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  I was trying hard not to go crazy with fright. I couldn’t do anything. Yanking at the chains was useless—I’d almost dislocated my wrist the first time I’d tried to wrench free, and a deep bruise was creeping up my forearm.

  And now the man from the club was alone with me. He stood in front of me, but I didn’t cringe back. I wasn’t going to let him bully me.

  “My name’s Vale,” the man with the blue eyes said. “I’m going to take off your gag. You heard the guy. Screaming won’t do anything. You understand?”

  I nodded.

  Vale. The Ice God. The man who’d kissed me. The man who killed James. I hated him so much.

  He took the gag out of my mouth. I scrounged up as much saliva as I could with my tongue, and spit in his face.

  His reaction was quick—he turned his cheek but didn’t flinch. Instead, he calmly wiped the spittle away with the back of his hand. I expected that he would hit me. Or slap me. Or even a flash of anger. But there was nothing in his eyes, only a blankness.

  “Jessica—”

  “How’s your hand?” I asked. His palm still bore my bite marks.

  Instead of answering, though, he looked down at his hand and rubbed the red mark absently. I thought I saw the glimmer of a smile begin to curve his lips, but then it disappeared.

  “I’ll never kneel for you,” I hissed.

  “You will,” he said, matter of factly. He paused, as though thinking of something else. “You’ll have to.”

  “Fuck you. FUCK YOU!” I screamed.

  I screamed it over and over, right into his face, and he stood there, taking it. I’d never hated anyone the way I hated him. I wanted him to hit me. I wanted him to do something—anything. But he just stood there.

  Finally, I stopped. My throat was burning, and I felt like I had no more tears left. My whole body had burned through with hatred, and there was nothing left of me but a black shell.

  He looked around the cell, and for the first time I realized my surroundings. For some reason, it made me think of a book from one of my intro literature courses. Dante’s Inferno. The main character had described his descent down through the nine circles of hell. He’d passed through each circle, and the deeper he went, the worse it got.

  That was me now. I was in hell. I had let my friends drag me into it, and now I had to pay for it. If only I had listened to my mom…

  My mom. I hadn’t even talked to her the last time she’d called me. She would find out that I’d lied to her. My heart sank even further. Here I was, and I was paying for my sins, all of them.

  “No,” I croaked.

  Vale looked at me. He looked so calm, so focused. I couldn’t stand it.

  “No,” I repeated. “I will. Not. Kneel.”

  “Jessica—”

  “I’d rather die than listen to you,” I whispered hoarsely.

  “Did you hear what they did to your friend next door?”

  I turned my head away. I’d heard April’s screams, but I wasn’t going to let that affect me.

  “I won’t do it. I won’t.”

  “He’ll do it to you. Unless you obey me.”

  I shook my head helplessly.

  “I don’t want to.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you want,” he said, more firmly now. “You’re one of El Alfa’s girls now, and you’ll have to obey. We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

  El Alfa. I rolled the words in my mouth.

  Vale went over to the wall and unhooked the chains, loosening them. My arms dropped as the chains gave some slack. I backed up away from the door until I was almost touching the wall. If he was going to touch me, I was going to give him a fight.

  When he turned and saw me crouching back against the wall, there was a strange look in his face. Disappointment, maybe, or sadness. He clasped his hands loosely in front of him and stood in front of me, a mountain of muscle in a business suit. Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

  “El Alfa wants me to teach you how to kneel,” he said, slowly, like he was testing the waters.

  “Who’s El Alfa?”

  “He’s the man who kidnapped you. He’s the one who owns you.”

  “You’re the one who kidnapped me!”

  He shrugged, but I could see a flash of anger in his eyes. It made me even madder. How dare he be angry, when he was the one responsible for all this? He stood there so calmly, so controlled. I wanted to push him off the edge.

  “I didn’t—”

  “You were the one who lured me out into the alley,” I hissed. I set my foot against the wall, coiling up my energy to strike. “You’re the one who gagged me! You killed James!”

