Maybe I’d spent my life willfully shutting out the reality that my luxuries came at a terrible cost.
And if so, that meant Cason had been right. I’d allowed my brother to pay my expenses with blood money.
Not that I had a choice.
Butcher controlled everything around him, including me.
He was my brother, yes, but we’d never had a sibling-type relationship due to the age gap between us.
Which was another reason why I didn’t think Cason’s plan was built with good information. He was basing his entire revenge scheme on Butcher’s tender feelings for me, that frankly, I didn’t even think he had.
My head still ached and my mouth was dry.
If Cason hadn’t rescued me, terrible things would’ve happened in that room.
I couldn’t help but shudder at how many other women had been tossed on that bed, forced to do things against their will.
I should be grateful to Cason for rescuing me.
But how was I supposed to be appreciative when he was the one who’d kidnapped me in the first place? If he hadn’t dragged me off campus, I wouldn’t be in this position at all.
So in fact, it was his fault that woman was dead.
“I hope you don’t think you’re a hero for what you did,” I said, making sure he knew where I stood. “You’re still one of the bad guys.”
“Oh, I know that honey,” he said with a cold smile. “But that’s okay. I never said I wanted to be the good guy.”
I believed him.
But why did bad look so good on him? I tried not to remember what’d it’d felt like to have his tongue buried between my legs.
Remembering that insanity messed with my internal compass of right and wrong.
Plainly, what he’d done was wrong on several levels.
And I was daft if I was actually lingering on the memory.
I drew a deep breath and said, “If I can’t convince you that your plan is flawed, can you at least tell me why you hate my brother so much?”
“That’s my business.”
“Well, I would say it’s also my business because you’re involving me,” I pointed out. “I don’t know, it just seems unnecessarily cruel to leave me in the dark.”
“Do you think I care about your sense of fair play?”
Seems no one did, I wanted to quip.
Instead, I sniffed and said, “No, I don’t think you care about anything but your own feelings. In that, you and Butcher are the same.”
A snarl ripped out of Cason and I shrank against the door as he yelled, “Don’t you ever compare me and that fucking prick again. We are nothing alike. Do you understand? Nothing.”
I swallowed and jerked a tiny nod, afraid of the murderous rage flaring in Cason’s eyes.
Violence rippled from his body like a dark aura. Was Cason’s hunger for revenge going to require my sacrifice for my brother’s crimes? Was that the end game in all this?
I blinked back tears. “If you’re so intent on hurting me, why didn’t you just leave me in that house?”
He cut me a short look. “I gain nothing from whoring you out in a crack house.”
Was that all? Was there no other reason he’d been frantic to find me? Maybe I was putting too much value on the way he touched me last night but everything in me said that I wasn’t wrong.
Frustration laced his voice as he added, “Just shut the hell up. I need to think.”
But I didn’t want to be told how to act or how to be. Butcher had done that to me my whole life. Even when he wasn’t around, Butcher had been there in my head, stalking me with the threat of his displeasure.
I was done with that bullshit.
“Don’t talk down to me,” I warned, hating the image Cason had of me. I wasn’t some frivolous princess, nor had I ever acted like one. I kept to myself and just wanted to be left alone. “You’re the one who barged into my life and turned it upside down. Not the other way around, try to remember that.”
“How could I forget? Less than twenty-four hours together and you’ve already nearly ruined every plan I set into motion.”
“And I’m supposed to care about that?” I shot back, unable to believe his nerve.
Cason skewed a sour look my way but seamed his mouth shut. Oh, now he wanted to watch his words? Fine timing.
Yesterday, I didn’t even know he existed. Today he’d rescued me from a fate worse than death but was probably still planning to take my virginity, at the very least, and who knows what else.
Still, at least I was alive. That was worth something, right?
“Thank you for saving me,” I said stiffly. I was many things but I wasn’t ill-mannered.
He grunted an acknowledgment but then said, “Save your gratitude. I doubt you’re going to be thanking me when you see where I’m taking you.”
His answer sent a cold sliver of dread shooting down my spine. Just where exactly was he taking me? How could anyplace be worse than Tito’s or the crackhouse?
I was in a twisted movie where everyone died at the end, which didn’t fill me with a lot of confidence.
If I could just get out of the situation alive, I’d call that a win.
I twisted away from Cason and stared out the passenger side window. My stomach yowled. It seemed I was always hungry. I don’t know if that was a fear response or stemming from the fact that I hadn’t really eaten anything aside from a slice of pizza last night. Not to mention whatever they had drugged me with had made me seriously sick.
“Can we stop at a gas station or something and get something to eat?” I asked, hating that I had to rely on him for everything.
“No.”
His terse answer gave power to everything I secretly feared. Maybe he was trying to starve me. Maybe he hadn’t liked what he’d seen last night and thought I could stand to lose a few pounds.
