Wicked Ways (Dark Hearts Book 1) Read online

  “Like my Kraken?” Reuben gestured. “He’s got so many ways to hold his victims still.” He winked.

  A second later, I swallowed and looked away.

  Where had this man come from? Was he born with this...ability to control? I had to find out how he did it.

  The dining chairs were rectangular lines, steel, and perfect black leather. After Reuben and Dirke pulled out chairs, the first at the head of the table to my right, and the second opposite where I stood, I hesitantly placed my hands on the back of the nearest chair and pulled. At the scrape of the legs on the timber floor, Reuben shook his head.

  “No. I don’t think I want you sitting here, with us. The floor. There.” He pointed at the rug beside my feet. “Kneel for me. Before you do, take off your panties. Sit with your knees spread and your dress up, so we can see you properly.”

  Every order that he gave, he looked at me. He wasn’t waiting for me to protest, I realized, because he probably never saw that. No, he wanted to see humiliation on my face. I’d have to be a mannequin not to show any emotions. Knowing he wanted to see it and that I wasn’t dissembling enough to hide it – that multiplied the hurt.

  Every order that he gave chipped a piece from my soul and my self-respect.

  Resigned, I took off my panties then lowered myself to the floor. When Dirke tossed me a large cushion, I kneeled on it, with my legs apart.

  A third man entered the room carrying a large platter. From the smells, it was a standard Australian, cooked breakfast – bacon, sausages, eggs, toast. My mouth watered despite my predicament. Yesterday had been the last time I’d eaten.

  “Good to see you, Madoc.” Reuben clapped the man on the shoulder, after he’d put the platter on the table.

  Where Dirke was a square and solid man with graying crew-cut hair, Madoc was leaner with a narrower face. His black hair was dragged back into a bun and he had the stubble of a new beard. A sidewalk busker with a violin might look like him, while Dirke belonged in a police lineup or maybe driving some crime boss’s limo, which was close to his real occupation. None of them, Reuben included, spoke or behaved as if they had been born into money.

  I was adding to my pile of data on them. One day...

  “Good that you’re back, sir.

  And they all called him sir, as if he was this glorified man who deserved it. Food and plates were passed around. After Reuben gave him a bowl, Madoc forked food into it. I guessed that would be mine.

  A moment later, Reuben held it out to me, two feet above my head.

  “Yours,” he murmured. “What do you say?”

  I had to reach up and he raised it a little. “Thank you.” Still he kept the plate up high.

  “You’re not stupid. What do my men say?”

  My ears heated. This was a game I couldn’t win. I had to eat but that wasn’t a mentally reinforced command. I could refuse.

  This was so soon. Begging? How had I sunk so low so fast? Only an hour ago, maybe two, I’d been happy and in bed – content and safe. Or so I’d thought. I closed my eyes and drew on my courage.

  Get it over with.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Good.” He lowered the bowl into my hands. “Don’t eat too much or you might vomit later.”

  My skin chilled.

  He planned to do something that might make me vomit. What could that be?

  Fingers only shaking a little, I bowed my head, picked up the fork in the bowl, and began to eat. Commands didn’t make the nausea go away. One sausage, an egg, and a piece of buttered toast were in the bowl. None of it tasted like anything and swallowing was impossible after I’d eaten a third of the food. I pushed the bowl away and waited while the men ate, gobbling loudly like a party of uncouth trolls from Lord of the Rings.

  The clink of metal on china happened a second or two before I saw Reuben’s feet shift as he moved to face me.

  “Let’s begin.”

  Ominous words, but I raised my head. All the men were watching me, though Dirke was still chewing. He peered at me. Even while eating his mouth looked capable of snarling. His elbows were planted on the table and he waved a fork in my direction.

  “Have to watch this one, Madoc. She’s the one who ran from us in Darwin, and sir nabbed her in a cop station.”

  Madoc only raised a brow. “Isn’t that unusual? Being able to resist like that?”

