Wicked Ways (Dark Hearts Book 1) (4 page)

“Never have I dealt with anything more difficult than my own soul.” - Al-Ghazali

Zorie

Dirke drove straight to his house and I caught sight of the street name as well as the number:
323 Aberjule Close.

Now I knew. I tucked away the knowledge, praying I’d get to use it to prosecute his ass...have him killed or wiped off the face of the earth.

The house was a modern complex of irregular rooflines – white paint, plus stonework and steel – impressive and surely in the quadruple millions in value. The garage doors unfolded and shut with the purr of a well-made mechanism. Lights flickered on. The man was rich, far more than I was, and I’d managed to build a small portfolio of rental properties since my parents had died. Lecturing alone would never have brought me this far.

Had he earned his by honest means?

Reuben came around to my door and opened it. “I can see you’re thinking too much. I’ll answer some of your questions. Come.”

He walked away, expecting me to follow and I did. Resisting every command would exhaust me.

“You arranged for breakfast, Dirke?”

In the middle of opening the door leading from the garage, the driver nodded, eyeing me as he did so. “Yes, sir. For all four of us. Texted him while you were in the police station.” His smile was flat and assessing, and I knew, sickeningly, he was imagining doing things to me. I needed to run, now. And couldn’t.

“Madoc was curious about your new acquisition, sir.”

New acquisition? That clinched it. He did this regularly. What happened to the women after he was done with them? How could I not fear when there were so many uncertainties?

“Was he? Dirty bastard. And I didn’t even have her then.” With his hand between my shoulder blades, Reuben guided me through the door. “Shoes off, Zorie. You’re barefoot from now on.”

“We both had no doubt you’d get her.”

Fuck. They were discussing me like I was meat, an object, a
thing
. Every molecule in my body was cringing and I could do nothing. I took off my shoes and left them beside the door, then followed the two men.

The dining area was as spacious and light as the rest of the house. High ceilings, ivory and light gray walls. Immaculate. Everywhere was modern and perfectly clean with neat accents of black and stainless steel. A large chandelier, above the long table, resembled a weird, shiny kraken welded from discarded steel. It was scary and no doubt worth a heap of cash, with tentacles that might reach down and grab you while you ate.

“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.