Bound by Rapture (3 page)

“It’s not over.” I expected her to start crying, but she didn’t. Instead she turned her black gaze on me. “It will never be over between Cole and I. You have no idea what we’ve been through.” She stood up, her heels clicking on the floor. “You have no idea the things I did for him after—”

“That’s enough.” Cole’s voice was gruff, cutting her off. 

I raised a brow. What was she going to say? 

She took a step toward me. “The hours I’ve spent beneath his body, on top of him. His cock in my—”

I slapped her, there was no controlling it. I wanted to tear her apart. I knew these things were true, they had been together for years, but I didn’t want to hear them. I couldn’t handle it. My love for him was too new. My insecurities roiled around in my heart. 

I expected her to try and hit me back, maybe pull my hair, but she didn’t. She turned her face back to me with eerie slowness. That look was there again. That glare of pure evil I had seen two other times from her. Moments only her and I had shared. 

A knock on the door made me jump and whirl around. 

Cole pulled the door open to reveal Randy standing on the other side. His big body was covered in a white skin-tight shirt with blood splattered across the front. His gaze jumped from me to Elaine and then back to Cole, with a
what the fuck
look in his eyes.

“What is it?” Cole asked.

“There’s something you need to see.” He glanced at me and then Elaine. “All of you should see this.”

We followed Randy through Rapture and I was surprised when he led us to the basement stairs. I’d never been down there before, even though I had worked there for several years. We were all silent as we moved down and into the brightly lit room below. Boxes were stacked everywhere, colorful sashes and sequin-covered clothing spilled out of them in messy disarray. Racks upon racks of skimpy underwear and matching corsets glittered under the bright fluorescent lighting. Just as I took it all in, the murmur of men’s voices somewhere in the stripper wonderland caught my attention. 

“This way,” Randy said. Cole wrapped his hand around mine and pulled me to his side. Elaine was in front of us, which was right where I wanted her. Not at my back where she could stab me and Cole both.

 Glittering lamps with hanging jewels were pushed aside, leaving a bare path on the concrete floor. I recognized some of the props used in the Avatar themed Rapture X party, worn ropes with leafy greenery hanging off them. Ropes that had suspended my body from the ceiling while Vic fucked me.

The voices became more apparent the farther into the basement we moved, but then they weren’t just voices anymore. Deep tenors rumbled, but then there was something else. The moaning sound of a man in pain.

What the fuck? 

Before I could ask, the scene came into view, taking my breath away. A large area had been cleared of boxes and storage, all of it piled up in the shape of a circle. Several men stood in the area. A few of them wore suits and were casually talking. One of them, aside from Randy, wore regular clothing. Blood splattered clothing. Leon. He had worked at my apartment building with Randy undercover. 

A lone man sat in the center of the room, bound to a chair, his shaved head bent over, obscuring his face from my view. Blood dripped on the concrete floor around him. The moaning was coming from him. 

“Who is that?” Elaine asked. She was white as ghost. 

Cole leaned over and spoke quickly to Randy in hushed tones. After a moment he pulled back. 

Leon approached us. I hadn’t actually spoken to either Randy or Leon since they’d forced me into Cole’s office some five months ago. The day I realized they weren’t just the friendly, muscular men who ran the front desk and worked the elevator.

Randy drove me home that night from the bar, when I was drunk, after I came all over Cole’s fingers.

I squashed the memory and eyed them both. I didn’t trust them. Cole seemed to, but I wasn’t completely convinced. Someone told the person trying to kill me that we were in New Orleans, that we were out in that swamp, that we fucked. Both of these men knew we were there that night.

“Why is there blood on both of you?” Cole’s voice was cold, like he was pissed.

“He wouldn’t shut the fuck up,” Leon hissed. 

Cole raised his eyebrows. “He conscious?”

 “Yes,” they said at once.

Cole nodded. “You and the boys head up top. I’ll let you know if I need anything.”

