Caged By Them (Descent Into Darkness 1)

“I guess we’re about to expand.” He grinned and sipped his drink. “We’ll get enough once we start scraping the blood off the walls here to cover it.”

“We’re already spread thin in Chicago—you should have talked to me about LA.” I sighed and stared at my drink. “I agree with New York, especially if we’ve already opened a wound—but we have to be careful.”

“Nah, that’s where Weber and all the others fucked up. They smelled blood in the water, but they just nibbled—taking a few clients here and there—making offers to buy the company. We don’t nibble—we bite.” Reynard nodded quickly.

“I hope it’s not more than we can chew.” I exhaled sharply.

I was trying to bring my brother back into the fray—get him focused on something else—I hope I’m not the one who has bitten off more than I can chew.

“Then we’ll just keep chewing.” Reynard finished his drink. “Now, since I’ve handled my business for the day, I think I’ve got something at home that needs a lot more than a fucking nibble tonight.”

“Right…” I nodded in understand. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Reynard left for the day and I stared at the carnage as the reports started coming in. We definitely had some new clients, leads on some that could turn out to be very promising, but some were going to cost us money. Josef Weber would definitely be struggling to find his balls when he realized what we had done, but he wasn’t a man I underestimated. I knew he was dangerous, especially when he was backed into a corner. Reynard made power plays against him and there was going to be fallout—not just from the nuke Reynard had already dropped—but from the ones he had planned as well.

On days like this, I wished I could pick up the phone and call Wyatt. He might not have had Reynard’s fire, but he definitely understood Josef Weber. When we opened the Chicago office, they had a number of clashes. Wyatt knew how to deal with him—how to keep him occupied when he started getting aggressive. Unfortunately, we didn’t have his knowledge to rely on. We were going to have to handle him the best way that we could. My way certainly wasn’t working. He was sniping clients, making moves, and once he put a proposal on the table to buy Jackson Investments, people saw it as a sign of weakness—then they sent proposals of their own. It was the beginning of a boulder rolling downhill, and we might have been able to outrun it by going on the offensive, but I worried that it was still coming for us.

What Reynard did may have made it pick up momentum, but I’m not sure what other options we had—I just hope the rest of his plan doesn’t put us in a bad spot.

At least he’s focused on the company instead of staring at that fucking screen—I’ll consider that a small win.

Lizzy

Later that night

It had been two days since Reynard put the gag in my mouth and two days since he had looked at me outside of a casual glance when he brought me sustenance. My question about Wyatt had struck a nerve—one that didn’t seem to be easily numbed once I exposed it. On the first day, I got breakfast in the morning and then stayed in the darkness until he returned many hours later to give me dinner. As soon as I was done eating, I was put back in my cage. The second day seemed to be headed in that same direction because I had been in the darkness since breakfast with no sign of his return. I wondered if he was going to just ignore me for the full week—if my question had delayed my eventual release by that long.

One question. It’s probably the key to everything, yet I’ll never be able to ask it.

I heard a sound at the door, and when it opened, I expected the same treatment as I got the night before, especially when Reynard brought in a plate of food. He brought my food, opened the cage, and removed the gag. I waited for him to leave before I started eating, but he walked over to the chair and took a seat instead. I was too hungry to care if he watched me devour my food, so I started stuffing what I could into my mouth. I had enough at breakfast to keep me from starving, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t hungry—mostly I just needed water. I noticed, once I started eating, that he was flipping through the paper he had left behind.

Am I going to get a chance to fulfill one of those promises tonight? Will it be one that takes my virginity?

The strange thing was that I actually craved his touch after having it denied for two days—even if it was cruel. I used to cherish my solitude—dive headfirst into my introverted nature as often as possible. I didn’t realize that my brief visits with Cassie and my conversations with the men I talked to online were giving me enough social contact to fill that need. Loneliness was a new feeling for me, but it was one that left me with a different kind of longing. I’d take his cruelty if it meant I got something other than silence. I’d give him my body if it meant contact. I didn’t have a choice—when he wanted to take me, he could. My body was as much his as it was mine—and I had never truly used it for anything productive. That was going to change when I started using it to fulfill my promises.

“Tonight, you’re going to make good on another promise.” It was a statement, not a request.

Yes Master. I nodded my response, but I said the words he would have wanted me to say in my head—maybe I was just preparing for the moment when he gave me permission to speak.

“I think this one will suffice.” He threw a piece of paper on the ground.

James Crawford. The man from New Orleans—a rather sadistic man, if memory served—and memory didn’t have to fill in all the gaps because the chat log was right in front of me. His desires were dark—perhaps as dark as Reynard’s were. He was an easy target because he lived his entire life in the light—he didn’t let the world see his evil intentions, so when I threatened to reveal them, he quickly paid my price. I didn’t get much time to look at the words I had typed, or what he said he would do to me because Reynard grabbed me by my hair and pulled me to my feet as he stood. I felt a gag going back into my mouth, but it

wasn’t the same one I was wearing before. That one was on the table beside him. The one he put in my mouth had a ring that fit behind my teeth, and it didn’t have a ball attached to the front.

I remember John mentioning something like this—a ring gag that would keep my mouth wide open for his use.

“Tonight, we’re going to my playroom,” Reynard growled and then started pulling me towards the door by my hair.

I got a chance to see the house where I was being held, but only a glimpse as I was taken down a hallway towards a large oak door. The house appeared to be huge—magnificent even. Reynard was wealthy, but that shouldn’t have surprised me. Wyatt’s family owned the company he worked at, and if he was well off—then so we were his brothers. The oak door was pulled open and Reynard led me down a staircase. When we got to the bottom, he flipped on a light and I saw what he meant by playroom—it was a dungeon of sorts—one that would have made some of the men I made promises to salivate.

A spanking is probably going to feel like nothing compared to what I endure in here.

I saw a wall to my right that had multiple implements of punishments—toys in a Master’s hand—all designed to make a submissive woman cower—or crave them. I told John I craved several of those things—the leather strap, a thin rattan cane, whips, paddles—both leather and wooden. On the other wall were drawers—probably filled with other items of torment. I saw cuffs—leather and steel—many things that could be used to bind. The middle of the room had a leather bench, and that seemed to be my destination. He took me to it, made me lay in my back, and then he started to fasten the cuffs at the bottom to my hands and feet. I was at his mercy—as if I wasn’t already. The cuffs made it impossible for me to escape. I wouldn’t even be able to complain with the gag in my mouth—although I was too terrified to speak.

“You told James Crawford that you liked to be tormented—that pain was nothing more than a tease.” Reynard walked over and opened one of the drawers, but I couldn’t see what he was getting. “Let’s find out if the girl on the other side of the chat was just telling lies, or if you really do like to feel pain.”

Reynard returned and snapped a clamp on my right nipple. It stung and made me want to scream. I whimpered against the gag, and then another one was put on my left nipple. They made my nipples sting and burn at the same time. Reynard moved his hands along my body, rubbing my clit before giving it a firm smack with three of his fingers. I recoiled, but there was nothing I could do but take it. The cuffs made sure I couldn’t even move my hips to avoid another one if he wanted to give it to me—thankfully he didn’t. I heard a match and the smell hit my nostrils. A few seconds later, Reynard approached with a candle—one that appeared to have fast melting wax. He tilted it to the side and the wax started ripping down onto my breasts.