Lie to Me (49 page)

Stone has no idea where I am. Neither does Reaper.

That sobering reality had her biting back a sarcastic reply. And had her mind tripping over one thought:
They’ll never arrive in time to save me.

She’d have to save herself. Wouldn’t be the first time, but the E-steel posed a scary Catch-22. “Regent Jones, how lovely to see you again. I’m sure had you sent my husband an invitation, he’d have been happy to oblige a visit. These”—she held up her wrists—“wouldn’t have been necessary.”

She looked around, searching for a weapon as he rose from his seat and approached her, the heavy thud of his strides echoing in the room.

He towered over her, and she met his gaze dead on, refusing to cower even if her stomach churned with fear. The hard glint in his eyes unsettled her more than she’d like to admit. “We both know you’re going to die here, Mack. Or should I call you Kella?”

“Stone will kill you if you hurt me.” Bluffing her way out of this was her best option because...
Stone isn’t coming and neither is Reaper
. They had no idea where she was, or who took her. Sure they could surmise Jones had her, but she figured his hidey-holes were as massive as the ancients’ tunnel system.

“We both know he won’t. He’s in a rock and a hard place. If he outs you as the traitorous bitch that you are, he exposes his mother’s perfidy, and he loses credibility among other Regents if he does nothing to discipline you both. The expected penalty is death, but Stone has a weakness for Mommie Dearest. Spineless fuck up should’ve never inherited the throne.”

Not long ago, Kella would’ve bought his explanation, but not now. Stone would move heaven and hell to locate her, and he would slaughter Jones if he could get his hands on him.

Jones shrugged out of his suit jacket and tossed it on the metal table to her right. “I’m doing him a service by killing you. I doubt he’s even searching for you. Last I heard, he arrived in Kline’s Quad to purchase a new Xeno. The honeymoon already over, Mack?” He grinned, obviously delighted by that prospect. “No, I hardly doubt he’ll care what I do to you since he’s looking to buy a new diversion.” He removed a flat black orb from his pocket. “Allow me to demonstrate your helplessness and my total power.” A click to the center caused lights to flicker on the orb. “When I say, remove your shirt, you say...”

“Fuck you.”

“Wrong. Correct answer is ‘yes, master’.” His thumb pressed a button on the right.

Kella’s entire body lit up with a pain she couldn’t relate to anything she’d ever felt before, but it zigzagged through her from her ankles to her wrists and neck, only to repeat the process. Collapsing to her side, she could only clench her teeth and endure the agony.

It didn’t end soon enough, but she was thankful when he shut the pain off. She breathed through the aftershocks, and Jones crouched beside her. “And that’s just the warm-up phase. Be a good pet and remove your shirt or I level up.”

She shook her head and endured a round of seizures that left her feeling like her limbs were being torn from her body, while the concrete floor scraped her skin. As soon as the grand mal evaporated, he moved the torture into electrical shocks that wrenched screams from her. These felt different than the ones she’d endured in the square, and were worse somehow.

Panting through the stinging twitches, her jaw popped when she opened her mouth to speak. “Cocksucker,” she whispered through the pain in her throat.

Wearing a grin, he knelt beside her and nudged her shoulder to push her onto her back. “Pain doesn’t do it for you, love?”

Another click and brutal pleasure swept through her. She arched her back like she did for Stone when she craved more from him, wanted closer to him. Fighting against the approaching orgasm, tears leaked from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. The moment she realized she would lose the fight, she rolled to her stomach so he couldn’t watch her come. The device shut off just before ripping a climax from her.

Jesus Christ
. Orgasm-rape was worse than the pain.

“Remove your shirt by the count of ten or I’ll turn it back on and watch you come until you’re clawing to take your shirt off.”

Kella sat up and kicked at his crotch. She just did miss when he jerked backward and out of her reach. He lost his balance and landed on his back, but his agility had him on his feet as fast as her. Arms loose at her sides, she scrutinized him while waiting for a weak moment to attack.

“Nice try.” He elevated his eyebrows and taunted her with the orb grasped loosely between his fingers. “Shirt.”

