked petrified. But the brave little thing was trying to hide it. She shrank from him when he mounted the horse and dragged her body back against his.

  He tapped his earpiece and said, “Johannssen, I want a lock on that gate, and you can turn the electricity back on.”

  Her breath hitched. “Electricity?”

  “Huh,” he grunted and fished a coin out of his pocket. Tugging on the reins to turn the horse, he tossed the coin at the fence, the coin sizzled and sparked when it hit the metal. Naithon heard and felt her shuddered gulp.

  “How, I mean,” she stuttered, “when I touched it, it wasn’t electrified.”

  As livid as he was, Naithon huddled her gently against his chest. “When you opened the window a silent alarm went off announcing the breech. There are cameras everywhere on the grounds, and in the woods. You were spotted immediately. A guard called me to advise the situation. He shut the electricity down as soon as you neared the fence.”

  Kiri tried to keep her body from touching his, which was impossible in the tight grip that he held her, but at the thought that she could have been electrocuted, the air left her lungs and she sank into him. She didn’t see his satisfied smile.

  Hooves clumping the hard packed ground, the pair riding the horse was quiet on the way back to the barn until they were almost there. Then, Naithon asked softly, “Why did you run? Because of the spanking?”

  “Hmm,” she murmured with a brief nod. The top of her head brushed under his chin. He lowered his head and pushed his nose into her hair, then indiscernibly kissed the top of her head. “Yes,” she replied, “and I was bored
out of my mind.”

  His body hitched, he growled, “You put yourself in danger because you were bored? Girl, you have a television, computer, music, movies, books, everything you could need is in my suite. What more could you want?”

  She made an irritated sound and twisted her body to look back and up at him. He appeared so confident riding the huge steed, easily controlling it. Which he did as he controlled everything.

  He was a powerful, arrogant, dangerous man that grabbed the world with his teeth and tore asunder any part and anyone that didn’t please or obey him. Another shudder rolled down her spine. Judging by the blackness of his intimidating eyes, the grit of his jaw and the furious way he gazed down at her, currently she wasn’t obeying or pleasing him.

  Kiri sighed and settled back in his iron embrace. He hugged her to him and stuck his nose back in her hair. “I am used to working or being in school. I had an intern position I loved, and even designing and working at the Molten Gold Tasting Room at my father’s distillery was fun. I don’t want to sit around like a lump and watch TV all day.”

  “Hmm.” He pondered her words. “What about you know, your nails and stuff. The other women are always painting them and whatnot, reading magazines, doing each other’s hair. You want some magazines? Maybe get your hair done?”

  She snorted out a laugh. “Please. Even more boring. No,” she said seriously, “I want to work. I want to create, I want to…” she trailed off.

  He snapped, angry again, “You want to go home. I know. Well, you can forget it. I’ve told you, you are not leaving here. So stop-”

  “No, Mr. Adranokov, I don’t necessarily want to go home. My father is a tyrant, my brothers try to molest me whenever they’re near.” His arm tightened like a vice around her ribs. She said breathily, “Please, you’re hurting me.”

  He lightened his grip, slightly. “Then there’s Rueford. If I go home I will be forced to marry him. But if I could be on my own, I could paint, set scenes like I did and photograph them. Maybe have a little studio of my own,” her sigh filled with longing.

  “What do you mean set scenes?”

  “Oh, I create like fake food then put it together attractively then photograph it. I have this I guess you’d call it a skill, I can make the food look realistic but then not exactly. Kind of when you paint a landscape or something and it looks as real as a photograph, but also…not, it’s...more. Like it’s alive and breathing, more dramatic.

  “It’s so exciting, my work seems to draw passionate interest. Magazines and restaurants and things like that use them in their ads. I did a commercial one time for a restaurant; they even let me design the whole scene. It was great fun!”

  Naithon was quiet, then he asked, “You take the pictures with your phone?”

  Her laugh held resentment. “No. My father took my phone from me as soon as I came home. You darn mobsters, you all want to control me.”

  She scowled, then her tone lightened, she said with a small smile, “No, I have a special camera. Very expensive. My father allowed me a pittance while I was in school to pay for snacks and incendiaries. I saved forever for it. A Kastali Special Z. Came with all the lenses I needed for lighting and blurring, tinting, you know, all the things you do to make something look different, fascinating, tempting.”

  “Perhaps I can have someone retrieve the camera from your home.”

  Sadness in her voice, she said bitterly, “No, my father destroyed it. Said I had dreams of grandeur. He told me Rueford would not be allowing me to work once we were wed, that he would keep me pregnant with his heirs, and he said my little hobby was a waste of good money. He ignored the fact that I actually made money at it.”

  She twisted to look up at him, eyes filled with unhappiness. “You see why I ran from you? You men, you dictate my life like I’m a puppet slave to only do what you say, do what you want. But, I am a free, human being, adult, it is wrong to try to clip my wings, keep me locked in a cage. Force me to have sex.”

  When her head lowered, Naithon tightened his arm around her. Speaking with stony authority, he said coldly, “It is the life you were born into, Kiritina. You can’t run from it, if it wasn’t me, or your father, or that fat prick, some other made man would take you, do the same. In our world, males have the right to take, control, and discipline our women.”

