FaCade (Deception #1) (11 page)

MY PHONE CONSTANTLY VIBRATING AGAINST my thigh distracted me from the business meeting I was in. These new drug test studies were intriguing a lot of medical boards and all the corrupt players of the black market.

The man sat across from me in his black Armani suit, no tie, slicked back black hair and predatory eyes was just one of the many human traffickers interested in the qualities this new drug possessed. I wasn’t in his trade; I made my fortunes the legit way but with fortune, success and science mixed with my own flavor of depravities came the underworld of the black market. Drug trafficking. Human trafficking and all the trash in between. It was inevitable for someone like me to become part of this world and when I did it gave me a power I craved.

The woman he brought with him to the dinner was clearly there to satisfy any desires I may have. A pawn to sweeten the business bond. She was far from my taste. It wasn’t the blonde of her hair, I usually favored brunette, it wasn’t even the thin frame and ridiculous fake tits cemented to her chest. It was the fact Star had fucked with my hard on; it didn’t want to play with any toy but her.

I needed to rectify this. I couldn’t have her holding any power over me and I had come too far in this game to break now before the time was right.

“You see, some slaves are easier to break than others.” His hand gripped the female’s hair and coaxed her to drop beneath the table. “When they start off as trash they welcome a new life, but the expensive top quality pussy tend to be tougher. They like their lives.”

His pitch was void in my mind anyway. I had made my deal; it was all set in motion.

Small hands delicately undid my slacks with ease. Her palm reached in to stroke at my flaccid cock. She was working me with experienced hands, trained to only please her Masters. I needed to see Star, watching her locked in her room while someone else got me off would help with the hard on issue.

Slipping my phone free, I typed in the security codes to access the cameras. Her room was empty. It was then I noticed the amount of missed calls and texts.

“Where is she?” My voice bellowed through the corridor to Malik who rushed towards me. “I moved her to your quarters. He messed her up bad. I can’t believe I let this happen”

“I’ll deal with you later. Where is he?” Not much scared Malik; he was a tank, ex-military. He knew what my wrath was capable of, his wary eyes and posture were one of instinct when sensing a threat much more dangerous.

“He’s in his room. Maria is with him.” Maria was his woman, only brought in to play a role but she was a parasite; her goal was to be a pillow whisperer to someone like me.

My strides ate up the space to his room. He rose from his sitting position, flanked by Maria. I slipped out my 9mm, swiftly aiming and firing. She dropped like an anchor being dropped in the ocean. Theo’s wild eyes scanned my face.

“You had the audacity to touch a woman who belongs to ME!”

He was shaking, the little weasel.

It took me two seconds to locate a can of deodorant. He cried, begging, which I muffled by ramming the entire thing in his mouth, dislocating his jaw with sheer strength as I leaned back and stamped down with my foot, pushing the can down his throat. I watched fear rape him before his lungs failed him - then his heart.

“She is mine!”

“You killed them both.” I turned my cold gaze on Malik. “Revenge doesn’t like company. Three was a fucking crowd. Let this be a lesson to you.”

I WANTED TO SHOWER FROM the inside out. I felt so dirty and broken. My face throbbed in a matching thump to the burning pulse between my thighs. I was completely done, I couldn’t take it. I came to the conclusion that although I had proven to adjust to circumstance, cold ruthless violence was not something I could handle.

My internal war still raged with my feelings towards the man I knew as Mr. Troy, who they called Dante. I felt betrayed by him. He let this happen after I willingly gave myself to him. I obeyed his rules and he left me to be violated. God, did he even care? I highly doubted it.

The soft fabric beneath me both soothed and irritated the scratches I knew painted my back. The room was luxury at its finest; silk bedding ornamenting a thick hand-carved four poster solid wood bed. The wood of the furniture, including the floor, was dark in contrast to the white walls and drapes.

A moan escaped me when I tried to sit up, the pressure in my jaw from using the muscles to tilt my head exploded, leaving a wake of pins and needle down the entire side of my face and neck.

“Don’t try to move, Belle.” His voice was thick and deep, startling me. I hadn’t realized he was in the room.

A shadow moved across the room, alerting me to him before his powerful frame filled my sight. He was wearing a white shirt and slacks, a tie undone and hanging in two strips down either side of his chest. I wanted to open my mouth to talk to him but couldn’t from the sheer pain.

“You need to not talk or move, Belle. You’re extremely bruised and need time to heal. I won’t apologize for his actions, those were all his, but I will tell you he paid for them with his life. I don’t tolerate disobedience and disrespect from anyone, and you belong to me therefore touching you was directly insulting me.”