Wasting precious seconds considering her options, she jerked the shirt off and flung it in his face. Kella scrambled forward rather than away and put her knee in his groin before he could free his eyes. With an agonized cry, he dropped hard, his knees cracking against the concrete...and Kella went down with a press of a button.

Not pleasure this time, thank God, but a total weakness as she lost control of her muscles. She remained in that helpless state for much too long, the only noise in the room were his choking gasps of discomfort. She wished he’d strangle on them.

Several minutes lapsed, and then his laughter came. The chill that went over her at the sound of his uncalled for humor scared her. Truly scared her. A crazy person had no limits.

He crawled into her line of sight and groped her. A tap to her pussy, the glide of his hand along her bare stomach, and a pinch to her nipple housed beneath the bra’s cotton.

“I knew you’d be a challenge; provide me the best entertainment I’ve ever borne. A victim for my history books.” He patted her on the cheek. “But you’re just a dreg, Mack. Doesn’t matter if every Regent in the world married you, you’d still be a slut, spreading your legs for us. It’s what you were born to do, and I’ll defile every hole you possess before I kill you.”

He could call her what he wanted, but she wouldn’t be his victim. She’d fucking kill him first. If today was her day to die, she’d go down fighting and take a pound of his flesh with her.

Just as soon as he releases this immobilization bullshit.

“How fast did Stone rush off to buy the Xeno? Did he have you fooled he loved you yet?” There must’ve been something in her eyes to elicit his gloating smile because she couldn’t move a single muscle. “Ah...I see he
did
convince you he loved you.
Tsk...tsk
. I’m impressed. I didn’t think the boy had that level of deceitfulness in him.”
That boy will kill you if he gets a chance.
“I’m almost surprised you fell for it. Didn’t life teach you anything about your place in it?”

Kella mentally flinched. That he uttered almost the same exact words Peter had once used increased her revulsion of this vile fucker. Thank God she’d finally accepted Stone’s love or she’d be a victim of Jones’s mental persuasion.

“In the end, Regents rise above all dregs. It’s the way of the world, little girl, the rich and entitled crush the weak and oppressed beneath their heels.” A sharp pinch to her nipple jerked her from her thoughts, but in her incapacitation she couldn’t even flinch from the pain. “It’s a lesson you’ll learn the hard way, but if you fight me like you want to live, I’ll send you off with the best orgasm you’ve ever experienced.” He lowered his head until they were almost nose-to-nose. “My parting gift to you. I can be generous when warranted.”

Kella glared at him, putting all her hatred into the stare. Was he for real? He talked like a crazy person and like a man who’d already won. The odds were in his favor, but counting her out of the game was a big mistake. She was resourceful, and she had a lot to live for. With a little bit of luck his arrogance would play to her advantage.

A soft click was the only hint she’d been returned to full movement. She twitched a finger, pleased with the movement. “Nothing you say will convince me Stone doesn’t love me.”

“If he really loved you he wouldn’t be purchasing a new Xeno.”

“He’s X-Ds. Like me.”

At her confession, his smugness dropped.

“He’s saving her, you fucking moron.”

A slight disturbance in the air over his shoulder caught her attention, and a moment later Creed materialized. She wasn’t sure what spooked Jones, but he bolted to his feet and dragged her to her knees. The gun he pressed against the side of her head gave her pause, and she froze. “I’ll blow her goddamn head off.”

“You okay?” Creed looked her over, his jaw tightening at whatever he saw.

“Better now that the Calvary’s arrived,” she said, while wondering how they’d found her.

“You’ve got five seconds to leave the same way you arrived or she’s a corpse,” Jones warned. “One...two...”

She was dead either way, so she’d take her chances. “Now?” she mouthed at Creed.

A slight narrowing of Creed’s eyes, an even slighter nod, and Kella shifted, swinging around, she snatched the gun out of Jones’s grasp and dropped to her back, barrel pointed toward her former Regent.

No need to cower over what she had to do, Kella pulled the trigger. The bullet slugged him beneath the chin, jerking his head backward, providing the momentum for him to topple away from her. Jones never saw his death coming.

“Fuck me, holy terror.” That’s when she noticed Satan standing to her left. He must’ve been what’d spooked Jones since the Regent had been facing in James’s direction when Creed arrived. “Quick reflexes. Impressive.” Satan kicked Jones’s shoulder, but her discharge had been a killing shot, and they all knew it. “You hurt?”