  I whipped my arm up to hit him, but he caught me before I could even land a blow. He shoved me back against the wall. I could feel his body pressed up against me.

  Before, when we’d been in the club, I’d arched against him, and all those sensations came back with a rush. The scent of his cologne filled my nostrils. I struggled to maintain my anger, to lash out, but I was pinned.

  I couldn’t imagine why my body would betray me so much as to desire him. I writhed, but it only made the coil inside me tighten. No. As much as I hated him, my body didn’t listen. I moaned.

  “You wanted me before,” he whispered in my ear. “Do you want me now?”

  “No.”

  He pulled back, and my body ached hollowly.

  “No?”

  He was teasing me, I could tell.

  “You wanted me at the club. You loved it.”

  “I didn’t know you were a monster.”

  Instead of being insulted, he looked even calmer. More controlled. It infuriated me even more. I squirmed, but he was holding me too tightly.

  “I won’t hurt you, but you have to obey me. Otherwise, I can’t promise you anything.”

  “I don’t want your promises! You’re a goddamn monster!”

  “Oh, Jessica—”

  He caressed my hair idly. The fury inside of me boiled over. How dare he!

  “You killed James!”

  Then I was sobbing, beating my fist uselessly at his thick shoulder. “You killed him! You killed him! You—”

  “Do you think if I hadn’t shot him, he would still be alive?”

  I stared baldly into Vale’s face. He looked so calm, so impassive.

  “What do you mean? You—”

  “I pulled the trigger, but it was El Alfa who killed your friend. And he’ll kill you too, if you don’t behave perfectly.”

  I gritted my teeth.

  “Then shoot me now, and get it over with.”

  He smiled softly, as though I was kidding.

  “That’s not what I’m here for.”

  “What are you here for?”

  He looked at me, and for a moment, I saw something slip. His perfect, calm face twisted into an expression that was so pained, it made me ache. Then it disappeared, and his face turned back to ice.

  With one motion, he grabbed my dress in his fists and tore. I yelped as his hands ripped at the fabric, my heart pounding against my ribcage. I yanked back at the chains, but the leather cuffs were tight around my wrists. I had nowhere to go. Terror gripped me.

  “Don’t! Stop! Please—”

  The dress was a tangle of fabric at my feet. My bra was bunched up under my breasts from where Mimi had tried to hide the straps, and I was exposed.

  I had never been naked in front of a man like this before, and all of my defenses went out the window. I tried to hold onto my anger, but it was quickly disappearing, replaced by fear. I crossed my hands in front of my chest.

  “What’s that?”

  Vale wasn’t looking at my breasts. Instead, he stared at the scar across my belly. My fluttering heart skipped another beat.

  “What?”

  “That scar. What’s it from?”

  I hadn’t thought about my scar in a while. It had been a few years since it had happened, and I wasn’t about to tell him the truth.

  “I got
my appendix out,” I said. It was the same lie I told anyone who asked at the beach or swimming pool.

  His hand snaked out and touched the white seam. I gasped as he touched my belly, the coil inside of me vibrating with tension. Fear and desire mixed inside of me, turning my stomach. Why? Why was he looking at my scar?

  It would make me worth less, I realized, with a leap of breath. The scar that reminded me of my imperfection. Would he kill me because of it? Was I useless to him now?

  But as his fingers slid across the puckered white skin, I saw something else in his eyes. A kind of curiosity. When he looked up at me, though, his eyes turned blank, glassy like the surface of a frozen lake.

  “We’ll work on kneeling later. Remember, though, that there’s no other way out of this. You’ll obey me, or you’ll die. It’s really that simple. Get used to it.”

  He went to the door and pulled the chains taut. I stumbled forward, my arms stretching up over my head. He wrapped the chains around the hooks once, twice, three times, securely. I was locked in this position.

  He came back and reached out toward my chest. I cringed, but he only readjusted the bra back up, covering my breasts.

