Seize me From Darkness (Pierced Hearts Book 4) (7 page)

BOOK: Seize me From Darkness (Pierced Hearts Book 4)
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Her great green eyes seemed rounder than ever. “Maybe.”

I could see she hadn’t a clue as to what to think. Footsteps were approaching outside the room.

“She gave me permission. That means everything in the kink world.”

I neglected to mention that I was a sadist. No point really. It would only freak her out to know I enjoyed making a woman hurt.

I had no more time. The hatch slid open.

“Come here, Pieter. Time to go home.”

Fucking Gregor. It hadn’t been anything near three hours.

Chapter 7

 

The sound of footsteps outside faded. I strained my ears to hear. Nothing. No cries either. Had that man died? Or had they stopped hurting him?

The room was horribly empty without Pieter in it. I
despised women who couldn’t fend for themselves and make their own way in life, but in a miniscule amount of time, I’d been reduced to wondering if the next person through my door would be coming to hurt me or kill me. And I couldn’t do a single thing that stood a chance of stopping them.

The bruises on my back reminded me of that.

I was defenseless.

With him here, I’d felt
, not exactly safe, but comforted – like I was more than just a thing, like I mattered.

Normally, I hated touching strangers. I sta
red at my hand where I could still recall the feel of his fingers on mine. People touching you when you didn’t want it was creepy and it made me feel all surrounded, closed in. Liking it was weird and not me.

I sighed.
I’d get over it. Fear was messing with me.

The man
himself was big and scary with all his hard muscles, shaggy hair, and that black glower of his. I shivered, remembering a moment when he’d lowered his head and looked at me like I was maybe an enemy. Pieter had some nasty history but I didn’t think he’d meant to scare me, because a second later he’d smiled.

If he’d sat next to me at the movies, I’d have moved away a few seats and checked
for the exit.

A
scene flashed into my thoughts. I was naked with a man advancing on me, scowling that same way. I shook my head.

Hah. I’d run.

And if he’d grabbed my hair like Pieter had done? Made me look at him?

“Damn,” I whispered and pressed my hand between my legs. Crazy. The tiny
climax
he’d made me have was also messing with my mind.

I’d thought men just didn’t have it in them to stir me that much.

“Picked a great way to find out that,” I muttered. Then I shut my eyes to relish the spreading warmth from my clit.

They left me alone the rest of that day. The next morning a cleaning lady came in, escorted by a guard. When the unknown m
an started screaming again, she flinched and swore under her breath. I took a chance and asked her a question when she swept near where I sat on the bed. The guard was bored as could be, watching a fly buzzing against my one window.

“Who is that?”

Fear laced her eyes, but after a second she said quietly, “Polisman.” Then she moved away.

The guard twitched his gaze on me.

Shit.
The floor at my feet got my attention, fast.

That had sounded like
policeman
but was it? Surely they wouldn’t dare?

Around noon, I couldn’t be sure
of the time as they fed me only breakfast and dinner, Gregor returned.

He was the one person who could send my mind into mouse space. I went blank when he stepped in, his shaved blond scalp had come round the edge of the door about when his boot did, but his fingers had
wrapped round the door first. I recognized him even then, I think, just by his fingertips.

My heart thumped
erratic beats. My whole body seemed to squeeze down tight – like one of my worst times when someone touched me uninvited.

The excessive reaction was explainable. Gregor didn’t just touch.

“Here.” He clicked his fingers.

As I stepped quickly over and bent to go to my knees his lips parted and his tongue flicked
out. So fast, but I saw it. Did seeing me kneel give him pleasure?

I wanted to hide under the bed.

“Very good, little Jazmine, and how is your back?”

Little. Again that conde
scension.

My throat didn’t work. Answer. I had to answer. His gray eyes dissected me.
I forced the word out. “Sir. It’s fine.” I didn’t want him looking.

“Really? Show me, please. Turn.” He did a circle with his hand.

I shuffled about on my knees, and faced away, lowered my head before he could think to make me.

“Hmm. I need your dress out of the way. Pull it up then press you
r forehead to the floor.”

Blushing, I did so. I waited with my bottom up higher than my head. A moment later his bug
-like hand crept its way down my back, slow and meandering, as if it were tasting me. Spider hands, I should call him, or maybe tarantula, considering the hair on the back of them.

“Nice, but I think you need more ointment. We don’
t want you looking bad for the next time. A pristine canvas is best.”

I s
wallowed. He could make even art supplies sound evil.

After he
’d made me lie on his lap to have more ointment applied, Gregor placed the bag over my head and attached my wrist cuffs to each other. Then he drew me outside and along to somewhere else in the house. I had a moment of panic, as he pulled the bag off. Was I back in that other room?

But no.

I stared at the red, dripping mess, unable to decipher what my eyes beheld.

He clicked his fingers and
I knelt on the dark stained concrete. A man. This was a man.

Strips of bloody bandage lay at his feet. They had him standing and fastened to an
upside down
Y
shape of timber. His entire naked body seemed to be weeping blood.