  “Yes.” Of the three of them, Reuben, ironically, was the one most like an angel. The sunlight coming in through the wall-wide glass beyond the other end of the table, far to the left, struck glints of gold from the cut ends of his hair. “She’s obedient now. I must have messed up somehow in Darwin. First impressions count.”

  “They do.” Dirke grinned and leaned far back in his chair until I could see little of his face over the top of the table. Beneath the table, his boots and his long legs, clad in dark brown pants, stretched closer to me. The bulge at his crotch made me switch focus fast. “I thought we impressed her bloody well myself. She screams loudly when she gets too much cock.”

  “I had to gag her with my hand, twice,” Reuben drawled.

  Madoc’s gaze intensified. “Really?”

  Reuben and Dirke watched, as if to see what I’d do. I was a butterfly, already stuck down, waiting for the next pin. All of them clearly loved to watch women hurt. I prayed that didn’t extend to making me bleed.

  Closing my eyes or looking away seemed dangerous, but my eyeballs began to hurt, as did my head. The room might shatter from the tension.

  “I don’t think she remembers much. She didn’t know me,” Dirke explained dryly. “Fucking pity.”

  I hadn’t, but I’d figured it out. Dirke had been one of those men. I decided to stare at the floor, needing to escape, somehow.

  My courage, I could use it still. Doing something said I had a brain and that I was real. It took a second to push the words from my throat. “You said...you’d answer my questions.” I dared to glance at Reuben.

  “I did.” He smiled for all of half a second. “Go for it.”

  There must be a thousand questions swirling about in my head. “Why me?” My voice broke on even those words, and when I added, “When are you going to let me go?” my voice wobbled again.

  Why can’t I stop obeying you? That was another, but I wasn’t ready to beg for that answer. Besides, if the answer was useful to me, he’d never tell me the truth.

  My eyelids dampened with tears.

  “Why you? Because I am the Fuckinator and I want to fuck you?”

  Dirke gave a sharp laugh. The change in Reuben’s tone and a rasping sound said Reuben had raised his head to scratch his chin.

  “Women are so cute when they ask their scary questions. You, Zorie, are susceptible to my control. Only some women are. I could tell you were one when I was close enough. It was painful, blue balls painful, to sit at that table in Darwin, watching you and knowing I was going to fuck you after you left.”

  I drew in my lip and bit it.

  Dirke chuckled. “Yeah, we noticed. Worth it in the end.”

  “And finding you here after you somehow managed to run? Only made you seem more attractive. Who knows? I might’ve left you alone in Darwin after another day. What was the other question? When do I let you go? When I feel like it. I make it up as I go, most days.”

  Scared at what I was about to say, I kept my head down. “I can pay you.” I had to try. He was rich but maybe he was greedy?

  They laughed.

  God, they laughed.

  “Girl, you’ll give me anything I want you to anyway.”

  My knees were starting to hurt. Damn them all. I probably had more intelligence in my little finger than all of them. There had to be a way out.

  I should’ve stayed with Grimm, dragged him home and into my bed. Maybe he would’ve found a solution. That man was tough looking. I’d shooed him away, because I’d been terrified.

  “You see, I know who you are now, Zorina Brown.”

  Of course he did.
He’d looked at my driver’s license and other ID cards. That still made me gulp. If I escaped, he could find me, even if I left my house.

  “You lecture here at Sydney uni? You must smart, well off. Got a nice little bank account? I like that. I like money and you will eventually give me it all, but even better? You know what is better, Zorie? Look at me.”

  I looked up, displaying my tear-marked face.

  “What’s better is bringing women like you to their knees. You look so pretty when you cry, scream, and come. Even better when you do all three at once.” His expression was so dead he might’ve been reading a label off a can. “So fucking pretty.”

  I injected anger into my expression. I mightn’t be able to say it, but fuck you was featuring, lit up in neon, in my thoughts.

  Freud would have a called this man a sociopath. A pity I wasn’t into psychology. Maybe I could’ve pressed his buttons, once I figured him out.

