No, no, I never! I screamed internally.
“I’m offering you a chance to be fucked like a woman as stunning as you should be and reuniting you with the only thing left in your life worth living for, you wanna say no, Ella?” His voice was no longer the soft, dulcet tones I’d come to love. He had been possessed by this world, by the evil that greeted you at the front door.
I kicked my legs, but my weight was no match for his, fueled by lust and alcohol.
“Can you feel that, Ella?” His erection pressed into me, and all I could was stare up at the sky, watching in slow motion as the rolling clouds passed by.
“Can you feel what you do to me?” Knowing his weight kept me pinned beneath him, he used his free hand to roam down my body, clumsy, evil fingers groped at my thighs, pinched my nipples, and I’d never wanted to die so much.
Screaming beneath his hand, I realized that he was done talking, he was going to take what he wanted, break me a little bit more. Because, why not, right?
In one swift movement, he’d pulled my panties down my legs and used his barefoot to unhook them from my feet. The tears and rain never stopped falling, thunder boomed in the distance, flashes of lightning struck a few miles from The Mansion, and I prayed so hard it would strike me dead.
And then his flesh was against mine. He was invading me and tearing me open. He took from me what he wanted, leaving me paralyzed by fear and heartbreak. Even as the blood trickled between my butt cheeks, I couldn’t feel the pain.
He writhed on top of me, never moving his hand from my mouth, and took from me the last shred of hope I had. I had thought he was different.
I had been sorely mistaken.
Chapter Ten
Jax.
Keep the fucker safe. That was my new job. Keep the pig alive, and I may live until old age.
It had taken hours to be shown how to work the CCTV in the office, told where I could go, who I could and couldn’t speak to, Benny, the Brit, asking questions at every fucking turn prolonging the entire thing.
It was dumb fuck work. I already knew, after one day, that if Vladimir didn’t kill me first, then boredom would.
Purgatory was impressive when you didn’t know what the fuck that meant. His home was beautiful, granted, but when he’d taken us downstairs and shown us The Cells, I was brought back to reality with a harsh slap. Girls. Eight terrified girls locked in each fucking one.
I hated myself.
The whole thing had me raging, my finger twitching against the trigger of the semi-automatic gun I’d been given for patrols.
Benny and I had each been shown to our rooms by Marco. Something irked me about him, the smug, self-satisfied grin on his face didn’t help.
And when he spoke to me, fuck, I’d wanted to punch his teeth down his throat.
He pushed open the door, revealing where I’d be sleeping and spending time when off duty.
I went to ask him something, a question that eludes me now, but he cut me off.
“Let’s get one thing straight here, Murdoch.” He growled in my ear.
My face pulled in on itself, shocked at the audacity of this fucker. I kept quiet, though, sometimes you just needed to let morons have their say.
“You stay the fuck away from Ella. Do you hear me? Vlad may think you lot have suddenly become trustworthy, but I see through all of it.”
My eyebrows bunched together, my head turning to meet his hateful glare. “What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked. “Who the fuck even are you?”
His grin was lopsided. “I’m someone Vladimir has come to respect in recent times. Hear what I’m saying, though,” his fucking hand rested on my back, and each instinct in me told me to knock ten tonnes of shit from this jumped up prick. “Stay the fuck away. Keep your head down and be a good little guard, huh? And we’ll have no problems.”
Humoring him, and nothing else, I bared my teeth, unable to smile. “Sure thing, buddy. I heard you loud and clear.”
He nodded and then stalked off down the hallway, a swagger in his step I wanted to rid him off. Prick.
Ella.
Marnie looked grim. Even she knew that after my performance earlier, it’d be a matter of time until Vladimir came to punish me for embarrassing him so.
Her slender fingers twisted together, her brown hair shielding her face. I felt sick to my stomach.
Once the Murdoch had left, I’d fallen into an exhausted sleep. Seeing Marco again, being so unprepared, had ripped any strength I had left away from me.
Seeing his smile, coming to in his arms. It had been a waking nightmare, and the devastation he caused was still as fresh as the night he betrayed me. I’d thought I’d put it all behind me, but seeing him again, looking happy and smug, tore me in two.
And then Jax had carried me to bed.
“So what did you say to him, babe? Word for word, tell me.”
I pulled my knees to my chest and wracked my brain, searching for the brief conversation I’d had with Jaxon Murdoch. “I can’t remember, Marn. What’s Marco doing here?” My voice was shrill, exposing every fear I had.
Her mouth set into a thin, straight line. “Ella, are you going to tell me what happened between the two of you? I know you said he ran to Vlad, spouting a load of bullshit, but the way you reacted when you saw him earlier…” From out in the hallway, there were slams of doors and Vlad’s unmistakable voice.
I cried, tears falling down my face, and in my chest, I could feel every unsteady thump of my heart.
“Shit. I have to go, babe. You’ll be okay?”
No. “Yes, go. Don’t need you getting in trouble as well.”
Marnie hurried across the room, placing a kiss on my temple, and as she opened the door, Vladimir appeared, strung out on cocaine, his blood replaced by alcohol.
He yanked Marnie’s arm, and she went stumbling into the hallway, the last I saw of her was her feet running for safety, and then I was alone with the monster.
Closing the door, he didn’t say a word, and set about undressing, stripping from his suit, which I knew he hated wearing.
My body remained frozen to its spot on my bed, shaking knees knocking together, teeth chattering as though I was cold.
My eyes followed him around the room, watching as he sat to remove his socks and shoes.
The silence was unbearable. “Vladimir…say something.”
In nothing but his boxers, my husband leaned back in the chair, crossing a leg over his knee, his black eyes regarded me, stretching the silence some more. “What’s there to say, sweet wife?”
I swiped the tears from my cheeks and inhaled. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what ca-”
“Came over you?” He interrupted, leaning forward.
I trembled below the sheets, debating whether I preferred his dark quietness to his violence. “Seeing him…” I sniffed. “After what he did…”
Standing to his full five foot ten inches, he stalked towards the other side of the bed. “And what did he do, Ella? Other than expose you for the lying, filthy fucking whore you are.”
Coming to a stop beside me, he grabbed the sheets and ripped them from me.
I cried. “I’m not a liar, Vladimir. You only have to look at the CCTV to see.”
Laughing, he got into bed and lay with his back towards me, before reaching over and switching the lamp off. “Go to sleep, Ella. I’m not going to indulge your delusions any farther.”