Page 53 of His Keepsake

I had so many questions but had been wondering if the wrong ones would get me shot and buried by these rich, undoubtedly arrogant men. I gathered Emme’s leash and encouraged her to stand. Wolfman was lounging outside the door, drinking from a square tumbler half-filled with something akin to whiskey. The naked woman on her knees before him was equipped with a metal spider gag that pried open her mouth. I stalled a second. Was that blood trickling below her shut eyes. Except it appeared her eyes were shut due to sutures pinning her eyelids to her skin.

Fuck. Her eyes sewn? That was more shocking than anything I had ever seen or done.

Axl barely spared the two a glance. “You can leave Emme with the maître d’.”

“Is that safe?” I asked as we returned down the hallway, our boot falls silent and muffled by the deep carpet.

“Safer than having her hear what I’m about to say. In here.” He indicated a small anteroom then clicked his fingers, and a man in a black suit with tails came over—his white hair and goatee beard seemed of equal vintage with the suits the help wore. “Take the girl for the moment.”

“Yes sir.” He received the leash and towed Emme to the other side of the hallway.

“Guard her with your fucking life,” I growled, pointing my fingers at him in a pistol shape. “Or else.”

The maître d’ nodded tersely, as if my accusation of incompetence was an insult.

Which it was. My level of pissed-offedness had reached appalling heights. Stitching eyes shut knocked this into the badlands of kink. Though I had heard some people actually requested worse, consensually, as it were. Such as limb amputation.

Nausea surged. This was far outside my comfort zone.

Once Axl closed the door, I rounded on him. “What the fuck is this? I saw her eyes. And that, along with the rest of it? We’re leaving.”

He cleared a small desk of books and perched himself on it like some male model at a photo shoot, which was when I noticed the library-like theme in here. Books were everywhere. I picked one up and randomly flicked through the pages.

“Nice to know the asshole who owns this place can read.”

“That woman with the stitched eyes bothered you? I swear she gets small thread, and agrees to it.”

“Huh.” What else could I add. I hated doubting him, but maybe he was being lied to?

Maybe he had been fed a whole ocean of lies.

A little uncertainly finally showed in the lines on his forehead and in the way his hand wrapped over the edge of the desk. “I thought you wanted in? If not, then yes, we may as well leave.”

“Good. You, too? Are you sure?” I needed to hear him agree. Our friendship seemed built on swampland, and I’d always thought it was bedrock, that we would have each other’s backs even if Ragnarök arrived.

“If you’re going—”

I slammed shut the book. “Me and Emme and you in a chopper, out of here ASAP. If you want to stay, then stay, but when they get raided, I want to be elsewhere.”

“This won’t get raided. They’ve bought off everyone who matters, and if necessary, will do it all again without breathing hard.”

“You’re a member of this CNC Fraternity?”

“I’ve been once only, before this. I do know it would be dangerous to let word of this get out.” He shrugged and stood. “I was going to quiz you, but if we’re leaving, there is no reason to. Remember to keep this private. No one needs this to be publicized.”

“Sure.”

Every time he spoke of keeping silent for these rich friends, it drove home that this was probably not legal, not fully consensual, and if any of that shit upstairs was a crime, and these men thought I had been a whistle-blower, I’d be dead.

The forgive and forget saying had never looked so attractive.

We stepped out into the hallway.

The next second, I wanted to kill someone—Wolfman.

He was laughing at Emme, who sat on her knees, struggling. She was locked into one of those sticks with a loop used to catch wild dogs. Her mitten-clad hands were up at her throat, and I was in no doubt he was choking her, some, if not a lot.

Though the maître d’, opposite, was scowling at the scenario and arguing, none of it was stopping this asshole.

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