...When in Hell Page 5

  It also would be fitting if my guardian angel is the devil.

  Luce sits on the edge of the bed exactly where he was when I pushed myself into the bathroom. He’s still looking at me, head slightly cocked to the side, as if he’s actually worried about me. It’s almost fucking comical. Why would the man who kidnapped me, is holding me against my will, and is planning on selling me, be fucking worried about me?

  “Sorry,” I mumble out as I flip the light from the bathroom off, walk around to the opposite side of the bed, and lie down.

  “It’s okay.” He tells me. It’s almost as if in the room's darkness he is a different person. “I’m pretty sure that’s a normal response to what happened.” I feel the bed shift next to me before I can feel the heat of his body next to mine. “Anything I can do?”

  “No,” a clipped laugh comes out. “I told you. I’m stronger than I look and…” I trail not wanting to finish the statement, but I have a feeling that he already knows what I was going to say. We say nothing else. He lies next to me, not looking at me, just staring up at the ceiling.

  The shutter comes through my body before I can stop it. “What’s wrong?”

  “Please, what’s right?” I ask him, causing him to laugh. He sounds almost concerned with my actual well-being.

  “Okay, what was the shutter about?”

  “I can still feel his hands on me.” I shudder again. “It makes me sick.” Only he doesn’t know that I’m not talking about what happened this morning. The bed shifts next to me again. Jumping slightly, as I feel his fingertips come to my thigh. “What are you doing?” I ask him.

  A slight chuckle comes from him as he continues to trail his hand up my inner thigh, and I let him. I don’t try to pull away. I don’t tell him to stop. “I’m going to make it so you don’t think about his hands on you.” His hand slides up my thigh a bit more.

  I can’t say anything. So he doesn’t stop, but continues to trail his hand up my thigh. Sucking a breath in as his fingers brush against my clit, slowly he presses circles. Gasping and arching my back as I try to steady my breathing… my mind… my body. Trying to not let it seem like I’m as affected by him as I actually am.

  My willpower fades as I feel his large fingers press into me, before he bites down on my neck just as he did the other day.

  “Nyx,” he calls out to me.

  ❖

  My eyes flutter open at the sound of my name. Even in the dim light in the bathroom, I can still see him kneeling in the shower in front of me as I lay against the side wall of the shower. It doesn’t take me long to notice that he is kneeling in front of me, completely naked.

  “What are you doing?” I whimper out at him as he looks down. The scenes that were just plaguing my dreams play on a loop in my head.

  “You were in here for a while…” he pauses. “So I came in to check on you.” His voice is so low and for a second it actually sounds like he cares.

  “You’re naked.” Is all I say, and I’m surprised when a slight smile tugs on his lips for a millisecond before it disappears again.

  “I am.”

  “Why?”

  “I didn’t want to get my clothes wet.” He tells me. “I called out for you and when you didn’t move, I came in.” He looks at me and I slowly nod my head. “Come on.” He holds his hand out for me and I take it as he pulls me up to stand with him. “Nyx, I saw you this morning. You barely reacted…” I say nothing, because I can’t tell him why I didn’t react. Actually, he won’t care because he’s planning to do worse. His plans will lead me to a place where I won’t be able to come back from. “Tell me, did you react more to what happened or to me killing him in front of you?” He asks me and in his eyes I swear I can almost see a pleading second where he is, hoping that he didn’t affect me more.

  “Neither.” I tell him honestly, looking back up at him, and he stares back, confused for a minute. Sighing, I let out a strained laugh, “It just all triggered some things…” I trail, and he nods his head.

  “I’m guessing that was the nightmare.” I nod my head as I step out of the shower and he wraps a towel around me. It’s a small but monumental gesture that throws me off.

  “I don’t even know exactly what happened.” I whisper, admitting to him.

  “Yeah, I gathered as much. When I saw you, I could tell that you weren’t there.” He reaches up and taps my head. “Where’d you go?”