  “Look what Madoc brought with the breakfast tray.”

  He lifted his hand and waved something. It took a second to understand that he held a coil of rope. Reuben stood, with the rope dangling from his hand. It swayed, snakelike, deadly and poisonous in its own way.

  Something about being bound made everything seem blacker.

  If he only needs words, why rope? I wrapped my arms around myself.

  “The bathroom is down the hall. Madoc will show you where. When you come back, take off your dress and panties then kneel again and open your mouth.”

  Such surreal instructions. Only this man, here, now, would say that.

  I guessed he meant to use my mouth. Maybe all three of them would.

  That it would all happen as he said, that was par for the course. I thought, non-stop, about stabbing them with a fork or a knife. Thought.

  I came back, undressed except for my bra, and kneeled. Then I opened my mouth, my toes curling at the terrible inevitability of my actions. My toes – the only part of me that showed some independence.

  “Good girl.” Reuben had that gleeful brilliance in his eyes. He dropped most of the rope to the floor. “Be still.” He went to one knee then kissed me softly, on the fullness of my lips, and left his thumb curling out my bottom lip. “We’re going to play with you a while. I’m going to string you up outside, in my courtyard. Our neighbors like to see me punish the girls. They’re waiting. You don’t want to keep them waiting.”

  “You...you said you’d already punished me.” I was begging but hell I had to.

  “Yeah, I did. Forgot to tell you that I’m addicted to punishing girls.”

  His hand formed a loop in the rope.

  “Life is full of fan-fucking-tastic surprises. Like you. Tie her hair back, Dirke.”

  My chest constricted as Dirke came around the table toward me, some ribbon or thin cord in his hand. He scared me more than Reuben, though I wasn’t sure why. Standing behind me, he scraped my hair into his hands and tied it up, high.

  The scent of man was in my nostrils.

  Then Reuben moved in. “Your mouth, stays open.”

  The first double loop of the hard rope went around my head at mouth level. He nestled it between my lips. When he drew it tight, the loop dug into my mouth at the corners, gagging me. He went around my head once more and knotted the rope at the back. With his fist on the knot and my ponytail, he pulled on my head, making me lean back until I over-balanced and waved my hands about, searching for a hold. My back met his leg and he stared down at me for ages – at my face, my breasts, everywhere.

  I coughed, getting used to the feel of the rope jammed up between my lips and over my tongue.

  His lips curved. “Tsk. Tsk. You like shaving it all off except that little strip of hair? Told you, you’d be pretty with rope in your mouth. I like it when women can only gurgle and drool. Let’s go teach you what happens to bad girls.”

  One dark thought persisted. Where were all the other women he’d had done this to? Were they dead or alive?

  Chapter 8

  Mister Black

  The London skyscape was foggy, dim – nothing like the clear skies of Australia. From the eightieth floor it was like arriving on a plane some mornings. The steam of my breath on the thick glass blurred everything. I was going to her. No choice.

  My electronic eavesdropping friend had informed me her phone location had matched with Reuben’s. Tracking her down from the hotel booking in Darwin had been simple, but it seemed Reuben hadn’t planned or thought well. Now, somehow, a whole year later, he’d found her again.

  I was sorry it had come to this, despite my knowledge that she was still the only acquired who had ever successfully run away. The only one who had even tried.

  With my hands at my back, I stared blindly outward.

  Sydney then. Maybe there I would find my little assassination tool. That was all she should ever be to me. I’d left her alone out of pity. I’d known that was stupid. If not Reuben, another mesmer would’ve found her eventually.

  Blake and Reinhardt could take care of my clients.

  I tugged my shirt cuffs into place, adjusted my tie then turned and walked across the carpet toward the bedroom to finish packing.

  Chapter 9

  “Normal people have no idea how beautiful the darkness is.” – Anon

  Zorie

  Reuben pulled me to my feet using the trailing rope. He’d gone from crazy admirer to emotionless in one second, and now he walked ahead with that rope in his hand, not even looking back. There was no command in my head.

