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  I squirmed, but he only squeezed my wrist harder. A shock of pain stabbed through my arm. I yelped, my fingers loosening. The knife clattered to the stone floor.

  “No! NO!”

  My only weapon. My only hope. Gone.

  He kicked the knife away with his shoe. It spun off into the dark corner of the cell. I felt my muscles weaken. The shot of adrenaline through my body had worn its course, and it hadn’t been enough.

  Now my heart beat fast with terror. I was going to die, or worse. I’d seen a glimpse of what they’d done to the girl in the cell next to me. The one who’d tried to run away. She had been covered in blood. I let out a cry of defeat as Vale spun me around.

  “Jessica.”

  I closed my eyes, waiting for the first blow. My breath came fast and I could hear the rush of blood in my ears. A second passed, then another. I felt his hand cup my cheek, and I trembled.

  “Please—”

  “Jessica, look at me.”

  My eyelids fluttered open. I saw Vale’s icy blue eyes.

  “Don’t hurt me. Please—please don’t do to me what you did to her. Oh, God.”

  “I told you. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  He backed away from me slowly and picked up the knife. He tucked it back into his belt, this time on the other side. I stood shakily as he held up one of the leather cuffs. The knots were all undone. Was that a smile on his lips? It couldn’t be.

  He tossed the useless cuff back down.

  “Wait here,” he said.

  Before I could respond, the iron door was closing behind him. I waited for only a second before darting forward. The image of that girl in his arms, her hair red with blood—I couldn’t wait here. But he was too quick, and as my hand touched the iron door handle, it swung back open. I lunged to get past him, but he shoved me back into the cell easily. I scrambled back as he moved toward me.

  “I told you to wait here.”

  “Please, no,” I said. There was another leather collar in his hand, this one with a thicker silver clasp. “Don’t. Please don’t put it on me—”

  “You can’t leave this room.”

  “Please.”

  “Kneel.”

  I gritted my teeth, but there was no way to escape. I had to do what he said.

  I fell to my knees, tears streaming down my cheeks. I had tried to escape. Tried and failed. My hands came out in front of me. Palms up. My tears dripped onto the stone floor as I bent my head forward.

  The collar came around my neck. The chain rattled as he attached it, his strong hand brushing my shoulder. The lock clicked shut.

  I was on a leash now.

  Sobs choked my throat. It was over. I would never escape. I would never save April. I was locked up for good this time.

  “Jessica—”

  “Kill me.”

  The words escaped my mouth before I could stop them. I felt his hesitation, his hand on my shoulders as he knelt down in front of me. Was he pulling his knife out with his other hand? I hoped so.

  “Kill me,” I repeated numbly. “Please. Just kill me.”

  “Jessica—”

  “I don’t want to be here forever,” I said. I looked up into his eyes. “Please.”

  He blinked, his dark lashes flickering over glassy blue irises. Then the veil lifted, and his face filled with concern.

  “Oh, Jessica.”

  Before I could say anything, he was kissing me, a slow soft kiss that shocked me so badly I didn’t move. His hands cupped my face, brushing away my tears as he deepened the kiss. Heat shot through me and my lips parted, opening myself up to him.

  Resist him? It was impossible. I let out a cry as my own body responded traitorously to his lips pressing against mine.

  Then, just as suddenly, he tore away from me. My eyes refocused onto his face, his expression tense. Was he afraid?

  “Don’t leave this room,” he said. “Not yet. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Vale?”

  “Trust me.”

  There was a secret in his face, something that I couldn’t read yet. But it was there, I knew it. Something beyond his icy exterior. Something even more dangerous than before. He looked like a completely different person.

  “Who are you?”

  I could hear footsteps coming down the hallway. Vale swiveled his head to look. The tendons in his neck were taut, standing out under his skin.

  “I can’t tell you now. Trust me. You will not be in here forever. I promise.”

  “But—”

  The door opened.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Vale

  “El Alfa.”

