Don't... (45 page)

“Uh-uh,” said the same voice as a gun was cocked, “play nice, I’ll treat you nice, unlike your surveillance guys out there.”

I stumbled forward as the grip in my hair intensified, forcing me back over to the main floor. I didn’t know whether the warm blood-like feeling running down the side of my face was from whatever had hit me, or the constant pulling on my hair.

“Assume the position, sweets.”

I was forced down to my knees. Still no light touched the hall, but I could just make out two guys stood behind Gray off to my right. Gray’s arms were behind his back as if he had them cuffed, and I panicked then until I found Jan. Just ahead, one guy stood behind Jan. In the light of the moonlight, I could see a gun. The fact that these guys hadn’t turned any lights on only making me more nervous. They knew what they were doing. And surveillance? I fucking knew Gray would—

“You okay, Jack?”

Jan sounded scared, then pissed as the man behind him told him to “Shut the fuck up.”

“Fuck you,” said Jan, and I had to smile. For a non-Dom, he was still a ballsy bastard. “You all right, Jack?”

“Yeah.” Christ, my voice sounded bloody pale. The gun in the back of my head was a vicious reminder of standing in my old man’s house; this wasn’t my world, not by a long shot, but Jan, Gray; nothing scared me more than losing them.

“Gentlemen,” said a man, padding his way onto the floor with polished shoes. I hated that sound. “While you try and figure out how we tracked you here, let’s keep this brief, shall we?”

I didn’t recognise the voice, nor the man that stepped into the moonlight. I’d thought Keal, later Cutter, but this man? He was young, surprisingly so, maybe more Jan’s age. Smartly dressed, suit trousers, jumper, shirt, tie, short hair. Not exactly spectacular-looking, quite plain, ordinary.

“I have this,” he did a little dance with his head, almost as if he were dancing, “slight problem. See, thing is, I know one of you here.”

He came over to me and crouched down. “How you doin’, Jacky boy?” He gave this distracted smile as he finger-traced my abs. “My, my, all grown up now, huh?”

“You want to get the fuck off—” Making me wince, the gun dug harder into my scalp and the grip on my hair tightened as I went to take his touch off.

“What did I say about playing nice, sweetheart?”

“Don’t you mind old Russ, there; he’s a little eager, is all.” The young man winked at me, eyes not leaving mine as he ran a touch over my trackies to brush the length of my dick. I flinched automatically and it won me a raised brow.

“Somebody had you already?” He leaned in and had a sniff. “Mmmmm, I just love the scent of come in the evening.” He pulled back. “And here’s me always arriving late to the party.”

“Am I supposed to know you?”

A hand went to his heart. “Hurts, Jack.” He pouted and this shine came to his eyes. “That you don’t remember me.” Then he shrugged. “Why should you, eh?”

For a pretty forgettable man, he hit damn hard. His fist caught me on the jaw, snapping my head to the side, nearly tearing hair out of my skull from the man behind.

“Alan Shaw ring a bell?”

Head still reeling from the blow, I shook my head. It wasn’t a lie. I didn’t know the fucking name.

“Hmmm, thought so.” Fingers were back brushing my abs, but now it was more to make patterns in the drops of blood from my split lip. “What about ‘the copper you put in hospital’ those few years back?”

Mark Shaw? He was Alan’s son? I resisted looking at Gray. “About your dad, Mark—”

Mark waved me off. “Oh save your conscience, Jack. Me and my old man never really,” he air quoted here, “‘got on’, so to speak. Actually,” he waved a finger, “you kind of got him out of my hair for a while.”

Maybe it was the fuzziness in my head, but I didn’t understand what the hell was going on, and Mark’s face seemed to lose all friendliness seeing it. “We’re alike, Jack, you and me.” He took something out of his pocket, and I shifted uneasily seeing the razorblade. “There’s a certain kick—” Holding the razorblade handle with one hand, he wrapped his other around the blade, the razor against his palm, and suddenly jerked the blade free. He sighed, head dropping back, riding the wave as he squeezed blood from his fingers. “—you get. You know what it’s like.” He sighed again as he looked at me. “What you get from feeling a knife on your skin.” Bloodied hand held out, he flattened it close to where my heart was. “But where stunner Jack Harrison had the pick of the finest Masters to help him ease his,” his face creased a touch, “I got left behind when you took mine from me.”

“Cutter?” I breathed. But—“But you....”