“Not really.” Her voice sounded a little raspy, but that could be blamed on the screaming. Except for the minor cuts from the concrete, she survived with far less trauma than she’d anticipated. Of course had they arrived even twenty minutes later, her assessment would probably be very different.

“Her back is scraped up a little.” Creed leaned his forehead against the back of her head and wrapped his arm around her collarbone to clamp his hand on her opposite shoulder. He gave a desperate squeeze. “We couldn’t get here fast enough. I was terrified what we’d find.”

The edge in his voice told her what his hug didn’t say. He’d thought they’d find her dead. “You know I’m tougher than that.”

“Package safe,” James said, and she guessed he wore an earpiece of some sort. “He your first kill?” Satan’s concern showed in his careful perusal.

“No.”

James’s eyebrows shot upward, his surprise evident.

“I’ve not been living the picnic and ice-cream-party lifestyle, Satan.”

He nodded and reached for her blouse, offering it to her. “I see that.”

Creed released her from his hold so she could pull on her shirt. “How’d you find me?”

“Stone GPS’d you the first day when we met you in your office.”

Kella blinked, thought back to that day. “He did it when he grabbed my throat.”

James nodded.

She’d never suspected and actually was comforted that he could find her at any given moment. “Why are you here to save the day when you don’t even like me?”

From the corner of her eye she caught Creed’s sharp glance. “Are you responsible for her abduction?”

The creak of James’s leather boots as he moved around the room inspecting the different devices notified her of his whereabouts. His snort answered Creed’s question.

“Tony took me,” she said to Creed. “Jones had his baby brother and promised to send him back in pieces if he didn’t bring me to him.”

“I like you, Kella, always have, not sure why you think I don’t,” James said.

“Um...I don’t know, maybe all the hell you give me. Can’t forget anytime Stone and I got into trouble you blamed me.”

Creed gave Kella a helping hand, and she dusted off the seat of her pants.

Satan stalked to her, causing Creed to finger the hilt of the blade strapped to his waist. “Don’t.” He gestured toward Creed’s belt. “I’ll disarm you embarrassingly fast. And have it shoved up your ass even faster.”

The warning held more impact simply because he dismissed Creed as he delivered it, staring straight at Kella while he spoke, evidencing he didn’t even see Creed as a viable risk.

“He’s not a threat to me, Creed.” Certain of
that
, Kella tilted her head, considering Satan’s intensity. He towered over her, more than Stone, his broad frame a bit intimidating and a lot menacing. His very presence screamed he was a dangerous motherfucker, but she felt none of that from him. Never had. He’d been like the big brother to Stone that’d aggravated her from the get go. Even though he was Stone’s bodyguard, he’d protected her even as a kid.

James enfolded her to his chest, hugging her tight. Speechless, she stood there without reacting while her brain caught up to what had just happened.

“I don’t show my emotions, Kella, because they weaken me in the eyes of others, so I do it with disdain. I treat Stone the same goddamn way.” Stone had said as much, but she’d dismissed his explanation as wishful thinking on his part. “Caring for you both puts you in danger because they’ll come at me through you both, so I hide my feelings.”

“When we’re alone you can show them.”

“It’s not that easy.” He shook his head. “I mourned with him when you died, not the same way of course, but you were like my kid sister, and I blamed myself for not protecting you. I should’ve been with you that night. I knew Peter didn’t like the purchase so I should’ve been the one to bring you to Stone to ensure your safety.”

Kella hugged him back. “You aren’t to blame for any of that, James.”

“There were too many misunderstandings, too many lies, and I hold Peter responsible. But the misunderstandings between us, Kella, you weren’t a bad kid, you just didn’t think about the consequences. But neither did Stone. I blamed him as much as you, but it frustrated me more with Stone because he didn’t realize Peter’s censure toward you for those moments. I’ve protected him by never telling him how his dad punished you by shoving you in the closet for hours or when he’d have you kneel on rice grains.”

“I’ve never told him either.” And she wouldn’t add that to his list of crimes if she could keep from it. “I knew if I told him he’d try to protect me, so I protected him by withholding the truth.”