  I stood up, straightening myself. The knife was still in my hand, and I pretended to tuck my shirt back in, pocketing the knife into my belt as I did so.

  “I wanted to see how your training was coming along,” he asked. His words were slurred, and his hair was wet. I wondered if he’d had another drink after his bath.

  “It’s fine.”

  I had one more day. One more day to pretend, and then I could kill him. There were two guards in the hallway now. Killing him down here wouldn’t be ideal, and I dismissed the idea.

  “Excellent. I’m glad to hear it.”

  “We were just finishing—”

  “I would like to see a demonstration.”

  I stiffened. Behind me, Jessica cowered.

  “Of course.”

  I gestured for El Alfa to come into the cell. As he did, his eyes traced down my shirt to where Jessica had sliced through me with a knife. The shirt was stained red with blood. Even though he was drunk, his attention narrowed onto the cut.

  “You have cut yourself?”

  “It’s nothing.” I waved it off. “An accident with a knife.”

  He tilted his head toward Jessica.

  “Did you cut the girl?”

  “No.”

  “Then why take the knife?”

  Shit. He had seen it. I tried not to act out of the ordinary.

  “Only as a threat,” I said lightly. “I wanted to make it clear to her that disobedience would be punished.”

  “We don’t allow knives down here,” he said. “Or they might end up in the wrong hands.”

  He held out his hand. Slowly, I drew the knife from behind my belt and laid it in his palm. He looked at me. Was he suspicious?

  “Now,” he said. “Show me how you’ve trained her.”

  I turned around and licked my lip nervously. I could control my behavior. But Jessica? She was a wild card. I could only hope that she understood that she would have to perform for El Alfa. And that meant following my orders.

  “Kneel,” I commanded.

  For a split second, when she met my eye, I thought she wouldn’t listen to me. A flash of fear went through my chest. But she obeyed.

  Falling to her feet, she put her arms out in front of her. Her wrists turned, palms up. I could see the marks from her wrists cuffs where she’d taken them off.

  “Good work,” El Alfa said. “Can she do more?”

  “Of course,” I said, hedging. “But we’ve been working for a while now—”

  “Show me.”

  Jessica looked up with a burst of terror passing over her face. All of the time I’d spent trying to get her to trust me was useless now, unless she did what El Alfa commanded.

  I stepped in front of her so that El Alfa couldn’t see. With a sympathetic expression, I mouthed the words: Trust me.

  She nodded, a quick sharp motion meant to be hidden from El Alfa. And although we had stalled for a few moments, El Alfa seemed drunk enough that he didn’t notice the pause.

  “Sit up,” I ordered.

  She sat up, kneeling on the hard floor. I ached for her as she suffered, the suffering itself written in winces whenever she shifted her weight slightly. El Alfa moved over to the side of the wall where one chain hung loosely. It was the other one that was attached to her, at the collar.

  I hoped that he didn’t notice that the w
rist cuffs had been unraveled at the seams. The cuffs lay off in one corner of the dim cell. It was then that I thanked whoever had kept light out of this place. In the shadows, the evidence of her escape attempt was invisible.

  “Take off your bra,” I ordered.

  She obeyed me, and the bra fell to the floor. Not too far off from the cuffs.

  “Cup them with your hands.” She cradled her breasts in her palms. It was a performance, that was something I knew as well as she did. Still, though, my cock stiffened at the sight of her gorgeous breasts peeking out from behind her fingers.

  I could tell she was unsure of what I was doing, but she did exactly what I said. A perfect submissive. El Alfa was right about that. He was wrong about a lot of other things, though. It was what I was counting on.

  “Head back.”

  She leaned her head back, and I gripped her by the hair, pulling her back further in an apparent display of strength. I hoped El Alfa would notice only that I was pulling her hair, not that I was gripping it at the scalp where it hurt the least.

  “Mmm.” El Alfa scratched at his groin as he watched, obviously aroused. I was too, and I hoped that I wouldn’t lose my arousal by going through these sadistic actions. As I looked down, though, Jessica licked her lips.

