Chapter One
Beecher
The knife slices through my skin while the woman holding the weapon slides her fingertips though my blood right after leaving a mentally disturbing trail. Repulsion and pain flares hot through my veins. Over my tormentor’s shoulder I let my gaze hit the woman who holds my heart; Valentina.
She’s tied with duct tape at her wrists, hanging from the ceiling by her arms. Lacerations caused by the very same knife are scattered over her body as well. But she’s fighting. The fire in her eyes is telling me she’s working on a way to free herself.
She’s the strongest, feistiest woman I’ve met in all my life. Never backing down, never holding back. I wish I could say the same and hold the same strength and the will to fight. But I’m barely able to keep my head up and my eyes open.
They have bound me to this chair with rope and tape. Not to mention I feel weak as shit from the blood loss. Or maybe they drugged me again. It’s how they kidnapped both Valentina and me. Fucking tranquilizer darts. How the fuck can you fight that?
It’s all moot now with the both of us bound and open to the torture these two people are inflicting upon us. Two people. One man, one woman. The woman is torturing me while the man watches and then they switch. Then they fucking switch and the man called Logan takes over and tortures Val while the woman called Dana watches.
Not just watches but her fucking hands stay on me. It’s erotic fucking play for them. And all we can do is take what these two twisted fucks in this room are doing to us. Dana’s knife clatters to the floor. Her fingers slide through my wounds and for the sight of the camera standing in the corner she makes the whole blood play an erotic sight.
With every muscle in my body I try to fight like hell. I don’t want her fucking touch. I don’t want anyone’s hands on me except the woman I love. Pain flares through me but I need to fight. Need to survive. Need to fucking breathe.
Surging up, I bellow, “Get off me,” and gasp for my next breath, repulsion burning like acid through my veins.
The pain of a needle stuck in my hand makes my eyes land there to check for one breath before I scan the rest of my body and the room I’m in. Fear causes my heart to pump faster and does nothing to calm my breathing. I have no damn clue where I am or how I got here.
A door swings open and the woman entering stares at me with wide eyes and messy hair, wrapped in only a T-shirt. This is the very woman of my dreams, painful memories, and along with it, the nightmares. The very nightmare I was just caught up in, making this whole situation more realistic.
“You’re awake,” she croaks but stays rooted to the floor.
I rip out the IV and the pads stuck to my chest. She rushes forward and holds up her hand. “No, no, no, don’t. You need to be monitored.”
“Fuck that,” I growl, but just ripping out the IV and surging up feels like I’m caught after running a fucking marathon.
Her fingers almost make contact with my skin and I brace myself, swallowing back the bile rising due to the nightmare that’s still a vivid presence in the back of my head. Thank fuck she pulls her hand back before it connects.
“Lay back down and give your body time to adjust.” The snap in her voice automatically makes me sag back onto the mattress.
I might not have any energy left in my body, but it doesn’t mean she can order me the fuck around. “Save your Domme voice for the fuckers who enjoy that shit.”
Val snorts and turns off the machines that were monitoring my vitals. “Shut up or I’ll start to sing sappy love songs to annoy you.”
“Fat chance,” I mutter. “The Val I knew loved hard rock and metal. Some hip-hop, maybe. But there’s definitely no softy shit in your repertoire.”
She swallows hard and I can see emotion sliding off her face as she gives me a blank expression with only a fake smile to light shit up as she says, “The Val you knew loved a lot of things. But you and I both know that Val doesn’t exist anymore.” She turns on her heels and throws over her shoulder, “I’m going to grab my phone and call your brothers, so they’ll know they can come and pick you up. I bet you’d rather be there than here.”
“Wait,” I snap and she instantly freezes in place.
“Can you give me a damn minute to catch my breath?” I take a gulp of air and slowly release it while simultaneously rubbing the back of my neck. “Keep me company ‘cause all I remember is getting your text and everything else after that moment is fuzzy.”
She stalks to a chair on my left and sits down with grace. Her back is ramrod straight and she crosses her legs to set her wrists on top of each other on her knee. Always calm and collected.
“I should have never sent you that text. It led you to handle everything yourself instead of waiting for me or asking others for help. You stole the evidence—an envelope containing it—from Hoffa Nerrs’ safe. You managed to make it to your warehouse and light a fire pit before he chased you down. Hoffa shot you when you threw the envelope into the fire. You survived three bullets but your body needed the time to heal. You lost a lot of blood and almost died three times. You slipped into a coma—” Her eyes close for a breath or two, the blank mask gone for the blink of a second as her throat bobs. She swallows back her emotions. “They were ready to pull the plug. We wouldn’t let them.”
Envelope. Hoffa Nerrs. I remember that fucker extorting people. Forcing them into taking deals to give himself a fat profit; find all the dirt on a person to force him or her into selling property for a fragment of its worth.
He had something on Val. Something only the two of us know and it can never come out into the open. I didn’t think there was any evidence but somehow Hoffa had it. Even if it was all smoke, I couldn’t take the risk because it would not only rip Val apart…it would land her ass in prison for life. I prevented him from using it when I stole it from his safe and made sure any dirt he might have on her was all burned.
“What’s done is done,” I simply say. “Mind getting me a drink? My throat is killing me.”
She glides over the floor. No strolling, walking or stalking; this woman glides with the smoothest of moves. Her ass is magnificent and might be too big for some but the way the T-shirt accents her perfect curves captivates me. And that’s just her ass since this woman has legs for miles and tits to die for. Not to mention the brains she’s packing. And that’s just it, she’s the complete package you only meet one fucking time in your life.
My gaze travels over every single curve, allowing myself the sweet pleasure of living in the moment. Damn those cute fucking toes. Purple nail polish all shiny and glittery. I might be twisted and just woke up from a damn coma but I want to lick this woman all over and start with those cute toes and lazily work my way up to her pussy until I can bury my cock deep as I give her mouth a scorching kiss.
“Did you develop a foot fetish while you took the longest of naps?” Laughter flows through those words, but the snap in her voice returns when she says, “Eyes here, Shaw.”
My eyes lazily slide up, taking full advantage of the way my gaze travels over her body one more time. From her delicate lily of the valley ink highlighting her ankle, to her stunning hazel eyes.
“Every inch of the female body needs to be worshipped. And I go by Beecher now.”