  “Remember that, Jessica,” he said. His eyes flickered down over my body, to the white scar on my belly. “And don’t lie to me again.”

  My mouth dropped open, but I couldn’t find anything to reply with. Then he turned abruptly and left the room, the iron door clanging shut behind him.

  I didn’t think I could sleep in that position, with my arms stretched out at either side of my body. But after a while, the ache in my arms grew familiar and exhaustion won out. As I drifted off into unconsciousness, his words rang through my head.

  Get used to it.

  What other horrors, I wondered, would I have to get used to in here?

  Chapter Seventeen

  Vale

  When I woke up the next day, I was greeted by one of the girls in white gauze. She knelt down in front of me with a lavish breakfast platter of fruit and meats.

  I asked to see El Alfa. The girl told me he had left the compound already. I asked where he had gone, but she only shook her head. Nobody knew where he had gone, or when he would get back.

  Instead, I went back downstairs to Jessica’s room. She looked smaller already, more cowed. When the door clanged shut, she looked up at me with bleary eyes.

  I didn’t want her to hate me, but how could she not? I was a murderer. A kidnapper. And I had to get her to obey me… or else she would be killed. How could I do it?

  “Are you ready to kneel for me?”

  “No.”

  I let her chains loose. She crumpled to the ground, moaning. Immediately, though, she pushed herself up on one knee, then the other. With tremendous effort, she got up on her feet. I could see her legs trembling.

  “No.”

  Her chin jutted out, defiant. She was beautiful, so beautiful. I wanted to know everything about her.

  I wanted to know why she’d lied about her scar.

  “No? You’re not going to obey me?”

  “I’ll never obey you.”

  She had to, though. I couldn’t explain to her that I was a good guy. For one, she’d never believe it. For two, it would be a liability. So I had to be the bad guy.

  I clenched my jaw. Whatever it took, I decided. Whatever I said to her, however I did it, I would have to get her to obey. I walked around her slowly. She stayed away from me as I circled her, but the chains didn’t let her go far.

  I took hold of one of them and yanked it, pulling her toward me. She spun away but I gripped her around the waist. Instead of hitting me, though, she froze. I could feel her body shaking under my palm.

  “Are you going to hurt me?” she asked hoarsely.

  “That’s one possibility,” I said, keeping my voice cool. I needed to scare her in order to get her to obey. “I’ve been trained very well in torture.”

  “And killing,” she whispered.

  “Yes,” I said honestly. “That too.”

  I could hurt her, or I could scare her. And I didn’t want to hurt her.

  I pressed my body against her back. She breathed in sharply as I trailed my hand down her side. I was playing a part, but as I touched her I found myself enjoying it.

  Did that make me a monster? A real monster? I didn’t know. All I knew was that if I couldn’t convince her to play my games, she would be under the mercy of El Alfa. And from what I’d seen, he had no mercy to spare.

  Tearing her clothes off hadn’t convinced her to obey. I had to scare her somehow. If she called my bluffs, I would have to act on my threats. So I would have to be very, very convincing.

  My hand came around her waist, gripping her hip loosely. With the other, I pulled a knife from my belt. I’d taken it from my breakfast plate, the only weapon I could find. I hoped it looked scary enough.

  “But I don’t need a gun to kill. Oh, no. There are many ways to kill, dear.”

  I slid my hand up under her breast, pressing her back, closer to me. Her heart thudded under my palm. I raised the knife up in front of us, letting it twirl in my fingers. I wasn’t lying—I’d learned a fair amount of knifeplay back when I’d been actively working for Uncle Sam. It had always been a favorite of mine, and now it would pay off. With a final flourish, I flipped the knife so that the point was directly in front of her face.

  Brave girl, she didn’t even flinch back away from the danger. I wouldn’t have known her fear except for the heartbeat that quickened under her skin. She couldn’t control that.

  “You won’t kill me,” she said, but the last word caught in her throat. “That’s not why you brought me here.”