  God, those lips. Those perfect, plump lips. I wanted to kiss them forever. As I watched, she chewed on one corner of her bottom lip. That was enough to make me hard for the rest of the night.

  Alright, time to get this done with.

  I unzipped my pants and took out my cock, already rock hard. She leaned forward, as though to take it in her mouth, but that wasn’t what I intended. I jerked her head back by the hair. She gasped, a small gasp, as I took my cock in my hand and leaned down to her.

  I spit on her chest. The splittle ran down between her breasts. She winced, but only a little.

  El Alfa breathed in sharply. I didn’t want to look over at him. I wasn’t sure what he was doing over on the side of the cell, in the dim shadows. Maybe he was jerking it to us. Maybe. Who cared, as long as I could keep him distracted for another two days? That was all I needed… just two more days. Then I could kill him and stand by Jessica until the raid came to save us both.

  “Stay still,” I whispered, my eyes finding hers in the dim light. There was a trust in them that broke my heart. She trusted me, but only because she had to. Only because there was no other option.

  Lifting Jessica up an inch farther, I thrust my cock between her breasts. She gasped. I breathed in too, hard. The delicious sensation of her smooth breasts taking my cock between them was almost too much.

  Perfect breasts. Perfect lips. As I thrust in and out of that perfection, I could feel my orgasm pushing up hard and fast. Good. This would be over soon. I tilted her head up, my thumb accidentally grazing her lip.

  She pressed a kiss onto the pad of my thumb. A shock of pleasure bolted through me. I gasped. My cock jumped up, coming out from the slick place between her breasts.

  Before I could put it back in place, Jessica was moving. Her head bent down, and with one motion, she slid her mouth over the whole of my shaft. I cried out helplessly as she sealed her lips around my base, flicking her tongue at the bottom of my rock hard cock.

  Again, I exploded in her mouth, falling forward to catch myself against the wall with one hand. My other hand still gripped her hair at the scalp.

  She swallowed as the orgasm unspooled through my body, my hips pumping instinctively once more before I could gain control of my body again.

  I panted, regaining my breath after the orgasm. God, it had been so quick. I was glad for that, for Jessica’s sake. But she’d taken me again into her mouth, without me even giving the order…

  This wasn’t how I’d intended it to go, but El Alfa didn’t know that.

  El Alfa. I glanced over at the wall, where the drunken bastard was stroking the front of his pants with obvious arousal. His greasy black mustache twitched.

  I wanted to kiss Jessica, to pull her up from the ground and cradle her in my arms. I wanted to give back to her what she had given to me, ten times over. But I couldn’t. Not with him there.

  Instead, I gave her an order.

  “Kneel,” I said hoarsely. Obedient, her eyes still questioning mine, she lay back down, her palms facing upward.

  I turned around, stuffing myself back in my pants. I hated for El Alfa to see me like this, in this moment. It wasn’t right. But right now, he was my boss, and I had to keep him happy.

  For just a little longer. Two more days. And then I could kill him.

  “Hope that was a good show,” I said, tucking my shirt back into my belt. No knife. He’d taken my knife.

  “You didn’t fuck her,” El Alfa said. A dark gleam shone from his beady black eyes. Like a rat. Rats never had enough. They took whatever they could, stole things that didn’t belong to them, and they never, ever had enough.

  “No,” I agreed. I brushed past him, zipping my pants back up, and he grabbed my arm, clamping down with his meaty fingers on my sweaty skin.

  “Why?”

  I stopped in my tracks, my fingers absently doing up my pants. I wasn’t sure what to tell him, what would be easiest. Finally, I settled on the truth.

  “She’s a virgin.”

  Now his eyes widened. Greed pulsed through his face as he licked his bottom lip, the pink tongue flicking out.

  “A virgin?”

  “I’m sure you’ll get more money if she stays that way,” I said. “I thought—”

  “You thought right. Good work, Americano.”

