Chapter 9

Nine

Magnolia

“ R un, petals, run!”

Rune’s hissed taunts chase me into the darkness. Wind whips through the willows and the long hanging branches snap. Large hedges of lovers trimmed into scandalous poses are a blur in my visions as I put foot to grass. I don’t dare look back.

Silk and lace do nothing to keep my breasts from swaying heavily as I run. I grab at the long lengths of my dress, uncaring the ends will be ruined. I dodge around a marble statue and dash straight ahead. I don’t know where I am going at first. I just need to get away. It’s too late to turn back and run for Raja’s office.

I just need to get out of here. If I let one of them touch me I know myself. I will fall at their feet and beg for them to take me back. Pathetic and weak, but it’s the truth.

Gas lamps flicker here and there but the shadows are deep, and I can’t make out the faces of members scattered among the hanging willows. I haul in a lung full of moist air. Fingers of fury skitter across the sky. The storm I knew was coming is almost here.

As if Mother Nature is against me, the skies open up, and the downpour soaks everything in a burst of rain.

There’s only one place I can go. I planned for a day like this. I didn’t want to use my backup plan unless Einar pushed me to flee for my life, but right now the three mafia men on my heels threaten my freedom, too. Just differently.

I slip, right myself, and try again. I run. Water sloshes and my muscles ache from the force of keeping upright. This far from the club there are only a few lamps dotting the rolling grass with small sitting areas for members. It’s not long before the manicured garden fades into untamed wooded areas. Wet leaves lick against my bare legs. They don’t slow me down. More sitting spots are out here too. Probably for some primal kinky play.

But that is not this.

A small shed comes into view. I come to a barreling halt, skidding in the mud. My hands slam against the old, scarred wood. Lightning bursts and catches on metal. A gleam of green catches my eye.

“What the hell?” Dripping wet and scared out of my mind, I grab at a silver chain hanging from a nail. A nail hammered into a charred number six in the middle of a door.

“Who put this here?” I push inside the shed and lock the barn-style door behind me. There is only one other way in here and I lock it too. With both entrances secure, I grab the box of matches and candles I hid here eleven months ago as a backup plan. If I ever write a book on how to escape that puppy would be eight hundred pages long.

Warmth and light fill the place in no time. I hold up the necklace I found hanging on the outside. It must be from some member. The chain is silver and the gem inside a silver pendant is an emerald. It’s beautiful and someone will be missing it.

I slide it over my head with a mental note to mail it back to Raja so he can find its rightful owner. The place is sparse, but there are no hanging garden tools or dusty tractors that scream horror flick in the making.

A couple of workers told me this place was used for members who liked to be tied up and scared before the deed. But they did away with the room once the place needed more work to maintain than it was worth. To me, the rustic feel, old worn wooden floors, and the high rafters make it an abandoned treasure that is the perfect place to stash clothes and lie low until the storm passes.

Wind howls around the edges of the shed. I should fear the candles burning the place down around me, but it’s them catching me that has me pulling a bag from behind a loose board. Truth be told, I am more worried about them finding me.

I strip out of my wet dress and grab for a pair of jeans and a blouse when the far door slides open.

I clutch a blouse to my chest and stumble backward. Shadows cling to a chiseled jawline. I squint into the darkness, but I have to move closer to see which one of the rat bastards found me.

I look at my bag and judge the distance between him and my gun. Too far. I take a step back. Can I get the door behind me unlocked before they reach me? Better yet, do I want to make a break for it stark naked.

“Magnolia, it’s me.”

My heart wants to drop on the floor in relief. “Raja? Damn you, you scared the hell outta me,” I say unbelieving.

“What are you doing here? How did you even open that door?”

He holds up a golden skeleton key as he crosses to me.

Of course he would have a key. He takes my face in his hands and kisses either cheek. Not once does he look at my naked body. He is too focused on the door at my back.

“Forgive me,” he whispers.

“For what?”

“Thank you, Raja.”

I whirl around to see Danika, Oliver, and Rune stepping in out of the storm. They drip with water. White shirts cling to hard muscles. In their chase, they lost their tuxedo jackets and bow ties.

“You betrayed me.” My throat hurts uttering those three rough words. I step out of Raja’s touch. “I thought you were my friend.” He reaches for me, and I swat his hands away. “How could you?”

He steps into me, and this time his eyes land on my state of undress. He sees my bare breasts, the V between my legs and there’s hunger in his eyes. And pain.

“I didn’t betray you, woman. I am saving you from yourself.” His hands capture my face, and his lips ravish mine. It’s tortured and reserved. He wants to take it deeper and is walking a fine line, but he pulls back.

“If you need me, find me. For now, trust your heart.” He utters in a low voice meant for only us. I wrap my fingers around his wrists.