I looked at the bandages again.
Not bandages. Skin. These were strips of skin. With the stench and this savagery before me, I had to fight the urge to vomit.

His moans were the only noise in this bare room. His body
, skin, and blood, a scalpel and a few knives, lying on a table, were the only decoration.

“I am a precise man, Jazmine. I like the mathematics of dividing a man
or woman into pieces. This.” He took a handful of my hair and tipped back my head, gestured with the other hand at his victim. “This is why you must always obey us. The House is not to be trifled with. This man was about to betray us despite being paid off. Obey and this won’t happen to you. Yes? Nod.”

I nodded, eyes watering, in his grip.

Oh yes, I understood this terrible threat. Only I knew Gregor by now, enough that I could see this was more than a warning of punishment. This was a demonstration of what he might do. He’d do this to anyone on a whim, if his superiors or his clients didn’t stop him. I guess being worth money would be enough to rein him in.

This could happen to me on the day my client grew tired of me
.

Blood dripped from the
man’s big toe and splattered into the small pool on the floor.

The man lasted another day before
I stopped hearing him.

They let me see Pieter
, a day after that. Fifteen minutes together, just long enough to say hello and sit on the bed to talk a little. After my denial of needing a hug, Pieter gave up. I asked and found out that polisman meant policeman in New Guinea pidjin language.


If we’re lucky,” Pieter said, “that may come back to bite him. Cops don’t like their own being killed, and if they find out what’s happened, this place will be shut down, no matter who’s been bribed.

I
nodded. That any police would overlook what went on here was appalling. I didn’t hold much hope of anything coming of this. “Have you found a way to escape?” I asked, leaning in and saying it softly.

“No. Not yet.”

On Saturday afternoon, Gregor arrived to tell me Pieter was coming to see me. I couldn’t help but smile at the announcement.

He smiled back
in the biggest, broadest smile I’d yet seen on his face. Cold crept up my spine. “It is good to see you happy. Tomorrow too, you have another date with our client and your Pieter.” Then he left and the locks on the door clicked.

Happy? If you ever saw an evil clown with its makeup off, I was sure it would look like Gregor.
Whatever Scandinavian country he came from, the crime rate probably dropped a hundred percent the year he left.

I
t took me a while to remember to breathe.

The small
fat lizard that had made a home of my room skittered across the wall on the other side of the door. At night it arrived to eat the flying bugs that battered themselves against the light on the ceiling. If only I could walk on the ceiling like it could.

I didn’t like it when Gregor was happy.

When Pieter arrived he didn’t look at me. The guards left and his manacles were removed via the hatch. I shifted over on the bed to give him room, feeling as if I was inviting over my executioner. The air seemed stiff and filled with prickling tension.

He slouched on the bed and half-turned
to study me in that under-the-brow way of his, then he searched for my hand with his own.

I tucked mine in my lap, shook my head.
“What is it? Tell me. I know about tomorrow.”

“They’ve given me an ultimatum...again. I have to hurt you tomorrow. Give them a show, and I have to do it worse than last time.

I didn’t have the words. I shook my head again and mouthed a no.

His eyes were kind and he looked at me as if to see if I had
something to say before he continued. “I believe I can do this in a way that won’t be as bad as you think. I can lessen the pain.”

Frantic, I watched his face for some clue. “How? You have a drug I can take?” Unwanted te
ars dribbled from my eyes and I swiped at them. “I don’t want to be horribly maimed.” I almost asked him to kill me. “I’ve seen what happened to that policeman. Gregor cut pieces off him. Don’t you ever do that to me.”

His
Adam’s apple moved in a quiet swallow. “I wouldn’t, Jazmine. No matter what. I want to get you out of here, alive, intact.”

Intact sounded so clinical,
but I clutched at the hope.

“Can you?”

“Not yet. I’m working on it.”

“Oh.”

This time when he took my hand, I let him. The squeeze on my fingers made me look up.

“So. What do you mean by lessen the pain then?”

“It’s what I did for Elenor. She liked pain but mixed with pleasure. I think if I do the same for you, it’ll not hurt as much.”

Uh.
I blinked, sniffed away the tears. “You mean sexual pleasure, don’t you?”

“Yes.” He squeezed my hand tighter. “They want me to have sex with you anyway. Whoever is paying for this wants you humiliated
as well as hurt. But, to me, it’s not that – humiliation. So it shouldn’t be to you either. Keep that in your head. You’re beautiful and I’m not fucking...doing this to shame you.”

Did him thinking I was pretty make a difference when everyone was watching?

I was going to die inside, but if he didn’t perform as they said, Gregor would do it worse. Maybe use his scalpel. “I can take it. I’m strong. This won’t get to me.”

“Good.”

I was lying, but I was good at that. Practice makes perfect.

This was why Gregor had let us be together, so he could torture
me with dread between now and tomorrow.

The rap on the door came way too soon. Pieter had to pry my fingers loose.

Chapter 8

BOOK: Seize me From Darkness (Pierced Hearts Book 4)
3.05Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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