Randy signaled to the other men who followed him out. Their movement revealed again the now quiet man strapped to the chair. We walked closer.

“What the hell is this, Cole?” I had nearly forgotten about Elaine, whose voice was high-pitched and squeaky next to me.

He turned to her and smiled. But it wasn’t a handsome smile, it was a vicious one; it even made
me
nervous. “So glad you’re here, Elaine. You can be reunited with your old friend.”

I glanced between them, confused. Elaine looked equally as puzzled.  

“Show your face,” Cole demanded. The guy didn’t move, but sat still, dead still. “Now!” Cole shouted and the guy flinched, but refused to look up. 

Cole released my hand and moved quickly around behind him. He gripped the front of the man’s head and jerked it back. Dark hateful eyes met mine; a cut dripped blood on the side of his cheek and more leaked from his nose and down over his lips. 

His lips.
The scar that snaked across them was familiar, sucking me back to that night. The rocky asphalt pressing against my skin. The coppery taste in my mouth. The pain. Until I was numb, floating away, watching myself die on dirty pavement. 

“It’s
him
.” I’d intended to shout the words but I didn’t. They came out hoarse and broken, like the first words I’d spoken when I awoke from the coma, my throat butchered and scarred forever.

A cruel smile spread across those lips. The lips I would never forget. “Can’t believe you survived, pretty little thing.”

“This is Jay Warner.” Cole released his head. Jay held it up on his own this time. His hair was different—shaved off, but it was him. I had no doubt. 

“Why?” 

“Randy—”

“No.” I cut Cole off. “Why did you try to kill me?” Vicious, bitter anger punched me in the gut. “Did you kill her?” I shouted.

The guy frowned. “Who are we talking about? The only person I was supposed to kill that night was you, sugar baby. And you look just fine to me. Guess I’ll get to have my fun after all.” 

“I wanted to have more fun with you. They said I could, but you’ve gone and fucked it up.”
His words from that night blistered my ears. 

“Don’t talk to her like that.” Cole growled.

“Or what?” 

Cole balled up his fist. 

“No.” I turned to Elaine who stood quietly next to me. She was even whiter than before. “Do you know him?” I asked her.

“What are you talking about?”

I grabbed her by her stupid dress and shook her, not buying her innocent act. “Tell me the truth, you stupid bitch.”

Her eyes widened. “I don’t know who this guy is.” She shoved at my hands and I let her go. There was fear in her eyes. She was scared of me.

I almost laughed. She was scared of me.
Me.
When she was the one making all the threats and parading herself around in front of me. Now she got to be afraid when I was the one who had been terrified for weeks, hurting for months. And it seemed kind of backward that it was in front of
him
that I got the chance to be strong and foreboding. In front of the man she’d hired to kill me. 

She took a step back. She was breathing hard, her eyes darting between the three of us. “You know I don’t like blood, Cole. You know I can’t deal with this kind of shit.”

He moved away from Jay and came to stand in front of her. “Tell me the truth.”

She pinched her brows together. “You think I did this? That I hired someone to hurt your new little girlfriend?” She shook her head in disbelief. “You know me better than that. How many times have you done this, Cole? How many times have I turned a blind eye to your women on the side?” she pleaded. “Why would I do this now? It doesn’t make sense and you know it!”

I tried not to let her words sting me, and confirm my worst fears. That Cole had done this lots of times. That I was just some temporary fix. 

“Julia is different.” His stare was hard, unwavering on hers. “And
you
know it.”

She shook her head frantically. “I didn’t do this, Cole.” 

“Do you know her?” I asked Jay. He sat quietly, a sick smile on his bleeding face.

He started chuckling. It was a hideous sound that made me want to cringe, but I didn’t. I held my ground somehow. “I don’t know. Do I?” 

Cole whirled around. “Answer the fucking question.”

If it was possible, Jay smiled wider. His gaze latched onto Elaine. “
Hmmmm
. Maybe.” 