“My entire life I wanted nothing more than to be wanted by someone who truly loved me. I’m scared. They’ve already hurt me once,” I confess.

“Don’t be. You always have me. Haven’t I watched over you for almost a year now?”

I nod. “Yes, but I feel you’re handing me over to the wolves now.”

His smile is slow, understanding.

“Even wolves need a mate.”

Behind me I hear possessive growls rip through the shed.

“I still feel you betrayed me. You could have warned me.”

Rain plastered chunks of hair to my face and head. He unsticks clumps and brushes them away. “You are so damn stubborn you rather suffer in silence than let someone explain themselves to you. In that we are much alike, my beautiful Magnolia. I didn’t betray you. I am giving you the chance to reclaim happiness. I wanted you for myself, but I can’t have what doesn’t belong to me.”

His lips touch my forehead before taking another stolen kiss. “Keep the necklace close to your heart. It’s a gift from a friend. When you can, check the back and visit the name you find there. She has many secrets to share. I love you.”

And with that, my dearest friend releases me. Struck by the weight of his words and emotions, I stumble back. Hands and arms are there to catch me from falling. Strong arms wrap around me.

“Petals,” Rune whispers in my ear. “You break hearts wherever you go.”

“I told you a long time ago I wanted nothing more than your happiness for you. That holds true to this day.”

My heart breaks for my friend.

Danika walks past me, his hand outstretched. “Raja Mustafa, thank you for taking care of her when we could not. Our depth of gratitude knows no limits. Call on us. Anything you may need is yours. Anything.”

Dark brown eyes land on me. There is so much pain behind those thick black lashes I feel it to the core of my being.

“Take care of her. Harm her again and I will see the wrath of hell unleashed on you.”

I struggle against Rune’s tight hold on me. “You can’t do this. I work here. I’m off-limits.” I know I am grasping at straws, but can you blame me?

Being completely naked and still wet, Rune’s hold on me slips. I take advantage of the moment. I rush for the door without a plan.

“Whoa, you’re not getting out of here.” Rough hands catch me around the waist, and I am pulled into a hard body. I swivel my head to find it’s Oliver keeping me prisoner this time.

“I didn’t sign a contract. Club rules,” I try again.

“Behave, Magnolia. I don’t recall you being such a stickler for rules our first night,” he purrs in my ear like a dirty secret.

“Fuck you!” I growl back snipping at him. He jerks back just in time to keep his earlobe.

“Mm, yes. I’m going to enjoy doing just that. Eleven months is a long time to go without you.” He slowly grinds himself against me. He’s soaked through and for a second I want to strip him out of his clothes and see his body dripping with all that water.

I hate how weak I am but damn, who would blame me?

Me. I would blame myself. Sometimes I want to kick my own ass.

Skirting the entrance to the rabbit hole of my emotions, I give up the struggle and rethink my exit strategy.

Danika walks up to me and tips my chin up. Holding my gaze he says, “You said come and catch me if you can. Raja, does that sound like an invitation and permission to use Room Six to you?” Danika speaks to Raja, but it’s me getting the full force of his steel-laden gaze. He’s come here with one goal. Won’t he be surprised when Raja tells him no!

Unable to do more than look in Raja’s direction, I see the traitor nod in agreement and then I hear two words seal my fate. “It does,” Raja confirms.

Motherfucker.

My back molars will break any second I’m clenching my jaw so tight. “Fucking traitor.” I fight Oliver’s hold, but the bastard’s cock is only growing harder the more I struggle.

“Careful, amore mio . I will fuck you in front of your friend if you keep it up. He might actually enjoy watching.”

My chest heaves with the amount of fury coursing through me.

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“I would and will.”

Raja’s smile is slow and filled with heat. His gaze caresses the swell of my bouncing breasts before turning for the door. “It’s best I leave.” Heat turns to pain and the woman in me wants to run after him and give his heart the same pain. With a knife through it!

I don’t know who this murderous villainess inside me is, but I am growing to really like her.

“Treat her like the queen she is,” he says flatly and with that my friend slips from the shed and leaves me to the animals.

Too heart-struck to move, I stand there as I am sealed inside with three villains. Rope comes around my wrists.

“Wait! No!” My brain comes back online. I fight to pull away but there is no escaping the three men on a mission to see me tied up and helpless.

“Don’t look so scared, petals. Have we ever harmed you?”

“I’m not scared. I’m pissed you turned a friend against me and now you think you have the right to touch me.” I snap at the air, narrowly missing the tip of Danika’s nose.

“Whoa, beautiful. I can’t pleasure you if I am bleeding.”

He steps back and peels off his wet shirt. Scars litter his broad chest. Some are fresh and still pink and puckered. Others I am familiar with. But the one dressed in stitches fills me with questions I should not want the answers to.