“I know.” That dance again with his head as he smiled. “Cutter said he’d do me instead if you didn’t get my old man. You like that?” He thumbed back at himself. “’S my idea, and one of my more... twisted ones. Thing is, he was already,” here came the air quotes again, “‘doing me.’ And, well, like you, I quite liked it.”

Mark waggled his eyebrows playfully. “Good times, eh, Jack?” Eyes travelled my body. “Got such fucking gorgeous video footage of you and Cutter together.”

I stiffened. Footage?

“Mmmmm,” said Mark, head tilting slightly. “The first time he fucked you, when you were in the woods.” Hands reached down to my thighs, running the inside up to my groin, the razorblade now pretty close to my dick. “I got to film that one.” A tongue flicked over his lips. “Cutter was three times your size, mean-looking as fuck, thick thighs, head tattooed, and you, the tender age of seventeen, all that wind-swept hair over gorgeous eyes, slim-assed face-first in the dirt, hands tied behind your back, jeans pulled down to your knees, you—Christ. He pounded into your ass so fucking hard and so many times that night. Remember? You staggered away not really knowing where you were after he’d finally let you up off the floor.”

I flicked a look over to Gray, to Jan.

Mark laughed. “But you twisted bastard you, you cried more every time. Well,” there was merriment in his eyes, “except for those initial fucks of his where you just cried pain. Never really was the gentle type, Cutter.” The razor dug into my crotch, real fucking close to my head, and my heart missed a beat. “We shared such a special moment there, Jack, you losing it to Cutter.” Mark scraped the blade along the material covering my dick. “Means a lot to me.” He patted his heart. “Right here, brother,” and he even wiped at his eyes.

Then his hand crushed into my balls, knife digging painfully into my dick, and this time I doubled.

“Fucked me off no end when you put him away, you fuck.”

I fought back tears as he gave a little twist, the blade nearly slicing through material.

“And where you landed with straps on a Master’s table, I had to find a way to entertain myself.”

He let go and I nearly whimpered relief. Then as the razorblade touched my cheek, pushing me up, back against the man behind me, I went very still.

“Kind of found out I have a liking for being on the other end of the knife, Jack.” A flash of eye. “And I kind of got turned on whether the guy taking it liked it or not. Ironic, huh?”

The razorblade was pulled away without leaving a mark and a hand patted my face. “But you’re not the one I want, Jacky boy. You’re just the...” he waved the knife distractedly, “the stress reliever, and I kind of like the kindred kink-link we share too. Me,” he had that shine to his eyes again, “I want your Master; the cunt that took mine off me.”

Mark pushed to his feet and walked away. “So, back to my problem, gentlemen.” The wave of knife again. “Being as Ben was a little... tight-lipped over exactly who was who, I don’t actually know which one of these two is your Master.” Jan and Gray each had the razor pointed at them. “Hand on heart,” and Mark actually did, “I’ll let the other two of you go if you’d just state your names clearly enough.”

I snorted. Sure, he’d let us go.

“I know, I know,” said Mark, “it’s hard to believe that such a man like myself would let you go without, well, having
some
fun. But I believe in sole focus when I’m with a client. Customer care, and all that.” He winced. “But that’s not guaranteeing that my men here won’t have a little fun first, just to remind the other two who owns your asses now.”

I felt a breath on my ear from the man behind. “That’s you and me, sweets. Fun for a Master’s sub like you, maybe not so much for your trainee Dom when we find him.”

There were a thousand and one smartass replies to that, but they weren’t worth it, not with Jan, not with Gray caught in the shadows of these bastards.

“No takers?” said Mark, looking between Jan and Gray. “No, ‘I’m just a Dom, get me out of here’?” He sighed heavily, then gave a sharp whistle.

Back by the door, movement came in the form of high heels hitting the hard-wood floor.

“Jess.”

That came from Gray; he could see more than me. Soon enough, Jess, hair bound tight away from her face, snug Lycra pants, slip top, walked past and took up a lap-dog position next to Mark. A smile, Mark put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her tight.

“Special lady, our Jess,” said Mark, and it pissed me off how Jess turned and planted a kiss on Mark, then rested her head back on his shoulder. “Like any good Master’s sub, she likes to role-play, don’t you, hon? Especially the ‘sweet little girl getting in over my head’ type. Mind you, gal of her speciality, it’s been hard keeping her under the radar for this.”

Nothing gutted me more. I’d made the call to get her away from Darren. Fuck, I was the one that had brought her into the Master’s Circle.

