AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Prologue
Lily
I never had an enemy quite like nostalgia. The comforting blanket that cloaked around me, trying to change my mind, had me battling myself more than I ever had to physically fight anything in my past. I could so easily look back and let myself believe that everything happened for a reason. That fate had caused me to be taken and forever changed so the result would help me grow as a person. But in reality, I’d been a captive — a sex slave who had been through hell and yet thought herself in love with her Master.
Even now, my heart ached for the man I thought I’d been meant for. It was a lie. A twisted, coping mechanism I’d forced myself to accept in order to survive. At least, that’s how my shrink described it. Nostalgia…that bitch continued to trick me into believing the four months I spent in Afghanistan wasn’t so bad. It made me want to return. Want…him.
I refused. I’d forever deny these feelings that destroy me.
The things I witnessed, undergone…lived. They would be seared into my memory just as deep as the scars that cover my body from the girls his family tortured. So many, and nothing either of us could do unless we wanted to die. Yes…there were times I had wanted death as a way to erase what I’d seen from helping those girls. If it weren’t for the strength I’d been forced to portray from the beginning, I might have been able to disappear from this world. But it wasn’t meant to be. Once my Master got ahold of me, he refused to let me be weak. He’d made me fight from the beginning, and showed me how much I could love it. How we could disappear from the lives we’d been trapped in and lose ourselves in each other. I longed for those moments the most. Especially now, as I stared out the dark windows of my lonely penthouse. My brother, Slade’s old penthouse.
Flashes of memories blinded me like they always did when I finally left the office and came home. So clearly, I could still see the details of my abduction, as if I’d watched a movie of myself being lured out of the nightclub by a woman insisting on my help. The lights of downtown San Francisco blurred in my mind while I helped the staggering blonde from Vixen’s main entrance toward the parking garage across the street. The pop-playing, upscale establishment sat atop a luxurious building, the last few floors covered by fog as I glanced up to where my friends were.
I should have never left Samantha’s side. If it weren’t for the woman nearly passed out on the bathroom floor, insisting I take her to her car so she could get her phone to call her dad, I probably wouldn’t have been taken. But someone else would have. I couldn’t bear the thought of another girl going through what I had.
Back then, I’d been too nice. All I wanted was to please people. That had been my biggest mistake.
Not anymore.
The sound of the brakes squealing from the road behind us barely registered as my sole focus was on not letting the older girl fall. She was heavier than I imagined and I knew it had to do with her height. She looked like a model —blonde, tall, amazing green eyes. She was beautiful and shitfaced drunk, crying over her boyfriend cheating. All the while, I told her everything would be alright. How stupid I had been.
Those had been my last moments as an innocent girl. An arm locked around my waist and a leather bound hand slammed over my mouth. A scream didn’t even register until the SUV’s door slammed shut and the force of the acceleration jerked me back. When the woman began laughing and spouting off orders to the man holding me down, I knew I’d been played.
I fought against the man with everything I was capable of, but it hadn’t been enough. Back then, I’d been weak in that way of life, too. They’d taken me, put me in a room full of other girls and sold me, but not before the real damage was done.
Tears collected in my eyes as my fingers pushed against the glass. I momentarily came back to the present, but the past wouldn’t be stopped tonight. There would be no more escaping what I’d spent weeks trying to push away.
Master.
The moment our stares met, my whole world stopped. I’d never seen a more handsome man. Dark hair, lightly tanned skin. His eyes…they were so close to the color of the sun. Orange mixed with gold, yet surrounded by a dark green. The shade mesmerized me. Even considering the distance that separated us, they seemed to glow. I stood there with my hands clutched together, trying to stop shaking. Nothing was working. I was scared. Nervous as to why these people in this fancy house would want me. Nothing made sense.
Whack!
