AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Or both.
“Whatever,” he said, rolling his eyes. I frowned as he let me through into the empty balcony. Despite my being pleased at being able to get through, I’d have to tell Emrick how easy it was to talk my way past. That guy had no business working for a man like Emrick if he wasn’t going to ask more questions than that.
Placing the tray quietly on the glass coffee table, I approached the door to the office. Turning the knob, I wasn’t surprised to find it locked. Steeling myself, I knocked and waited. The door swung open, Emrick’s eyes darkened when he saw me, and I took a step back from him, my gaze immediately shot over his shoulder. Choking back a cough, I locked eyes with her as she screamed at me past the gag.
“Maddie?” I cried, raising a hand to my mouth.
Emrick’s grip on my upper arm was painful as he yanked me forward into the office and slammed the door behind us, spinning me into the room before I took a few steps to correct myself. His chest was heaving with strained breaths as he watched me, and I backed up a few steps before turning and racing to Maddie, pulling the gag from her mouth.
“Maddie, what’s going on?”
“Help me, Cara. This isn’t some fucked-up sex game, he’s going to kill me!”
She was strapped spread-eagle to some sort of X-shaped rack. I’d never seen anything like it before, and while it looked crude and homemade, I imagined it was part of the effect. Thick bronze brackets were screwed crudely into the dark wood, and the leather straps which held her wrists and ankles cut painfully into her skin.
“You gotta get me out of here.” She was yanking forward against the restraints, her dress only partially intact and bra visible. There were angry red marks across her arms and legs, and I wondered what Emrick had done to her.
Or what she had done to deserve it.
It pained me that one of my first thoughts was wondering what she had done, but it was true. He wouldn’t have brought her here for no reason, and by her own admission, it wasn’t somesex game,the idea of which flared something dark and ugly inside me, something that very closely resembled jealousy.
But I couldn’t allow myself to feel that, not over Emrick.
“What did you do?” I whispered.
“What didIdo?”Her voice was hysterical, rising with every syllable. “Why do you assume it’s something I’vedone?He’s out of hisfucking mind!”
Emrick came up behind me, sliding an arm around my waist and whispering in my ear, “She’s a traitor. Want to shoot her in the kneecap?”
Purposefully, I moved out of his grasp. I didn’t need him influencing me. He brought out something in me I was fighting a losing battle to keep hidden. As I kept my eyes on Maddie, he let his arms fall heavily to his sides, and the telltale snarl that escaped his lips was due to my defiance. I had a bone to pick with him, but apparently, that would have to wait. He wasn’t to touch me until I had my say.
Because I knew I was going to let him touch me.
Did that make me a sick person? He had my friend tied up and screaming for freedom, apparently beaten, and all I could think of was sex. But his scent was intoxicating me, and while my anger was dissipating and being replaced with confusion and a snippet of fear, it was hard not to get swept up in the feel of him when he was this close. His hard chest, those sculpted arms, the thought of his hands on my body and spanking me into submission, the way he fucked my mouth until I couldn’t breathe…
Sex and violence.
“Are you two together or something?” Maddie spat.
“No,” we cried in unison, my voice rising an octave in the denial of my interest in him and his a low growl while he eyed me, having lost interest in Maddie when I’d entered the office.
I rubbed my upper arm. “It’s complicated.”
Maddie laughed, a single sound without humor. “He’s a fucking psychopath, Cara! He literally has metied up.What’swrong with you?You fucking bitch!” she cried out after Emrick crossed the space between them in a few steps and laid into her with his belt, adding to the angry red marks already crisscrossing her arms and legs.
Approaching Emrick, I placed a hand on his shoulder. He turned on me, raising the belt above his head. I managed to fight back the urge to flinch and waited until he lowered his arm. Moving to the giant X keeping Maddie imprisoned, I laid a hand on her arm, and she hissed where I touched one of the fresh red marks, blood spotting on her skin. “Maddie…” I said, keeping my voice as even as possible. “What did you do?”
“I did it for the money,all right?Just tell him to let me go. You obviously have some sort of bond with the dog.”
This time Emrick didn’t stop when I touched his arm, and swung the belt back and forth, ignoring Maddie’s cries as he planted blow after blow across the exposed skin of her arms and legs, ending with a final few on her chest.
Curling my fingers into my hair, I cried at him to stop, and when he finally did, I could practically see the muscles rippling under his clothes as he struggled to keep himself in control. Part of me wondered what he’d be doing if I hadn’t come in.
Hopefully, not touching her the way he touched me.
No, he wouldn’t. Not with the rage that was so clearly plastered across his features.
“What did youdo?”I screamed at Maddie. I didn’t understand what I had walked in on, and neither of their attitudes was helping me decipher the situation.