  “There are a lot of girls in the Tijuana clubs,” I said. “If you don’t think I can replace you, you’re wrong. And if you think you’ll stay alive without obeying me, you’re wrong.” That, at least, was the truth. I had to figure out a way to get her to listen to me, or El Alfa would have at her.

  “The easiest way to kill someone,” I said, letting the knife drop down to her neck, “is of course, to slit the throat.”

  I pressed the blade down at the hollow of her neck. She swallowed. I bent my head and kissed the side of her throat, dragging the knife down to her sternum. Her breathing caught as my lips tasted her skin. She was salty, delicious.

  I couldn’t stop my cock from throbbing hard at the taste of her. No, I wouldn’t hold anything back. I didn’t need to. She needed to know exactly what would happen to her if she didn’t obey. She needed to be scared. It was the only way I could make sure she would survive.

  “You can also stab someone in the heart. From the front,” I said, tapping the tip of the knife on top of her breast, “or the back. You need to be careful, though, or you’ll hit the ribcage. A rib can stop a knife, or shatter the blade. So you hold it sideways.”

  I held the knife up in demonstration. The blade was flat, parallel to the ground.

  “This way it’s less likely to hit a rib, you understand? It’ll slip right in.” I whispered the words into her ear as I dropped the knife down.

  “You can also stab lower. Here,” I said, pressing against her back, “for the kidneys. Slice straight across, and you can empty the guts out of someone. It will still take time to die. Maybe better to put the knife lower, and to the side.” I moved the knife across her scar, then further to the right and down. “Where the appendix is.”

  She swallowed hard but didn’t say anything. Did she already know I had caught her in a lie? Probably.

  “Then there’s the femoral artery. Do you know where that is?”

  She shook her head, and my hand moved down. Down past her stomach. With the knife, I caressed her skin, being careful not to cut. The flat of the blade moved against her inner thigh, and she inhaled a sharp breath as I pushed in, applying pressure. Still, she didn’t cry out.

  “Right here,” I said. “You can bleed out in seconds.”

  I waited, her heartbeat like a dying bird’s pat
ter under my hand. She had to know that obedience wasn’t optional. But instead of giving in, she squared her shoulders back against my chest. I could feel the heat radiating through my shirt.

  “If you’re going to kill me, kill me,” she said softly.

  Disappointment flooded through me. She was stronger than she looked, that was for sure. Without thinking, I bent my head against and kissed her shoulder, inhaling deeply. The faint traces of her perfume wafted into my nostrils and I held her closer.

  It was then that she let out a soft cry. I felt her heartbeat jump up a notch, and she twisted in my arms.

  That was it.

  As soon as I understood what I had to do, I let the knife drop away. The blade clattered on the ground. My hand slid between her thighs and she jerked away from me. Tried to. I had her in my grip, and there was no getting away. When my fingers slid under her panties, I found her already soaking wet.

  How hadn’t I realized what was happening? Her heartbeat wasn’t quickening from fear, as I’d though. It was something else altogether. The discovery shocked me more than I liked to admit. She tried to kick me, but I pulled her up, off the ground a few inches so that she had no leverage.

  “Please, no—”

  “Oh, darling,” I said, feeling sick with what I had to do, but also strangely thrilled. “Darling, darling Jessica. You’ve been waiting for me to do this for a while, haven’t you?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jessica

  “No!”

  I twisted in his arms, but his hand was still firmly pressed against me down there. I could feel his fingers, slippery with my desire, pushing under my panties.

  My body was a traitor. As soon as he’d come around from behind me, I’d felt myself responding to his touch in a way that I never intended.

  “Stop,” I moaned. But I didn’t want him to stop. With one touch, he’d set my nerves on fire. I hated it. I loved it. More than that, I hated that I loved it. There was nothing I could do but writhe in his arms as he gathered me back against his strong chest. My arms were still stretched out, and I had no way to pull his hands off of me.

  “It doesn’t feel like you want me to stop, Jessica.”