  “Where I always go.” I shrug to him before I look up to him as he moves over to where his clothes are discarded on the floor, sending a concerned look in my direction. “What actually happened?”

  “Little Girl,” he looks at me and just like in my dream, for a brief second I swear I can see the same strange expression he had then. Stepping into me, he reaches up, and brushes his hand against my jaw, “Maybe it’s best if you don’t remember.” He’s not asking, but he’s telling me.

  He’s usually not this nice. Usually, he’s a tortuous mix of predator and protector.

  “Why are you being nice to me?”

  “I’m not.” He tells me, and I lift an eyebrow at him. I can’t help but watch him as he slips his dress pants back on and slips his arms inside of his shirt when he stops and he looks at me. Pulling his arm out of the sleeve, he steps over to me and holds it out. I can tell without him saying anything that he’s demanding me to put it on.

  “He said it was your shirt.” I just whisper out to him and he nods. “Why?”

  Shrugging, he looks at me before nodding back down to where his hands are outstretched holding the shirt up. I turn around and slip my arms into the sleeves. Gripping a hold of my shoulder, he pulls me backwards and I can feel his breath on my ear as he speaks. “So you know your place.” I can see him in the mirror as he looks up at me, locking eyes with me in the mirror, and his hands come to rest low on my hips before he spins me around to look at him. His hands hover over my torso as he slowly buttons the shirt up as he talks. “You are my property…” he pauses before he looks back into my eyes, “at least for now.” Then he finishes buttoning it. “It’s also why he should have never put his hands on you.” He brings his hands up, brushing his fingers against the welts still on my neck. He is essentially telling me he has branded me, and that no matter who eventually owns me I belong to him.

  His hand moves along my cheek until his thumb contacts my lips as he drags it across them. “But if I’m being honest.” He pauses as he looks at me, an inch of the wall that he keeps up to keep everyone out, coming down. “I’ve grown to enjoy seeing you in them.” He surprises me as I open my mouth, causing his thumb between my teeth. So I do the only thing that I can think to do, I aggressively bite onto it. “Just know that as long as you’re wearing it, no one should put their hands on you. If they do, I will deal with them. They will face a similar fate.” His fingers curl around my chin as he grabs ahold of my face and roughly pulls me into him. “And you better stop trying to tease me or I’ll force you down onto your knees, and put another part of me down your throat so far that I’ll feel you spasm around it before I make sure you enjoy every last drop.” His words cause a gasp to escape me and a small noise that sounds almost like a laugh comes out of him.

  Chapter 5

  Nyx

  It’s the middle of the afternoon a week later, when he finally comes back to the room.

  He’s carrying a dress in his hands as he tilts his head to me and nods. “Get dressed.” He orders me, hanging the dress on the closet door before he turns to walk out of the room.

  “Where have you been?” I ask him as I lay across the bed. He looks at me with an expression that I can only say tells me I shouldn’t have asked. That it’s none of my business.

  “Where are we going?” I ask, not being able to stop myself.

  “It doesn’t matter. Get dressed.” He nods to the dress again before leaving the room. I stand, staring at the black dress as it hangs… at the low cut princess neckline. I also can’t help but notic
e the very high slit in the skirt. I’m relieved when I notice the pair of panties that are hanging on the hanger with the dress. Weeks of only being in this shirt with nothing else makes me appreciate them.

  I knock on the door quickly before the guard opens it and give him a list of items that I’ll need to get ready for whatever it is Luce has planned.

  I step out of the bathroom, wrapped in the towel as the guard nods his head to me before he walks in, grabbing the bag out of the trashcan and leaves the room with the razor he had brought me in hand. Apparently someone is afraid of me using it to either kill someone else, or myself.

  Sighing, I then walk over to the dress, pulling it off of the hanger, I slip it over my body. Glancing at my reflection in the mirror before I take a deep breath, nod at myself, and walk back out of the bathroom into the bedroom.