  That made it worse.

  I could react, move, think freely. My hands were free and my legs, but I could go nowhere with three men surrounding me, no clothes on except for a bra, and with a rope tied about my head. The way the rope distorted and squeezed my flesh seemed to reduce me to some unbeautiful, non-human slave creature. A deliberate act by Reuben? He’d said I was pretty. Maybe to him I was, like this.

  As if that mattered.

  If I could break free and get the rope end in my hands, I could run. If something distracted them...how far did his influence go? What point was there in running, if I made it to the front door only to have him grab me using his mind? Reuben was the key and the man I needed to incapacitate.

  Hit him with some heavy object first? By then the other two would be on me.

  Whatever punishment they had in mind now, I dreaded what they’d do if I injured one of them badly.

  From the light coming through, the opaque glass door ahead led outside. This would be the courtyard. I slowed and almost stopped. One of the two men behind me grabbed a large handful of butt cheek. He squeezed hard enough to draw a gasp from me and make me go up on my toes.

  “Keep going.” That grating voice was Dirke’s.

  At the noise, Reuben turned. Only a small grunt betrayed that he’d seen. With the rope firmly wrapped around his hand, he dragged me to the door, opened it, and drew me out and across to the middle of this square courtyard that was paved with hefty terracotta pavers. Pots of large ferns and shrubs decorated the periphery next to the house walls. To string me up meant something overhead, and the only structure that qualified was a birdcage-like metal structure in the center that was the size of a small room. A gazebo...an evil gazebo.

  Whoever these neighbors were, there was only one side that wasn’t loomed over by Reuben’s dwelling, and that was straight ahead, far to the back, where a forest of gum trees and thick foliage grew. I glimpsed another building in palest gray concrete.

  “They’re watching you,” Reuben murmured from near my ear. “Let’s put on a show for them.”

  Imaginary?

  Running was forever on my mind.

  But there was nowhere to go.

  He led me through a door in the cage gazebo.

  At the first sign of panic, at my muted grunt and my tug on the rope, he clamped down on my mind. Peace blanketed me, and I stood quietly, blinking, while he threw the rope over something above that resembled a perch in a cage, then paid out the free len
gth and tied it to an anchor point on the birdcage bars yards away. Ivy grew on the outside of the steel and fronds twirled down; the finer ones seemed clear as glass when sunlight shone through their greenness.

  His last few turns and knots around the anchor point placed more and more tension on the line and on my mouth. I was on the flats of my feet. With the slightest increase in tension, it would pull on my head, and I’d have to go up on my toes.

  The rope tasted so bitter it was getting soaked by my saliva.

  The command filtered away, leaving me bereft.

  Peace disintegrated, was ripped away.

  Fastened in one place by a rope between my teeth, mostly naked, and lost.

  No one who cared for me knew where I was.

  I wanted to reach back and undo the knot, but was afraid to try and certain it was impossible with my weight on the rope. Instead I merely flexed my hands and shuffled my feet. Not for comfort, no, just to do...something.

  He was coming.

  “Now.” Reuben halted within arm’s length. “That is so much better. Hello, little Zorie.” His smile had teeth, white, perfect teeth. “I gather you’ve forgotten much of that night when we had you. We’re going to teach you again.”

  I could hear the other two moving in behind me. Their hands began stroking me, pinching down my spine then pulling at my ass cheeks. Someone’s knee wedged my legs apart. Doing that made me drop an inch or two toward the ground and the rope pulled taut, jerking my head upward.

  Desperate to lessen the pull, I grabbed at the nearest thing – a man’s shirt, Reuben’s.

  Reuben grinned. “Now you see where the fun is. Let go of me.”

  I did so and with my head caught in rope and rigid, I eyed him, whimpering when he planted his palm over my mons. The impact went beyond touch. A sexual fire enveloped my lower body, branding me with a yearning to orgasm, reminding me of that night when he’d made me come, so easily.

  Where did I put my hands? They hung at my side, useless.