“Looks like you pissed off someone who didn’t care how much you bleed. What happened? Did you get in a fight with a lawnmower?”

“Something like that. He moved as fast as the blades on one.” I hear the stunned awe in Danika’s voice.

“Brother, catch.” Rune throws the end of one rope to Oliver. He catches it, but I tug it free and work quickly to gather the end before he can tie it off. But I’m not fast enough. He latches onto the end and locks me to a hook secured to a support beam.

Too busy with my right hand, I fail to notice my left. Danika is already tying the rope off when I tug and fight my restraints.

Rune captures my right ankle and Oliver my left. I have no hopes of escaping and they want me to know it.

“Stop pulling and fighting or you will tear your tender flesh.” Warm lips and stubble glide over the slope of my cheek. Callused hands reach around me to grip the flesh of my ass. Rune presses his body into mine. From knees to tits our body heat mingles. But more than that, his cock teases me with the memory of past pleasures.

“Give us a chance,” he whispers. He steps back, releasing me to sway in place. Hot caresses of his gaze glide over my bare breasts and then farther down to land on my flat abdomen. A flicker of pain settles on his face. It’s there one second and then gone the next.

My brain says make the asshole pay, but my body morphs from cold to hot in less than three seconds.

I know what he’s thinking, but he doesn’t say a word. Instead, he steps back and pops the buttons on his shirt one at a time. He drags the wet material off his body before dropping it to the floor.

I’m spread wide for anything they want to do to me. I can’t close my legs or cover my breasts. Heat flashes over my skin. I want to rave to the gods of old and new for the injustice committed against me. But the hard edges of my breasts and the heat in my core undermine my anger. And he notices in a big way.

He comes back to stand in front of me. He takes my face in his hands, but instead of kissing me he falls to one knee, wraps my hard nipple with his lips and sucks.

I grow weak in the knees and Oliver is behind me, catching me before the ropes support my full weight.

“Easy, Lia, don’t hurt yourself,” he murmurs gently. “Just enjoy the pleasure he wants to give you. There will be no more pain. Not after tonight.”

“Then let me go.” I work hard to keep the tremble out of my words. Whether it is out of fear, the drop of adrenaline in my blood, or arousal I don’t know.

Danika crosses the shed and gathers a bag by the door. He comes back in front of me and drops it with a cocky grin on his face.

“When I get out of these ropes, I’m going to prove I’m not such an easy push over and then I’m going to find Raja and make him pay, too.”

Danika’s tight expression says he doesn’t entirely believe me.

Oliver gathers my hair and moves the wet strands from my face and shoulder. Teeth scrape over tender flesh. “That is not the threat you make it out to be, baby. But before we can see how much you missed us, we have to talk.”

Rune drags the edge of his nose over the apex of my thighs with a growl of hunger. I’ve heard it enough times to know when the man is hungry.

“Rune.” Danika tries to stop the man, but Rune isn’t listening. There’s enough slack in the rope on my ankles that he can anchor a leg over his shoulder. “God, I missed this. I missed you, Magnolia.” His eyes hold mine as he drags his tongue through my folds.

My head falls back to land on Oliver’s shoulder. His arms come around me and he takes my weight, so the ropes don’t have to.

“Rune, please. I can’t do this.” And stay whole. I want to say, but I can’t let them know how much power they have over me.

“He will not stop until you come for him. Give your lover what he wants and then we can talk.”

Danika comes up beside me and he takes my mouth in a hot, claiming kiss. Like Rune, he doesn’t ask. He simply takes what he wants and everyone else be damned.

My heart hurts for what we once had, and they tossed away. Tears burn my closed eyes. It’s hard not to let them fall. Too hard.

Hot streaks slide down my cheeks. Danika breaks our kiss. “Shh, beautiful. Everything will be okay. I promise.”

I want to fight his words and the effect they have on me, but Rune is destroying my focus.

He licks, flicks, and bites. Juices spill. I ride his face, my release flickering to life on the fringes of my control.

Oliver reaches around me and drags a finger through my juices and then gently eases the digit into my warm channel as Rune sucks on my clit. Together they work me until my breath turns ragged and I am no longer fighting them.

Embers stir and those tiny flecks of burning lust swirling inside me form one huge whipping flame. Heat licks against my insides and I can’t seem to catch my breath.

My heart tumbles to the worn floor as the storm rages overhead. I no longer have control over my body. They do and I give in to the sensations they bring to life.

My legs lose their strength. I rock my hips against Rune’s face, and I cry out into the night with more than just candles flickering around us. My love for them is on fire too. But it could die out like a candle or rekindle and burn for an eternity.