  I have to figure a way out of this.

  The door opens as I step back in and an older woman steps in through the doorway. I just stop, looking at her, since this is the first time that I have seen her in what I imagine is nearly 2 weeks that I have been here. “Hi Nyx, I’m Ruby. Luce’s housekeeper, chef, really whatever he needs,” she shrugs and I think I understand he has people that do literally whatever he tells them too. “He has asked me to come and help you finish getting ready.”

  “Where are we going?” I ask her, only she doesn’t respond, just continues to look at me and shrugs

  “I have these for you.” She holds up a box and my eyes widen when I take in the designer name on the side. Opening it to find the black open toe platform suede sandals that have to be nearly 6 inches tall.

  “Oh, my god.” I mutter as I stroke the material, taking them out and pushing one onto my foot to make sure that they fit.

  “Perfect.” She smiles. “Now let’s get your makeup done.”

  She tells me it’s time to leave as she finishes with the low ponytail that she’s working on, and for a second as I glance into the mirror; I worry about whether the welts on my neck should be concealed.

  “Come on, he’s waiting.” She tells me, cutting off my train of thought as we walk to the door. She rasps on it and then we’re walking down the hallway. I take note as we step onto the staircase, walking down the two flights of stairs until we reach the bottom floor.

  Ruby walks me down the stairs and I see My Predator standing at the front door, almost as if he’s going to pounce on me the second that he sees me. His jaw tenses just at the sight of me. He’s standing in a well-tailored suit, just as he normally is, but something about this one is different, or maybe it’s something about him that is different right now. I can’t tell.. For a second, I think he may hold his arm out for me or maybe a hand, but he doesn’t. He simply nods to the door as we make our way out of the house.

  Honestly, I should have known better. These conflicting feelings of mine will eventually be the death of me.

  I can feel his presence as he walks behind me towards the SUV and as I reach my hand out to open the door, he pushes my body forward into the side of it.

  He’s pressing my body into the SUV with his own as his laugh rumbles in my ear. “I can definitely say that in that dress you do not look like a Little Girl, anymore.” I can’t stop the gasp which comes out of my mouth as his teeth bite down onto the same spot as they had the other night. An arm snakes around my body as he pulls me back as his body lessens its pressure against mine and he’s pulling me off of the car as he opens the door.

  “Where are we going?” I ask, glancing over to him and noticing that he’s looking down at his phone.

  “Nowhere.” He barely even acknowledges, not even looking up at me. I watch out the window as we drive down the long driveway until we pass through the iron gate and then turn onto the road.

  “I guess now, there’s definitely no chance of you just letting me go.” I mumble to myself, not expecting a response from him. There’s no way that he could have heard me since he was barely paying attention to me as is.

  “What?” He questions and I can feel his eyes searing into me.

  “I mean, now I’ve seen where your house is and I’m going to be seeing how to get there. I guess there’s no hope now.” Sitting back, defeated, as I continue to watch out the window.

  “There was never a chance of that.” He whispers as he leans across the seat, looking at me, but I don’t look over. I can’t. Slight tears prick at my eyes and there’s no way that I will let him see the power that he has over me.

  My head is yanked back as I feel his hand gripped around the low ponytail, pulling me towards him. “Do you understand me?” He growls into my ear. “It doesn’t matter how much you beg. You’re never going back to your life. So you might as well let that fantasy go now.” And my neck is no longer straining against his force. But his hand is still wrapped around my hair, so I only move a little. “You’re my property and I do with my property as I see fit. So, Little Girl, you will do what I say until you are no longer my problem. Do I make myself clear?” He snaps at me.

  “Crystal.” I grunt to him as his grip on my hair loosens, and then we both fall silent in the car.

  When we pull up to a warehouse, I look at him, even more confused. “Why are we here?” I can’t help but ask, and he glares at me.

  “What did we just go over? That’s not your problem, you just sit here and do what you’re told.”

  Fuck that, do what I’m told.