  He pushed by me and unclipped the chain from the wall. Slowly, drunkenly, he threaded it through the iron loops until it was no longer attached. Gathering it up in his hands, he tugged. Jessica rose by her collar, looking at me with blossoming fear in her eyes.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Taking her up to my room.”

  An icicle of fear dripped down my spine, chilling me all the way through.

  “But—”

  “You have done your job well, but a virgin is very...how do you say? Valuable. She will spend the night with me. Tomorrow they will all be shipped out.”

  My throat froze. I barely had time to comprehend what he was saying. I licked my lips and tried to speak calmly. Jessica’s eyes sought mine, but I couldn’t look at her. Not now. It would give me away if I had to look into her face.

  “Tomorrow? But, that’s only...I thought you said Saturday.”

  He looked at me as though I’d said something suspicious. I carefully made my expression neutral, realizing he’d lied to me before. He didn’t trust me, not completely anyway.

  “Tomorrow,” he repeated flatly.

  He was gone with her before I could process the thought, and the word echoed through my mind like a death sentence. Not my death sentence, but it might as well have been. The raid wasn’t scheduled for another two days, but she was going to be gone.

  Tomorrow.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Jessica

  I was shaken by Vale, more shaken than I’d been by anything else since coming here. Even as El Alfa led me up a steep set of stairs by the collar, I couldn’t help thinking about what Vale had said to me before it all had happened.

  Trust me.

  Was he only manipulating me, or was there something more? He hadn’t said anything to El Alfa about my escape attempt. I wasn’t sure if that was because Vale truly didn’t want me to be hurt, or if he wanted me all to himself. And I wasn’t sure what to make of the look between them when he’d told Vale that I was being shipped out somewhere tomorrow.

  Shipped out? I didn’t know if I was glad to be leaving, or if I was being sent to another place. Either way, I didn’t want to leave without figuring out what was really going on with Vale.

  God, I hated myself for how easy it had been for me to follow his orders. Even when El Alfa was standing there, watching, I couldn’t stop my attention from focusing on Vale. His body was im
mense, hard and muscled. His very touch was possessive. When he’d told me to do something, I’d followed his orders instinctively.

  Now, though, I didn’t have him to instruct me.

  Now, I was alone with El Alfa.

  He yanked again on my collar. I stepped up the last step and out of the stairwell. I panted a little, catching my breath. It had been so many days since I’d last been able to move at all, and the act of climbing a steep stairwell was enough to make my heart pound.

  A movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention. There was a woman sitting on a marble bench a little way down the hallway. Her dark hair fell in loose waves over her shoulders.

  None of the other women I’d seen in the house had met my eyes, but she did. Her eyes were pools so dark that I could not tell where her irises stopped and her pupils began. And when she saw us, she stood.

  With a feline swagger of the hips, she stalked over to us. Her lips plumped up as El Alfa noticed her, and she shook her dark hair back.

  “Will you need me tonight, master?” she asked.

  I couldn’t believe her. Would anyone willingly go with El Alfa? I didn’t think it was possible, but her hand was trailing down the sleeve of his shirt, her olive skin pristine and perfect. It was then that I realized she was the woman from the banquet, the one who had already been kneeling on the ground when I came in. She wasn’t looking at me anymore, but at El Alfa.

  “Not tonight, Valentina,” he said. He patted her hand. “Maybe tomorrow.”

  She pouted, her lips plumping up even more. As though she was sad that she couldn’t be the victim tonight. I cringed inside as El Alfa touched her.

  Was this what I had become? After all, I’d followed Vale’s commands. I was just as much a slave as she was. I was the one wearing the collar, after all. I didn’t know if that was better or worse than having the illusion of freedom.

  A tug on my collar took me out of my thoughts, and El Alfa pulled me across the marble floor toward what I imagined was his room.

  I steeled myself for what I was going to face. I’d survived down in the cell, after all. I’d been able to make it through the training that Vale had given me. And though I imagined El Alfa’s training would be much worse, I thought that I would be able to withstand it. I had to.