“He’s lying!” Elaine screeched. “I’ve never seen him in my life!” Her gaze darted around in panic.

“Elaine.” Cole gripped her shoulders.

“I swear I don’t know him. I wouldn’t do this. I know what you’re capable of…” She tossed me a glare. “I wouldn’t risk my life over some fucking whore who won’t even be around that long.” 

I wanted to lunge at her, but Cole’s big body was blocking my path. He didn’t say anything. Didn’t defend my honor. He just stood there clutching her shoulders and staring hard at her face for several moments.

“Get your shit out of my house. Today. And go back to New York. Understand me? This bullshit that’s going on between us is over. Do you understand?” 

“It’s never over between us,” she said with cold certainty.

“It’s been over for a long fucking time, Elaine.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do. Now get the fuck out.” He shoved her away from him and she didn’t miss a beat, whirling around and heading for the stairs like she was terrified. 

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked Cole.

“What I came here to do.”

“That’s what you came here to do? Dump Elaine?” 

“I wanted you to see I was serious when I told you I love you.”

My heart sped up in my chest as Cole’s gaze met mine. But I didn’t let it cloud my judgment. “You just let her go? When she has done all this?” I gestured to Jay who was sitting quietly, eying both of us with a sinister look on his face.

“She didn’t do it, Julia. You need to accept that.”

“I need to accept that?”

“Yes.” He turned away and walked to stand just in front of Jay. “Who hired you?”

Jay gave him a bloody smile. “Hired me for what?”

“To try and murder
my
Julia.”

“Who’s Julia?”

“No!” I shouted as Cole pulled his arm back to punch Jay in the face. 

He stopped, glancing over his shoulder. 

“If you knock him out how are we going to get anything out of him?”

“Julia—”

“
Hooooo
. That’s a good one. How do you feel about that, buddy? Letting a woman boss you around?” Jay wiggled his brows. “Must be some good fucking pussy.”

This time there was nothing I could do. Cole smacked his fist into the side of Jay’s face, nearly making the chair topple over. He spit blood and a tooth onto the floor close to my feet. Jay nodded. “Like I thought, good pussy. Wait—” He flinched as Cole prepared to punch him again. “I’ll tell you.” Cole stopped in mid-swing.

A wave of excitement and dread swept over me all at once as I stared at his bloody face. I wanted the truth so badly. I needed it. I desperately had to have it. All of this had to end, this misery that had become my life. 

“But only if I get to see her pussy.” His eyes settled on my thighs. 

“You piece of shit.” Cole punched him again, his fist whistling through the stale basement air before making crunching contact with Jay’s face. This time the chair turned over, sending Jay slamming onto his side. 

Something inside me twisted. It felt like a knife poking holes in all my organs, destroying me from the inside out. The dread and excitement from moments before came crashing down around me like a suffocating wave. 

He isn’t going to tell us. 

Reality slammed into me. 

This is all just a game to this sick fuck.

“Who sent you to do this?” I got down on my knees in front of him, pleading. His face was pressed against the cold concrete, warm blood oozing from a new wound. 

Doesn’t feel so good, does it?

He chuckled again, but there was less fire in it. “They wanted you dead.” He spit, blood spattering on the t-shirt I’d put on. Cole growled somewhere behind me before his strong hands grasped my arms and started to haul me away. 

“No!” I jerked away from him. “I need this.” Cole’s face was a mask of anger, no longer the loving man I knew, but the dark billionaire who did whatever the fuck he wanted. Something hot and sinful flooded my cunt at that look.

He nodded and released me. 

“Who are
they
?” I turned back to Jay.

“You’ll never find them.”

“Tell me who they are!” I grabbed his bloody shirt and shook him. “Tell—” The words I was going to say evaporated on my lips as my gaze focused on the emblem on the right side of his shirt. It was small, simple. No one else would think anything of it. But I knew that symbol. It was the symbol for Cunningham—the big oil company that had rigs all over the state of Texas. “Oh my God.” I let go of the shirt.