Our path forward could go either way. They could break me or fix me at this point. I didn’t mean to give them so much power over my heart, but the reality is staring me in the face. I don’t want to need them. Or, at least I thought I didn’t.

Danika’s lips press to my cheeks, and he kisses each of my tears away.

Warm lips wrap around my clit, pulling my attention downward. Rune presses tender kisses over my throbbing nub, my swollen folds, and he has a glow of pleasure on his face that is more than just my juices covering his chin.

Candlelight casts him in deep shadows, but I see the love in his eyes when he looks up at me.

“What do you want from me? I think you made it pretty obvious you were through with me. I tried calling you until you deleted me and blocked my number. I tried going to your building. Again. Blocked from entering.”

I see pain cross their faces and they all share the same look like they are having a conversation. “Fuck all three of you and your silent conversations. Let me go now. I’m not a toy you can play with. I’m tired of men using me and hurting me for their own gain.”

They all take a step back, their expressions hard as stone.

“Men?”

“Who else hurt you, petals?”

“Don’t call me petals. And you don’t get to care now,” I hiss.

“Magnolia. Please.”

That is Oliver. He draws lazy circles over my abdomen.

I’m tired of secrets. “If you must know, my guardian. I grew up in foster care. I thought I might have landed in a suitable home shortly after my sixteenth birthday. I was quiet and shy back then. I had a hard time letting people see the real me. Anyway, it turns out the man and wife duo who adopted me liked to drug and rape the girls they took in.”

Murder settles over their expressions. It’s so raw and powerful it stains their aura. It’s like rippling of black smoke around their bodies.

I swallow the tight knot forming in my throat. All three close in and I’m cocooned in their embraces. Lips, hands, and arms soothe me. I don’t realize I’m crying until Danika brushes the tears away with the pad of his thumb.

“Give us a name.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Oliver answers Rune. “We will find out on our own. Get Harlon on the phone.”

Harlon? I run through my database of names but that one is not in it.

“Tell us what happened. Please.” Danika never says please. But the way he presses his forehead against mine has words falling from my lips.

“He would pull me from my bed at night after dinner. It took me a while to realize it was the food they were drugging. He put me in bed with him. He never touched me, but he always made me watch what he did to others. He made us call him Daddy while his wife recorded everything from another room.”

Danika’s anger is so powerful he is physically shaking.

“I was his special girl. He saw me as his doll and never touched or sullied me. Those were his words. He told me I would be the mother of his kids and I had to watch and learn how to pleasure him.”

Oliver pulls out his phone and shoots off a message to someone. Probably an assassin these three keep on standby? I wouldn’t know. They never shared more than their bed with me.

I sigh, suddenly feeling exhausted.

“It’s okay. Don’t be worried for me or my past self. I caught on to the drugging and finally turned him in. He and his wife did time for their crimes. He’s out now and it will only be a matter of time before he fucks up bad enough to land in jail or prison again.”

“He didn’t pay for them like he should have. Only death is the suitable punishment.”

Rune pulls me into his arms. I try to give him a hug back, but my arms are still tied.

“Can you untie me now?”

Rune peers down at me, his rueful grin back in place.

“No. We are tired of you running.”

A pang of grief hits me. “Me? You are the ones who pulled a Houdini act.” My ire reignites and I blast him with a narrowed-eye glare. “I’ve never been so happy to…” Whoa. I stop myself. They don’t deserve what I was going to say. I change directions. “You can’t keep me tied up forever.”

“We can keep you tied to a thousand beds across the world so don’t think you will ever escape us. See that hatch. It’s the entrance to a tunnel that leads to a lot of clandestine locations. One comes out near a road where we have a car waiting for us.”

My brows rise with mountains of surprise. “You would kidnap me?”

Danika holds a hand up. “Back up. What were you about to say? Never so happy to what?” Danika turns my face toward him. “Never so happy to what?” he repeats when I clamp my mouth shut.

I don’t want to hurt them with what I was going to say which is silly given how deeply they hurt me.

“Never mind.” I jerk my chin from his hold.

“Tell you what. Tell us and we will untie one hand.”

Danika crosses his arms over his chest as if daring me to not comply. “Fine. You want to know? I was going to say I’m happy I didn’t end up pregnant.” Which is another lie. They got me pregnant, but the stress of them leaving me was too much for my body. But I refuse to let them know how much they hurt me. At least not right this minute. Maybe later. When I have control over my heart and tears.

Shadows cross over all three men’s faces.

“Do you regret our time together?”

That’s Oliver.

I look between them. “I wish I could say yes. It would make my life easier.”

Rune’s smile is devilish. “That’s all we need to know then. Everything else will fall into place.”

“Arrogant bastard.”

“To the core, petals. To the core.”