I wanted to let the bile scorching my throat ignite and decimate me into ash. He didn’t give a shit that I was raped with a fucking object or that I couldn’t speak through the injuries of callous violence from a man he left me with. I didn’t know why I was surprised and hurt by it but I felt it so deeply, the betrayal, and he wouldn’t even say he felt bad that it took place.

Closing my eyes, I tried to ward off the coming tears. They were an all too familiar sensation for me, welling and slipping free down my face, collecting in tiny pools at my hair.

I felt his shadow fall over me before his breath warmed my face. My eyes dragged slowly open, his intense features masked by the distortion of my tears. “Everything is not always what it seems, Belle, but you are too weak to learn truths. Sleep now.” Pressure pushed down on my lip making me wince, the warm damp swipe of his tongue over the cut soothed the sting.

My eyes pinched closed. I didn’t want to feel anyone over me ever again. I would not admit the longing in my chest, though, for him to hold me while I cried a stream of broken tears into him.

I dug my nail into the flesh at the top of my thigh. The sharp sting wasn’t as startling anymore. This was the fourteenth indent on my thigh - to count the times the sun had risen while I had been in that room. The outside world was blocked by heavy wooden shutters on the window but the light bled through the cracks just enough to tell me it was day.

My limbs were sore, a weird contradiction to the fact I hadn’t used the muscles in them for two weeks. I was on bed rest, a tube inserted to feed me for the first week because my mouth couldn’t open; medicine in a drip to make me drowsy and sleep nearly the entire time.

Dante, Mr. Troy, would visit me in my sleepy state, staring at me, clenching his fists. It should have scared me but it didn’t, it helped take away the nightmares of that wretched little man touching me. Malik hadn’t been permitted to enter the room. I had seen no one and now the walls were closing in on me, cabin fever playing with my mind, my eyesight. I yearned to see and feel the sun. I wanted to feel the warmth cradle me in its embrace.

I turned to the door when I heard footsteps approach. The handle gave way to Dante pushing through the door. He stopped his approach when he saw I was out of bed. He stood there staring at me, making me fidget. I looked down at the gown I was wearing to make sure I wasn’t showing any skin to warrant his eyes on me.

“Hey,” I awkwardly said, raising a hand before quickly lowering it.

“Do you know who I am?” What kind of question was that? Shit, was this a test, did he know I knew his first name now?

“Mr. Troy,” I answered meekly. His eyes flashed with something I couldn’t decipher. My stomach began its usual nervous flutter. “Dante,” I whispered.

He exhaled and rushed towards me, bundling me up in a bear hug. The restraint from his tight grip made breathing impossible. “You remember. Oh baby, you remember.”

Dreaming, I had to be dreaming. Damn these vivid dreams.

His grasp loosened, moving from my back to clasp my face. His lips kissed mine. “You remember.” It wasn’t a question and the hope in his voice left me completely confused.

My stone posture must have given away the fact I was lost. He stopped his gentle kisses to search my eyes. The door opened again. A female entered. I was hallucinating or dreaming; there wasn’t another explanation.

“She still doesn’t remember.” His words were choked.

“Give her a few more days, Dante.”

His posture emanated fury as he turned to her, his body rigid and almost vibrating. “It’s been two fucking weeks, Delia!”

What was happening?

“Hello, Star. Can you tell me if you recognize me?”

I looked over the woman. She was attractive, in her thirties if I’d had to guess. She was shorter than me by a couple of inches but her high stilettos gave her extra height. Brown hair was pulled neatly back and placed in low bun. She wore a pencil skirt, and a white doctor’s coat open to reveal a satin blouse. She was completely foreign to me with no feeling of familiarity. “No,” I uttered.

Her head dropped to a folder in her hands that I hadn’t noticed she was holding. “Okay, well my name is Delia; we are actually friends, Star.” She smiled like that was all it would take for me to be fine with her statement. “I’m going to have Malik bring you some clothes to pop on and then me and Dante will be back to talk to you.”

What the hell?

Moments later I was left on my own again to wonder if that all really took place. Malik entered with a knock to alert me to his presence. Why was everyone acting all civilized all of a sudden? He smiled over at me, placing some jeans and a tee on the bed without a word and then leaving again.

I immediately went to the clothes and ran to the bathroom to put them on. It was such a small thing we all take for granted but to be in normal clothes made me feel human again. The fit was perfect although the items weren’t new. It was as if they were bought specifically for my dimensions.