  Luce, the driver, and then the man in the passenger seat, who I can only imagine is his muscle, also get out. I take the moment to go through whatever I can find in the car. I’m not really surprised when I find a few condoms in the seatback pocket. Looking at the magnum’s I can’t help but nod as I move to put them back into the pocket. The windshield is dark enough that I slowly move towards the front seat and open the center console.

  I’m in what is essentially a mob boss’s car. There has to be something… anything. I keep my eyes trained upwards at the men standing in front of the car as I slowly start to open the console.

  Glancing into it, I smirk as I discover what is inside and gently remove it. Making sure not to move the car at all. They will notice.

  As I’m reaching over the console still, I’m distracted as I see headlights to another car approaching and a lump forms in my throat when I recognize Jack’s Range Rover pulling up into the parking lot. Quickly, I remove the item that my hand is around, slipping it into the seat back pocket in front of me. Jack gets out of the car and I see Luce saying some things to him. Luce looks over to his driver, who then walks to the car door, opens it, placing a briefcase in the car, and then nods for me to get out.

  He holds out his hand for me to use as I step down from the tall SUV and straighten up before I walk over to where they are standing.

  “Nyx,” Jack calls out to me before he gasps. “You son of a bitch. You can have fucking anyone and you have to—,” I look down to the ground bashfully as Luce cuts him off as he chuckles.

  “Just be glad that I didn’t want your wife.”

  Gasping, I slowly look from Luce to Jack and whisper, “You’re married?”

  A laugh erupts from next to me as I look back at Luce, “You didn’t know?”

  “No, I didn’t know. I would have never—,” but I trail and Luce just laughs again. Even sleeping at Jack’s house while he was away, there wasn’t ever a sign. He clearly had removed everything so that I wouldn’t see. How the fuck could he manage that without his wife noticing, though?

  “Nyx, what should we do?” Looking at me as he snakes his arm back around my body as I realize what he’s doing. He’s baiting Jack. He wants Jack to think that he has made me his… it’s the reason I’m here… it’s the reason for the dress, the shoes, the hair-do to make sure that his marks on me are exposed. So that Jack can see them, I’m sure I’m not the first woman that he has branded, and it’s also the very reason he bit me again as we were getting into the car. To make sure that they looked nice and fresh.
<
br />   And in that second, I formulate a plan in my head.

  “What?” I ask him.

  He’s looking at me again. He leans over to me, his face mere inches from mine, and I can’t help but think about the other day in the bathroom. As he dressed me in his clothes. I can feel his breath on my lips as I look up at him and swallow. “What should we do with him?”

  “Whatever it is you think we should do.” I tell him. I know he wants me to give an okay to kill him.

  When the gun fires, I’m expecting it, but I’m playing into how Luce sees me. How the other day I reacted to the gunshot. How he hid me away from it. How he believes that I’m more fragile and capable of being broken than I am. So, I gasp and let a strangled sob escape afterwards as I hear Jack still struggling on the other side, even though Luce won’t let the eye contact go as he continues to stare to me, my breathing becoming elevated at the tension which is building between us, as Jack continues to gurgling on what I can only imagine is the blood filling up his lungs. For a brief second I see something form behind his eyes, I can only assume it’s the adrenaline from killing a man.

  “Get her back into the car.” He tells the driver, still not breaking eye contact, who then ushers me, emits a sob pushing me into the car… only I’m not surprised that he’s going to kill Jack. I’m actually kind of surprised that he’s waited this long to do so. A hollow sound from a baseball bat on bone sounds as the door shuts and when I look out the windshield, I can see that Luce is actually playing with Jack because he has yet to kill him…

  ❖

  Luce

  “Get her back into the car.” I snap at Sal as he pulls her away from where I’m standing and I walk up to Jack. Who is holding the gunshot wound in his abdomen as the blood stains the ground underneath where he lies. Bringing down the bat into his abdomen, right where the wound lies.