The brute force of the back of a hand connecting with my cheek left me almost positive that my eye had somehow exploded. Colors flickered and mixed with bright lights. My body crumbled to the floor from pain and shock. I couldn’t even comprehend what had happened until the voice of the older man standing beside me came though, an unrecognizable accent confusing me even more. I could barely make out his words due to exhaustion.
“Did I tell you to look at my son?”
Before I could answer, multiple kicks to my stomach had me curling up on the marble floor. I didn’t miss the stranger walking forward in my peripheral vision, or how he had his fists balled up at his side.
“I asked you a question, slave. Did I give you permission to look at my son?”
All I could do was shake my head as I fought not to get sick. Pain seared my scalp as I was jerked to stand. Although my stare wanted to return to the man watching at the far side of the room, I kept my focus on the floor. Raped by multiple men, surviving off stale bread and water for the last few days, I knew when not to be stupid.
“Look at her, Zain. She already learns. She will do you well.”
My gazed snapped up in time to see his blurry, shocked expression, but I quickly let it fall back to the marble. Throbbing pulsed in my head and my heart ached with the weird twist of terror and desperation. All I wanted was to wake up from this nightmare.
“Me? What am I supposed to do with a slave? I have responsibilities. The last thing I need to do is care for a…girl. Fuck, how old is she, Father?”
“Not of consequence. You’ll take her. She’s yours. A gift for all of your hard work.”
American. The son sure sounded like it. So, how was this man his father? Although they shared a slight resemblance, I would have never pinned them for relatives if they hadn’t spoken of the connection. And the son wasn’t young. Maybe thirty, from what I could tell. Possibly younger, by a year or two.
“Come.” The growled command had me fleeing from the father as fast as I could with a throbbing side. As we swept through the large home, I tried to take in everything. And not the expensive vases or golden statues off in the distance. Escape was my main focus. The reality of fleeing disappeared as I took in the guards that stood post throughout the large space. They looked out of place, dirty in the sparkling interior.
Stairs showed in the distance, but we turned down a dark hall until we reached the end.
“You’ll stay here. If you leave this room, they’ll kill you.” His distinct eyes rooted me to the floor as he pushed the wooden barrier open. “They’ll cut off your head where you stand. Don’t disobey me or do anything stupid. Leaving here is impossible. Trust me,” he said, lowly.
With that, he ushered me inside and locked us in. The palace we’d just been in almost seemed a dream in contrast to the room that surrounded us. A bed sat on the cement floor in the far corner. The walls were bare except for some chains mounted to the top of one. It looked like a cell.
Was this what my life had come to?
Involuntarily, I edged back to the door. “Is this my room?” The strength I’d displayed was disappearing as my new life was became apparent.
“Our room now. This was mine.”
My head shook at h
is words. Our…no…
“Send me home. My brother is rich. He’ll pay you whatever you want. Please.” My knees nearly gave out at my surge forward. I stopped a few feet away, half tempted to sink to the ground and beg.
He laughed. “Did you not see where you are? Do you really think I need money?”
“I see this,” I gestured, cautiously. “Your father has the money. Not you. I’ll make you a millionaire if that’s what you want. Just help me get out of here. Please?”
Again, he laughed. “You think because of this,” he said, waving his hand around, “that I don’t have money? You have a lot to learn. Bribery will get you nowhere but killed here. I suggest you not do it again. Especially not with anyone else, slave.”
“Lily,” I snapped, growing angry. “I’m no one’s slave.” The word disgusted me. Slavery was over. Everyone was equal. At least, in my eyes.
“Lily,” he repeated, cocking his head, a smile edging his lips. I took a step back at his narrowed expression. There was something there I didn’t like. Something…scarier than the man who’d just used me as a punching bag. “Such a pretty flower. But you’re not pretty.”
My mind all but stopped at his rudeness and I temporarily forgot what my intuition had been warning me of. “I don’t give a shit what you think of me. As long as you help me get out of here, that’s all that matters. Besides, you’re not very attractive yourself. You’re probably nothing but a spoiled, rich, pansy ass…son of a criminal.”