Mark frowned at her. “Unfortunately for me, our Jess here has a flair for the dramatic.” Mark sighed and moved to stand between Jan and Gray, where he turned back to face us all. “So, Jess, how are you going to play this, honey?”

“Mmmm, I was going with the whole ‘betrayed by a kiss on the lips’ scene,” said Jess, her tone lower and not sounding so girlish anymore.

“Nice one, honey. Just don’t keep me waiting too long, though, yeah.”

“Me?” Jess batted her eyelids. “I got you here, didn’t I? Bet the guy who let me slip something into his jacket pocket is feeling a bit of a screw-up now, though. And I’d be a little quicker if you promised I could mess up their M sub afterwards.”

A sigh. “If it makes you happy.” Then with a roll of eye, “Women. Some like diamonds, some cars, some practising a touch of snuff as they ride a gorgeous guy.”

Jess waved him off as she walked over to Gray. “Oh please, you’ll embarrass me.” Stopping by Gray, Jess lifted a hand to stroke at his face. Gray snarled, but the men behind held him still. “Temper, temper,” said Jess, and she shifted a carefully manicured fingernail down to Gray’s lips. A pat on the face, she moved away over to Jan.

“Fuckssake, Jess, come on.” Mark had started to tap his foot impatiently, the knife keeping rhythm against his trousers.

“Let me play,” she said, and blew a kiss over to Mark. Now by Jan, she crushed a hand into his balls, making him grunt out.

“Pity I’m not gonna get to play with you in particular, hon.” She carried on her groping. “But while Mark’s having his fun with you, you remember I’ll be riding the last breaths out of your whore over there.”

She kissed Jan on the lips—and Gray’s gaze met mine.

Jess pulled at Jan’s shirt collar, taking him to the floor with her, and I suddenly shifted, grabbing the guy’s hand behind as I moved out of the gun’s path, and twisted him down to the ground. The gun gave a “click”, suggesting it must have been fired, but I guess hitting me with it hadn’t been the smartest move now as it jammed. This guy didn’t seem as on top of his game as Mark. Shots rang out, but I knew they mainly came from Gray. He’d taught me how to get free from every make of handcuff going; I should have known they wouldn’t have been too much of a problem for him. For now I just shuffled my way over to Jess and Jan, pinning them beneath with my body. This was Gray’s area, not mine. He didn’t need me messing up his line of sight and would hopefully guess Jan would be my priority.

I didn’t doubt Gray’s ability to stay alive, Jan on the other hand.

I kept my head down, buried in Jan’s throat, arm covering Jan’s face, Jess lost somewhere in the tangle beneath, until eventually everything fell quiet.

“Clear,” came Gray from somewhere behind, and then a moment later Jess was being pulled from between us and hurled to her feet. That put sway to me thinking Gray had known she was a double-cross to even her own side.

“One fucking reason,” snarled Gray. “One reason that will stop me from adding you to that mess that’s your Master on the floor.”

I made sure Jan kept his gaze on me. He’d gone very still and quiet, ears listening for the slightest sound.

“I’ll give you three,” said Jess, flatly. “Respect, trust... and the fact you and Jan over there were the first men to ever treat me fully as a woman, not some in-between freak to train into some other freak.”

“You touch my surveillance team outside?”

“No.” That was rushed. “I gave Jan the trace, nothing more.”

“But you let them know where we were?”

“Common ground,” said Jess. “It had to be a place where Mark thought you’d be away from the safety of Master’s Circle. But where I knew you would be comfortable, here. It seemed the safest choice; otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten him here. I knew it was just down to pure chance that I’d met Jan, that he mentioned the Master’s Circle when I was with Darren. I’d been trying to get intelligence on your members for months; I knew how tight you are for security and that trace was my best chance.”

“And Ben? My other Doms?”

“I was with you.” Jess sounded angry. “Mark needed someone in the clubs to listen, nothing more. He knew that if he had someone out there with a history, there was a chance he would be linked to them if caught.”

Gray snorted. “Someone with a history of snuff?”

“If I had a history of that,” she said, heels sounding hard on the wooden floor as she shifted, “you’d have found it. I like breath play, know when to stop it. Mark found that out after we’d had a one-night stand and asked if I’d cater to his men only. Even I realised he was keeping me off the streets so that I stayed off your radar. I became his sub, said he liked someone with a touch of Dom/sub switch in them.” Jess huffed. “He was talking about Jack, even called me him a few times. So it wasn’t hard to get in the role of being the one that handed Jack to him.”