  She swung around, glared at him, cheeks pink with pique she declared, “Then I won’t live in your world, I will be my own boss.”

  A small rueful chuckle, he said, “You have no choice, lamb. As I said, you were born into this life. If you went to the police they would send you home, they would not get involved with mobsters’ family issues. You can run all you want, but one of us is going to snap you up and lock you away, it’s your curse for being so beautiful, so sexy, so,” he hugged her close, kissed the top of her head, “so damned sweet. It will be good with me, Kiri, I will treat you well, haven’t I so far?”

  “Huh,” her snort ugly. “Oh yes, I’ve always wanted to be held prisoner, forced to sleep with a stranger wearing pretty much nothing, get molested, always under the threat of sexual assault by you and your…soldiers. I loved the way you humiliated me by calling me a whore in front of those people.

  “Oh, don’t let me forget the spanking, the discipline. Sure you’ve treated me well,” sneering scornfully, “I’ve always wanted to be treated as a child and abused. Forced to live trapped inside a box unable to do the work I love or go where I wish.” With an angry huff of frustration she crossed her arms over his arm that held her.

  Anger was also in his voice as he replied, “I can be a lot worse, Kiri, a lot. I have been so indulgent with you that my friends call me a pussy, they tell me you wear the pants in this relationship. Fuck with me and see how fucking tolerant I can be.” His arm tightened uncomfortably. She wiggled to loosen it, he ignored her struggles.

  “We are not in a relationship,” she muttered.

  At that, one arm around her, his hand holding the reins, he lifted his other hand and curled it around the front of her throat. He didn’t squeeze, just held it there. Kiri took it as a threat, she’d gone too far.

  They were silent the rest of the way. Naithon led the horse up to the main house and Mazonn rushed out.

  “Jeezus, girl, you scared the life out of us!” He hurried over to them. Naithon wrapped his hands around her waist, and lifted her then lowered her so Mazonn could grasp her and gently set her on her feet.

  “Ja, well, dumb ass,” Naithon rebuked his friend. “You should have checked with me before leaving. You should have known I would never leave her in Dan’s care. He got the message wrong. You were to stay with her, he was to go to the crime scene. I was busy, on three lines at once, I called him to have him tell you what happened, then go to the murder site, and he got it fouled up. What was worse, he allowed Kiri to run off into danger. I want him in my study in twenty. And get your hands off her.”

  Mazonn still had his palms on Kiri’s waist, he laughed as he moved them. He was teasing his friend, lately pushing his buttons was easy, and entertaining. “Ja, you big jealous asshole. Listen,” his tone dropped. “Dan is just stupid. He didn’t mean to do anything wrong. You don’t need to-”

  “I will take care of things the way I want to. You take Kiri upstairs.” He snapped the reins and gave the horse a light kick. The horse turned around and headed to the stables.

  “Ah,” Mazonn sighed, his hand on Kiri’s back. “Man’s got a mountain of a temper.” He led her back inside.

  “He isn’t going to…kill that man is he, Maz?” She stopped and faced him. “Tell him it was my fault, Maz. It was. I deliberately stalled while eating until the poor guy got so bored he nodded off. You have to tell him, I,” she paused, took a deep breath. “I will take his punishment.”

  Mazonn laughed out a choke. “Ja, I don’t think so. Dan’s punishment would be a bit too much for you to handle, honey.”

  “But it was my fault! Is he going to…kill him? He mustn’t, Maz, you have
to stop him!”

  “Okay, calm down little one.” Mazonn started her walking again to the elevator. “He won’t kill him, but he will make sure the man gets things straight the next time, ja?” His fingertips on her lower back, he said gently, “And, you must consider the repercussions for other people from your actions.”

  In the elevator, he said, “Kiri, you are safe and coddled here, you need to ease up.”

  Kiri jabbed the fourth floor button hard. “I am a prisoner, Maz, there is no ease about that.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  A day later, Naithon was up and gone before dawn. But he returned to take Kiri downstairs for breakfast. It was late enough there were a dozen women and a few men sitting at the table eating. They called out greetings to Naithon, which he mostly ignored, the women glowered at Kiri as he pulled out a chair for her.

  “Tell me what you want, lamb, I will get it for you,” he told her. Both of their tempers still stirred, but they didn’t revisit the conversation they had while on the horse. It only pissed Naithon off, her running from him and still wanting nothing to do with him, and Kiri brooded sullenly on her situation.

  Once he’d gotten both their plates full, he sat down beside her.

  When they were halfway done, Kiri was sipping her orange juice and watched over the rim as a tall blonde woman pulled out the chair next to Naithon and sat down. She set her hand on his forearm. Today he wasn’t wearing his normal suit. His block of shoulders filled out a button-down black shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and he wore black jeans, black boots.

  “Naity, sugarbear, you haven’t been around in a while. I’ve missed you,” the woman purred, stroking her nails up and down his arm.

  “Silver,” he grunted and shifted his arm but she just moved with it. Her fingers traced up to his bicep and crept across to slide a finger between buttons to touch his chest.

  “Honey,” the purr oozed huskily, “you need to come back to my bed,” she leaned over so her huge breasts could rub on his arm. “We had so much fun,” she glanced over at Kiri, appearing to check her out. Her nose wrinkled like she’d seen something nasty, and leaned more heavily, proprietarily on Naithon.