Surprisingly, that thought cut deeper than anything else.
Which was plainly stupid because why would I care what a man like Cason thought of me?
I was fast becoming irritated with my own thoughts. I longed for a good book, one where the heroes were two-dimensionally awesome, kind, loving and perfect. I knew men like that didn’t exist, but that was okay because I much preferred living my life within the pages of a story rather than the grim reality.
Reality sucked.
I must’ve fallen asleep. One minute I was awake and the next it was hours later, the sun had dropped into the horizon and Cason was pulling into a narrow alley, swinging around to the back of an older building to park.
There was no sign on the door and it looked deserted but the faint pulse of music filtered through the old brick.
Cason pulled me out of the car roughly.
I glared. “Do you have to jerk me around like that? I’m not a side of beef.”
“Keep your mouth shut and stick with me,” he warned with a growl as he banged on a rusted metal door.
A thick man with ferocious eyebrows and tattoos crawling up his entire arm stared then droned, “Password.”
Cason didn’t miss a beat. “Pineapple.”
Pineapple? Why not Bloody Skulls or Shattered Souls? Seemed more appropriate than a sunny, tasty fruit that went well with barbecue pizza.
The guard nodded and allowed us into the smoky darkness. I held Cason’s hand in a death grip.
Music throbbed as shadows gyrated on the dance floor, glitter sparkled on the floor and people wore masks.
Where the hell were we?
Cason wound his way past the throng of people, most oblivious to anything around them, and we traveled down a creep corridor, lit only by the dimmest flickering lights embedded in the wall.
It smelled sour, like sweat and other bodily fluids that I couldn’t even imagine.
Wherever we were made Tito’s place look like the Taj Mahal.
Cason opened a door and pushed me inside, locking it as he closed us in.
I gasped as I stared at the grotesque room. A large bed with skulls
and crossbones bedding was off to the left and to the right…I turned to Cason, my mouth parted with incredulous horror. “You brought me to a sex dungeon! Are you out of your mind?”
Cason mocked, “Now what does a virgin know about sex dungeons?” but before I could sputter an answer, he pushed me up against the wall, his big body towering over mine.
I shivered as I tried to quell the knot of fear and excitement pooling. “What are you doing?” I asked, jumping when he pulled my arm up to clamp a manacle around my wrist.
“You played on my weakness,” he said, securing my other wrist even as I struggled to get away. “But that’s not going to happen this time. This room is used for other purposes but I think it’ll serve my needs just fine.”
“You’re going to leave me shackled to this wall!” I cried, unable to believe his cruelty. “I can’t sleep like this.”
“Who said I will allow you to sleep?” he returned coolly.
My breath caught. I didn’t know what he meant but I instantly thought of the other night and I had to squeeze my thighs together to keep from squirming.
Cason was so close I could see his eyes flare with something powerful. I didn’t know if it was arousal or anger but being helpless to prevent whatever was coming did something strange to my insides.
“Please Cason,” I pleaded, trying to appeal to some sense of decency in the man. “You know this isn’t right. I’m innocent in all this. I’ve done nothing to hurt you. Please…”
Cason dragged a knuckle softly down my cheek. “You are sweet when you beg,” he murmured, losing himself for a moment in the hungry perusal of my body. I was still wearing his shirt. His scent was on my skin. Cason returned to my gaze. “If you’d just done as you were told…this could’ve been over within a week or two. But you had to go and try to run, fucking everything up. Now, I have to change plans — plans I’ve had set up for months. Do you have any idea how that pisses me off?”
“You can’t blame me for trying to run,” I said, my voice shaking. “What would you have done if you were in my place?”
He gripped my cheeks hard, saying, “I would never be in your place” before releasing me abruptly and striding away as if he needed space between us.
I worked my jaw, holding back tears. There was no reasoning with him right now. He was like an animal.
My gaze scanned the room. I couldn’t imagine what happened in these places.
There were paddles of varying sizes hanging on the wall as well as other contraptions that I couldn’t even begin to guess what they were for.
My breath caught. Would he use those on me?
Would Cason spank me?
As if reading my mind, Cason’s slow smile frightened me. He walked to the wall and made a big production out of perusing each one as if he were going to make his selection but he didn’t.
Instead, he walked slowly to me, his gaze holding me hostage, until he was in my personal bubble, crowding me, stealing the very air from the room.
“You deserve to have your ass beat,” he assured me, his voice sending shivers down my arms. “But I’d rather bend you over my knee so I can beat that ass with my bare hand. I’d love to see my hand print blazoned across that fine ass of yours but I don’t trust myself to stop.”
“Do you get off on beating women?” I replied with a bravery I didn’t feel.
“No, but for you, I think I could make an exception.”